Posted on 01/18/2006 8:26:15 AM PST by A. Pole
The real problem is that the corporate managers who are supposed to work for the shareholders have gotten to a point where they control the corporation independently of the shareholders. They are like politicians who think they are in charge, not the people. And competition among the states to be corporate havens has been responsible in large part for creating this disconnection.
In an age of specialization I don't see how employers expect to find the perfect fit. I'd rather have a top-notch employee than one that can only work with a given design package. If the design software is that smart, why do you need an engineer to run it?
Actually I think a lot of this comes from the Rise of the Power Center called Human Resources. They think they run the companies these days, and in many ways, they do.
Over qualified = Too much $$$
Sad, very sad!
This was my experience in school. It's still that way today. I do 3 phase power and building electrical distribution design. I had exactly 5 minutes of instruction in this stuff, during my very first Intro to EE class.
I periodically run position listings through a few university career centers, stating specifically the kind of engineering my firm does. More often than not I get barraged by resumes from guys looking for a software position. I realize the schools are not teaching the stuff I need, but occasionally will come across a guy or gal who manages to communicate they have the aptitude to pick this stuff up through OJT.
YUP .... I'll buy that from what I have seen
I read this article yesterday with a different perspective, which also rings very true: The perfect fit, isn't
Where I work, several people are on H1B's and they all make more than the prevailing wage. I'm immigrating to the U.S. and I had to be switched to an H1B from a TN visa for that purpose. I'm being paid about 40% more than the prevailing wage. All of our salaries had to be posted in the breakroom so everyone known we are not being hired as a wage savings tool. That doesn't mean that there aren't boiler room employers that do that. If you know of any, report them to the Department of Labor. They set the prevailing wages.
Some employers do that, but I believe recent changes (2003 I think) mandated that an H1B must perform a high percentage of their work at the sponsoring employer's location and not off site. This change was set in place to stop what you describe. And as other posters have said, most engineers (I'm not talking software here) get comparable wages to Americans.
Revenge of the C students? :P
Agreed 100%.
Outside of the defense industry and other gov't work such as NASA, what are the main fields of employment of engineers? Municipal power, construction, roads, oil/mining, what else?
Yes.
And the shortage of blue collar workers is why we have to contract out so much production work to China. And call center, etc jobs to India.
Of course, not a case of wanting to save money on wages.
Although they do the same things in the end, different brands of design software often work very differently, and are not at all "easy" to use sometimes, even if they are "smart". Another trend at work is eliminating the employee who specialized in operating the design software, helping the engineer to create their design. Now they want the engineer to do it all themselves, which makes the right one even harder to find.
Not familiar with the change you're talking about. I'm talking about on-site personnel, though, working alongside contractors from American companies. I am talking about software engineers-- although, I wouldn't think there would be a difference-- I could be wrong.
I'm talking about the last three large multi-state corporations I've contracted to as the end-client, dealing with major non-American contracting houses (one of which serves two of the clients).
The non-American contracting houses are employing strictly Indian consultants-- and these consultants are making considerably less than consultants from other, mixed contracting houses, and the employees from the end-client corporation. The corporations have moved these non-American contracting houses to their top of their "short list" of labor suppliers. They are charging lower bill-rates, they are getting the contracts. The percentage of their consultants vs. the rest of us is raising significantly.
Now I don't understand all the legalities of the H1B Visa program, but what I do know is this: these are major corporations, dealing with major non-American consulting companies, and they're increasingly doing business with only them. That's the trend.
I'm either lying, or I'm telling the truth-- I challenge those who doubt this anecdotal evidence, who doubt what the observable trends are saying, who discount this as not "real facts" to do the research yourselves. American employees and American contractors are getting shafted because people with a lower standard/cost of living are able to undercut our workforce.
He never bounced back after that action by his company. Of course you can't win thru EEO, the deck is stacked against the person who files an age discrimination complaint.
I hope the a**holes at his company who did that to him get their just rewards when they stand before the Pearly Gates.
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