Posted on 04/26/2020 7:11:07 PM PDT by jroehl
Goodbye American Information Technology Worker
After serving four years in the Army I took advantage of my VA benefits enrolling at DeVry University of Chicago to obtain a degree in Computer Science. I started my career in Information Technology (IT) in 1986. I saw this as a field that would pay the salary needed to support my young family. I was correct in that I was able to find employment immediately after graduation with a company in Chicago and I have been fortunate to work in this field for the past 31 years providing for my family.
Today I find myself in the position of praying that I can last 7 more years until I reach retirement age. After 31 years in a highly skilled field a person should not feel threatened by the loss of their career. Yet this is where I find myself, clinging to my current position, accepting cuts in benefits and no salary increases by my current employer, thankful that I still have a job.
Why would I be thankful for a job that pays less in salary than I earned in 2002 and for an employer that, on a monthly basis, lays off American employees to bring in foreign workers at a fraction of the cost?
Because I am one of the few left. Luck has placed me in a position that, through contractual requirement and regulation, does not allow an H1B worker to do my job. American IT workers are being replaced by H1B visa foreigners. These American jobs are not being sent to another country. They are being lost as a result of American corporations bringing foreign workers into the United States to replace American IT workers. This is being done so that corporations, American corporations, can squeeze out a few more drops of profit with the American IT worker as collateral damage.
There is no shortage of skilled American IT workers. I know more out of work computer programmers and systems analysts than employed ones. American corporations have found loopholes in the H1B visa program that allows them to put Americans out of work and bring in cheap foreign workers even though there is no skill shortage. You do not work in the same field for 20 to 30 years and suddenly become unskilled and unproductive. If the American IT worker no longer has the skills required to do his or her job, why is it necessary for them to train the foreign worker taking their place? Shouldn’t the foreign worker already have the skills needed if not more? Isn’t that why you find it necessary to bring them into OUR country and replace us?
American families are experiencing financial and emotional stress, tearing some apart, so that American corporations can make a few more bucks. How do you, as an American citizen, sit in a conference room and decide that those few dollars in profit justify putting your fellow Americans out of work? How can you place so little value on the people that have given their very best effort to you? The people that, through their efforts, made your corporation better and more profitable? Unlike Mitt Romney, I do not believe that corporations are people, but there are American people working at high levels within these corporations that are making these decisions. How do you justify it? How the hell do you sleep at night? How do you look at your spouse and children with any pride at all after what you have done? Knowing that you have unnecessarily caused hardship to your fellow Americans. Is increasing your bonus, through hurting others, worth it?
Every corporation in our great country has the right to make a profit. Capitalism has fueled our growth as a nation. But to bring foreign workers into our country to replace Americans who are only guilty of making a good enough salary to support their families is morally reprehensible.
I hope that the loopholes in the H1B program will be closed and that this practice is stopped. Our President has mentioned taking action to do this in some of his speeches and there are at least two bills being proposed in Washington addressing this issue.
Perhaps I am naïve to think that it will happen but for all of my fellow Americans suffering as a result of this Un-American program I pray that it will. And I personally pray that I will make it 7 more years.
Signed, An American IT worker still hanging in there…
I don’t go around calling people food for alternative opinions, secondly our company is owned and run by Indians who made the investment built the company and expanded to the US
Secondly, even with immediately impacted revenues they have taken better care of their US based employees than just about any company I know of with zero layoffs or pay reductions
I’m all for cutting down on imported labor but these are good people who are skilled, hard working, and innovators—the things more US companies should strive to be
I’d be fine if the H1B program was canceled tomorrow. What the hell are you talking about?
And also, they have given away with no expectation of recompense millions in product and services the last two months to healthcare and other critical infrastructure organizations in need, including services not related to our line of business
As our CEO put it “it won’t matter if if anyway if the economy dies” and is doing everything possible to keep businesses alive
If he’s open to living anywhere, what about the placement service at the University, have they not been able to find jobs for any of their graduates in his field?
I have a similar background and had to move furniture for 3 months, at the destination city where I wanted to live, before I found a job that actually matched my degree.
BTW, a link that works is https://organizationsandsocialchange.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/will-u-s-tech-jobs-turn-all-indian-the-h1b-visa-dilemma/comment-page-2/#comment-4052
My first job that actually used my EE degree was found by hand delivering resumes in an industrial park. The company that hired me said they never advertised because they either hired someone that an existing employee referred, or someone from another company they met while conducting business. Probably many companies that operate that way, and they would only ever advertise if desperate, and need specific rare experience.
Hear hear!!!
“per Boeing. “
So the fox guarding the hen house is asked why there are missing chickens. Got it.
Would hiring a person to develop and maintain a Wordpress website be found in the IT field? Do these people work as independent contractors? If so, where can this person be found?
Just curious.
That’s interesting and atypical to my experience. I got caught up in the dot-com bust of 2000 and was out of work for over a year. In addition to responding to advertisements I did a lot of cold calls, thinking that I might strike gold where no one else was mining. Zero luck in that strategy. I ultimately answered an ad that parlayed into a 16 year career (when I retired).
Industries change, employment patterns change, everything changes.
That said, we need an America first policy from manufacturing to farming to technology to finance.
Yeah, I even went to NERC and asked “How can this be right?” and was told that there were no specific prohibitions against it - with an attitude suggesting that I was some sort of bigot for even mentioning it.
Here’s why:
A bus stop near Microsoft: https://twitter.com/pddhappy/status/1178734953246289920
Walmart: https://twitter.com/s1s1b1/status/1109459333023174656
The state of the Seattle Tech job market: https://twitter.com/h1bexposed/status/1253911259919122432
Your son should get a Google Voice line for his resume. The line is free & will help filter calls from bottom-feeding Desi staffing firms.
As someone suggested here, your son may want to post his resume as a graphic image. Makes it harder for Desi recruiters to steal the resume & stick an potential H1B’s name on it.
US staffing firms will be of little help in finding employment.
As an experiment, you son should repost his resume on the job boards, but change his last name to “Reddy.” See what happens.
You can have a look at the startup layoff list here -> https://layoffs.fyi/tracker
Over 30,000 jobs gone. With more layoff information added daily.
Your son and his engineering friends should try and come up with their own product. Tech hiring for the remainder of 2020 is done.
I’ve heard the siren’s call of cybersecurity elsewhere.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about cybersecurity jobs a few days ago.
A former co-worker attended a cybersecurity conference where one of the sessions was state & federal officials lamenting they couldn’t fill their cybersecurity openings, since industry was stealing their workers.
Good luck finding those openings. They don’t exist.
Our company had many rounds of job cuts, sometimes two rounds in a calendar year. Fallout from those usually impacts productivity of those who remain and need to step up and assume additional responsibility. I made it 37 years, finally laid off along with most of my highly-compensated coworkers when senior management cut 70% of the Research Laboratory staff. Getting laid off wasn't fun, but I was happy to walk away with a severance package. I talk occasionally with a few friends who are still there. Things are worse for them and all are building their nest eggs so they can retire and live on their pensions, savings, and investment.
My family always lived below our means. We followed the approach of financial writers like Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett before him. We started by saving an emergency fund that would support us for 6 months. We saved for retirement. We generally went camping for a vacation. We managed to save enough to help get our two children through state universities.
The key to processing such a situation is to be thankful for what you have, work together as a family to control expenses, and find whatever joy you can in the work you do.
“How does one transition to this? “
First, don’t listen to the CS professor.
Second, start the Cisco curriculum of self study.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications.html
Expect to put more time and effort into a CCIE cert than you would into a BSEE. And far less money.
Just an entry level CCNA cert gets you employed at $30/hr +.
And never, ever think it’s going to be easy.
You hit a key point.
I know one of the Disney IT employees that got outsourced. As he told me: “You have to operate under the assumption your position will be outsourced to India tomorrow morning.”
It’s dumb to invest in a degree or additional thousands in additional certification training if all you’ll be doing is training your H1B replacement.
FReepmail.
And thanks.
At a very large chip manufacturer I once contracted to, the world wide head of Networks (bigger budget than most corps) once told me that his initial CCNA was worth more to him than his CS degree from USC.
The CCNA got him a job. The CS degree did not.
I am confused by your last comment in your response. Are you asserting that cybersecurity jobs dont exist?
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