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I'm in Dallas, a huge tech hub, and salaries are nearly as high as what you'd get in Silicon Valley or DC. Yea, the $50k a year salary was laughed at, but if there was such a shortage of software jobs and a glut of out of work developers, even the $50k salary jobs would get taken. It just shows you that the job market for software developers is still very healthy, despite all the outsourcing. I do mostly consulting work, and some clients are willing to pay me $100/hr! Wish they gave me 40 hours a week though instead of 4-5 a month! My main client who gives me over 20 hours a week still pays me $40/hr, and that is without any degree or a whole lot of previous experience, and for mostly easy work. I get so much cash flow from consulting work, that I don't see the point of a conventional office job at this point.
The outsourcing only adds to its health. Outsourcing is a very healthy and efficient model.
Once you cast the economics and labor market forces aside here, you have a very human element that needs to be looked into. I work in a small office of a software with four people in my room, two of whom are or were H-1B.
The guy who is an H-1B faced a lot of bureaucracy to simply go from the student visa to the work visa, and as a result of his visa status, is very tentative about any long term commitments. He has complained about unskilled illegals having an easier time rather than people like himself who are honest and trying to following protocol, only to encounter red tape every step of the way. His parents are coming to visit this summer and even that is rife with red tape.
For the most part, the H-1Bs from India have uprooted their lives to come here. Most of us natives don't have to go through such a degree of personal upheaval to find a career.
H-1Bs and Indian IT workers (where this article is going - stereotypical or not) run the gamut of anyone else - from very lazy and subpar to overachievers. You can't say that because someone is H-1B or Indian, that they are subpar.
I think there is plenty of merit in that companies are trying to take advantage of H-1B workers to reduce labor costs, but that's not the fault of the individuals taking the jobs. Blame the greedy companies and the home countries that are so bad that people want to flee for this issue.
The truth is that there are subpar workers in every continent. But people on H1B's work much longer hours to sustain the same wage.
Having said that, I would estimate more than 60% of the team under my VP to be Americans. The rest would be spread across China, India and surprisingly a large number of British and French people.
It is worse in some areas of the country. One candidate for State Rep in Illinois mentioned her son graduated with an engineering degree. He was able to get hired but had to go to Texas. Presently the Houston area has openings, but that will change when this oil boom ( like the one thirty years ago) bombs.
There is more to Texas than just Houston and energy companies. Corporations are relocating thousands of jobs to Texas from other states like California. Just the other day, I saw a story on the news about Toyota moving to Plano from Torrance.
The truth is that there are subpar workers in every continent. But people on H1B's work much longer hours to sustain the same wage.
Having said that, I would estimate more than 60% of the team under my VP to be Americans. The rest would be spread across China, India and surprisingly a large number of British and French people.
I haven't seen this at any of the firms I've worked for. Granted, I don't know the salaries, and only my current firm has used extensive on-shore Indian "resources" (as they like to refer to personnel...ugh), but none of the employees of Indian descent are working consistently longer than their native peers.
As to relocation, it may not be as cut and dry as some people make it out to be...
HTH can one re-locate when they can't dump the house they're living in?
I tell my kids to RENT, its the only way to go. We own our home, there will always be a place to domicile so they won't end up on the streets, but don't get stuck with a 30-year mortgage in an extremely volatile real estate market that might not always pace your career moves. Rent the house, don't marry the damned thing
HTH can one re-locate when they can't dump the house they're living in?
I tell my kids to RENT, its the only way to go. We own our home, there will always be a place to domicile so they won't end up on the streets, but don't get stuck with a 30-year mortgage in an extremely volatile real estate market that might not always pace your career moves. Rent the house, don't marry the damned thing
This is why you need to relocate to the largest and healthiest job markets, no matter the cost.
I'm in Dallas, a huge tech hub, and salaries are nearly as high as what you'd get in Silicon Valley or DC. Yea, the $50k a year salary was laughed at, but if there was such a shortage of software jobs and a glut of out of work developers, even the $50k salary jobs would get taken. It just shows you that the job market for software developers is still very healthy, despite all the outsourcing. I do mostly consulting work, and some clients are willing to pay me $100/hr! Wish they gave me 40 hours a week though instead of 4-5 a month! My main client who gives me over 20 hours a week still pays me $40/hr, and that is without any degree or a whole lot of previous experience, and for mostly easy work. I get so much cash flow from consulting work, that I don't see the point of a conventional office job at this point.
That's another thing to consider. Location. The shortages are based on employment centers by major cities. In Dallas, you will often find American developers that moved here from other states to work. The shortages are severe, so employers are relocating American citizens from all over the nation. It's not just the foreign nationals.
I have a cousin with a technology degree, but he is in a dead end job in a small town. He won't even consider moving to Dallas, even though the pay here is fantastic. He won't leave his hometown. It's all that he has ever known. You have qualified people in rural towns far away from major employment centers.
Here I am making nearly $90k with a HS diploma and a crappy GPA. He is a college graduate with a STEM degree and toils away as a waiter in the country.
Wow, you just hit the nail on the head. Yes, companies love capitalism and supply and demand, but only when it is for their benefit. I'm sure finding developers is really difficult when you're only willing to pay $50k a year. I wish I was joking but this is a common trend. I saw one posting a few weeks ago looking for a senior Software Engineer, with five years+ experience and a alphabet soup of requirements. The wage? $20 an hour. Yep, that will certainly create a shortage.
I am in the same city, Dallas, as Hazergore. His company was definitely underpaying at $50k for experienced developers. The going rate is closer to $80-100k/yr for 4-5 years exp.
Dallas companies are offering $80-95k for experienced analysts, which are more like superusers than developers. They only need to know SQL, Excel, and some basic SAS commands. They don't need to know the alphabet soup of Java, Python, VB, C, etc.
The idea that we need to allow in more workers with (H1B) science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) background is an article of faith among American business and political elite.
But in a new report, a Center for Immigration Studies analyzed the latest government data and found what other researchers have found: The country has well more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. Also consistent with other research, we find only modest levels of wage growth for such workers for more than a decade. Both employment and wage data indicate that such workers are not in short supply.
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