The H1B program needs to be ended immediately. It's an outrageous giveaway to corporations. It represents deliberate attempt to reduce the relative price of labor in the American economy.
But that hasn't happened. Tech jobs have only increased in value. We still need more tech workers, and can't train them fast enough.
Instead, we should be forcing citizenship on workers, encouraging them to stay here, start a family, etc. These are among the smartest and well-educated people in their former countries, and we have space for them.
We still need more tech workers, and can't train them fast enough.
In the current bubble economy, that is. What happens when there is the inevitable downturn? How quickly people forget the late 2000s (let alone the early 1990s), where one was lucky to get a multi-month contracting gig.
For years, a bunch of coworker friends have gotten together for a White Elephant party after Christmas. During that era, more than half the group members experienced unemployment for long stretches of time... even while H1-Bs continued to be issued, and the entire H1-B quota was always consumed. And these were software engineers with over a decade of experience.
I had started an unrelated business (not in the software industry) and fared comparatively well.
I find it odd that "we" can't train them fast enough but India can. (Ignoring other countries, as India is by far the biggest share here).
What is so magical about a developing nation with a billion people living in poverty that allows them to solve them problem and prevents us from solving it too?
Further, why is nobody asking this question, instead of just saying we can't do it?
Companies have no incentive to invest in training when they can brain-drain other countries for less, and force their terms on the people they bring over.
Amen. People say there is a shortage of skilled labor. I just came out of a prestigious public CA university and can't find a job that pays a living wage. If coming out of a CS program with internships and I still don't have the skills maybe these companies should invest in training me as an entry level worker.
> If coming out of a CS program with internships and I still don't have the skills maybe these companies should invest in training me as an entry level worker.
I came out of an unknown school with no internships and got a big company to give me an entry level job at 100k+/year. I don't say this to be rude, but maybe the problem is you and you should look at what you can do to fix things.
If you aren't getting interviews maybe it is your resume, if you aren't passing interviews maybe it's your interview skills (I'm going through this now, as mine have rusted a lot and it really does suck).
Again, I don't mean to pick on you. I really have no idea what the actual situation is. Good luck.
> If coming out of a CS program with internships and I still don't have the skills maybe these companies should invest in training me as an entry level worker.
Why is it the company's problem? I'd go after the university first, for providing a worthless degree, rather than a company's unwillingness to pay for (in their perspective) a worthless degree.
Instead, we should be forcing citizenship on workers, encouraging them to stay here, start a family, etc. These are among the smartest and well-educated people in their former countries, and we have space for them.