American IT grads unprepared and unemployable: Indian CEO Vineet Nayar

[mule_train]

http://blogs.computerworld.com/americans_are_lazy_and_unemployable_indian_ceo

June 23, 2009 - 5:55 A.M.
American IT grads unprepared and unemployable: Indian CEO Vineet Nayar
97 comments
TAGS:BOM:532281, graduates, H-1B, HCL Technologies, HCLTECH, India, lazy, slumdog, Vineet Nayar, whoops:footinmouth
IT TOPICS:Careers, Development, Management, Software
Vineet Nayar is reported to have called Americans graduates "unemployable"; the CEO of IT services vendor HCL Technologies was speaking recently in New York. In IT
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Rob Preston reports inflammatory comments with dignity:


Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies, one of India's hottest IT services vendors ... related a recent experience with an education official in a large U.S. state. The official wanted to know why HCL, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, wasn't hiring more people in his state. Vineet's short answer: because most American college grads are "unemployable."
...
They're far less inclined than students from developing countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Ireland to spend their time learning the "boring" details of tech process, methodology, and tools--ITIL, Six Sigma, and the like. ... most Americans are just too expensive to train.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. That's an interesting critique...

My experience was that IT degree in the US was focused VERY much on theory. Though most of the jobs used dot net tech and databases, we learned neither. I totally respect my professors lofty goals of giving us an education beyond the latest development tech, but it has its downsides too.

On the other hand, I talked to a pretty high level IT businessman about the very issue. He said my profs were RIGHT to do what they did, because the bottom line is that Americans won't be able to compete with Indians pricewise at the typical code sweatshop stuff, because code can always be sent over the Internet. He said our best bet was to focus on staying ahead of India at the cutting edge stuff, and let Indians do the detail work on existing solutions. He said what would suck is if India starts to define the latest technology for us, so we should work hard to remain the idea people.

[Yavin4]

2. That IT Businessman of Yours Has A Point But...

It's also important to know the client facing technologies as well as the more theoretical, higher level stuff.

Compare it to teaching law or business where everything is very high level and theoretical. Well, that means that corporations have to train you on the meat and potatoes of the real world. Now, when times are good, then it may not be a problem, but when times are bad, like they are now, then fresh new grads are unemployable.

With that said, I do think that American ITers need to develop a broader view of technology.

[FSogol]

3. Vineet Nayar is scum. He bashes Americans so he can outsource more jobs. n/t

[OhioChick]

4. Vineet can fuck off....

"Wipro (Indian IT Co) finds fewer than 25% of Indian grads employable:"

"The problem extends even to India's much-hyped engineering graduates, who have been the backbone of the country's booming outsourcing industry in the past decade.
Every year, India produces about 650,000 engineers. But Pratik Kumar, executive vice president for human resources at the information-technology and outsourcing giant Wipro, says his company considers fewer than a quarter of them employable."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR2009050200702.html?hpid=moreheadlines