[Avant-Garde]

(01-25-2016 04:18 AM)Genghis Khan Wrote:  

IT companies and tech giants are not the same. Tech giants hire software engineers. I know tons of computer science majors who have 5-12 job offers when they graduate. There genuinely is a dearth of US software engineers, hence the push by Microsoft/Facebook/etc.

That said, I do absolutely agree this is a problem. There's too many IT jobs getting taken by foreigners while US citizens are getting fired. I don't know what the solution is, but to eliminate all H1B visas is short-sighted. One could argue we should stop H1B visas until we educate our own enough to fill the job positions, but that's a foolish gamble in today's fast paced global economy. If not us, someone else will do it. Keep in mind H1B visas are also used by many companies to hire foreign-born US-educated scientists and researchers (PhD level). No more H1B means all these people go back to their homeland and compete with US.

The proof in the pudding: tech giants typically pay their employees six figures. IT companies like Infosys and Wipro pay their employees $60K, the minimum needed for an H1B visa. The reason why Microsoft and Co are pushing for more H1B visas is so that they can get more software engineers, right now they're competing for these visas with the likes of Infosys and Wipro which import a lot of Indians.

As for *they've created* the education gap...please. If more Americans wanted to go in STEM majors, especially computer science, tech giants wouldn't need to pay their 22 year college graduates over $100K starting salary. Demand and supply. As for IT though, yeah it's a scam and we need to fix it.

There are truly exceptional foreign workers but there's absolutely no need for 1.5 million of them. When a company lays off American workers to bring in foreign workers that they have to train, this is absolute proof that there is no talent shortage.

22 yr old CS college grads are not getting over $100K starting salaries. It's more like companies would rather hire a foreign worker with 2-3 years of 'experience' and a dubious degree from a diploma mill, for half the price, from an Indian staffing co like Infosys or Tata, who in turn pays the worker 60-70% and puts them up in dorm housing like sardines.