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…
Not only H1B, but OPT, CPT, H4EAD, & maybe L1 as well.
Here in the greater NYC metro area, the beancounting jobs are going to Asians as well; Americans cost too much and want weekend/evenings for their families.
I left the corporate world and started my own company. I don’t hire anyone but U.S. citizens. In fact, I don’t hire anyone who I don’t know personally.
vs.
I don’t hire anyone but U.S. citizens.
and again
In fact, I don’t hire anyone who I don’t know personally.
The STEM graduates are overwhelmingly foreign anymore.
The flood started as a trickle from India in the mid-to-late-80s (though I was to naiive to see it -- yes I know about the umlaut but I'm too lazy to find the key sequence for it in mid-rant) and became a flood with Jack "Lifetime Employability" Welch and moved to China; turned into openly moving entire factories and industries to China, because "service economy good".
Sir - You nailed it. I experienced this and saw many of my trusted friends booted from the industry.
My other experience w/ these H1Bs over the past 20 years is that they are not as skilled as the US worker. Yes, everyone’s installation is different and you have to train them on your naming conventions and environment. I get that.
What I see is the H1B work lacks the critical thinking skills to determine what is important, move past analysis and into solution space. If there is a big critical problem effecting a business critical application, then you better not be in a hurry w/ H1B as they suffer from analysis paralysis.
I am a bit luckier than the author starting my career in 1978. I am done.
To the author -
If you have remained in IT and are now earning a 2002 salary, might I recommend that you consider that your skills have grown stagnant. Like all highly technical fields, the required industry skills change over time and to remain viable, one must stay current.
As a remedy, consider a shift to cyber security. Likely it would not require a significant adjustment. If you have a programing background, there is a demand for code reviewers. If networking is your background, consider specializing in firewalls, vpns, routers etc. If you want to have some fun, consider penetration testing. Recent estimates show that cybersecurity will have a shortfall of 500,000 positions in the US alone.
I am sorry to hear of your troubles. I too am a DeVry Institute of Technology grad, 1985. I attended their Lombard campus.
The bank I work for will be hiring some 900 people over the next few years, we’re re-insourcing many functions that were outsourced the past 3 years. It was a disaster.
Would you be willing to send me your resume?
I’m Larry.
As a CCIE and CISSP and a whole alphabet soup on my CV from certifications .... I concur.
Many businesses are tired of perfumed princes from Ivy halls that have zero hands on. With certifications, a manager is reasonably assured that the individual can perform the work required.
Full disclosure, I am 56 years old and finishing my BS in Networking and Security this semester. I have worked in IT for 30+ years and have mad 6 figures since 1990.
The reason for that my brother from another mother, is because we American IT Professionals are multi-skilled. Indian software developers typically specialize in one, maybe two languages.
It often takes 8-10 of them to match the skillsets of one American IT Professional.
That's been my observation over 20 years of outsourcing.
I meant that to be a private reply, oh well.
> Most of our company’s development is done in India,
you and your company are unpatriotic fools.
the society cannot thrive with diverse skills,
nor can the nation protect itself.
Transition to CCIE plan
Buy books, study, practice on home lab - repeat for each level of certification. Most can complete the full path in less than 4 years of after work hours study. Some can do it in two.
Certifications in order:
Comptia Network+
Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching
Cisco CCDA
Cisco CCNA Security
Comptia Security+
Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching
Cisco CCNP Security
LOTS OF study and lab time
Cisco CCIE written
Cisco CCIE Lab
Process took me 2 years and passed the lab on the 3rd attempt (typical). Got mine back in 1996
> possession of an MBA should be a criminal offense in most cases.
I like that!
Why it's as smart as outsourcing all of our manufacturing to the communist chinesesis.
To the junior level of understanding and quality of work add obfuscated impatient communications, and collusion with their fellow injuns to cover it all up, behind the scenes.
Cisco certifications were easier then.After you get your CCNA you can go to CCNP which is not easy. They usually want experience to with the certification.
Anyhow, a lot of that is going to automation.
The future is Automation, Cloud, block chain, digital assets, DAPs, A.I., bots and drones.
CCIE pays well, but you have to have the background. I remember back in the last 1990s and early 2000s we had guys that did have CCNA cert, and barely knew what to do.
Thank goodness Cisco made their tests a lot harder.
Anyway, the pay of these certs are going down. Sort of like the PMP.
Yup, that’s true.
You are a GD traitor. How do you sleep at night? I guess soulless creeps like you sleep like babies.
FU. Your globalist apologetic propaganda is not going to work. End H-1B visas NOW!!!
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