Another H-1B comment

Here’s another comment that I read from someone discussing the H-1B situation. He might be overstating the case when he claims that H-1B workers are typically hired because nobody else can do the job. Still, apart from that bit of hyperbole, I do think that he sheds some valuable light onto this situation. (And remember, he did say “typically,” not “only.”)

H1-B’s are typically hired for one reason - because there is no one else available to do the job.

This fact gets masked when you just look at the whole pool of ‘IT’ talent without drawing a distinction between different skill sets. But IT is not IT. If a company needs someone with experience converting Wang software to VMS machines, or a FORTRAN programmer who can write Fast Fourier Transforms, it does them no good if there are 30 local guys with MCSE’s and six months of experience writing Visual Basic apps or maintaining SQL Server 2000.

Our company has an open hiring policy, because we’re always short of development talent. But there’s also significant unemployment in the IT field. We don’t hire those unemployed people because either A) they’re no good at what they do, and it shows in the interview, or B) Their skills are in areas we don’t need.

And yes, we outsource a lot of development to India. We have to.