I'm in the industry. Unfortunately I've personally witnessed these games over the last 20 years. If they can't get away with offshoring entirely, the "I can't find anyone" argument comes out. Of course, recent US grads don't even get a shot at interviews. The seemingly endless Masters holders from the University of Chennai get in--that is until they find they are not really competent, or start asking for a competitive wage. Then they are thrown on the heap, and the cycle starts again.
There need to be some serious reforms:
- Any companies having huge layoffs and then complaining of a lack of personnel should be stripped of any H1B slots.
- Companies issuing new stock or bonds and then doing stock buybacks is worthless and only being done to increase their own share values.
- Section 230 should be reviewed, and likely major tech players will be found to be publishers
I'm sure there's a bunch I'm missing, but you get the idea.
> Of course, recent US grads don't even get a shot at interviews.
Citation? I know plenty of new grads hired to big tech companies in the US, and I worked at Meta for 5 years and saw plenty of new-grad and intern hires.
“Microsoft laid off over 10,000 employees. Google laid off 12,000 employees. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, laid off 21,000 employees. Amazon laid off 27,000 employees.”
Go back to this part of the essay and click on the links for your “citations” request.
Thanks for this! Two more potential stories.. why did this 2015 bipartisan effort apparently tank? What were the dynamics? Is anything happening now?
In 2000 I worked at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House.. university lobbyists came in to talk about how they needed more visas (I think H1B, maybe not) because not enough of our US students were qualified. I wondered how they could be responsible for educating students, and yet, there were not enough good ones. Bad teaching? Genetic inferiority of native people? Do they have some kind of responsibility for producing people for grad programs who are fit?
Thank you for highlighting this. It has been going on since at least the 90s and increases exponentially every year. The SV HR people (and their lawyers) lie to themselves to make points with management (and stockholders). And then they lie to the rest of us. Let's see if one of them chirps in here ...
To be clear, the fault isn’t merely with the companies engaging in this appalling practice, it also lies with the Department of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration Services for not doing anything at all to actually enforce the rules and regulations relating to these visas.
Source: Myself, a man being driven quickly insane by this in his day job
While Steve Jobs is still dead, Eric Schmidt remains active.
"Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt purchased an abandoned 267-foot superyacht anchored at a Caribbean marina for the past year." OK, he would have had the money to buy the yacht in a "transparent transaction", even if he had not conspired to suppress wages in Silicon Valley.
History has shown that setting loose highly qualified and motivated technical employees usually backfires for the incumbent technology providers. Just ask Fairchild (Intel) and IBM (many children).
I’m a long time Tech industry HR leader. The issue is not so much that tech companies want to hire engineers at a lower rate, it’s that they need tech workers, and there are not enough Americans coming out of the engineering schools. The colleges with engineering programs, in their interest to make more money have been admitting dramatically more foreign students who are paying full tuition. The H1B program is the only way to get them employed soon after they graduate.
Not just about wages. Silicon valley techies have become incredibly low productivity. They are fed chef created lunches and constantly entertained, but their output is surprisingly low. Hence Twitter can lay off 80% of staff without notable reduction in service. Try laying off 80% at a supermarket or other blue collar workplace and see what happens.
when I call in the first question after "Daniel " or "Susan" tells me their name is "how is your mothers dal?" most of them Gell me she makes the best in all of India
I'm in the industry. Unfortunately I've personally witnessed these games over the last 20 years. If they can't get away with offshoring entirely, the "I can't find anyone" argument comes out. Of course, recent US grads don't even get a shot at interviews. The seemingly endless Masters holders from the University of Chennai get in--that is until they find they are not really competent, or start asking for a competitive wage. Then they are thrown on the heap, and the cycle starts again.
There need to be some serious reforms:
- Any companies having huge layoffs and then complaining of a lack of personnel should be stripped of any H1B slots.
- Companies issuing new stock or bonds and then doing stock buybacks is worthless and only being done to increase their own share values.
- Section 230 should be reviewed, and likely major tech players will be found to be publishers
I'm sure there's a bunch I'm missing, but you get the idea.
So right. Thank you.
> Of course, recent US grads don't even get a shot at interviews.
Citation? I know plenty of new grads hired to big tech companies in the US, and I worked at Meta for 5 years and saw plenty of new-grad and intern hires.
“Microsoft laid off over 10,000 employees. Google laid off 12,000 employees. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, laid off 21,000 employees. Amazon laid off 27,000 employees.”
Go back to this part of the essay and click on the links for your “citations” request.
U.S. universities have robust tech programs so the Economic Policy Institute is correct. There should not be a shortage of U.S. tech workers.
NYTimes (sorry, paywall).
Computer Science Students Face a Shrinking Big Tech Job Market
A new reality is setting in for students and recent graduates who spent years honing themselves for careers at the largest tech companies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/technology/computer-students-tech-jobs-layoffs.html
Thank you for covering this, Lee.
Thanks for this! Two more potential stories.. why did this 2015 bipartisan effort apparently tank? What were the dynamics? Is anything happening now?
In 2000 I worked at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House.. university lobbyists came in to talk about how they needed more visas (I think H1B, maybe not) because not enough of our US students were qualified. I wondered how they could be responsible for educating students, and yet, there were not enough good ones. Bad teaching? Genetic inferiority of native people? Do they have some kind of responsibility for producing people for grad programs who are fit?
Thank you for another excellent article about a disgusting practice by the ruling class.
Thank you for highlighting this. It has been going on since at least the 90s and increases exponentially every year. The SV HR people (and their lawyers) lie to themselves to make points with management (and stockholders). And then they lie to the rest of us. Let's see if one of them chirps in here ...
To be clear, the fault isn’t merely with the companies engaging in this appalling practice, it also lies with the Department of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration Services for not doing anything at all to actually enforce the rules and regulations relating to these visas.
Source: Myself, a man being driven quickly insane by this in his day job
Let us not forget Steve Jobs work to suppress the salaries of engineers in the tech industry and Eric Schmidt's willingness to go along and more.
While Steve Jobs is still dead, Eric Schmidt remains active.
"Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt purchased an abandoned 267-foot superyacht anchored at a Caribbean marina for the past year." OK, he would have had the money to buy the yacht in a "transparent transaction", even if he had not conspired to suppress wages in Silicon Valley.
History has shown that setting loose highly qualified and motivated technical employees usually backfires for the incumbent technology providers. Just ask Fairchild (Intel) and IBM (many children).
I’m a long time Tech industry HR leader. The issue is not so much that tech companies want to hire engineers at a lower rate, it’s that they need tech workers, and there are not enough Americans coming out of the engineering schools. The colleges with engineering programs, in their interest to make more money have been admitting dramatically more foreign students who are paying full tuition. The H1B program is the only way to get them employed soon after they graduate.
Not just about wages. Silicon valley techies have become incredibly low productivity. They are fed chef created lunches and constantly entertained, but their output is surprisingly low. Hence Twitter can lay off 80% of staff without notable reduction in service. Try laying off 80% at a supermarket or other blue collar workplace and see what happens.
when I call in the first question after "Daniel " or "Susan" tells me their name is "how is your mothers dal?" most of them Gell me she makes the best in all of India