Very well put, Howard! This ought to be a mandatory requirement and not limited to Intel and Microsoft! All companies seeking H1-B workforce should not only be required to “prove that they cannot find the workforce locally". BS! The one making the claim is a paid immigration lawyer! Prove how many older engineers they have on-board and when they hired one last!

Another problem in this area, to my opinion, is the fact that industrious individuals with computers can produce hundreds of Résumés per day. So every advertised position gets inundated with hundreds of applications, per day maybe. No engineer can be spared to read them all, so the HR people puts some 20-year old, with a major in psychology, who opted out from math and physics, to sort through the applications. Such a person would not understand one single sentence or any one subject in my Résumé. What do they know about RF, Analog, Measurements, Fine Mechanics and Optics?

Maybe this is the reason why I seem not to be able to find a job! In the meantime I keep combining my continued education and pleasure by reading EDN!

P.S. If you hear about a RF/Analog job, please let me know!

Carl.

IMHO, paper qualifications simply means you've passed some tests. At the end of the day, what you can do in the in practice is what matters. I work in a specialized field and we've had open headcounts in our company for over two years that we have not been able to fill. We interview candidates every week, many with advanced degrees and over 10 years experience on paper. In many cases, 10 minutes into the interview, it is clear that the candidate has 1 year's experience repeated 10 times. Sure, the candidate can regurgitate content from various papers and manuals. We need people that know how to think and know what to do with the tools/technology they've learned/read about not just tell me what they are.

I clocked 220,000 air miles last year going from one project to another, back-to-back because we are so understaffed. Not to mention having 3 days vacation all of 2006.

Don't just look at raw numbers and averages. Bill Gates, like him or hate him, has a valid reason in asking for more visas for QUALIFIED workers. There is a real need and it is not being met by the available resource pool. Would you rather the jobs be outsourced to China, India or Eastern Europe?

First "Globalism" took everything out of our country, and now they want to fill the vacuum with foreigners. Low tech workers simply walk into our country while the high tech workers they put on planes. Anyone who supports or sponsors this H1-B program, no matter how they rationalize it, is hurting America and American workers and citizens. As deep-throat said, "Just follow the money". It is simply about GREED! We can provide as many hi-tech workers as we need in this country, we just need the will to insure our education systems put it into action. Replacing one American engineer with three foreigner''s is simply called betrayal. It is a traitorous act that belies all the patriotism that our leaders seem to want the average American to exhibit. While from the other side of their mouths they make decisions that erode our way of life and leave us twisting in the wind. We need our business leaders and our "elected" officials to be Americans in words and in deeds. American families demand this for our children''s sake. Anything less is unacceptable.

I wish Howard Levine all the very best with finding a job. "Over qualified"! It's a distressing situation.

At least USA has a large military sector, which can provide employment, and which is resistant to being outsourced offshore, or performed by foreigners within USA itself.

No such luck in my particular bit of the third world (Australia). It's scorched earth here, technology-wise. We've pretty much lost the lot, though our government is unaware or unconcerned. Truth to tell, our technology industry was never large and impressive, but now it's gone, which is sad for us. Other branches of engineering are doing very well, (mining, power, civil, transport, water etc), but the trouble with electronics and software is that they is so easily moved. You don't even need someone with an H1B visa to out-compete you, as they can do it in their home country.

"IEEE Spectrum" reported that China graduates 300,000 engineers per annum. The one true surplus in the world is of people. And many are highly educated. The world can only get more competitive it seems.

Bill Gates and his colleagues at Intel want an infinite number of $40,000 Ph D's from overseas.

There is NO shortage of skilled US workers. They dump engineers over 40 yrs of age and restock with younger cheaper HIB visa holders. Ask Intel or Microsoft to report on how many job fairs they hold in the US and what's more, how many over 40 or over 50 year olds they hire. THere are many of us Ph D's who are unemployed or underemployed. We don't get hired as we are "overqualified" code word for age discrimination.

No way the H1 B Visa program should be expanded. Hire US Workers first!