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Gates Calls for Increase in Tech Labor Supply
Randeep Igochyorjob writes "Reuters is reporting that
Bill Gates is asking for the removal of quotas for guest workers by removing the caps on non-immigrant alien workers. In a mild attempt at balance, buried near the end of the story, the article also says "Undersecretary of Commerce Phil Bond, a top Bush administration technology official, pointed out that the unemployment rate for engineers is above the national average." I'm wondering if raising wages might attract the "needed" workers from domestic sources or is Gate's request "necessary to remain competitive and innovative"."
$35k? Where are you getting that number? I'm in Canada doing firmware and I make way more than that. I interned at IBM a few years ago and heard they start at $50k for their new grads. It's likely higher now.
It's all about raising the value of their stock. Which is the same way Jobs makes his $$$ but it kills jobs but some investors wealthy.
http://www.h1b.info/
Microsoft in November 2002 announced plans to build a half-billion dollar complex in Hyderabad, India. With this new development center, Microsoft can use L-1 visas to displace further US citizen employees and will not be subject to H-1B caps. Other major companies in the US are doing the same. This is why reform is needed across all US visa types and not just for H-1B visas alone. It was through the use of these "special" visas that all of the September 11th terrorists secured admittance to the United States. There is virtually no security or monitoring of these special visa holders.
The average for Washington state is actually more, $94,600.
How I wish I how had your job. I finished college last May and could not find work as a programmer at all. Now I'm working in a call center for $10/hr Canadian. Somebody shoot me. There are no jobs here.
I too finished college last May. A lot of companies I interviewed at were offering very shitty starting salaries like around 25-35K a year. Someone else already mentioned that you can make that doing tech support (or hell even being a cable guy), so it was kind of an insult to only get offered that much when you know the software you would help develop would bring in a decent amount of money (and I am very confident in my abilities, although I do know I have much to learn since I am just joining the field).
I kept at it and finally landed an awesome job as a software developer and they started me at 45K/yr plus benefits. I also have two other friends who graduated (with CS degrees) last May and found jobs starting between 44-51K/yr. So keep looking for a job and don't work for less than you believe you are worth. I was getting pretty desperate and almost took a job in Atlanta offering 35K/yr and I am very glad I held out because I don't think you can live very well in downtown Atlanta on that (at least from the cost of living information I looked at). There are jobs out there, you just have to be very persistant and have some luck too! Good luck and don't give up yet!
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
According to payscale.com, the California average is $70,000, and the Washington state average is $65,000. I think the American Electronics Association's survey is seriously wrong. They also claim that the California average is almost $20k higher than everybody else's estimates.
I don't buy it.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Being responsible and meeting the minimal societal requirement does tend to help one get a job.
Good luck with your search.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Especially when you consider that the technological database your Legal, Accounting and manufacturing departments rely upon for their datakeeping is maintained by your IT department
PHBs, indeed.
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
I live in Seattle. I don't code, I'm a PM - but I know plenty of out-of-work coders who aren't even offered an interview because they don't have the right bullshit "keywords" on their resumes. Some of the people I know can write assembly, build synthesizers from scratch, and handle kernel mode Windows coding. Guess what? They aren't finding jobs. It's not because they "aren't looking hard enough", it's because they're being offered $40-50k for $70-80k worth of work, and they won't take that shit.
Acctually,
Microsoft does do this, sort of.
Microsoft already has a HUGE housing complex for their Indian workers, complete with Bus rides to and from work every day.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Where were you when the rest of the world was asking you for help?
In Africa, curing Malaria.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Well for the media, I have to give them credit. They did try to break a couple of scandals about the Minutemen abusing illegal immigrants.
None of the stories held up to any scrutiny.
The Minutemen are nothing but a glorified neighborhood watch. It's no different than if I spotted someone climbing over the neighbor's fence and called the police. They (Minutemen) don't detain or arrest anyone. They just spot some border crossers and call the border patrol.
Oh, and carrying a firearm (exposed) in Arizona is legal.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Puh-lease! After graduating #2 in the entire class at Penn State in their "wonderful" Information Sciences & Technology Bachelor program with a 3.9 QPA guess how many offers I received? Zip, Zilch, Nada. Oh yeah plus the 8 years of experience in the field... (cue: Crickets Chirping)
Now I know PA isn't the heart of IT, but I exhausted every avenue and still barely eeked out a semi-decent position. I hear about how we need more overseas labor, and we "wish" we could find local skilled labor, but we just can't... Bullshit.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Congrats. Unfortunately it's mostly a numbers game these days. Too much experience applying for a low wage job (even if you are desperate) ends in you not getting a phone call. I see it all over the market.
Just to put this into perspective, when I graduated college in 95 I had over 30 offers in the first week after graduation. I only interviewed with 10 of them. Back then if you didn't like your job, put an add on a website and take the offer you liked from the stack that came pouring in ;)
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
Your average of $51k sounds about right. I just recently graduated and started out at $45k plus benefits and a few other friends of mine found jobs paying salaries of $43-51k. Now there are a lot of companies trying to pay around $25-35k/yr but I basically declined to work for that pay (especially when the cost of living was not low i.e. downtown Atlanta).
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
I used to make $33k when I was coding. Now I'm a master's student and make a hell of a lot less.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
Two key differences between IT workers and steel workers, ship builders, etc. IT work is generally high skill while auto work and coal mining is not. The IT industry is generally not burdend by shortsighted unions. Absent the unions, no assembly line worker would be making $25/hour with full benefits. And so, the jobs go somewhere else where there are no unions. IT jobs have wages that fluctuates wildly. Entry level is cheap. But there's also tremendous value in experiance; someone who knows the product or codebase is worth a lot more. It's amusing how outsorucing is playing out. Some stuff is being brought back to the US where they pay more, but they get the value of stability. On the other hand, India is starting to be undercut by China and other places where workers are willing to work for less.
And to put this in the context of the article and Mr. Gates' comments, we can either bring the workers here (and have the benifits of taxing them and having an educated population) or we can send the work there. Either way, it's a global marketplace for labor and we can compete, or become obsolete.
bance.net
I didn't enter the country illegally. My SSN is legit, has my name and issued to me when I was 6 (I came to this country at the age of 5, almost 6). I don't see how the fuck I'm a drain on the American System since I've paid way through college at international fees. I have been raised in this country and educated here. I'm not a brain drain on Nepal because if raised there, I would never have been this educated. What the country lost was a number because of the civil war and other strife, I wouldn't have been able to do shit there anyway.
I am not legally allowed to work, but that doesn't mean I'm not legally allowed to be here. My legal situation is more complex than can be summerized easily in a slashdot post.
In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
Check out Concord, CA. Hispanic population has skyrocketed. White population has declined drastically. As a result? The city budget is out of whack, crime has gone up, social services are being taxed. Drive down Monument Blvd, what was once a nice area, and you'll find no less than 50-100 Mexicans standing around waiting for someone to pick them up, despite the "Do not pick up day laborers" signs all up & down the streets. At night, it's no longer safe to walk down the same street. This is a street where I'd run over to Jack In The Box with friends when I was a kid. Thanks to the Mexican gangs that have come into the area along with the growing Mexican population, it's dangerous to be out.
The schools have also suffered, thanks to the influx of non-English speaking families, and the Bush Administrations "No Child Left Behind" act.
Article here
I no longer buy the 'they come here for a better life" crap. They flood here because the United States is a huge cash cow for them. Plain and simple.