American IT workers, what are you thoughts about importing H1-B workers?

The reason I ask is that there is another push more immigrants. These immigrants are by and large NOT "highly skilled" workers are the propagandists claim, but they work for far less money.

[link to www.npr.org] read this and the comments if you want to get an overview

I work in IT and I see this every day.. 21 year old Indians getting jobs as developers while 26-40ish Americans cant get the same job that they applied for.. I watch as under the guise of Contractors these foreigners are basically taught to do their jobs by other foreigners from their contracting company. meanwhile TRY APPLYING TO WORK AT THE CONTRACTING COMPANY IF YOU ARE NOT INDIAN..They do not even respond to your resume

True, I worked for a fortune 500 in Computer Operations, I watched as departments were slowly being outsourced.

My thoughts, we have moved into a global economy. No going back now my friend.

The last company I worked for gave all potential new hires and current employees a 40 question networking exam. If u don't know the material, u don't get hired.

I got my IT degree in 08. Applied for the 3rd-largest Co. in the world, in my hometown, ESRI.
7 applications, for entry positions.
Many years office experience, people experience, etc.
13 ESRI employee references who all endorsed me.
They went out of the country, recruiting.
Never a call.
Broke my heart.

Ouch man, I know what you mean. I seen that happen to a few people.

I've been in telecom for 7 years and losing my job next month. But they are keeping the Indian workers in my dept that are here on work visas.

Yes Americans were subject to test BUT Contracting companies from INDIA are hired and they put whoever they want in the positions. NO Testing... I know.. I was the PM at DELL and ATT.. New contractors, rotated in from the contracting companies.. AND THEY DO NOT PAY AMERICAN Income TAXES in India ..They pay them half as "EXPENSES" when they are in our country, making thier wages look lower to the IRS.. Ask any Indian contractor if you dont believe me..

just think about what will happen to the HB 1 workers when america collapses , they are trapped here )

TO GET A JOB DO THE FOLLOWING:

1)Find out which contracting company a company uses.
2)Apply to the contracting company by email COPYING YOUR LOCAL EEOC.
3)print out your email.
4)Apply for the job at the local company directly, include a copy of your proof that you applied to the contracting company and telling the company that you are an american citizen.
5)Email (or linked IN for proof)the contracting company letting them know that you are an american citizen and that you are qualified and wish to be considdered for the position and quote the H1B law to them.
6) If you are not hired, file a cmplaint with the EEOC on both the company and the contracting company.
7) The law ONLY lets them hire H1B and the like, IF NO QUALIFIED AMERICANS have applied for the position.
8) I have been hired for 2 contracts this way, at 100,0000 + a year positions. Both offered me full time after the contracting period ended, but contracting pays me more.

First livable blue-collar wages: destroyed by illegals
Then livable IT wages: destroyed by outsourcing and the h1b
etc... etc...

Private sector wages have been raped since NAFTA and now "free trade".

Living conditions will continue to degrade for everybody until they try to unravel public sector unions.

What America needs: outsourcing of education and teaching opportunities for ILLEGALS!

It's the goddamn public sector "educators", schools, teachers, classrooms, etc... that are preaching this "equal opportunities" CRAP while your job's on the chopping block & their jobs are protected by regulations and unions.

Imagine how their song and dance on illegals would change if their jobs were, like ours, vulnerable, and go to the lowest bidder.

Man, American Engineers would have done automated the whole damn system by now. Amazon would be 100% automated, from point of sale to delivery.

Bullshit. I used to work in IT. The foreigners are some of the best we have.

Remember you are being lied to when you hear rhetoric about how H1-B is to fill jobs that Americans "don't have the skills for." There are many highly qualified Americans who aren't being hired due to discriminatory hiring practices. But these companies get what they paid for, less qualified employees, who make messes for qualified American employees to clean up.

Good advice, cheers

There are many skilled foreigners. However, the H1-B program is being used to bring in less skilled foreigners who will work for less. There is no shortage of qualified American workers, despite the claims of H1-B shills.

Programmer since 1999. My observations:

No matter what the economy is like, they say there is a shortage of skilled workers.

Once ran into a guy at work that did not speak English and honestly did not even seem like he knew how to install software. You had to communicate with him through another guy. Indian.

One company I worked for was forced to increase the salary they were paying an H-1B, it was so low.

Noticed that Indians only hire Indians.

It's pretty common for Indians to take credit for my ideas.

Indians at or above your title cannot be told anything.

Indians/Chinese love to save face and pass the buck.

Lots of people working jobs anyone can do earn what engineers do now.

Quality of work is pretty low. Bad performance, copy/paste, sometimes does not even compile. I spend a lot of my time tracking down and fixing regressions. Code is often missing features, late, unintuitive.

Conclusion:

H-1B, L-1, etc. is nothing more than a corporate subsidy that is paid for by guys like me.

In my mind, the biggest bang for the buck is Eastern Europe. The best engineers are Germanic, surprise. Chinese are smarter than Indians, but the only reason we go to those countries is there's enough people to effect supply and demand, which is the whole point - to lower wages.

Bullshit.

What is an "IT" worker exactly?

information technology

I know, but what is it? There are Programmers. People who do Networking. System Administrators. What does IT do?

good question. today it really is all of the above, electrical engineers to guy who cleans your company laptop keyboard out for you because you got too much cum stuck under the keys.

It's quite strange that you present the answer in your question...

Are you an alien, per chance?

Too bad you don't have a union to protect your interests.

so who's to blame? oh that's right corporations

Yep, I posted a thread on this a few weeks ago:

Senators Seek H-1B Cap That Can Reach 300,000

"A bipartisan group of Senators is planning to introduce a bill that allows the H-1B visa cap to rise automatically with demand to a maximum of 300,000 visas annually. This 20-page bill, called the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 or the 'I-Squared Act of 2013,' is being developed by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.). It may be introduced next week. Presently, the U.S. has an H-1B visa cap of 65,000. There are another 20,000 H-1B visas set aside for advanced degree gradates of U.S. universities, for 85,000 in total. Under the new bill, the base H-1B cap would increase from 65,000 to 115,000. But the cap would be allowed to rise automatically with demand, according to a draft of the legislation."

Thread: Senators Seek H-1B Cap That Can Reach 300,000

Yes and you know what? Even if you know they are breaking the law (say, paying them below market rate) YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SUE. The law is specifically written that only the government, not an individual, has a cause of action to sue.

Yes there are a lot of low quality but very cheap foreigners. And the Americans can be fired with impunity because of what I wrote above.

Most Americans are getting Liberal Arts degrees !!
Useless !!

Isn't world trade GREAT???