reading your posts, i can tell you've never worked a day of your life in hands-on IT, or for that matter anything corporate with true accountability working in the big 6, i ran across a few buzzword spewing hangers-on like you in client firms people who talked big, but never contributed anything to any project or the client's bottom line - were always there to take credit of anything that looked successful - floaters always trying to associate themselves with something productive - never staying in one area very long, because they were shoed away like flys, becasue at the end of the day they never produced anything and were dead weight on the current productive victims - never having any track record that could be their own true achievement always petrified of being found out for the dead weight that they really were
The offshore films have our SSN #s, medical history and credit info. A friend is in the business. He is careful with his client data, not so with other offshore films.
So by your own admission it isn't just low level IT workers who are being replaced. If H-1Bs can learn database maintenance, then high level IT jobs are also at risk.
You are making the assumption that basic database maintenance functions are more complicated to do than functions that a basic professional programmer can perform. And that by doing basic database maintenance functions an H-1B can move directly to a high level IT job as a professional DBA. This is not a completely accurate assumption. Todayâs full time DBA must have a skill set that includes: - Being able to communicate with customers, systems designers and IT managers to design databases. - Become certified with IBM, Oracle or Microsoft database products. - Understand operating system functions in detail to install database productsâ¦. I could go on with this list for some time. I would expect that the H-1B would be many years into a green card and have a host of employer recommendations before they would be able to gain the experience, certification and recommendations of management to become a full time DBA. I have seen this happen twice among more than 10 or 20 H-1Bs that did basic DBA work. It happens more often that an outstanding programmer makes the switch to DBA. But either way only a select few make the cut.
Those requirements are true for anybody -- not just H-1Bs. My point is that H-1Bs are not limited to low level grunt work. Sure, they may start off that way, but as they advance and obtain a green card, they will replace more skilled American IT workers. Ultimately, no IT job is safe from the H-1B threat. It makes me sick that we import 125,000 foreign workers every month even as American workers are being laid off. I do not buy the argument of some that this is necessary because Americans are too dumb to do the work. By the way, we are not so different, Rabbitone: I too am an old man. I was a certified Oracle and SQL Server Admin for 10 years. I got the hell out of IT to pursue trading.
Interesting comment. However, as I had posed to other former IT pros: "Have you been able to match or surpass your former IT income with trading profits ?" And the answer is nearly always a resounding: NO
IT is the worse hit industry with labor importation and work exportaion. However, other professions are not exempt: A friend of mine return to school to study nursing thinking that is one job that won't be exported. She graduated last June with a Bachelors degree in nursing. She passed her state licensing exam in July. Now, 6 months of searching, she still has no nursing job. Of her graduating class, only one person found work in the field thus far. She lives in Seattle. According to her, hospital are importing experienced nurses from aboard, not giving local graduates a chance .....Hospital love these indenture foreign workers who are not free to leave for another job.
Yup. Same deal in Canada. Politicians taking junkets to the Phillipines to recruit nurses from there, while telling young Canadians that nursing is a good career to get into, even though the salaries paid aren't particularly stellar.
Why hire the local peasants if you can import slaves for free. If we need more taxes for a new mansion we'll pay these maggots a visit. Seems like the aristocrats finally figured out how to make the system work.
When the economy was strong, the excuse was that there was a desperate shortage of workers, or that Americans were too stupid and pampered and lazy to work. I wonder what their excuse is now?