OK, so I am depressed after the University of Houston career fair today. No, I am not looking for work. I was there to help my company to scout and recruit qualified engineering and technology applicants. Just for a little back ground, I received my degree in electrical engineering (BSEE) from U of H in December of 2000. I have been back to the school many times since then to help with recruiting, to speak with students and to try to give something back to the school that I graduated from.

So, why am I depressed at being back at my alma mater speaking to young, fresh faced, eager eyed engineering and technology students about to be launched into the world? Well, it is very simple; probably 85% to 90% of the people that I spoke with today, people who have engineering and technology degrees, and are launching careers in science and engineering, are foreign nationals. That number goes up to around 99% when you begin talking to graduate level students (Masters and PHD candidates). The vast bulk of these students are from either India or China with a large sampling from South and Central America, the Middle East and the former Soviet satellite states. Other people at my company who had recruited at other schools said it was the same story there.

“Well Eric, you’re just being RACIST!” no, that has nothing to do with it. I very much liked nearly all of the students that I met, except for the one kid who clearly hadn’t showered or brushed his teeth in weeks. Heck, I even liked the kid in the pin striped tuxedo with tails. Here is the problem: NONE of the companies at this job fair, probably around 60-75 in all, WERE SPONSORING ANYONE FOR WORK VISAS!!! This means that virtually NONE of these bright, qualified, eager people will find work in science and technology fields here in the US. Instead they will have to go back home to find work.

“So what, Eric?” you say, “That means American scientists and engineers will get all those jobs.” No, you see if you think back on the part where you decided I was a racist, you will see that there are precious few American science, technology and engineering graduates to be had. But India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and all the rest will be getting a PLANELOAD (quite literally) of well educated, highly motivated science, engineering and tech people courtesy of our science and engineering colleges, colleges that hardly anyone in this country seems interested in. Meanwhile we will keep 10% of those who graduate. Don't get me wrong. a lot of the American kids I spoke with were sharp, capable, eager, intelligent etc. But the problem is that for every one I found like that, there were nine equally sharp, capable, eager and intelligent kids that I could not even consider hiring.

We have been, for a long time, maybe more than a century, a technology leader in this world. But, thanks to a combination of poor science and math education in our schools, an anti-science attitude in the general public and some ridiculous ideas that we are all going to write books/play professional sports/be the next American Idol that standing is rapidly slipping away.

If we want to maintain a position as a country that leads in science and tech, a country that innovates and invents, a country that solves problems and improves the lives of both our citizens and other people around the world then we need to make some changes. We either need to start cultivating science and engineering students, nurturing an interest in these subjects in them, or we need to start making it easier for foreign science and tech students to get visas and find work here. Otherwise, we are going to be left behind.

Mark my words, the next revolution is coming. The automobile, flight, industrialization, the computer, the internet; there is another one coming down the road. But only if we have the men and women who can make that intellectual leap.

Thanks for listening to my rant and any input as to ways that I can personally help would be appreciated.

Those other nations have socialist programs that allow their kids to get an education even if they don't have money. It isn't fair.

Uhh.....Were you home skooled?

Well, an added problem is that getting H1B stuff approved these days is all but impossible. Yearly quotas fill up in hours. Also they are subject to J-4 conditions meaning additional scrutiny before they could get jobs here even if they were offered.

Personally I think we need to allow more immigration. I tend to be a lone voice in the wilderness though.

Personally I think we need to allow more immigration. I tend to be a lone voice in the wilderness though.

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Hardly. Bill Gates has been saying it for decades!

But India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and all the rest will be getting a PLANELOAD (quite literally) of well educated, highly motivated science, engineering and tech people courtesy of our science and engineering colleges, colleges that hardly anyone in this country seems interested in.

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Canada has been a big beneficiary too. They have much more relaxed immigration laws, getting permanent residency is very easy. Lots of the foreign students who have developed a taste for living in an English speaking, affluent Western nation but cannot deal with USA's onerous immigration laws opt to settle in Canada instead.

Well, an added problem is that getting H1B stuff approved these days is all but impossible.

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And seriously, why should anyone who has options go for something as restrictive as an H-1B ? What talented young person wants to be BOUND to one employer for 6-7 years, without the option of taking up a better offer unless new employer can handle the whole process again, and all the while knowing that if their employer lays them off....they'd have to leave USA in weeks.

I went thru it okay because all the large universities have a well-oiled machinery in place to handle H-1Bs, since so many faculty hires are immigrants. And when the time came, they also had the resources in place to handle permanent residency. But I saw what my friends entering the corporate world went through with H-1Bs -- are still going through in some cases -- and also, how many said 'hell with it' and went to Canada, Europe, UK, or back to India......

Life is so strange, who ever would have thought that this problem would exist 20 or more years ago ?

I have never understood how this happens, we have made the same sort of problem when it comes to medicine, for different reasons though, we educate docs nurses from all over the world and then once qualified they bugger off and yet, those who come here qualified in their own lands can only get low paid jobs in old peoples homes doing 12 hour shifts on a promise from the homes owners that after blaa blaa years they can get better work.( its a con )

I find it all very odd and with out any degree of common sense.

I remember the 'brain drain' in the sixties when many talented scientists from all over went to America lured by the money and life style and a freedom to experiment, it is ironic that now you are training more foreign students 'at home' that they are not being allowed that freedom and life style toobut have to take it home again )

Lumpy_the_Great:

Uhh.....Were you home skooled?

Nah, just sleepy and a little snarky. It was late.

;-)

Um...get your company to sponsor foreign graduates for work visas? And encourage other companies to do so as well.

I disagree with konark that the 6-7 years bound to one sponsoring employer is restrictive. It's a fair price to pay for getting the employer to invest the time, money and effort into hiring a foreign graduate. It's not a whole lot different from employers who will pay for further education for their employees, shelling out a lot of money in many cases, with the provision that the employee remain employed with the company for 2-5 years upon finishing their education (or pay back the money they were given to cover their education). As a matter of fact, I wouldn't think it would be problematic to allow a foreign employee to jump ship before the visa is obtained as long as the foreign employee reimbursed the company for the expenses the employer incurred obtaining/managing the visa while the foreign employee is working for the employer.

I have tried to get the company to sponsor more work visas. The problem is that the government makes it EXTREMELY onerous to get them.

IT is also extremely expsensive both for the person applying and the company. Also, the government will, sometimes, simply reject the application with no reason given and ship the person back home. We have had instances of people whom we have invested tens of thousands of dollars and years of effort to develop, who get shipped back to Pune with no explanation, no appeal and no hope to try again.

The system as it stands now is heavily stacked against the immigrant and most companies just don't want to take the risk.

As usual, uncle Bill has more foresite than everyone in the US government put together.

I allow myself a moment of sympathetic depression, as this is a subject Dr. Kona and I have been on for months, but there is a glimmer of "Hope". Even though we are educating the intellectual class for the rest of the world, we are sending them back home infected with the "America Virus", toxic to many of the old ways in repressive feudalisms. I have noticed that seemingly lots of opposition candidates and leaders in places like Iran and Pakistan and China and even Afghanistan are American or British educated. Bibi Netanyahu is American educated.

As for the reasons, as Kona mentioned the other day, in other countries people don't grow up with the feeling of entitlement, that they are owed food or shelter or medical care, rather they must provide for themselves and their own families. Hunger is a powerful long term motivator that a nation of blubber butts like ours might have a hard time relating to. Add to that that we've hiatused natural selection and are on our third or fourth generation of the results of that safety net and here we are, dumb and lazy. The dumb affects even those undumb, by forcing the lowering of standards and the dumbing down of instruction to avoid hurting feelings. We're doomed.

I disagree with konark that the 6-7 years bound to one sponsoring employer is restrictive. It's a fair price to pay for getting the employer to invest the time, money and effort into hiring a foreign graduate.

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Sure, but that's because the US govt MAKES it so onerous. Compare that with countries where the employer has to fill up 2 forms and pay a $1000 fee without worrying about whether the quotas are full for year or not.......so companies don't worry about sponsoring foreign workers and workers don't have to worry about being bound to one employer. My brother went to work in UK after finishing his Ph.D in financial math from USA........it was a breeze. He changed companies thrice in the 6 years he was there, also a breeze. And frequently commented that "thank goodness this is not USA and I'm not stuck on an H-1B."

And you don't even want me to tell you WHAT they want for the permanent residency application! Compared to Canada, who basically want to know your academic qualifications and country of birth and do a quick check to make sure you aren't on an international terrorist list, and that's pretty much it!

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't think it would be problematic to allow a foreign employee to jump ship before the visa is obtained

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Not quite, happy. Here's how it works.

1) You hire employer (formal offer letter and all). THEN you start huge tedious process of getting them an H-1B visa. The employee usually has a 1 yr 'temporary' worker permit after finishing student life, though a few months may already have been used up if they did internships etc, but they can start work with that.

2) Then you wait for H-1B visa to arrive. If the 'quota' for the year filled up already, you won't get it, and have to wait for next year. If the gap between those is longer than time left on temporary worker permit, you have to let employee go.

3) If H-1B visa arrives, its a 7 year work permit that ONLY permits emploee to work for this employer. If employer lays him off, he has a month to find another job where employer is willing to sponsor visa all over again.

4) If employee gets a better offer any time in the next 7 years, the new employer has to do the visa application ALL OVER AGAIN. Not a matter of employee just paying old employer costs (most would be happy to do so). But basically knowing you cannot leave this job unless that new visa with new employer arrives (so back to quota for the year not having expired etc etc).