axiomatic

[www.savethechildren.net]

talaris

DelG

bben46

Sure, they don't want to pay 75k when they can pay 23k, but that doesn't mean there's an abundance of this type of labor just coming out of college with nothing to do. The truth, like most things, is somewhere in the middle.

TheFlamingoKing

bobblack555

bobblack555

ltlbbynthn

cynon

copious28

You get what you pay for. There are lots of engineers. Shortage? Not at (contract rate) over $90/hr. Yes at $50/hr. You can get lots of people here or in Bangalore.

And is there anything the CEO, CFO, CIO and whatever do that can't be done by someone in and from Bangalore? Maybe they should be replaced by someone making less than 6 figures.

I doubt it would ruin the company and stock price any faster or deeper.

tz

mikelotus

SisterHavana

Whinemaker

Now, that I can believe.

Grrrrrrrrr

bellecat

bjarmson

wring

Pity the poor CEO. According to Forbes, he made $19.6 million last year. In order to keep up with those kinds of numbers, I'm sure they can only afford to hire people at overseas rates.

If it wasn't for the damn minimum wage law, these poor companies could afford to hire their slave labor.

SteKos

March 12, 2008, Bill gates testifies to Congress - "U.S. puts tech jobs at risk by capping foreign workers. H-1B proponents in Congress acted quickly to take advantage of the attention Gates brought to the issue. U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced legislation Friday that would retroactively increase the 2008 visa cap to 195,000, as well as set that level for the fiscal year, 2009, that begins Oct. 1."

As someone who watched an entire Tech Support dept be replaced with workers from Tata - I say Liars all of them!!

pal003

calvinneal

Because there are lot of job listings like that out there, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if that were the case.

TechnoDestructo

trujunglist

valarmorghulis

Call centers =! "Product Engineering"

Jaysyn

this is probably a bunch of nonsense though, if they are paying attractive wages folks will flock.

nikkomorocco

AbstractConcept

Publicly owned corporations exist solely to produce profits for their shareholders. So long as they are not breaking the law, they should do everything they can to increase profits.

That might not fit with the common fairy-tale view of the world, but when I invest money, I want returns, not coddling of people too lazy to find a good job.

Sihanouk-s-Poodle

Jaysyn

Jaysyn

And then we bash AT&T even more for hiring these morons!

vicious cycle isn't it? the American worker lost before it even got started.

Yay bangalore!

david_consumerist

Unless, of course, you are using 'competant' as a synonym for '15 years of very specific experience using certain propriety tools and a masters degree in some exotic specialty with a 3.8 or above grade average.' Then yeah, probably hard to find.

backbroken

company wants to save cost
say there is a shortage of skilled workers and you need to hire an H1B. to prove you can not find an American to do the job you must show that you looked for an American to fill the job. you do this by posting the job opening in a newspaper (not online) then if you do get a resume, you simply say unqualified. now you have attempted to fill the job with an American and have only found unqualified people. so you get your H1B. now you are supposed to pay an "average" wage for this person, but who determines what average is? why they company of course. now while a person is on H1B they can not leave the company and can not transfer within the company, if they do, they must get a new visa and/or return to their country of origin. essentially they become indentured servants. they can't quit because if they do they have to go back to their country. if they get fired, they have to return to their country of origin. they are stuck, doing whatever the company wants for crap pay.

trust me, there are plenty of qualified American engineers, but they cost more, and can leave their company if they want. saying their is a shortage of skilled labor is a smoke screen to save money by paying lower wages.

lowlight69

Burgandy

sleze69

My wife worked for a Cingular (now AT&T) call center. The type of people (overall, not every single person, but most) were NOT quality people. They didn't care about their job, and they viewed the CSR position as a lifetime goal, not a stepping stone to a better job outside the call center.

Something's wrong when you have "career people" in their 30s and 40s working as $11/hr CSRs, and it's because they have no education, no skills, and no ambition (again, not 100% of them but 90%).

And what's worse, they don't care about their job. They hate it, and they're union, so they give the type of customer service that is posted about in Consumerist article after Consumerist article.

I personally think AT&T should not have such dead weight filling call centers. I don't understand how that job is NOT perfect for college students. Flexible shifts, fair pay (though not a livable wage if you aren't in a dorm/school/etc), tuition reimbursement...keep the college kids employed, you know that (most of them) are ambitious because they're going for a college degree, and you churn them (the same way you churn your customers) every four years.

What appears to have happened in this country is the low income jobs no longer go to the youth but to the uneducated, and our country is filling with these uneducated people who don't care about jobs, can't hold jobs, don't try at their jobs, and give us horrible, horrible customer service.

So better that he says "There's no good people" rather than hiring the dregs of society to man their call centers. Bravo!

arniec

I had a rough patch a while back and ran a Networking department for a school. I had to run the network technician departments and the programming business sides. Hiring teachers was a lesson in humility. You see the company wanted to pay certified and degreed people no more than 12/hour. Can you imagine the conversations I had with potential hires? It was pathetic and it put seriously untalented people on the staff of the school.

Recently the school has changed its name to escape the horrific reputation it has for education.

As a point: The latest director demanded that I make the client/server network a normal one?!?! He doesnt like the whole password thingie. And why did his wireless stop working when I left? Oh yes, It was my freakin router that I had in my office to teach class with that they 'borrowed'... They fired my assistant before I left and he had just set up their new router that they bought knowing I was leaving.

Companies need to pay an honest wage to workers... CEOs need to lower the disparity in earnings.

vdragonmpc

Basically, RESPECT is the main reason for employee LOYALTY and GOOD customer service.

Victo

Islandkiwi

I have worked at many companies that do this and the facility I'm in now has several subcontractors that are doing it. I talk to the Indian guys a bit, they're all pretty nice and hard worker and generally decent quality output. But the single ones live 5-6 in a two bedroom apartment and share one car because that's all they can afford on their salaries (they send a big chunk back home, the primary reason they came to work in the US).

revmatty

lonewolf333

There was a big stink in the local news a couple years ago about the inmates at the local prison using the information for fraud and scams, not to mention giving people with a history of such behaviour access to sensitive information.

But hey, they only have to pay them $1-2/hr, so it saves the companies all sorts of money!

Darkwish

Steaming Pile

Congrats on finding the job - my family went through the same thing (lots of education and credentials, no jobs forthcoming at all in the field at all) - I recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait & Switch as an interesting read - may seem familiar.

camille_javal

Steaming Pile

Darkwish

AT&T has been instituting layoffs and passing their IT employees off to consulting companies throughout the midwest for the last several years.

neuracnu

backbroken

Steaming Pile

Dumbasses.

In the meantime, recruiting for US engineering schools has seemed very weak.

camille_javal

Translation: "We have a bunch of jobs posted on Monster looking for people with impossible credentials willing to work for below market wages."

Super Secret Translation: "We are too cheap to provide the necessary training to otherwise competant and qualified individuals."

I have an engineering degree and a masters degree from a top school and 10 years of experience in my field, yet it took me 3 years to find a job (any job) in my field in Pittsburgh that would allow me to relocate closer to my family. So every company that makes this claim can stick it up their hoo-ha.

backbroken

bufftbone

I know several people that have tons of knowledge and experience in various technology fields, myself included, that were laid off due to outsourcing that couldn't find a job because they were either "over qualified" or the jobs didn't pay shit. The average time of unemployment has been about 6 months before finding a job that would at least pay the bills.

Their claim that they can't find qualified workers is total bullshit. They're everywhere, you just have to pay enough to make it worth their time. Leaving a $11/hr CSR job for a $10/hr engineering job isn't really worth it to most people, especially when the bills are due.

Darkwish

Look at the numbers of kids enrolling in today's engineering schools. They have been steadily dropping for the past 5-10 years. I know this because I am on the recruitment team at my job.

sleze69

On the other hand because there really isn't a need for skilled workers in the US and all you hear about is layoffs and outsourcing a lot of college students aren't interested in IT.

The so called skilled workers from other countries aren't necessarily better or more knowledgeable. In fact, they're education is way more questionable. I haved worked with a lot of people on work visa and I must say only 10% seem to know what they are really doing. All of them get paid almost 35% of what I get. As soon as they get a green card they are out of the company to make more money.

I blame the very same companies that claim there aren't enough skilled workers in US for the decline in IT education.

DIrEctQL

queenlizzie

l951b951

Darkwish

JAGUARE1

But, is that a realistic way to view the labor pool? Is it really sensible to offer no training and expect people to know exactly what you are doing -- even rejecting those who have similar training to what you wanted? (e.g. "Oh. You know software package XYZ version 3.0? Sorry, we're looking for people who knows software package XYZ version 3.1.")

Silly companies.

RogerDucky

No, I mean developers and upper level engineers. Do your research.

llcooljabe

tme2nsb

bohemian

bohemian

The shortage of qualified workers is not bullshit, but a very real concern that has been voiced by the likes of Bill Gates just 2 weeks ago.

llcooljabe

They show up here and pay $15 an hour for a CSR they will have people beating down their door.
[www.siouxfallsdevelopment.com]

Anyone have this rocket scientists email address?

bohemian

The way I see things, in a grossly oversimplified series of events: Companies got attracted to the low-wages, high skills personnel overseas. Replacement followed. Subsequently, demand for that particular field fell in the States. People stopped training for that field. Company comes back a decade later and finds out that there's not enough homegrown talent as a result of their actions. Back to square one, go back to low-wage overseas personnel.

azntg

Hmmm... pay Vikram $18k a year, or Jessica $55k? Yep, definitely can't find enough engineers!

In his own state, UT,A&M, Rice and SMU together probably graduate enough engineers in one year to fill his entire quota.

savvy9999

zentec

CRNewsom

AlteredBeast

Bay State Darren

WhirlyBird

legwork

LionelEHutz

DCGaymer

pendroid3000

He's correct that there is a shortage of American engineers/computer scientists.

He's nuts if he thinks there's not enough for customer service.

sleze69

Tux the Penguin