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Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
pellis, you raise some good points. Any policy that affects so many people, will create a diversity of views and some will have experiences that differ from the norm.The truth doesn't come from any any one person, but rather the collective perspectives of the sum, which in this case will include people from within the company and outside, people who have tried to get an interview with the company and been denied, etc. I do agree that competition is a positive force. I also wholly support bringing in the truly best and the brightest. In fact many opponents of the H-1B system such as Dr. Matloff support bringing in the best and the brightest. The only problem is this isn't happening with the system that we have. The Qualcomm job ads that I posted are clear indications of this as little in the way of job skills are requested or needed. You also mention that most Qualcomm foreigners have a masters degree from a US university which implies that they are better qualifed and therefore better deserving to land these jobs. But how many had this before they started working for the company? Generally speaking the typical route that most people take when working on a H-1B is to come to the US with a BS degree from a relatively unknown university from their country. AFTER landing a H-1B job they then go on to pursue a masters degree which is needed for later mobility (once they get their Green Card). Nobody is saying that immigrants don't work hard and aren't deserving of reaping benefits from their hard work. They do work hard because they have so much at stake. The point is that tech companies know this and exploit it, not because they have any altruistic motivations to help immigrants but because they know that immigrants have much more on the line than Americans/Green Card holders. It's exactly this leverage that causes companies to prefer people on H-1Bs and this preference is what is wrong with the system. Also regarding the UT article. I questioned the veracity of the job openings after reading the article. Some of the same companies mentioned in the article also touted openings during the 2008-2009 downturn, even while they were undergoing significant downsizing. Even if these job openings are real, it's a known fact that it's hard to attract people after a significant downsizing. In fact looking at it from another way, the system that is bringing in so many people on H-1B Visas could be directly harming these smaller companies because 1) the consumer of H-1Bs tend to be larger tech companies and 2) many people that would go into a STEM field that would be hired by these smaller companies are avoiding the field. You also touch on the lengthy immigration process. I have friends that have been in limbo for many years because of this and I feel for them. My belief however is that this system is functioning exactly the way that corporations and their powerful corporate lobbies would like it to function.— March 10, 2011 12:03 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Very true. It's a great example of spin. These companies are betting that most Americans are either too dumb or have too short of attention spans to dig deeply into issues so they couch these anti-American issues to sound as though they are pro-American. A perfect example of this is Qualcomm saying that they support "Compete America" and their references to, "National Foundation for American Policy". The hundreds of thousands of people being brought over every year on H-1Bs provide a strong disincentive for the best and the brightest Americans to enter STEM fields and these anti-American policies are exactly the opposite incentives that are needed. The pro-H1B lobby referenced by Qualcomm ("National Foundation for American Policy") should really be called what it is, "The Corporate Lobby for depressing skilled wages in order to increase Corporate Profits while simultaneously boosting CEO compensation". Worse yet, when American tech workers point out these inequities we are often labeled as Racist. I count many Indians and Chinese that came over on H-1Bs as friends. It's not about the people themselves, but rather the corrupt policies that favor cheaper foreign workers over Americans. Policies that immigrants themselves often complain about because of the whole indentured servitude process that they have to follow in order to get a Green Card. It's also interesting to note that several of my immigrant friends who have Green Card status are now running into the same H-1B issues as Americans, because their value to Corporations has been decreased now that the power of the Visa can no longer be dangled in front of them. The latest spin tactic that is being followed by the pro-H1B lobby is to create a "demand based H-1B system". In other words eliminate the current quota system altogether and allow companies to fill as many jobs as they want with H-1Bs. This would ensure that some companies never have to hire an American or Green Card holder. Other spin tactics are to tell people that American schools are so bad that we can't turn out decent STEM workers and it will take years to turn this around. The reality is that America turns out tons of highly qualified and highly educated STEM workers every year. If a person digs through the details of test scores and compares apples-to-apples results with students in Europe, Shanghai and other countries, our top students are just as good as the top students in these other countries. What is clear however is that we have a segment of under-performing groups (mostly minorities and ESL children from undocumented workers) that lower our averages. Incidentally, these two groups have also been the most harmed by corporate policies of outsourcing and "in-sourcing" through the H-1B programs. Having large numbers of unemployed and unskilled workers will be a huge problem for this country going forward.— March 10, 2011 10:25 a.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Indeed. In fact a Google search shows that Paul Jacobs lives in a posh $13M 12,000 sq. foot home on La Jolla Shores with panoramic ocean views. Not a bad crib for someone who essentially inherited the company from his father. Nepotism runs deep at Qualcomm and there are many other families of executives who work at the company. You would think that this strong sense of entitlement would motivate them to hire other San Diegans and Americans but this is clearly not the case.— March 10, 2011 9:16 a.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Thanks for the tip!— March 9, 2011 5:12 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Note: The link to the test engineer position referenced above is broken. Please use the one below instead: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Jobs-Full/qualcomm…— March 9, 2011 3:46 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Not sure why, but some of the links that I posted ended up with a few characters at the end ("</p") that keeps these pages from loading. Just remove these characters from the end or use the links below: Wired article: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/03/tech-tal… Indian based recruitment ad for Qualcomm: http://www.itjobscareer.com/2008/12/h1b-opportuni…— March 9, 2011 3:43 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
henryj99, it's a fact that Qualcomm has reduced the benefits that they are paying to workers compared to years past. Not only that but the stock options that they give out to entice workers is not worth as much as they used to, because the company is so much larger than it was in the past. Comparing salaries across the board is a difficult thing to do correctly, but I believe that salaries will bear this out also. Yet another indication that there is no shortage of American STEM workers is the fact that hiring masses of people on H-1Bs is concentrated in a relatively small number of tech companies like Qualcomm and Microsoft. Other High Tech companies such as Apple seem to have no problem finding qualified American applicants and don't tap the H-1B Visa nearly to the extent of MSFT and QCOM. Both MSFT and QCOM could be considered to be monopolies by many people and monopolies are well known to mistreat both their customers and employees. When a company like Apple hires an H-1B it is usually to hire a truly best and the brightest and people like that have salaries well over $140K, not the sub $100k paid by Qualcomm. In San Diego, local tech companies like HP and Broadcom seem to get along just fine with limited hiring of H-1Bs. In fact this pretty much says it all: http://www.myvisajobs.com/San-Diego-CA-11WC.htm In just the beginning of this year alone, Qualcomm has a combined 459 H-1B Visa applications, which looks as though it's more than all other San Diego businesses combined. It's also interesting to note the low salaries for Mindlance (the Indian job shop agency that Qualcomm uses) and also Tata Consultancy (another Indian job shop agency which might also be used by Qualcomm). If you wanted salary information, this says it all. I feel bad for all of those graduating at UCSD with a degree in CS. Qualcomm is hiring like crazy, but they aren't hiring Americans....— March 9, 2011 3:10 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Part IV The most shocking of comments from the Jacob's interview though comes from the main point of the article itself. "The tech talent and funding drain to China and India is one of the "scariest things going on in the United States," right now said Paul Jacobs. The underlying and fundamental reason for tech talent drain is because American companies like Qualcomm have brought in and trained these foreigners by the boatload. Simultaneously, the outsourcing policies of other American companies have led to dramatic improvements in the economies of China and India (the chief recipients of H-1B Visas) and this has allowed many of these people to go back home and enjoy their new found opportunities armed with new found skills that companies like Qualcomm have armed them with. It's shocking that while Jacobs recognizes that this is a problem for the United States, he says nothing about his own companies hiring policies that contribute to this problem. Americans may not have Green Cards incentives to work in the US, but at least we aren't flight risks. The Corporate lobby has been able to spin the H-1B Visa issue from what it is truly about - flooding the job market with foreign workers so as to depress wages and require workers to work longer hours. The spin has replaced the real issue with talk about the "best and the brightest" and that the Visa is needed because there is a shortage of American STEM workers. The job ad linked above is a clear indication that both of these premises are false. As if this wasn't enough, here is another Mindlance ad that is currently running for an H-1B to work for Qualcomm as a test engineer: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Work-Test%20Eng._1… This is yet another lightweight job requiring someone to have only, "2 yrs. Experience in Multimedia testing – 1+ yrs. Experience in Feature testing". Clearly this is not targeting a "best and the brightest" engineer with an extensive resume, but a very junior-level engineer. These sorts of jobs are being filled at the same time that salaries for Engineers have stagnated and in fact Qualcomm has even reduced their benefits in recent years. Both are indications not of a shortage of workers but of an overabundance of workers. At last count Qualcomm has over $10 Billion dollars in cash in the bank. That cash was mostly accumulated off the backs of American consumers. Qualcomm clearly has the financial wherewithal to be a good corporate citizen and it's officers and share-holders have been beneficiaries of the American economy and the largess of the American consumer. Rather than utilize the H-1B Visa to exploit immigrants and Americans a-like, why not recognize where this money came from and reward Americans rather than exploit the system.— March 9, 2011 1:40 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Part III The other thing that is disturbing about Jacob's interview is this comment, "He recently sent a letter to Homeland Security, he says, to request that it extend practical work training visas to 29 months". Most people would miss the importance of this comment but if you read these comments in light of the H-1B job ad ("If your performance is satisfactory, Qualcomm will be interested in hiring you as their permanent employee after 9 months of employment with Mindlance and working onsite at Qualcomm."), it's clear that Qualcomm brings these people into San Diego using the Indian job shop H-1B Visa. They work these people hard for the 9 month "evaluation" period, after which they are either shipped back to India or transferred to a Qualcomm H-1B. Apparently if Jacobs had his way the 9 month evaluation period would be extended to almost 2.5 years. Imagine the pressure that these poor immigrants must be under, either work long and hard hours to make the cut or be sent packing back to India. It's the kind of incentive that no American has and why companies like Qualcomm are lobbying hard to remove the H-1B Visa cap completely. For the poor immigrant who cranks out the best and hardest working 9 months that he has ever done, the trials and tribulations aren't over though. Once moved to a Qualcomm H-1B Visa, the employee can now apply for Green Card status (which many if not most do) and this process takes 6 years to be approved, during which time they can't leave the company or risk having the Green Card process restarted. They must also work hard to ensure that they aren't laid off or terminated as this would require that they leave the country within approximately 2 weeks. This is exactly the indentured servitude policies that create an uneven playing field that both Americans and immigrants complain about.— March 9, 2011 1:39 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Part II Another profoundly disturbing comment by Jacobs was, "The company doesn’t seek out foreign-born nationals — that 60 percent ratio seems to reflect the actual composition of the talent pool available, he said during a q&a with Steve Wildstrom, a BusinessWeek technology columnist.". This doesn't seem factually possible, so I found this link after a quick Google search: http://www.itjobscareer.com/2008/12/h1b-opportuni… This link is an ad that was run in a Indian-based website that recruits for IT workers located in India. The ad ran in late 2008 not long after Jacob's interview. Clearly this shows that Qualcomm was employing an Indian job shop agency to cycle people from India to San Diego even while Jacobs was claiming that, "the company doesn't seek out foreign-born nationals". Either Jacob's comments are disingenuous at best or he is sadly misinformed about the hiring practices of his own company. Let's look closely at this ad. Notice the minimal skill-set required, "2-5 years of experience" and "will take junior from a good school". Surprisingly, previous wireless experience is not even needed or requested. It's a known fact that the best schools are located in the US, and many American graduates have been unable to find work after graduating with a CS degree and they would have loved to have landed this job. Unfortunately, this is a clear example of the opportunities that are disappearing for our youths and why as a country we need a policy that employs our best and brightest first. Why would Qualcomm give this opportunity to a junior-level engineer from India rather than the US you might ask? The answer can be found in the ad itself, "Would you like to be an observer or a winner? If you want to achieve your goal of working in the US on an H-1B, you must be proactive now and start approaching Surya Patel without any further delay. We have already started interviewing candidates. This is the time you must identify your potential , get in touch with us. Should you not be willing to miss this excellent opportunity of coming to U.S.A for your dream job(which would be already there for you awaiting at Qualcomm)" Clearly it's not about working for Qualcomm that is the draw, but rather the promise of getting out of India and working in the US that has these candidates excited. Qualcomm and other corporations exploit this desire to their own ends and this is an example of a policy that is harming American STEM workers in the process.— March 9, 2011 1:37 p.m.