Agree with everything but the last lines: there are tons of H1B visa holders coming from India who are by American or European standards rated at best as mediocre. Possibly 10% or less of all H1B Visa holding devs I would call highly intelligent and qualified.
" Watch out, coders -- a robot may take your job, too Researchers warn that a glut of code is coming that will depress wages and turn coders into Uber drivers " http://www.infoworld.com/article/28...out-coders-a-robot-may-take-your-job-too.html
Indeed, I know of at least one reasonably sized player in the financial services game (software/data, etc) who predominantly hires "the polite Asian guy" for software dev positions, because whilst the working environment and codebase are crap, they keep their heads down, work hard and don't complain. <trump-tweet-emoji>Sad!<\trump-tweet-emoji>
That's pretty bad - living on $110k in the Bay Area is pretty lean. I think I might have to discourage my kid from wanting to study Computer Science when she enters college. To be financially comfortable in the US, the next generation will have to think about unique occupations that cannot be easily be replicated internationally or by AI. Some occupations that cannot easily be offshored or AI'ed: Lawyers Doctors/Medical professions Teachers/Child Therapists Engineers (Civil or Mechanical) at public works departments An inevitable truth is that US wages are going down in real terms where eventually there will be a parity of wages globally. Here is some history of US wages, much of it pre-globalization:
You're way off. These will be the first to be automated. Lawyer intuitively understands the probabilities in your case. AI will be much better at this. Doctors. LOL. There is so much to know that there are very few doctors who can diagnose anything besides the the mainstream stuff in their speciality. AI will murder this. AI will be a tool to assist and reduce costs. It will be an evolution of how we use computers. What Windows was to operating system, AI will be to... something. All that being said, you are correct: there is an economic force balancing wages worldwide.
Not to get off topic but my experience with Indian software engineers is to never be humble or show weakness around them, they might have for example a solid foundation in Java and that is where their knowledgebase is but watch them fail if .Net is required, this is just one example. If they detect you are weak in any area then they will beat you over the head with it. Venture outside of their knowledge zone and watch them shut up/crumble. It is nice to deal with developers who just level with each other to get things built. It seems like having to explain yourself twice is just par for the course with Indian developers. I have had to argue with Chinese people over money for software but never explain myself twice on how things work as I have done with Indians, it is all part of their game. They put in the work and can make it happen/get projects done but sometimes I have noticed White Americans automatically think a developer is at an advanced level simply because they are Indian. Just my $.02. Sometimes the hype is unfounded.... Cause righteous laws are overdue And this is a message that the Ruler Rick threw And it's true
Cannot agree more. Perfectly described. I read that almost 80% of the entire legal work is comprised of research that can be easily performed by AI now or soonish
To the OP, this is nothing new. The wage gap between US software developer and overseas software developer has been this way for decades. So why have not all jobs gone overseas? I agree with that. I have seen many software engineers here on H1B that do not have a special skill that cannot be found domestically. It's more about the employer having more leverage over the employee -- the employer doesn't just cover salary, but the employee's ability to stay in the US. Also, it's harder to change jobs on an H1B or negotiate for a higher salary. Employers want indentured servitude. I'm not sure it's collective bargaining power. Most software engineers in the US are not in a union.