Interesting discussion in this recent chat with Cisco Subnet blogger Brad Reese. Reese explains again why he thinks Cisco is not on the up-and-up over its so-called job and skills shortage. If the IT industry is convinced that the world is hard-up for more Cisco professionals it can recruit for its certifications programs like mad.
Even more importantly, Reese says that the best way to boost your career is to focus on (and only on) the technology that excites you and let the money find you. It will, he say, it will.
The Cisco Subnet blog is the official blog of the Network World Cisco Subnet community, managed by Editor Linda Leung. Cisco Subnet is the independent voice of Cisco customers and is your gateway to daily Cisco news, blogs, opinion, books, prize giveaways and more. Visit the Cisco Subnet home page daily and while you are there, subscribe to the Cisco Alert e-mail newsletter, which includes news and views generated by the Cisco Subnet community as well as Cisco-related stories on Network World and elsewhere on the Web.
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The Programmers Guild Responds
Yours truly received the following email message from the Programmers Guild:
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You wrote: "In 2006, 73% of new electrical engineering Ph.D.s were granted to international students, as were 64% of all engineering Ph.D.s awarded, according to the National Science Foundation."
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26583
QUESTION: How many of Cisco's current openings require a Ph.D?
FACT: The fast majority of Cisco's openings only require a 4-year degree.
But you fail to disclose that the vast majority of BS tech grads are not foreign students.
a) You don't state how many job openings Cisco had during 2001-2003 when the H-1b cap with 195,000.
I suspect even then there were several hundred openings at any one time.
So your claim that this is a reason to increase H-1B fails.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26583
b) You wrote: "Data show that for every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology companies increase their employment by 5 workers."
That is a sham statistic.
I could do a study showing that for every spanish speaking janitor Cisco hires, they also hire 100 U.S. engineers.
But that has the cause-effect backwards.
In every H-1B hiring case I've seen, Americans were passed over for the position, and the same "5 jobs" would have been added either way.
c) How many resumes does Cisco receive each week?
Reese Answers:
Cisco receives 20,000 resumes per month:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26841
Does Cisco HR department summarily discard the resumes of many qualified applicants?
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Sincerely,
Brad Reese
http://www.BradReese.Com
Artificial Talent Shortage
Well here we go again big companies looking for cheap labor. Salaries don't increase because the recruiters try to keep a cap on them so they collect more bonuses. It is up to the professional to set the tone and compensation levels. It has taken me a long time to be qualified, certified, and degreed. When a company low balls me I tell them to go find someone else and usually I get my hourly rate with a 95% success rate.
Now onto Cisco and Microsoft, they don't want to pay the high salaries commanded by those of us who are at the same level as an engineer from India it is cheaper for them to hire 5 of them versus one of us. So it is all economics, the biggest reason we have this "shortage" is because our antiquated educational system still teaching outdated topics, what happened to science? math? history? english? Today is about integration, social junk, environment, tolerance. When I grew up and was educated we emphasized the sciences, math, history, languages, geography, invention, and labs. We were encouraged to work in small teams or alone we never thought about not discovering.
Today thanks to xBox(Microsoft Product), Nintendo, and other gadgets our future scientists are not coming up. More graduates go for Business and other careers where the $$$ is better. When was the last time any of this so called giants invested in the schools where our future lives? What contributions to the nuturing and growing of future engineers and scientists have they made? They created their own problem, go demand from the state governments to increase funding for the hard classes pay teachers better and establish academies. It all starts in school.
My kids by the age of 10 are proficient in Windows NT to 2003 Server, Red Hat, SuSe Linux, and MacOS.
My oldest daughter is a Math Genius and has a full scholarship to Stanford University. How did I do that? By giving them all they could have fun with
computers, books, adventures in the forests, astronomy, robotics labs, software. That is how you educate the future. So Cisco and Microsoft shut up and put the money where your mouth is.
IT Salaries Are Up...Cisco Invests $40M in 21st Century Scools
Sorry for blasting this accross some many entries, but I assume many of you follow Network World given you are on their site and thus will state again, according to this Network World story(http://www.networkworld.com/salary/2007/092407-annual-salary-survey.html)IT saleries have gone up more than 10% on average year/year.
As for putting our money where our mouth is...how about this $40 million example?(http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/corp_102505.html)
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Cisco controlling job shortage
The tag line on this article indcates there is evidence of funny busines to create a shortage perception. I did not see any evidence. While Cisco may discourage channels partners to raid other channel partners for talent, I have serious doubt that they can leagally do anything to stop it.
I am also doubting the logic. If Cisco is trying to protect partner margin, how does artifically inflating the need for more talent help. If the perception is there is not enough talent in the market now, that is going to drive the value of qualifed people up further eroding partner margins.
Additionally, if there is not a talent shortage why do both people at Cisco and at Cisco partners tell me they are having hard time finding qualified people.
Cisco restricting movements??
Brad, sorry but I have never heard or seen that Cisco "is artificially restricting the movement of Certified Professionals between Cisco channel partners"
If I want to move from one partner to another, its none of Cisco's business. At least here in europe, I've seen people moving around.
The only thing about this is, that Cisco doesn't hire people from their partners. That makes sense I think.
Take care.
You be the judge...
According to the transcript from Brad's talent session, he would have you believe that Cisco is the only company out in the market talking about a talent shortage. Below are several studies that will hopefully allow you to form your own decision about if there is a talent shortage, but perhaps the best example I can give uses BradReese.com. According to BradReese.com it has 453 resumes from 55 countries (supply). Monster.com, in the US only, has more than 4,000 Cisco job postings (demand). This rudimentary example shows a nearly 10x shortage.
Furthermore, if supply is so great you'd think of the more than 1 million Cisco Certified individuals that Brad would have more than 453 resumes, which calculates out to less than one, one-thousandth of a percent of the total Cisco individual certified population.
Studies
According to PriceWaterhouse Coopers's 11th annual Global CEO Survey. CEOs said that combined technical and business experience, global work experience and leadership skills are the most difficult areas for their companies to recruit. http://www.management-issues.com/2008/1/23/research/fear-of-recession-haunts-ceos.asp
Talent was also a hot topic at this year's World Economic Forum, which was captured in this Business Week story. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068034072937.htm?chan=magazine+channel_in+depth+--+davos+special+report
Of course the study by McKinsey, Making Talent a Strategic Priority is another great source on the talent topic. The respondents of this study stated..."finding talented people as likely the single most important managerial preoccupation for the rest of the decade." http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Making_talent_a_strategic_priority_2092_abstract
According to a recent Gartner Study of nearly 1500 CIOs only 27% feel they have the talent to address their business needs. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS137605+23-Jan-2008+BW20080123
For those thinking this is a large enterprise issue, Achilles Group did a recent study on owner trends in the SMB market that found finding and recruiting talent as biggest issue. http://www.achillesgroup.com/Q2%202007%20SMB%20Owner%20Trends%20Research%20Report,%20Press%20Release%20FI.pdf
For more information on if the talent gap is real... simply go to the Taleo blog which has a wealth of knowledge and information from a variety of sources on the topic. http://www.taleo.com/talent-management-blog.php,
But if there truly is a big
But if there truly is a big shortage of talent like Cisco says, why aren't we seeing salaries climb.
Isn't that they way the free market works? Demand for something suddenly surges. This causes that something to raise in price as lots of people bid up this scarce thing.
Then some other people see the rising price and the fat profits to be had and begin to offer this thing at a slightly lower price.
This continues until the supply increase and the price drops to fair levels.
If there really is a 10x shortage of talent as one previous poster stated why hasn't their been a 10x increase in pay. A 10x increase in pay would cause tons of people to pile into this field untill the shortage was no more.
Why isn't this basic function of market forces working on IT talent?
IT Salaries UP 10% According to Network World Study
According to this Network World story IT saleries have gone up more than 10% on average year/year, but as the article suggests IT workers aren't happy...perhaps that's where the issue resides? Not many other industries, as mature as IT, can boast a 10% year/year increase.
(http://www.networkworld.com/salary/2007/092407-annual-salary-survey.html)
Re: You be the judge...
I find it very odd that the only ones replying are those who support the idea that there is a talent shortage. If there was a talent shortage among the major IT companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and others, then how is it they mange to stay in business and continue to make the profits that they do? How is it they manage to release new products every year, or patch the existing ones as frequently as they do?
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I've been employed by companies that claim a talent shortage, only to then open an office in India, hire 200 workers, and then spend six to 12 months training them to do the same job that was then being done by less than a dozen programmers. And the results (product) were no better!
If companies can spend so much time and money lobbying Congress, the White House, and the American public, why can't they put those same monies into building and training the talent that currently exists here in the US? The restrictions imposed by the HB1 and SB1 bills were put there in an effort to "protect" Americans abilities to compete with a much cheaper labor force in the same market, yet every year the same companies make the same complaint, there's not enough "qualified" workers to meet demand. It's pure hogwash, and unless people, not just in IT but all Americans, we will see the majority of our low and high paying tech jobs end up overseas, just like our textiles and manufacturing have gone. One more strike against the middle class, one more notch up for the "bottom line".
No, I'm not anti-capitalist, I'm against lies and greed that damage nor only our fellow Americans and our economy. If you can't find suitable work, how will you be able to live? McDonald's and Wal-mart don't pay enough to live on, and our economy is based on consumption, not exports.
Of course, the one issue I haven't seen raised is, what about security? Once the majority of our engineering and programming is overseas, we open ourselves to the mercy of those writing the code. Does this register with anyone? We worry about those who blow things up, but not about those who could easily hold our Country hostage with just a few lines of code. What a bummer that would be.