Immigrant-Hungry Tech Companies: See! We Really Are Out Of Labor!
What if they're right? That's the thesis of a new survey conducted by the Computing Research Association: It says there were 20% fewer students trying to get a bachelor’s degree in professional IT fields in 2007 than the year before. Computer science is especially bad -- it dropped 43% between 2007 than 2006.
Meanwhile, 854,000 IT jobs will be added between 2006 and 2016, a 23% increase, according to the BLS.
Here's what baffles us: Who doesn't know that getting a tech degree, in this country, in this era, is tantamount to an employment contract? And what degrees are these crazy kids getting instead? Here's one field we suggest they shy away from: Journalism.
Problem is those numbers are misleading.
Most of those jobs aren't intended for US college graduates. These employers want workers who either just immigrated, or a work visa. They do the same job for much less.
Not to mention there's a glass ceiling if you don't have a business degree (unless your a founder of the company).
Unless your going to a top 10 school, the degree doesn't have much more value than a journalism degree. Sad? Yes. Reality? Unfortunately.
Maybe it will all balance out as time goes on... but for now, just not worth it.
"why is tech industry so fixated on importing workers while other industries simply raise salaries"
in our case, we just can't afford US labor (guys wanting to make $180k+, when we can pay $50k-$80k to very high skilled developers in South America), we rather work remotely with people outside, which in the end sucks for the economy cause all that money is spent there, not here.
Dave - Would you pay $150K for an engineer, when in fact you can have another one, just as good, for $75K?
The typical reaction is "ah but we Americans are better. Those immigrant fellows don't know how to code as well as we since we are trained in the US system". Or something to that effect. The reality is that, that statement smells of protectionism or wishful thinking. American engineers aren't better than their offshore / immigrant counterparts, and even if they were, they are certainly not 2x better. And yes I get the point about hiring fewer smarter people to make an engineering organization run more efficiently but again, the reality is that in most large companies, most of the engineering organization is doing product maintenance vs new product development. And so most large companies opt for cheaper engineers that is as good (or nearly as good).
I should know. I have run several 1000+ person organizations in which we constantly struggled with the point that Alberto makes - "in our case, we just can't afford US labor (guys wanting to make $180k+, when we can pay $50k-$80k to very high skilled developers in South America), we rather work remotely with people outside, which in the end sucks for the economy cause all that money is spent there, not here."
In the end, it comes down to shareholder value focus vs employee good. And inevitably, shareholder value focus wins over. That is the nature of capitalism.
From cra.org:
Intel Corporation (Sponsoring Member)
Microsoft Corporation (Sustaining Member)
IBM Research(Supporting Member)
Sun Microsystems (Supporting Member)
Being able to program guarantees you an employment contract, not the degree.
Crocodile tears are shed by the tech giants over this (wholly manufactured) situation. If only we had qualified workers here... oh, wait, there's all the qualified workers: in the unemployment line, at the local hardware store and taking grubby little contract jobs when they are available just to pay the bills.
And it's laughable to think that the people they ship in from elsewhere are really getting paid the prevailing wage for such jobs. Between the weak dollar and wage growth in other countries it's hard to make a case for the supposed "expense" of the American worker.
A parting thought: if we addressed our disgrace of a healthcare system (particularly the insurance part) people could at least take contract jobs without worrying about whether or not they'd be able to insure themselves and/or their family. If we really are going to become a nation of temporary employees then something's gotta give and that's a great place to start.
IMO there is little evidence that outsourcing is capable of building a world class internet business, as there are virtually no success stories there. Google?? Amazon?? Facebook?? Slide?? You name it. Besides Google outsourcing their Google Finance portal to India (which, aside from it's nice sector performance indicators, is a big disappointment) none of these companies outsource any key development work... for a reason.
If you want to outsource the development of your website to South America that's fine. The bottom line is that you still get what you pay for. Why doesn't MSFT just outsource the Windows 7 development team to South America then? Why are they complaining about a lack of tech workers in the US @ 60k a year? These companies simply want to have their cake and eat it too.
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"Here's one field we suggest they shy away from: Journalism."
..., I dunno, it seems to qualify you for Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party.
http://editdesk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-journalism-major.html