

Is there really an IT talent shortage? - rosariom
http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/h1b/it-talent-shortage-or-purple-squirrel-hu/240150215?itc=edit_in_body_cross

======
mncolinlee
It seems that there are certain skills which are difficult to hire trained
workers for. However, the real problem is very, very few IT employers are
willing to take any risk and train skilled, U.S. workers.

This is the opposite of how technology employment used to work. Factories
could not hire enough trained workers, so they trained them on the job. It
never ceases to amaze me how HR insists on skills with a particular niche
technology. Often, no tightly-related skills will suffice even for junior
positions i.e. Mercurial instead of Git.

Also, everyone wants to hire senior employees who specialized in one
technology for most of a career. Finding someone like that is becoming less
and less common.

I remember one position years ago when I was still in college where the
recruiters demanded five years of job experience with Windows 2000 or they
were not interested. The product had not existed that long. The only person
qualified to take the job was a liar.

~~~
yuhong
AFAIK 5 years is the minimum length of the mainstream support period for MS
products, and is the length for Win2000.

------
rada
(Recycling my own old comment).

The whole "shortage of IT talent" hysteria is way overblown when you look at
the actual numbers. Just one example, latest DICE salary report:

<http://media.dice.com/report/2012-2011-dice-salary-survey/>

Contrast the opening sentence:

 _Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since
2008, according to the 2012-2011 Salary Survey from Dice, the leading career
site for technology and engineering professionals._

... with the actual numbers:

 _After two straight years of wages remaining nearly flat, tech professionals
on average garnered salary increases of more than two percent, boosting their
average annual wage to $81,327 from $79,384 in 2010._

So, let's see. While the inflation is chugging along at ~3% per year, we get 2
flat years, followed by a 1% increase? So basically, we make less money each
year? Is the tech industry an economic miracle? Are programmers the one must-
have product whose prices get lower when it's in short supply and the buyers
have pockets full of cash? Or is there a simpler explanation?

Even better, go ahead and play around with same title, different seniority.

Junior iOS programmer:
[http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=junior++ios+programmer&l...](http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=junior++ios+programmer&l1=United+States)

Senior iOS programmer:
[http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=senior++ios+programmer&l...](http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=senior++ios+programmer&l1=United+States)

See how juniors get raises, while seniors get flat-lined? That's the downward
pressure of H1Bs as well as evidence of buyers' (hiring managers) actual
purchasing behavior markedly different from "we can't find anyone who can do
basic fizz buzz! we need people with skillz!".

~~~
NateDad
We haven't had 3% inflation since before the crash of 2009.

~~~
trevelyan
According to the BLS, inflation was 3 percent in 2011. More to the point, the
salary increase from 79,384 to 81,327 cited offers an increase of less than
1.5 percent annually. That is lower than inflation for every year in the last
ten except 2008.

[http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-
infla...](http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-
rates/)

------
epoxyhockey
The gem in the article is this:

 _Testifying earlier this week on behalf of IEEE-USA, a group representing
more than 200,000 technical professionals and students, Bruce Morrison told a
Congressional immigration policy subcommittee that the talent needs of U.S.
companies would be better served by deregulating the process by which
employers sponsor new hires for permanent residency. This would allow foreign
workers to participate in the talent market on a more equitable basis.

"If an employer is willing to pay a substantial fee to sponsor a skilled
foreign worker for a green card -- which means he or she can quit if they are
underpaid -- that is solid evidence the employer actually needs the worker's
skills," he said in prepared remarks. "But if an employer is only willing to
pay a fee for a worker who cannot quit without going back to the beginning of
the green card process, that indicates the employer is more interested in the
indentured character of the visa, than in the worker's skills."_

The last company I contracted with only had H1B Visa people working there. No
doubt they would all have moved to new jobs if they could (the company was
falling apart).

~~~
ktsmith
While there are restrictions an individual with an H1-B may transfer jobs even
after they've applied for permanent residency. American Competitiveness in the
Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21).

~~~
epoxyhockey
Right. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the thing that prevents them
from making a transfer is that the green card application gets reset. That
could be a multi-year setback in their path to a green card.

~~~
ktsmith
Nope, AC21 allows you to transfer even if you have applied for permanent
residence. There are restrictions based on where you are in the process and
that the new job meets certain criteria.

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Nursie
In the US I have no idea, but the same tune is being sung in the UK at the
moment.

All the while I'm receiving job postings for 'mid-level' software engineering
positions requiring 3 or 4 years experience in a bunch of things, offering in
the range of £25-30k. Which is basically an insult. Inflation adjusted I
earned more than that as a fresh graduate 13 years ago. So it's no wonder
there are recruitment problems.

(There is much better money out there, and I'm getting it, but it's no wonder
some people are having trouble recruiting really)

------
dsr_
There are very few positions which cannot be filled by increasing the
compensation. For those which can't, you may need to re-assess your company's
culture.

------
zalew
from what I see in some job ads, there is certainly a shortage of super-
talented puzzle-solving rockstar ninjas with 5 years experience in 10
technologies who are just out of school and will work over hours for minimum
salary and a ping-pong table.

~~~
don_draper
And don't forget they get to wear jeans to work. That surely makes the job
more compelling.

------
segmondy
There is no shortage of IT workers, there's however shortage of "IT talent"
Most IT workers I have met are mediocre at best. Companies want rock stars.
That's the problem. Worse of all, they are use to paying average salary for
average programmers and don't reward rock stars appropriately.

~~~
agoandanon
I had an interview recently. In this interview, I was told that 9/10 of people
interviewing for the position for which I was interviewing couldn't write a
simple loop to reverse a string. I'd like to attribute that to performance
anxiety, but I had office hours for Computer Science students. I know that
isn't what it is.

Note that this was for a position asking for between 1 and 3 years of
experience.

------
artsrc
> "[A]t a time when the U.S. economy needs it most, our immigration policies
> are stifling innovation. The 2013 cap for the H-1B visas that allow foreign
> high skilled talent to work temporarily in the U.S. was exhausted by June
> 2012, preventing tech companies from recruiting some of the world's
> brightest minds."

I don't think anyone argues with this. Just set a lower limit of $200K per
year and you can hire as many people as you want with no red tape and no
limits.

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RachelF
There's a shortage of cheap talent.

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laurentoget
This uses the term 'IT Talent'. That is a sure sign it will be an amazing
article.

This is posted in InformationWeek. Second sign it will be awesome.

But seriously. Why is that kind of articles on HN?

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general_failure
The answer to a question in most headlines is a 'no'. But in this case, it's a
'yes'.

No, I haven't read the article.

