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…
Back in the day people used to go through local employment agencies. While I was looking for my first big job I got a good odd job from one of them. At the time the fee was about half my first paycheck.
Actually, I have been a member of FR for over 20 years.
Retread, or lost your handle in a tragic boating accident? :-D
"Hello, this is *Peggy*"
These days, for a tech worker, the employer may pay the staffing firm 25 percent of the employee’s yearly salary as a placement fee.
Contracting? A firm that contacted me a month ago was trying to take 40 percent of the hourly rate to hand me a check, with no benefits.
If I can help my fellow IL / Chicago Area Freepers, I’m more than happy to do so. :-)
I’m sure cybersecurity jobs exist. Do 500,000 cybersecurity jobs exist? No.
Consider Dice.com for a moment. Dice used to display they had around 80,000 tech jobs open.
In reality, Dice counts every job posting as a job opening. For example, if Sprint in Overland Park posts a job opening on Dice & 10 staffing firms post the same opening at Sprint, that counts as 11 openings.
Another reason for claiming 500,000 job openings in cybersecurity is for employers to scream “see, there’s a talent shortage, we need more guest workers.”
You write a similar story for the so-called COBOL talent shortage.
BTW, if there’s a listing of job openings these desperate gooberment agencies looking to hire for cybersecurity or COBOL, I’d love to see it.
IT hiring is broken. Don’t believe the hype.
A good friend got his CISSP a while ago. He works for a major consulting firm you’ve all heard of. That firm has a cybersecurity practice.
In 7 years, nobody at the consulting firm has contacted him regarding his CISSP for a customer engagement.
His primary job: Baby-sitting Indians in Hyderabad from Seattle.
Started in IT with a BS in Computer Science (pre-PC) in 1982. If anything, learning the platforms and how they connect and interact, as well as their "finer" features is critical. However, one of the critical skills I found in demand is the ability to figure a problem out (Troubleshoot) in a fully meshed networking environment.
I have worked from end-to-end, and found in many products along the path, serviceability is the last thing left out by the product developers. Being able to perform PD (problem determination) and PSI (Problem Source Identification) is a skill that is very lacking even today.
if you're good at problem solving (Sherlock Holmes Who Done Its) and can apply that to real working networks, you will always be in demand.
I am on the late side of my career, and frankly am sick of working with people who can't even describe much less define the issue they are trying to fix. Many of these are in positions due to nepotism or cronyism, and should take their hands off the keyboard, back out the door, and not return.
I am taking notes in order to write a book when I retire about IT customer service, its progression over the last 4 decades, and the fiasco I am seeing it descend into...
In case someone is interested, here’s a cybersecurity program from KU:
https://bootcamp.ku.edu/cybersecurity
I’m a short distance from their campus. KU would have to convince me on the employment prospects after the program vs. the cost. If KU does not have a convincing employment message upon completion of the program, it isn’t worth the time.
Anyhow, a lot of that is going to automation.
The future is Automation, Cloud, block chain, digital assets, DAPs, A.I., bots and drones.
What is your connection to the industry?
"Consultant?"
MBA
Tech manager?
Tech worker?
Sales & Marketing?
Or trying to stampede off the competition?
Because you're waving around a f*ckton of slick-sounding meaningless buzzwords.
The future is "bots" ? ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME?
The present is "Cloud" and a lot of companies are worried about safety and control of their data.
Seriously, blockchain + cloud in a single presentation might get you funding.
Building logically segmented networks on the same physical infrastructure, with separate security and access control throughout...and then tunneling that network to another location so replication can occur on the same vlan...is a skill many would never be able to master.
Much less fix it when it breaks.
Of note: that private business network is transported over the same fibers as the internet.
The configuration options at the core, and the edge, are myriad. While not limitless, they’re close.
>> After 31 years in a highly skilled field a person should not feel threatened by the loss of their career.
Unfortunately, not reality especially in the constantly changing IT universe.
Amen, and be very grateful for what we have;
Converged layer2 environments. Always a challenge, especially to troubleshoot if they use each other for transport.
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