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Cutting H-1Bs Could Mean More Competition From China and India, Says GoDaddy CEO (cnbc.com)

Silicon Valley companies continue to express their concerns about the restrictions on H-1B visa program. The H-1B visa program -- which enables U.S. companies to hire foreign workers -- has become a political lightning rod but remains essential for American companies to hire the technical talent they need to compete on a global scale, said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. From his interview on CNBC: "We do not produce enough technically qualified candidates in this country," he said. "You can't take an 18-month training program and produce a machine-learning scientist." Irving was particularly concerned about overseas competition. The American university system is good at training foreign workers for tech jobs, and it is essential that the U.S. government allows them to stay in the country to fulfill U.S. jobs, he said. Otherwise, we train workers from countries like China and India and then send them back to those countries to set up tech ecosystems that compete with Silicon Valley.

40 of 660 comments (clear)

  1. I don't see the problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Competition is generally regarded as a good thing. When these people stay in the USA, they generally depress wages and send all the money they earn back to their home countries anyway, which does the rest of the US economy no good at all. Really I'm not sure we should even have any sort of H1-B program at all.

    1. Re:I don't see the problem. by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not only that, it is clear that some of these people support foreign nationalism while at the same time saying the US shouldn't be nationalist, Its okay for China and India to look out for their people, but the US is "Racist" if it looks out for its people.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    2. Re:I don't see the problem. by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Hey, if it were ONLY the top of the folks in the fields, I don't think we'd have a problem with it...it is the drones coming over and sucking up the regular jobs there ARE people that can work on here...and driving wages down.

      If we have the H1B or other visas only for those that make say over $130K/yr, then that would help things a great deal....that way we let in the brains, but keep out the drones...

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:I don't see the problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hey, if it were ONLY the top of the folks in the fields, I don't think we'd have a problem with it...it is the drones coming over and sucking up the regular jobs there ARE people that can work on here.

      This, exactly this.

      In my team, we have two Indians on F1-OPT visas, who tried to get an H1-B in April. Both did not get selected in the lottery. These guys are newgrads, and very, very mediocre as wel. Definitely not top of the top, more top of the bottom. We had better candidates who were also citizens, but HR decided to hire these two because they are nice and cheap and we should be able to train them ourselves. It's been 18 months and they have yet to become productive.

      H1-B is a farce.

    4. Re:I don't see the problem. by shaitand · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not just truly professionals, there needs to be no domestic talent which is unlikely because H1B's tend to have cookie cutter diplomas and actually learn from the domestic talent which supposedly doesn't exist. At the top or the bottom if there are people here who can do the job, including older more experienced people tech likes to discriminate against, there shouldn't be even 1 H1B until every one of them is employed.

    5. Re:I don't see the problem. by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe you shouldn't let HR make your hiring decisions.

      That is an utterly unAmerican thing to say, and quite frankly treasonous. Letting HR make your hiring decisions is a fundamental part of how American corporations work.

  2. Maybe train the American kid first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe the University could just train the American kids instead.... I know... I'm throwing up in my mouth as I type it.

    1. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by ctilsie242 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This. Farmers understand the concept of seeds, and tilling a field, if they expect a usable harvest. Why can't CEOs understand that if you eat your seed grain, come harvest time, there isn't anything usable in the fields.

      China and India are already competing. Having domestic workers changes nothing on this front, other than the fact that it will get people in the US coming back to STEM majors as opposed to going to other vocations (no such thing as filling the barn with clueless H-1Bs in law, accounting, trades, construction, and other items.)

      What will no H-1B abuse bring? A benefit to everyone in the US as a whole, as opposed to the money just being sent back to India to family and never seen again.

    2. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How can we have "STEM" people when we're so busy teaching about things that have nothing to do with Reading, Writing and Math. Sure, we have well rounded people who know and tolerate all sorts of things but can't balance their checkbook, can't cook, can't manage to uphold free speech without rioting.

      People want magical things happening, because hard work and effort is based on "old dead white men" ideas.

      Take a look at the college campuses and realize that the American kids are rioting or hiding in their safe spaces, instead of learning.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It seems that as we stand right now, our education system is not working, right? I mean, that's the problem, there are not, today, enough students with good technical training coming out of the school and university system in America to fill these jobs.

      Would you say our education system is "right wing?" That the teachers, the administrators generally hold right wing, conservative, or evil fascist opinions and operate the educational system accordingly? It seems to me the 14:1 liberal to conservative college professor ratio must be the problem. If we can just get rid of those last few conservative professors who have turned our school system into a right-wing indoctrination center then we'll finally have schools doing what they're supposed to be doing: turning out highly educated Gender Studies and Transafrican Eskimokin Studies majors ready to enter the workforce.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    4. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by great+om · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm really tired of this thread of thought. A degree in the humanities is not useless. I have a BA in English Literature and a master's degree in information science. I am a very well regarded virtualization and cloud engineer. A good education is a good education.

      --
      ------- Oh damn.... the Sigfile escaped... -Great OM
    5. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm really tired of this thread of thought.

      And I'm tired of anecdotal evidence trying to out-argue general results.

      A degree in the humanities is not useless.

      For most people, yes it is.

      I have a BA in English Literature and a master's degree in information science.

      I wasn't aware that "information science" was a humanities degree.

      I am a very well regarded virtualization and cloud engineer.

      Yes, we all know the high-school dropout who started his own billion dollar computer company without a day of college, or those who dropped out of college to start their career and flourished. The exceptions do not make the rule in this case.

      A good education is a good education.

      Did you learn how to use tautologies in your English Lit classes? A good education can be a good education and not be relevant in any way to the job that one wishes to be employed in.

    6. Re:Maybe train the American kid first by Jhon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "A Trump America is an isolationist America- afraid of the world."

      Because everything is black and white, right? Maybe making it a little harder to get through the door isn't "isolationism", but the word sure is cool to use, right? Filled with all the evil, nasty and ignorance implications you could possibly throw at a wall to see if any of it sticks. Protectionism, yes. Isolationism? No.

      Clearly the fairly unfiltered commercial traffic since the 1990s has damaged the average American. It certainly sounds like Perot's "sucking sound" prophecy was spot on... Maybe THAT isn't the answer either. Maybe... just MAYBE be a bit more "protectionist" rather than letting all the water flow downhill.

      Note: I didn't vote for Trump -- I think he's a psychopath with poor impulse control and he scares me. That doesn't mean at least some of the stuff coming out of his mouth isn't worth considering.

  3. The IT shortage in america is a myth. by blackomegax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just hire locals you cheap-ass CEOs. You'll get more adept, better labor for it and it pays for itself in having a more agile company.

    1. Re:The IT shortage in america is a myth. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    2. Re:The IT shortage in america is a myth. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I once had a gig as a project manager. Had a budget, needed devs. I could have called Tata, and had a regiment come in fresh off the boat, moving in lockstep, but I found it was cheaper to post some ads at the CS department of the local universities, interview some very intelligent people, ask them some basic coding questions, then get the project going.

      Was on time and on target with the dev team. However, the company I was with got bought out, and the whole division offshored.

      I can find more talent in the town, in the relatively non-techie state I live in (Austin, Texas), than I ever could by playing the H-1B lottery.

    3. Re:The IT shortage in america is a myth. by Cederic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      the relatively non-techie state I live in (Austin, Texas)

      Remind me, is Austin the third largest tech hub in the US behind Silicon Valley and Seattle or did Denver knock it down to fourth?

      Relatively non-techie compared to what, fucking Missouri?

  4. Ahem.... by wiggles · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > "You can't take an 18-month training program and produce a machine-learning scientist."

    That's fine - if you're looking for machine-learning scientists.

    Unfortunately, the majority of the recipients of these H1B's are low paid scab labor, imported to cut labor costs.

    Raising the cost of H1B's should take care of that loophole while still allowing GoDaddy to import their "machine-learning scientists".

    1. Re:Ahem.... by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This. The problem is not the count of H1-Bs allowed in. The more of the world's top talent that comes to America, the better. The problem is the program is abused so regularly that the abuse has become the norm. The current House bill to raise the H1-B minimum wage to $130k, and to allocate all H1-B slots based on salary rather than lottery - this is a great fix. Bi-partisan support, apparently.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:Ahem.... by e3m4n · · Score: 4, Insightful

      this is not about getting another Albert Einstein. We would fast-track citizenship for something like that. This is about TEMP workers you can churn through and discard back to india or wherever they want to discard them when they are done getting the milk for free.

  5. GoDaddy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If it's coming from GoDaddy, it can safely be ignored. Fucking shitty company.

  6. reprioritizing, not cutting by ooloorie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Trump administration is considering reprioritizing H-1B visas. Right now, such visas are given out based on a lottery around April 1, which is utterly irrational and chaotic; it causes outsourcing firms to flood the visa application process with numerous fake applications, instead of the visas going to US companies that actually need those workers. Under the new rules, H-1B visas would be given to the highest paid workers and with precedence to people graduating from US universities. No matter what you think about the absolute number of H-1B visas, that's a good change to the immigration program.

    If, in addition, the US reduces the number of work visas, that would result in more foreign competition, unless made up for elsewhere. But Trump has generally advocated a merit-based immigration system, which may mean more skilled immigrants (as opposed to H-1B visa holders) and less unskilled labor and family-based immigration. Again, that seems like a win-win.

    Of course, we'll have to see what he actually does. The Orange One is a bit unpredictable and tends to act rashly.

    1. Re:reprioritizing, not cutting by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The old system artificially deflated wages. There is no free market, so pick your poison.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    2. Re:reprioritizing, not cutting by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you have a resource that's cheap and you wall it off, what do you call that? Typically, we call it "artificial scarcity." Somehow it's different if the resource is labor.

      Yes, yes it is. That's why we banned slavery some time ago: because we recognized that human beings are more than just a resource. It's also why we restrict strip mining operations, require environment impact analysis, and set minimum wages, despite the fact that all of those artificially increase costs. Because the moral and practical consequences of *not* doing so outweight the financial burdens.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  7. Disney by Topwiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He should talk to all the developers from Disney who were replaced with H1B workers and forced to train them.

    1. Re:Disney by e3m4n · · Score: 5, Informative

      Dont forget Edison Electric in california... they did the same thing while drawing state and federal subsidies.

  8. Obviously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't hire System Engineers for $9 hour so obviously the problem is that there aren't enough System Engineers here.

  9. 18 months is plenty by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want the equivalent of a College B.S. in machine learning 18 months of intense training is more than you'd actually get during your 4 years at college. possibly even more than a masters. If you are looking for PhD level, then 18 months maybe isn't there entirely. But over the next year or two of work experience, in a job emphasizing research in AI with a good mentor, would definitely produce pHD level graduates. I know this because I've seen it done at my company, producing major leaders through this process.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  10. The US is screwed by nycsubway · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No matter the issue, Trump doesn't understand anything other ratings and popularity. He gets a certain segment of the population riled up with really simple ideas 1) we're bringing jobs back 2) every problem you have is the fault of this group of people 3) if the jobs don't come back, it the fault of another group of people

    He sets the stage for other people to fight it out and get attention for himself. He has absolutely no interest in solving problems, no ability to understand what his actions do, and no empathy for the people he affects.

    This shit will continue.

    I work with dozens of H1B visa holders. I scoured the lands of the US for 1.5 years to fill a vacant position and I couldn't find anyone in the US to do it. I work in NIH funded research and needed a programmer at $45k/yr. I was fine with a new college grad, and I still couldn't find anyone. Eventually I get an email from someone in Turkey, and we hired her. She's amazing. However if this shit with the H1B's goes through, we can't pay her and she'll have to go back. I won't be able to fill the position. We'll have to let go 6 employees whom we can't replace. If just this H4E spousal visa shit happens, then my employee's husband will have to leave. The spouses of 3 of our employees would have to leave.

    Why can't we find the right people here? I honestly don't know. I went to every college in the area and said "If you have taken a programming class, I want you. I'll pay you. I'll train you in the languages we use" and no responses. Why??

    1. Re:The US is screwed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I work with dozens of H1B visa holders. I scoured the lands of the US for 1.5 years to fill a vacant position and I couldn't find anyone in the US to do it. I work in NIH funded research and needed a programmer at $45k/yr. I was fine with a new college grad, and I still couldn't find anyone. Eventually I get an email from someone in Turkey, and we hired her. She's amazing. However if this shit with the H1B's goes through, we can't pay her and she'll have to go back. I won't be able to fill the position. We'll have to let go 6 employees whom we can't replace. I went to every college in the area and said "If you have taken a programming class, I want you. I'll pay you. I'll train you in the languages we use" and no responses. Why??

      This is an easy one: You aren't paying enough. You wouldn't do your job for less than what you could get doing it elsewhere either.

      Just because something costs more than you want to pay doesn't entitle you to cheap labor. I want my entire house painted for $500. I went to every school and said "Hey if you can hold a paint brush I will give you $500" and for some reason nobody was interested. Therefor I am entitled to hire cheap slave labor.

      Hey why pay anything at all? Just get actual slaves, think of the savings.

    2. Re:The US is screwed by Orgasmatron · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why can't we find the right people here?

      Hmm. Let me think for a second. Oh, here it is:

      I work in NIH funded research and needed a programmer at $45k/yr.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    3. Re:The US is screwed by Hodr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You were trying to find a college educated programmer to work in NYC for 45k/yr and had no luck? I think I found your problem.

    4. Re:The US is screwed by Troy+Roberts · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are trying to convince us that the NIH would not let you pay more? Yeah, right.

    5. Re:The US is screwed by sinij · · Score: 5, Informative

      As someone who worked on NIH in the past, this is not true. When you write grant application, you can specify salary ranges. They do set caps based on education/experience, but that only applies to researchers. $45k/year if I recall correctly is the lowest bracket, intended for summer internships and such. Someone with PhD and/or 10 years can get up to $120K or so.

      Clearly, someone dropped the ball writing grant application.

  11. If the Godaddy CEO doesn't like it... by fhic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... it's probably a good thing.

  12. Re:Can't by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe...I dunno...local and state education officials, and the teachers themselves should shoulder the responsibility for educating kids instead of being controlled from Washington?

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  13. I hope this stays modded up by gatfirls · · Score: 4, Informative

    If only to be the epitome of the problem.

    Let make this analogous to the the poor farmers in the US who "can't find anyone to work those jobs".

    "
    I work with dozens of Illegal immigrants. I scoured the lands of the US for 1.5 years to fill a vacant position and I couldn't find anyone in the US to do it. I work in Apple Picking and needed a picker at $5k/yr. I was fine with a kid dropped out of high school, and I still couldn't find anyone. Eventually I get an email from someone in Mexico, and we hired her. She's amazing. However if this shit with the Illegals goes through, we can't pay her (a living wage) and she'll have to go back. I won't be able to fill the position. We'll have to let go 6 employees whom we can't replace (or marginally raise prices as everyone else will helping to boost a cyclical economy).

    Why can't we find the right people here? I honestly don't know (I do but I want to address my unwillingness to pay the market price for talent). I went to every college in the area and said "If you have taken a programming class, I want you. I'll pay you (as little as I possibly can, maybe call you an intern and not at all). I'll train you in the languages we use" and no responses. Why??
    "

  14. Pick one by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We do not produce enough technically qualified candidates in this country"
    "Forced to train H1B replacement"
      Pick one.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  15. Re:Could it be, you're stupid? by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You live in a dream world. Those gifted but poor kids still won't be able to get the classes they need. Charter schools won't set up in poor areas because the potential administrators know they won't succeed.

    The poor parents can't afford to gifted send their children to another district because they don't have the time and money. All that will happen is those poor kids will attend schools that are even more starved of resources because of the effects of vouchers.

    The problem that Betsy DeVos wants to "solve" is that public schools don't teach religion and creationism.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  16. Utter Bullshit by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We do not produce enough technically qualified candidates in this country,"

    Complete Bullshit.

    What they mean is..."We do not produce enough technically qualified candidates in this country that we can pay low wages and hold hostage with H1-B visas"

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.