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Meanwhile experienced Americans are being displaced by H1-B visa holders. To add insult to injury, if they want their severance package, they have to train their replacements.
How anyone can support a visa program that is riddled with fraud and corruption is beyond me. Supporting the H1-B visa program while knowing that Americans are losing their jobs, is very callous.
You are not properly comprehending what I wrote. I didn't say I supported H-1B. I said I supported more high-skill workers from first-world countries coming to the U.S. to work.
Most H-1B workers are not high-skill by American technology standards, nor are they first-world. The vast majority are mid-level and entry-level workers from India with rather mundane skills and questionable English ability.
In other words -- to make this simpler for you -- we do benefit from having unique talent coming to the United States, and becoming full legal citizens, who can start businesses and freely switch employers. That is good for everyone. That is just not how the H-1B operates, nor is there any sort of system in place that allows it.
So, I realize this is anecdotal, but take it as you will:
A local tech entrepreneur in my area (friend of a friend-type scenario) noticed how many recent American graduates were finding themselves either unemployed or underemployed after college. Meanwhile, he observed that the rising demand for tech was not being fulfilled by the labor supply, whether domestic or visa-sponsored.
To combat this, he recruited recent unemployed college grads with the following proposition - he would agree to train them for 4 months in QA testing and programming with enough basic skills to secure a jr - level role in IT which would pay market rate (say, for sake of argument, 50-60k/annually). The training would be free - however; the students were expected to abide by the following conditions:
1) show up to all classes and take the learning process seriously as they would a full-time job and
2) if they were hired within a year following completion of training, a portion of the 1st year's salary earned by the student would be used to pay back the expenses incurred in providing the training. If the student did not secure a job in the relevant industry within the first year, no money would be owed for training.
His proposition gained significant interest and a sizeable group accepted. Of this group, (using rough numbers), about 3/4 or more were US-born and US-educated and the remaining 1/4 (or less) were foreigners or 1st generation children of immigrant parents. Of the pilot group, over 90% of the US-born/educated students dropped out in the first month of training, citing the programming and mathematical concepts being taught as 'too hard' and the classroom schedule as 'too demanding' (all students were unemployed at the time they began the program).
As last I heard this training program still exists, however the students are more closely vetted and there is now much higher scrutiny placed on American students as they repeatedly showed that they were much less likely to stay the course till completion and were on average not willing to attend all classes on schedule.
So, there are multiple sides to every story, and when people suggest that we should simply give all the visa positions to US workers, I think it's useful to consider all sides. Most programming/IT jobs involve longer hours, more rigorous and continuous training (to stay on top of technology) and a heavier emphasis on algorithmic thinking and mathematical concepts. Given the experience described above when trying to basically hand out training for free to unemployed grads, one wonders whether the hiring managers in many companies are facing a similar challenge?
How did the students secure a job after graduating? Were they put in contact with recruiters, who took their own cut as well? Is this the program in NYC? You understand that 50-60K is below market rate even in Orlando and Phoenix, correct?
Fyi, asking the guy who runs the program why the students quit is *not* the same as asking the students themselves why they quit. This seems to be an immutable truth of business, as I have experienced
It was futile anyway. Companies would start with an employee they wanted and then create a highly specific job posting that only that one target could hope to fulfill.
And it only applies to firms which are "H1B dependent" (over 15% H1B workers, 51+ employees).
Such firms, after hiring an American, seemingly can replace that American with an H1B at their leisure provided the replacement has a graduate degree or a wage over $60K/yr.
Companies should have to demonstrate that they tried to train US born workers and failed before they can get H1B workers. If all of their local recruits dropped out of training then they can get the foreigners, but only after they demonstrate that they tried to train locals first.
There is no reason why tech companies can't do apprentice programs like plumbers or electricians go through. Or, they can devise a unique system that fits their needs. Clearly, traditional college isn't working, but if they are creative enough to design Twitter, they can train college grads in basic programming.
The H1B1 problem is so pervasive soon companies will tell the government it's impossible for them to stop using them because their budgets are already fixed to keeping the cost as low as it is or else risk getting punished by Wall Street for showing expenses go up for hiring high priced American workers.
Companies should have to demonstrate that they tried to train US born workers and failed before they can get H1B workers. If all of their local recruits dropped out of training then they can get the foreigners, but only after they demonstrate that they tried to train locals first.
There is no reason why tech companies can't do apprentice programs like plumbers or electricians go through. Or, they can devise a unique system that fits their needs. Clearly, traditional college isn't working, but if they are creative enough to design Twitter, they can train college grads in basic programming.
Yeah, enterprenours should spend thousands of dollars in training with no guarantee the people they get will acquire the skills they need before hiring someone they actually want. Brilliant thinking there.
Also, yeah, software engineering is just like plumbing or woodwork, that's why it attracts people with similar skills, right?
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