The biggest problem is companies have slashed their training budgets and do not want to keep their current staff up to speed in new technology. They think it is cheaper just to bring in consultants with the skills. The problem is eventually the consultants leave and the support is dumped on a current employee who has no clue how to fix things that break.
And yes, one of the big problems is the H-1B Visa program. I agree with many of the comments that mention Indian companies lying about the experience of some of their people. As a Project Manager I had a new consultant from India join the project so I set up a quick meeting to greet him and make sure he understands how critical and time sensitive the his work will be. When I asked him who much experience he had with a mainframe software development tool he looked at his team lead and then finally said seven years. I guess he must have started using it when he was 15 or 16. His work sure did not back up that claim.
95% of the recruiters who contact me about a consulting job are from India. They claim to submit me for a job and then I never hear back even after me sending followup emails and/or phone calls. The last two positions I applied to were from different companies in different states. After finally getting an updates I was told by both recruiters that these jobs "were on hold". My guess is they only talked to me so they could say they talked to American citizens but could not find one that had had the experience or wanted the job so they submitted their H-1B candidate.
Slashdot Mirror
The biggest problem is companies have slashed their training budgets and do not want to keep their current staff up to speed in new technology. They think it is cheaper just to bring in consultants with the skills. The problem is eventually the consultants leave and the support is dumped on a current employee who has no clue how to fix things that break. And yes, one of the big problems is the H-1B Visa program. I agree with many of the comments that mention Indian companies lying about the experience of some of their people. As a Project Manager I had a new consultant from India join the project so I set up a quick meeting to greet him and make sure he understands how critical and time sensitive the his work will be. When I asked him who much experience he had with a mainframe software development tool he looked at his team lead and then finally said seven years. I guess he must have started using it when he was 15 or 16. His work sure did not back up that claim. 95% of the recruiters who contact me about a consulting job are from India. They claim to submit me for a job and then I never hear back even after me sending followup emails and/or phone calls. The last two positions I applied to were from different companies in different states. After finally getting an updates I was told by both recruiters that these jobs "were on hold". My guess is they only talked to me so they could say they talked to American citizens but could not find one that had had the experience or wanted the job so they submitted their H-1B candidate.