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2013 H-1B Visa Supply Nearly Exhausted
CowboyRobot writes with news on the FY2013 allocation of H-1B visas. From the article: "As of June 1, the government had issued 55,600 standard H-1B visas out of the annual allotment of 65,000, according to United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS). The feds also issued 18,700 H-1B visas reserved for graduates of advanced degree programs in the U.S., out of 20,000. " CowboyRobot continues, "Last year work visas did not run out until late November, but this year the pool of visas is almost entirely claimed and it's still only June. One interpretation of this is that the tech industry is hiring much more actively than it was a year ago. Some companies, such as Microsoft, have been lobbying to increase the number of available visas (currently limited to 65,000) while others argue that offering visas to foreign workers reduces job prospects for Americans."
A bit more from the article: "Industry lobby group Partnership for A New American Economy last month released a study that claims the U.S. will face a shortage of 224,000 tech workers by 2018 unless immigration rules are loosened."
I'm an older worker (47) and be more than happy to take what I can get. I'd be more than happy to learn a new language, platform, tools, etc .... I'm just a C,C++, Java, SQL guy on UNIX and Windows so my skills are out of date and no one uses those languages and platforms anymore. And I haven't been working for a few years in the industry - just developing software for my businesses that tanked in the economy.
I hear this sort of thing all the time when I'm intervewing candidates. People say to me, Yeah, I'd really like to learn [Java,C#,Ruby,SomeOtherLanguage]. Then I ask them what they think about [FreeDevelopmentEnvironmentForThatLanguage]. And they say "Oh, I haven't downloaded that yet." .
Next...
If you've been unemployed for months and have nothing to show for that time, you're probably not somebody I want to hire.
Your response contains a baseless personal attack because you know you're full of shit. If these H1B education visas are sending people to the same schools we go to, then what's the difference? Are 95% of these H1B candidates bad too? Do you think someone who got a degree in the Punjab got a better education, and if so, why do they need to come here for a degree, or to work? Just admit it. You hire whoever does a good enough job for the least amount of money. Can you at least be honest about this? It's generally how business works. I'm faced with the same equation. So is everyone. It's alright to just admit that without fabricating some nonsense about how we don't have enough talent.
But government doesn't have to sponsor that.
There is *no* reason that Government has to be cheerleader of multinational corporations. I know that most people almost take it as a given, silent assumption these days, but if a corporation is doing something bad for the country there is no need for government to encourage it, and that is what is happening with H1-Bs and our tax code right now. Hell.. if a corporation is doing something absolutely harmful, government can END that corporation. Most people seem to believe in the back of their minds that corporations are somehow an idea handed down by God... they're not. They don't exist without government of some sort.
Most of the comp sci classes I took were filled to the gills
and guess what... 95% of you suck. "Comp sci classes I took" sounds like a real serious education.
I hire H-1Bs, I hire Americans. Whoever is best for the job.
And if 95% of the H1-Bs didn't suck, I wouldn't complain about the program. The stated case for H1-B is to allow highly skilled workers with skills not found in the US to enter and work here. The reality of the situation is that it's a program to drive down prices for tech workers by hiring mostly unskilled workers, all the while treating them as indentured servants.
There's an amazing amount of prejudice in HR, where they believe that Indian workers are smarter and work harder than American citizens. I've met a couple of examples that prove that such thoughts are unwarranted. Sometimes an American can do a better job, even without a degree from Hyderabad.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Belief in slavery, that's why.
I've encountered many who really believe slaves make better workers. This includes the slaves. "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go" is practically the national motto of the US. They don't call it slavery of course. They call it commitment, reliability and stability. They believe people must be pushed hard, and will do their best when they are in "do or die" situations, there's a gun pointing at their heads, their necks' are on the chopping blocks and the ax is ready to fall. Even better when they have volunteered. "Ability to work in high pressure environment" is a popular and sought after soft skill. They believe this so strongly that they put a higher priority on their ability to get and maintain holds over a job candidate than the abilities and skills they're seeking. Being financially responsible counts against you! They want you set up so that you're in a world of hurt if you lose your job. This is why the US does not have sane health care spending. Relieving employers of the burden of paying for and managing a health care program is seemingly one of the most business friendly things government could do. Yet business opposed it. Why? Employers like having holds over employees, and health benefits make a good one.
Ever had a boss observe that you haven't bought a new car? And this despite the fact that your current car works fine? I have, twice, and my mother once. Why is the boss so interested in your car? No one else cares. One of these bosses explained it, saying that because I wasn't making car payments, I could afford to leave my job and this was bad! At another job, the phrase "flight risk" was used to refer to employees who could afford to leave their jobs. At still another job, a fellow employee told me that he was a better employee than I because he had to have the job in order to afford his crushingly high house payments (he paid $500,000 for a small house, in California, in 2003), and his wife and new baby daughter, whereas I was living in an apartment. He made sure everyone, especially management, knew how screwed he would be if he lost his job, and that he was willing to work long hours. Often, managers are also slaves, and tend to be jealous of peons who have freedoms they don't have. Had one manager who groaned theatrically about his massive credit card debt, but it was easy to see he was really kind of bragging about it. He even held a little pissing contest one day, asking everyone how much credit card debt we had. He "won" by "virtue" of having the most. I refused to answer, and this was met with hostility, and the suspicion that I must not have any, and jealousy.
So of course H1Bs have massive advantages over the natives.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
You do realize you just explained why the process drives down wages right? Your HR department might not fight with you over the differences in 80 to 90k but over time as the average is lowered, 110 becomes the new 120.
I used to feel this way, too. That is, until I tried to go about filling some vacant developer positions.
The company I work for is located near New York City, so there's presumably a big field of qualified applicants within a 50-100 mile radius, right?
Wrong.
We got a lot of resumes, all right. We weren't even against hiring someone straight out of college, if they were competent and willing to learn. But what I noticed was that the vast majority of resumes were from immigrants, primarily from China and India, though there were a few other countries in the mix. Native-born Americans just don't seem all that interested in writing software. I admit the stuff I work on isn't sexy--it's healthcare software, not something sold to home users. Even so, you'd think more people would be interested in a steady job in a growth field, yet almost all the interest is from people who emigrated here. We don't go out of our way to give jobs to immigrants, we treat all applicants equally and give them a fair shake based on their experience, how they interview, and how they code.
I don't know, maybe all the white guys (let's face it, that's what we're really talking about) only want to work on video games or something.
I did look at some degree statistics recently and saw that computer science degrees (and engineering degrees in general) are quite a small slice of the overall college education pie. You know what most people are going to college for now? Business and law. Everyone wants to either be a CEO or a lawyer.
Anyway, I wish H1Bs weren't necessary, but from what I've seen we really do have a shortage of qualified computer science graduates. What I assume happened is that the dotcom crash put an entire generation off of pursuing CS. The only people going into it now are those with a passion for it, and that's apparently not enough to meet the demand.
Check out my world simulator thingy.