When you hear stories about the shortage of science and technology workers think about this:
From the perspective of five laid-off Disney IT workers, all of whom agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, Disney cut well-paid and longtime staff members, some who had been previously singled out for excellence, as it shifted work to contractors. These contractors used foreign labor, mostly from India. The laid-off workers believe the primary motivation behind Disney’s action was cost-cutting.
“Some of these folks were literally flown in the day before to take over the exact same job I was doing,” said one of the IT workers who lost his job. He trained his replacement and is angry over the fact he had to train someone from India “on site, in our country.”
The total number of workers who were replaced was something between 120 and 200. IMO this is an abuse of the H-1B or L-1 visa and the law should be amended accordingly.
Meanwhile, why should an American kid study hard subjects like science or technology? They’d be better off spending their time on easier courses. Their earnings will be capped by whatever a foreign worker is willing to accept.
Stories like this have been making the rounds of the IT world for years now. It’s finally breaking out a little to a wider audience, but just a little.
There is no shortage of STEM workers in America. There MAY be a shortage in a few small specialties, but overall, there simply isn’t. The people pushing that meme know it isn’t true, but they do it anyway, because THEIR bread gets buttered by screwing their fellow citizens.
At some point it becomes obvious that there’s malicious intent. Avarice alone doesn’t explain the desire to ruin one’s fellows.
One of my brothers-in-law got notice from his Fortune 500 employer recently that all of their IT was going to be outsourced. My advice to him was to retire, effective immediately, and then offer his services as a consultant to his present employer at a considerable multiple.
One of my brothers-in-law got notice from his Fortune 500 employer recently that all of their IT was going to be outsourced.
Yeah, but you know they can’t find any Americans to do the work.
My advice to him was to retire, effective immediately, and then offer his services as a consultant to his present employer at a considerable multiple.
Sound advice.
It’s not just about salary costs — the workers on visa also have a lot less job mobility, so the employers don’t have to worry about them leaving for a better job.
There actually is a shortage of qualified software engineers in many parts of the country, but second-class non-citizens aren’t a good solution.
Yeah, because there’s so much job mobility right now….
“Qualified software engineers” is sort of a soft term. Obsolescence of skills is in the nature of IT. If you enter into a multi-year project, your skills are all but certain to be obsolete by the end of the project. The “engineer” who was qualified in 2010 may not be qualified in 2015. It’s one of the many reasons I’m skeptical about multi-year IT projects.
I also chafe at the term “software engineer”. There are software engineers but their aren’t many of them. As far as I’m concerned to be a software engineer you need an engineering degree.
The bottom line from my point of view is that there’s got to be a better way to handle the function than mass layoffs followed by importing new sets of workers with the new skillsets.
What, exactly, is a software engineer as opposed to a code writer? Do they adapt code to the hardware and computing requirements of specific applications. That is, customizers?
In usage it’s a senior programmer. It may combine aspects of design and programming. As I suggested above, I don’t much like the term.