[IP] more on Tech: A 'hostile environment' for US natives????
Begin forwarded message:
From: Gene Spafford <spaf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 5, 2005 7:26:30 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Tech: A 'hostile environment' for US natives????
I am sure I will regret this, but....
I talk to people in regional companies who are looking to hire IT
talent. They sometimes can't find it in the US. Meanwhile, we have
a bunch of people complaining about H1-B visas and "furriners" taking
their jobs.
But what I hear from people in the companies is:
1) domestic IT talent is concentrated in particular geographic areas
-- and those people don't want to move. There are jobs available in
the midwest, for instance, but people don't want to move from
California or Boston or wherever. Those "furriners" are willing to
travel halfway around the globe for a good job; the domestic talent
wants to stay in areas where there is a surplus of unemployed IT people.
2) domestic IT talent -- particularly older programmers -- often
don't have the skillset that is needed. For instance, companies
seeking to hire programmers proficient in XML and Java are not overly
impressed with people who list their skills as Fortran, Cobol and
Basic. Couple that with the fact that many employers would like
their employees to know some math and how to write grammatically
correct reports, and there is a problem -- we have a lot of older
programmers who avoided the classes and training that would have
provided these skills, and they don't feel any obligation to learn
new things. Meanwhile, many engineers from places such as India have
deeper skills in math, English composition, and software engineering
than their US counterparts, and they are willing to make the effort
to master new skills. (We see this in our students, too -- ask
anyone teaching at a major US university.)
3) the market won't bear the salaries demanded by domestic
programmers -- they want salaries and benefits as if we were still at
the height of the tech bubble. Companies can't afford those
salaries and be competitive globally. Couple this with people
expecting salaries in Ohio and Indiana to be the same as San Jose or
DC, despite the cost of living being much, much lower, and the
positions go unfilled.
Are some companies using cheaper foreign labor to keep wages down?
Almost certainly. Is foreign labor the main cause of IT
unemployment? Almost certainly not.
It is always easier to blame some other group for our problems -- the
Tutsis, the Jews, the communists, the younger generation, or those
"furriners". It's always some other group responsible.
I suspect it is going to get worse before it gets better. Our
government is spending billions to pay farmers not to grow crops, to
support the tobacco industry (which then leads to government spending
in health care for the cancer and heart and respiratory diseases),
and prop up 19th century manufacturing concerns in a 21st century
economy (among other follies)... while spending a pittance on basic,
high-tech research that has been shown to lead to economic growth and
jobs in the longer term, and on the education that would help people
fill those jobs. In a decade, it may well be that if you want a
cutting-edge job doing exciting work in IT or bio or nanotechnology,
you will want to emigrate to India or China....and you won't be able
to blame our H1-B visa policy if you can't compete in those markets.
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/