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Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
The threat was direct. Not sure why he wasn't deported. I have read that there is a lot of street corner justice in India. Here is an example just recently: http://news.wooeb.com/NewsStory.aspx?ID=698788— March 14, 2011 7:17 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
276,000 people a year averaging about mid-20 something would tend to do that. Unfortunately it also bubbles up so that those in management are also very young and relatively inexperienced. People tend to be intimidated by others with more experience so they tend to hire people that are younger and less experienced than themselves. Dr. Matloff wrote a good article about the problem that was pretty much dead on. Unfortunately this hurts software execution because those who are in the best position to help are those who have seen various development practices applied across different companies and industries. These sorts of skills aren't learned in school and come with experience. But the H1B dynamic that has pushed down ages means that those with experience are the ones that the system will most want to cast aside. In fact I heard a first-hand example from an experienced engineer who felt underutilized at Qualcomm. He was working on a project that was in complete disarray. He spoke to his line manager and said that he knows how it should work because of his experience at other companies. His manager told him bluntly that, "experience outside of Qualcomm means nothing". This person also told me that because of Qualcomm's promote from within philosophy, that "experience outside means nothing, but experience within Qualcomm is everything". Interesting company culture...— March 14, 2011 7:08 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Here is one of the best examples that pretty much nails the problem: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9169678/IB… According to the article, IBM has reduced it's US workforce from 121,000 to 92,000 in just the last 3 years at the same time it has increased the global workforce to 399,000. "IBM is trying to convince the government to allocate funds and establish policies that would help increase the number of STEM (or science, technology, engineering and math) graduates in the U.S., and it's also calling on Washington to raise the cap on H-1B visas, said Hira. "Yet at the same time," he added, "IBM is actually decreasing its demand of that same labor." "Hira also argues that the shift overseas makes clear how critical the tax deferral on foreign profits is to IBM's bottom line and why the company is opposing President Barack Obama's "proposal to end the tax breaks that encourage firms to move American jobs overseas," he said. IBM was one of a long list of companies opposing changes in the tax deferral rules in a letter to congressional leaders last year. The letter argued that repeal of the deferral "will result in a loss of jobs for Americans and serious negative impacts on the U.S. economy." Incidentally the article also says that IBM will no longer disclose US employment numbers...— March 14, 2011 6:51 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Why do you think that a busy guy like Paul Jacobs (according to his own statements in the article interview) would go to the trouble of lobbying the Department of Homeland Security to increase training Visa durations to 2.5 years? It's certainly not because he is in a rush to sponsor immigrants for a Green Card. Me thinks that the veil of truth is slowly being peeled back.... "Epiphany - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience."— March 14, 2011 6:08 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
What Don posted has been widely reported. If you do a simple google search you'll see articles such as this one: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-… This is the third time that you've accused people that they don't have the facts only to be shown that you're wrong. This doesn't put Qualcomm hiring managers in a good light...— March 14, 2011 5:52 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
To be sure, mental illness crosses all groups. My point though was to show how people are able to utilize the services of these grey market companies to falsify employment records (among other things). I'm on the outside looking in, but even still I've seen several instances first-hand, I imagine that it runs much deeper than we know which would buttress the comments by Laurette. It's also worthwhile to point out that the H1B Visa is curiously devoid of tracking information so that nobody knows how many people are in this country at any one time on a H1B. There is reason to believe that this tracking information was purposefully removed by the corporate lobby in order to hide the large numbers that are working in the US on this Visa, numbers which if made public would destroy their claims of a labor shortage. This is a huge security loophole which goes back to the point that Laurette was making that the H1B Visa can be easily exploited by bad guys.— March 14, 2011 2:04 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Worse yet China is forcing corporations to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market. In many cases this technology was derived at great cost and effort. There is a growing sense by many CEOs however that the powers that be in China have no intention of ever allowing these corporations to be successful in these markets. In fact the CEO of Caterpillar was quoted as saying exactly that recently. The Chinese government has also started a process of classifying and tracking "Indigenous Chinese" corporations and this has heightened these same concerns.— March 14, 2011 1:48 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"You tell me borderline racist but you haven't given me reason !!" The way that I read your post was that Asians were "just good" when it comes to engineering and because of this are naturally inclined to flood American Universities in STEM fields. The fact that you point to a dearth of American enrollment in STEM programs as proof of this, without mentioning the root cause, would appear to reinforce this. As I mentioned the root cause for the current absence of Americans in STEM programs at Universities is because the smart Americans are avoiding these fields for the reasons that I've stated. If you look at prior decades before the outsourcing and insourcing trends, you will see that Americans flocked to STEM fields. In fact history shows pretty clearly that Americans did just fine with technology innovation back in those decades. So ask yourself this - what changed? What changed is that American corporations realized that they could pump short term profits by moving jobs overseas while simultaneously flooding the job market with a crush of humanity. That you have personally benefited from this doesn't change the fact that these policies have been disastrous for this country because they have transferred technology overseas and given away the "keys to the kingdom". This also has crippled America's flow of Engineers into this profession so that in the future, whether we like it or not, we may have to rely on imported labor to fill these roles. This is a great example of a system that is broken that needs to be fixed. Incidentally, most economists seem to be so far removed from STEM professions that they make all sorts of ridiculous claims. But Harvard economist Robert Hayes is one who actually "gets it" and he wrote a brilliant piece that is chillingly accurate: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/restoring-american-compe… The White House has posted numbers that show that since WW2, 50% of job growth in the US has come from technology. This is a field that the US has reaped huge benefits from and all of that has been jeopardized by Wall Street greed. Most countries have strong labor interests that balance these sorts of abuses, but lack of labor interests and apathy is what has harmed the US. "As far as I remember in my Previous post I already mentioned that I am all for H1B number reduction but don't blame those foreign students for hardships!!!" I don't recall that you posted any such thing. If you did then I commend you for recognizing that there is a problem that needs to be fixed and becoming a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. Also, if you've read my posts you'll see that I've never blamed foreign students or foreigners for anything. It's Corporate greed that is causing the problem and this has had disastrous consequences for this country.— March 14, 2011 1:41 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"That's weird way of thinking!!!" Not a weird way of looking, it sounds as though "curious" is more tuned into Qualcomm than you are. "Truth is China and india are 2 largest country population wise and peopler study STEM there to get respected. " People used to study STEM fields in the US to be respected too, but that all changed when American corporations decided that they could save money by replacing "expensive" American engineers. That it required more overseas engineers to do the same work and that projects also came in late or failed was never accounted for by the Bean Counters, because most of their assessments were done in terms of cost per head. "And 10% of that graduating STEM students from india/china can flood US universitiesAnd 10% of that graduating STEM students from india/china can flood US universities". You're describing a scenario that would drive most Americans to conclude that protectionism is needed. The US is big population-wise but dwarfed by India and China. Last time I checked, 10% of the graduating class in India and China is about equal to the entire graduating population in America. If that's the case, why should we subsidize our schools from our taxes in order to educate so many people from China and India? That's never going to happen. If your vision were to play out then in only a generation, most of the US would be Indian and Chinese - basically a suburb of Asia. I'm not xenophobic, but this doesn't sound like the society that I would want to build. If I wanted to live in India or China, I would move there. "Go to any graduate school and find out how many US Citizens are enrolled in STEM degrees?" Not just a new dearth of US Citizens, but also children of Green Card holders. Why would they want to enter a field that is being purposefully crushed by powerful corporate interests? When you eventually come up from your bubble, you'll probably come to the same conclusion and steer your kids into a field with a better standard of living. I've tried to be respectful, but your posts just come across as someone fresh off the boat who is a company tool. Someone who is borderline racist, who thinks that Americans are stupid and that students from India and China "are just good". You also seem to think that students from India and China are naturally entitled to an education in the US. It's exactly this sort of attitude that has many smart, educated, and experienced engineers in the US crying fowl and wanting a serious reduction in Visas. That you are a hiring manager at Qualcomm who holds these views speaks volumes about where the company has gone...— March 14, 2011 12:31 a.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Ding Ding! We have a winner. International trade largely comes down to politics. Most countries (except the US - but that is another topic) have VAT taxes, legal and/or cultural barriers that prevent the flow of goods that they don't want into their country. The one thing that helps to grease the political wheels is to employ people (or hire H1Bs) in the country that you're hoping to sell to. There are many examples of this, for example the Japanese auto makers started to do this when threatened with US sanctions. Back 10 years ago, Qualcomm was very keen on installing wireless local loop and infrastructure equipment in India and it was viewed as one of their biggest growth markets. It wouldn't surprise me if there were also some "behind closed door" agreements that were made.— March 13, 2011 11:42 p.m.