http://www.computerworld.com/article/3120307/h1b/h-1b-bill-pulled-from-house-committee-vote-amid-complaints.html
2 replies (most recent on top)
-6awf - It's not only IT that uses the H1 visas. Toys R Us uses it for accounting dept
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/toys-r-us-brings-temporary-foreign-workers-to-us-to-move-jobs-overseas.html?_r=0
If not using H1B visas jobs are offshored. It's not the quality of work but the quantity of money these companies want to save before the sla's kick in
I don’t see the future as bleak as some of you. Full disclosure, I am from India and moved to the US about 20 years ago on a H1 visa and since then have become a naturalized US citizen.
I hire engineers for various teams in my organization and have dealt with the entire gamut of issues people here have spoken about. I realize not every software developer coming from India is a great programmer. Maybe 10% would fit that bill. About 40% would be considered competent and on par with a good American software engineer. The other half are between average to sub-par. That's the reality and perhaps in line with any profession, anywhere in the world, where there is demand and higher income… which unfortunately yields to corruption.
In my opinion, the area to focus is wiping out a part of this corruption. I work for an organization that recognized these flaws like Skype interviews where the candidate lip synch's answers or phone interviews where they misrepresent themselves. So the organization put policies in place that forced every candidate to go thru a process of written tests at a legitimate testing center where their identities are validated and face to face interviews that are done in person, on site. The vendors were happy to fly in candidates on their dime to get a shot at a contract with our company that's a big player. And in the process we were able to weed out some of these miscreants. We also teamed with local companies that offered creative staffing solutions that involved local candidates - LaunchCode and Rural Sourcing Inc. are such companies that assisted with staff augmentation solutions that were very progressive and creative.
However when I look at the bigger picture and the future, these issues with H1 visas and such are trivial. I understand cost savings are a big factor in IT decisions but saving a little money at the cost of your brands reputation is very damaging and organizations have started to realize that. They have also begun to realize that investing in technology can open up new revenue streams that may have not been possible earlier. These opportunities have led many companies to team up with local universities and fund a lot of interesting projects coming out from these universities that have triggered more interest among school and college kids to focus on STEM fields. Smaller companies have started contracting work thru sites like Elance and Fiver that give you transparency into the skills and reputation of a service provider, before you contract out work. As these working models start to mature, the concept of outsourcing takes an entire new meaning and every American worker is now competing in a fair playing field. As clichéd as it sounds, it does make the world flatter.