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Microsoft On US Immigration: It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway
theodp writes Even as it cuts about 14% of its workforce, Microsoft is complaining that the company might be denied some of the "roughly" 1,000 H-1B visas for foreign workers it intends to seek, and made it clear that the company could shift some work to Canada or overseas if it can't get talent on its terms. "If I need to move 400 people to Canada or Northern Ireland or Hyderabad or Shanghai, we can do that," said William Kamela, a senior federal policy lead at Microsoft, who later explained that about 60% of Microsoft's workforce is in the U.S., yet it makes 68% of its profits overseas (where it also stashes its cash out of IRS reach). Kamela made the statements on a panel at a two-day conference on high-skilled immigration policy, where he sat next to Felicia Escobar, special assistant to President Barack Obama on immigration. The day before the conference, Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC — which counts Bill Gates as a Founder and Steve Ballmer and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith as Major Contributors — posted its "MythBusters" video on H-1B visas.
The only reason politicians pretend to listen to arguments like Microsoft is making is the money passing under the table. The only reason Microsoft needs to argue this point at all is to present the pretense that politicians are uninformed, as opposed to corrupt.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
its a problem with ANY group or individual that want to decide what's "best for you."
what's best for you never seems to be very good for them.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
so please let us hire more overseas. Please?
Pretty Please?
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who later explained that about 60% of Microsoft's workforce is in the U.S., yet it makes 68% of its profits overseas
Which is pretty much irrelevant when it comes to software. There is no need at all in software to match development costs to geographic locations. It's one of the beautiful things about being in that industry. That's why you can have a development team in India for a product that isn't even sold there and it still makes sense. It's not a tangible good you export.
Now if they cannot get the right talent for the right price domestically then sure they might have to look elsewhere but frankly I doubt that is really the core problem for Microsoft. If they are having trouble getting good talent I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that people are well aware they have a pretty toxic corporate culture where everyone has to have their knives out at all times and so much of the best talent decides to work elsewhere. Microsoft is just not an attractive place to work compared with Apple or Google or some of the other top IT firms.
It's also a little disingenuous to claim you need cheaper talent when you have net profit margins well above 20%. Microsoft's problems are not rooted in their cost structure but in their revenue streams. Their problems are that their key revenue streams (Windows and Office) are tied to tightly to the PC market and they haven't been able to translate them very well to the mobile market. They spent so many years trying to maximize their monopoly on the PC they they found it difficult to acknowledge that mobile devices have different requirements and to relax their grip so that they could grow. Microsoft saw the opportunity in mobile 10-15 years ago but kept trying to cram a PC into a mobile device with predictably bad results.
Robber barons usually do try to leave a legacy that doesn't make them look like horrific monsters, but that doesn't change the fact that they are robber barons.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
If you incorrectly believe that _everyone_ pays the US 35% corporate tax sure, the US has the highest corporate tax rate. You would have to be extremely ignorant or gullible to believe that anyone pays the base rate. 70,000 pages of tax code are currently ensuring that anyone that can afford an a loophole has a loophole.
If we had any legitimacy in the Government, I would expect the Government to be asking why Microsoft just terminated 18,000 employees (including no-competes preventing their hire at MS or anywhere else) and is now requesting 1,000 more foreign workers.
For those that claim that H1Bs have nothing to do with wages, I'd ask the same exact question.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Implying that "doing good" and "making money" are mutually exclusive... I believe this to be a false assumption.
If you don't let me not employ Americans in America, then I'm going to go not employ them outside of America!
Then why bother capitulating to them?
oh bullshit.
-bullshit, if your school doesn't have differentiated curriculum, it sucks, not common core
-bullshit, exploring how math concepts evolved is not that same as "going back to"; "showing your work" has been a part of education forever
-bullshit, the only people introducing politics are ones like you (who tend to introduce politics or religion into anything they don't like or understand)
-epic bullshit, doesn't merit a response
-bullshit, the Texas school board does this
I lived through New Math decades ago enduring binary, octal, and hexadecimal in 3rd grade, so I have every right to be skeptical of CC. I find it a vast improvement over what was there, but I recognize the consternation of parents who suddenly realize their snowflakes aren't quite so precious.
Come on Microsoft, stop the horseshit and just hire workers from within the US. You fucksticks have had it your way too long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I'm fine with H1B sponsorship, so long as a company can show they put an equal about of time, money and resources into college hire and training programs. When I first started programming it was very common for me to see programming interns and college hires. I consult with many mid and large companies, and I haven't seen a programming intern in 7 years. I've seen two college hires in that time as well. At some point in the 2000s some bone headed bean counter figured they could pay an H1B about the same as a college hire. If that's the case, hire the "experienced" resource. The problem is that created a devastating hole in Junior level programmers for almost a decade. Now companies are finally starting to hire college folks again they want to increase the H1B levels again, and repeat the cycle over again.
Standing alone sure, but the comment was not standing on its own. The comment was about Bill Gates who is a known liar (See the US vs. Microsoft Antitrust cases for easy to validate examples) and made his fortune on thievery, manipulation, and lies. Ignoring known immoral behavior in determining someone's "character" would be asinine correct?
To further believe that an obvious narcissist would do anything for purely altruistic purposes is also asinine correct?
So the statement that was made does not equate to your gross oversimplification. The statement made was that roughly that "Bill Gates is not altruistic and/or of high moral character".
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.