I'm familiar with the supposed dearth of domestically educated engineers at all the various levels of the profession. If that is indeed true I don't grasp what people entering college are thinking. Why would they not pursue STEM as it's so obvious that it's a such a fertile field of future opportunities. Is it really necessary to require so many H-B1 employees due to lack of domestic talent? http://www.bloomberg.com//news/arti...-crackdown-silicon-valley-rethinks-its-dreams
STEM is difficult. Plus, you have to learn to analyze and think. Liberal Arts is easy. You just have to memorize stupid shit for the next exam.
Why wouldn't they percieve and properly address the future. It's waiting for them, like it or not. They can't all be pizza and beer idiots. My nieces and nephews are all in STEM or medical, they don't appear to be outliers as those school populations are maxed.
As an electrical engineering undergrad, I can tell you that you don't just decide to become an electrical engineer because thats where the jobs are. It's a challenging field that requires a certain amount of genetic lottery math and abstract thinking skills so you can't just throw anyone in and expect them to succeed. Even if you're lucky enough to be born with those abilities, it's an insanely difficult major so if you had no interest in it at all and were only doing it for the great jobs you'd never make it through. I never formally studied computer science but from my self-taught experience it's much the same. As someone who works in those fields I would much rather be surrounded by the best minds with the most passion for the field from around the world than have the profession turn into the doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers fields that are full of people who have very little interest in the profession but forced themselves to do it because that's where the money and jobs where.
I don't think there isn't enough domestic talent. It's just that the talent is not as cheap, in a specific demographic (ie. in silicon valley you probably need to be under 30 yrs), or the employer thinks an individual needs N years of experience in something that takes a month to learn. Also, stem work isn't always interesting. The majority of the time it's quite dull as a job and irritating when processes are involved. in the past people went to law school to get a job.
There are pretty drastic and negative "social consequences" to working in a STEM field. #1 All your colleagues are men #2 Most of your colleagues are introverts #3 Any social skills you absorb from your -many- H1-B colleagues work in the developing world - ONLY. Basically, STEM ruins your life, and does not get you laid. Name a silicon valley guy who gets hot chicks. Definitely not Mr Facebook P
Ratio of male to female makes it a waste of time for me. LA more fun. Wait. Are you into guys or something ?