Gates: No magic answer to tech worker shortage

[Deja Q]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595-5793384.html

Article intro: Part of the problem, say both academics and Microsoft executives, is that the technology field just hasn't done a good job of positioning itself as hip and exciting. There needs to be more of a sense of romance and magic, says Kevin Schofield, general manager of Microsoft Research communications and strategy.

Well, offshoring has a big hand in it too - ALL the tech companies participate and Microsoft is hardly an exception here...

Said Gates, "I'm certainly very worried about it," Gates said. "We're very short of what we'd like to get. The competition for someone that has the right background is just phenomenal."

That filthy pig has the nerve to talk?! He should cease his offshoring and send his workers to free education then. BE a solution instead of a whiner, these corporate leeches have no shame whatsoever!

The user responses are far more interesting than the corporate propaganda, however...

[Eric J in MN]

1. Let's do the time warp, again.

In 2000, the hyped tech worker shortage was bogus.

Now there are even more unemployed computer programmers in the US.

It's incredible that some people are shameless enough to keep spewing the lie of a tech worker shortage.

[NawlinsNed]

7. Here's reality:

There IS a shortage of qualified tech workers in the US. Key word: qualified. The reason for this is that companies are not willing to hire and train college graduates to do the jobs they want them to do. Companies nowadays expect everyone who comes to work for them to already have a full skillset available, which is just not applicable, especially in the technical world.

Computer Science students don't go to school to learn how to configure networks and develop business applications. They go to school to learn computational theory, operating system design, information theory, software engineering, simulation techniques, and a host of other primarily academic skills that definitely have a use in the real world.

So, what you end up with is a talented group of youngsters who have the scientific and theoretical background to do the work, but who can't get hired because employers want people with experience with the actual tools and software that are used in production.

Enter the H1-B workforce. These guys all went to college, same as US students, and when they graduated, they get pulled immediately onto projects due to the booming tech sector over in India. They learn the on-the-job skills over there that we here aren't able to learn, and when they've got enough projects under their belts, they emigrate to the US and work for low priced IT shops for a few years before heading out on their own with Green Cards.

We need to scale back the H1-B system tremendously. It's supposed to be a worker visa for positions that don't have a quality pool of talent to draw from nationally, but it's being abused and has been turned into a system to bring in engineers and programmers for a third of what employers would have to pay a citizen.

I worked for a company for a year as a headhunter, and we specifically did not deal with H1s, but even in that instance, over half my database of 200 consultants were first generation Indian immigrants. And the reason why I was a headhunter for that year? Because I spent 8 months as a college grad in Computer Science looking for my first job with not so much as an interview.

Still haven't gotten one. Meh. :)

[spindoctor]

2. Bull SHIT!

IT people are being downsized left and right. Some of my former collegues still have not found suitable employment well over a year later.

There are plenty of qualified tech workers around but companies aren't willing to put down the overhead anymore.

[HockeyMom]

3. Colleges are losing IT majors in droves

to the point where they are starting to advertising their computer degrees. I have a college age daughter who thought
about majoring in computer science. After she saw how much her father was outsourced/downsized, she majored in Education instead. A LOT of her friends switched too.

Then they try to say that it is because Americans aren't as "egicated" as the Indians. lol How about it is a worthless degree if all the IT jobs are in INDIA? These kids aren't STUPID. They have eyes. They can see what is happening around them.

We are rapidly losing our edge in both technology and science because of outsourcing to foreign shore for SLAVE LABOR: NOT because Americans are dumb.

[Deja Q]

6. Let's hope they are seeing what is happening.

Rather than typing in on their cell phone IM service "How's the latest britney song?" (okay, that was probably uncalled for but I am somewhat pessimistic and this offshoring shit has been going on for a long time now and nobody's done a thing to stop it, leave of all President Apostate, first name Microcephalic.)

[TheFarseer]

9. That's very insightful

I hadn't ever put it together quite like that.

You hit the nail on the head but just to add to that, I think our school system needs alot of improvement in some parts of the country and in other parts it is basically fine. I think we can still turn out more than enough intelligent computer science people for microsoft if they choose to pursue that type of education for that career. I think people have to keep in mind Bill Gates is not talking about IT people with associates degrees for the most part - there are ALOT of those people around. He's talking about Computer Science and Engineering people probably with masters degrees.

[stevietheman]

15. Hmmm....

With a B.S. in Engineering (concentrating in Comp Sci), with my job prospects being so dim over the past couple years that all I can hope for is occasional freelance work, I have been considering going back and getting my M. Eng. (and possibly a PhD) just so I can wallow in the subject I love while there's virtually no IT jobs for Americans in America.

Bill Gates and anyone else who proclaims a tech shortage today are a bunch of lying shitheads. It doesn't take long to retrain bright programmers... esp. those with significant previous experience with other technologies.

[wli]

4. BS excuse for offshoring

[Deja Q]

11. Gates & the corporate elite will do anything to look good and us all bad.

They'll find new ways to spin the truth as it becomes needed again anyway.

[WatchWhatISay]

5. To be fair, Microsoft looks for a lot more than just a degree in IT

[NawlinsNed]

8. Microsoft doesn't even always look for a degree

I know a guy who works for Microsoft in Redmond right now who never graduated from college and has marginal software development ability. He's taking night classes right now to earn his degree, because corporate came down on his head and told him to either get the parchment or get out.

[Deja Q]

If only that happened to Gates himself - he was a dropout too.

If IBM told him to get a degree or to bugger off... Gates would have likely forged one.

[NawlinsNed]

17. Sam Walton left JC Penney because they didn't think he was mgt. material

And Gates could have easily graduated from Harvard. He just saw a bigger opportunity and had the blessings of mommy and daddy to do it.

[HockeyMom]

10. And where do they GET the"something more"

if there are no jobs before they can work their way up to what Microsoft wants?

[heidler1]

13. Many of the high tech jobs require getting your hands dirty as well as

comprehending the way the thing works. This showed up as a mismatch way back in the 1960s when I worked as in field engineering for IBM Corp. IBM hired both college grads and people who had high aptitude for solving technical type problems. The college grads. tended to be less happy and not any better at doing the job than the rest.

[pretzel4gore]

12. the deficit spending of the 60's 70's...

not to mention the GI Bill did many things, but no one can deny the tech boom of the 80's and 90's benefited from kids educated at 'lavish' public expense during the so called liberal era....just like the next couple decades will suffer from the miserly treatment of public services like education, health and so on...
btw it's fun saying it, and so true, but bill gates is a milk fed goofball, stupid as a death camp doctor

[neuvocat]

14. You don't have to go to Hogwarts to learn magic

Uh, yeah no shit!

The whole job-export thing just isn't panning out the way they had hoped due to problems with the language differences (there are 70% turnover rates in the call centers that are overseas). It might be beneficial to companies when they need to have coding done or set up networks but the support that's needed for them will still have to be domestic.

[Deja Q]

16. That's why the US gives H1B visas to Chinese and Indian workers...

free English (and likely other) education then ship 'em back.

[bemildred]

18. Gates is a marketing whore. His opinion is worthless. nt