And that too, just like the IT shortage myth, is also a lie. Almost everything you hear on TV is a lie. I'm encouraged by one thing. In the past when we had this debate, many would rush in and tell us how the American worker was spoiled and lazy, and we desperately need foreign workers to keep America competitive. Mercifully, those people have STFU for the most part. The times they are a-changin'.
There is no shortage, actually. There are quite a few qualified candidates which is surprising for a job that pays $30k/year. Unfortunately, in some states, you need a teaching degree to teach K-12. So, a qualified person with an engineering or science degree would be required to go back to school to earn a second degree before they would even be considered for the position. How ridiculous is that?
Yeah its pretty ridiculous, considering teachers' colleges are full of flunkouts from engineering and business schools.
Not only they have pay for the training, they have to work 6-months unpaid as a "student teacher". Substitute teachers are paid a small daily wage. "Student Teachers" get no such allowance. Many software professionals over 50 cannot find any work that pays 30k or more. New grads do not much better luck. Some stilll have jobs and are hanging it, competing against the H1-B visa holders and the the offshoring teams in India and elsewhere. IT (except for those doing local maintenance) has gone to the dogs!
Similar to most local school systems across the U.S., our county school system is laying off teachers. Another point to note, North Carolina has a Teaching Fellows college program where excellent students out of N.C. high schools get a significant portion of their college education paid for in return to agreeing to teach a minimum of four years at an in-state public school after college. Most of these students have straight 4.0 high school averages (4.7 weighted) and above 1400 on their reading/math SATs... so they are no dummies. It is an extremely competitive program to get into; each included university is allowed 20 to 45 teaching fellows depending on their size. So far only 20% of the teaching fellows who graduated college in 2009 have found teaching jobs. Over half the graduates are science and math teachers.
Employers spend a lot of time and money making sure the ads and job descriptions are such that no American will want the job or qualify. They will hire the H1b folks at 1/2 the pay or outsource the whole thing. Been there...
My last input on this thread. A multi-national company came to my college for campus placement. They had typical rounds for their selection process; written exam followed by interview of shortlisted candidates. I was always a bright student and did as expected in the written exam. Even interview went very well but I was not among selected candidates :-( Since I'm bit rebellious by nature, so I rushed back to the interviewer and requested an explanation (knowing the risk that if they complain, I'll be in great trouble). He said - "I know that you are a very bright and capable student. But those selected candidates are good enough for my need and they are expected to stay with us much longer than you." This was a great lesson for me. I could have continued to complain about them hiring inferior resources. Might have gone to placement office and demanded for some change in criteria (possibly like force companies to hire toppers first or something like that). But I took the lesson , soften my attitude and successfully got the next job in queue If management loves you, they love you for a reason. If they hate you, they hate you for a reason. You can't say that they are bad if they reject you and great if they accept you (You can but it is not fruitful). They are the BOSS. You need to show them that you are worth hiring because you are the only one who understands their need and willing to do anything to keep them up and running. These concepts are explained by many books and authors. You may want to have a look at - http://www.amazon.com/What-CEO-Wants-You-Know/dp/0609608398 Business is business, they have grown beyond nationality and other boundaries. Open market policy and recent development in communication technology made them global. They have gained access to all market and all types of resources. Sending job to offshore does not save them lots of money (max saving is in 20-40% range these days). But they do get a pool of talents who are good enough (if not good and excellent) and very dedicated. Remember they get similar pool of talents through H1B. It is never about excellence. My guess is that in next decade or two 80% of these H1B jobs will go offshore anyway. Companies like IBM are already making huge investments in that direction. Currently businesses are bit hesitant in sending their critical and semi-critical operations because they do have H1B alternative available which is only 20-40% costlier. If H1B is abolished, the offshore process will only accelerate and my projected move may happen in next few years. I've no way to prove it but you can validate it with any IT manager who is also involved in such planning. American pool of talents are very smart but guess unable to compete with so called "cheap labor" for various reasons. Cost is one of them but that is not the only one. American companies are no longer American, they are global now so your congressman also knows that it can't be forced on companies. You lost that option with the adaptation of open market policy. Now only option left is to compete or switch to the field where you don't have competition. Like I said, this is my last post in this thread. Spend way too much in explaining it and I give-up if you still don't get it.
teaching no matter what anybody tells you is a p/t position. in major cities of the US there is a shortage of math teachers. the benefits are the equivalent of someone with a salary of $90,000. retirement benefits are= to someone making $180,000 salary in the major cities.
This is exactly the case. I'm at my final Information Technology gig as I'm a consultant/freelancer who is forced to work thru agencies that take a 50% cut of my "rate". The place I'm working at right now has a MANDATE for 95% Indian offshoring for their annual IT spending budget. Let me say this: the Indians are not bad FOR THE PRICE they are getting paid. However, their work is sloppy and it sometimes takes 2-3 times to get something done thru them compared to an American IT professional. I'm given the ever-so-awful job of QA'ing their work. Communicating with them is quite a chore, and many times, I say one thing, and they do another. The whole process is so inefficient. So as to the second point above: I'm good at what I do, but I can't work at these SLAVE LABOR rates. It's ridiculous, especially when I see dumb lawyers making 5 to 6 TIMES what I make on an hourly basis. I just get ill thinking about it. So after this gig, I'm done with the world of IT. It's dead...for Americans. Which field is next ? That's the unanswered question !
FACT: The H-1b is harming thousands of U.S. workers Hundreds of U.S. tech workers have detailed their personal experiences in the "H-1b Harm Report" at www.HireAmericansFirst.org. Most of these workers are willing to speak with the media. For example: Exult My husband lost his computer programming job when his company imported cheaper programmers from India. Lucent Technologies I was displaced from my contract position in August 2001 while the H-1B guest workers were retained. PG&E (San Francisco) My company was actively hiring Indian contractors through Tata and Infosys at the time I was let go. Cognizant The company is phasing out American consultants, and later this year, American employees of that company. MMO and SnapOn Replaced by H-1B. Spouse replaced by guest worker too. General Electric Healthcare I am now retired from GE Healtcare, Milwaukee. I was forced into retirement at age 60, and eventually replaced by H-1B workers. Several American engineers have been replaced at GE by H-1B and green card workers. AT&T/TATA In October 2001 our office was notified that come Jan 1, 2002 the office would be closed. Within days of the closing, foreign nations were being bused in to the vacated center. The University of Chicago Laid off, lost valuable benefits while H-1b workers retained. Not interviewed for 81 positions while at same time U.S. Labor Dept. of Labor approved 208 foreign nationals to work at same employer Lincoln Financial Applied for an Actuate Developer job at company and was turned down. However, they did hire a colleague of mine for the same position who was an H-1B worker and who I had trained and mentored at a previous employer. Mastercard In 2001, lost contract as company moved away from Americans to H-1B contractors McDonalds, Discover, and others The issue I am facing is L-1s now more than H-1b visas. L-1 are being used to bring a foreign workers over for training and then the company eliminates higher cost employees and consultants. Phillips Semiconductor In 1998 I was replaced by an H-1b from India while working at Phillips Semiconductor in Mountain View California. Cognizant Technologies Indian Consulting firms set up phony interviews with the objective of gaining salary information. PERM FAKE ADS I applied for many positions listed in ads only to find out that the position listed were mostly ads to justify H-1B positions of people working for companies whose H-1B positions were being renewed. IBS US (El Dorado Hills, California) H-1B workers never complained about working weekends without pay, as they were faced with losing their Visa if they lost their job. Laid off in 2001 while H-1B holders were retained. IBM After 30 years as an IT professional, I cannot get so much as an interview. Anthem Blue Cross California As a programmer at Anthem Blue Cross, I was among many who were coerced into taking early retirement in lieu of losing our retirement benefits. This made room for more H-1b visa programmers from India. Fiserv Company laid off all American programmers and kept foreigners - H-1Bs and other visa holders. WiPro & InfoSys I just finished my M.S. Degree in Computer Science. I continue to see U.S. Citizen's jobs outsourced or offshored or both to India and China. My current company employs Wipro & InfoSys. They are laying off U.S. workers and hiring "contractors" from these two companies to do their job in the U.S. (under visa program) or in India.