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Job interview shenanignans (got catfished)

I have been in staffing since 2002. Running markets in ATL, Boston, and Philly. None of the above surprises me. The current shortage of IT talent in this country is shocking. Boston right now is out of control. We placed a LOW level App support kid last week for $55K. Basically, it is a kid with a mediocre Comp Sci degree, and we got him hired to start 2 weeks after graduation. The company knew they would have to train and built in a comp plan to reward him for growth. We got an email from him last week that he received an offer from another company for $80K. They took out the milestones and just paid up. This is what it takes to hire unskilled labor, the stories on skilled are just crazy.
What are the reasons for the shortages?

80k seems great for a new grad but what's the top of the range?
 
? Not sure what Obama has to do with it.

I'm just curious whether it's lack of education or skills, or low top end wages driving people away from IT, or something else.

Wait...we aren’t blaming Obama anymore?
Thanks a lot, milenials? Amiright?
 
I have been in staffing since 2002. Running markets in ATL, Boston, and Philly. None of the above surprises me. The current shortage of IT talent in this country is shocking. Boston right now is out of control. We placed a LOW level App support kid last week for $55K. Basically, it is a kid with a mediocre Comp Sci degree, and we got him hired to start 2 weeks after graduation. The company knew they would have to train and built in a comp plan to reward him for growth. We got an email from him last week that he received an offer from another company for $80K. They took out the milestones and just paid up. This is what it takes to hire unskilled labor, the stories on skilled are just crazy.

I definitely went into the wrong field........though to be fair, I could be making decent bank if I was agreeable to relocating and I'm not. In fact, I was called about an ESRI Instructor position just last month, but I would have had to move to San Antonio, D.C., or Redlands. The crazy thing is that all of the classes I would be teaching would all be online, so I'm not sure in this day and age why this couldn't be something I could do remotely. However, the lady did say that this may be a possibility in the next couple of years, especially for those with specialized knowledge............I teach both Python and R with respect to environmental GIS. To be able to work from home AND teaching would be an absolute dream job.
 
What are the reasons for the shortages?

80k seems great for a new grad but what's the top of the range?
Top of the range depends on skill, takent, and drive. Essentially this role is training .NET developers. I have an opening in Boston for a SR .NET developer with a bank and they are paying 170K. I am having a hard time finding people for it. Money ain't a thing in this world.
 
What are the reasons for the shortages?

80k seems great for a new grad but what's the top of the range?

Per some reports, there has been an uptick in CS enrollments for the last decade. I would think it is simply demand outpacing supply. Which then gets filled by offshore if able based on security access, etc. Also "a developer" is just a universal title, many unique skill sets needed based on type of development and constantly evolving languages/tools to keep up with.
 
The underlying problem is the H1B visa system, and the perpetual spiral.

Essentially workers can come in on an H1B visa. Competition for those visas is fierce. The worker must be sponsored by a company, and that's the sticking point. The sponsor company has the negotiating power. This, and foreign outsourcing, has driven wages down, and kept a lot of US citizens from entering the field.

There's been a backlash however. Companies are finding out you get what you pay for. There's actually a new niche market that pays very well to fix mistakes made by the lower tier, or to fill jobs that require more than basic skills.

Outsourcing IT work has lots of the same problems as call centers - difficulty with English and comprehension, time of day, and culture. Competition for jobs is fierce in other countries. As a result, the workers follow instructions exactly, with no deviation. If they are innovative, and make a mistake, there's someone else waiting to take their job.
 
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...........
There's been a backlash however. Companies are finding out you get what you pay for. There's actually a new niche market that pays very well to fix mistakes made by the lower tier, or to fill jobs that require more than basic skills.

Outsourcing IT work has lots of the same problems as call centers - difficulty with English and comprehension, time of day, and culture. Competition for jobs is fierce in other countries. As a result, the workers follow instructions exactly, with no deviation. If they are innovative, and make a mistake, there's someone else waiting to take their job.

Yep. what he said. This guy gets it.

Unfortunately, the people focused on short term stock valuations don't always have the long term goal in mind. So offshoring / near shoring has been the trend for decade+.
 
I definitely went into the wrong field........though to be fair, I could be making decent bank if I was agreeable to relocating and I'm not. In fact, I was called about an ESRI Instructor position just last month, but I would have had to move to San Antonio, D.C., or Redlands. The crazy thing is that all of the classes I would be teaching would all be online, so I'm not sure in this day and age why this couldn't be something I could do remotely. However, the lady did say that this may be a possibility in the next couple of years, especially for those with specialized knowledge............I teach both Python and R with respect to environmental GIS. To be able to work from home AND teaching would be an absolute dream job.
Reed, is there a program or a service where I can feed it a few thousand street addresses and have it give me back each one's long/lat information? We try to use mapping programs to show where our business comes from, etc but one pinpoints the center of zip code and the other just color codes the shape of the zip Second one has the capability, with long/lat info, of doing a much better job.
 
Reed, is there a program or a service where I can feed it a few thousand street addresses and have it give me back each one's long/lat information? We try to use mapping programs to show where our business comes from, etc but one pinpoints the center of zip code and the other just color codes the shape of the zip Second one has the capability, with long/lat info, of doing a much better job.

To be honest, I don't know.........and you would have to geocode it FIRST using a streets/parcels layer and then use that output to get an x/y. If you want it done, I can do it for you using my software.

EDIT: I wouldn't ask for anything.........unless it became a regular thing of course.

Also, have you tried Google Earth Pro? It has geocoding functions, though might not be as accurate as you need.

@Bartdog

If you want, send me your data and I'll try it out for you. I'm pretty good with Google Earth, I use it in 'Web GIS' classes. If it works like you want, I will create some instructions (with screenshots) so you or someone at your work can do it from then on.

Geocoding with Google Earth Pro Import
 
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The underlying problem is the H1B visa system, and the perpetual spiral.

Essentially workers can come in on an H1B visa. Competition for those visas is fierce. The worker must be sponsored by a company, and that's the sticking point. The sponsor company has the negotiating power. This, and foreign outsourcing, has driven wages down, and kept a lot of US citizens from entering the field.

There's been a backlash however. Companies are finding out you get what you pay for. There's actually a new niche market that pays very well to fix mistakes made by the lower tier, or to fill jobs that require more than basic skills.

Outsourcing IT work has lots of the same problems as call centers - difficulty with English and comprehension, time of day, and culture. Competition for jobs is fierce in other countries. As a result, the workers follow instructions exactly, with no deviation. If they are innovative, and make a mistake, there's someone else waiting to take their job.

One hundred percent agree with this. I’m in IT, and my company has a large office in India. While there are some good guys there, you have to give them explicit instructions on what to do. They will do no more and no less than what you tell them. They also take a lot more time to get things done. No thinking outside the box.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve told my boss that for the time I spend having to go over things with them, I could have done the work myself. It’s crazy. However I’m told they need to sink or swim on their own.

I have a unique position in that I know everything from .net programming to database development so I’m always getting brought in to talk with the employees in India.
 
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One hundred percent agree with this. I’m in IT, and my company has a large office in India. While there are some good guys there, you have to give them explicit instructions on what to do. They will do no more and no less than what you tell them. They also take a lot more time to get things done. No thinking outside the box.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve told my boss that for the time I spend having to go over things with them, I could have done the work myself. It’s crazy. However I’m told they need to sink or swim on their own.

I have a unique position in that I know everything from .net programming to database development so I’m always getting brought in to talk with the employees in India.

Software engineering is a good field. If you think development or testing is someone sitting in a cube for 8-10 hours a day you are sorely mistaken. You have to be able to communicate and work with others.

The Indians are nice people but I do agree a lot of them have no concept on how things are supposed to work on the functional/ business side which points more to a lack of exposure. For example, the company I work for built (web) software that is the "middle person" between buyers and sellers of television spots for commercials / advertising. Many of the Indians have no idea how (American?) TV works, this is no blame game but more of the sole fact that they do not get this exposure growing up in India.... I've seen it with telecom as well. They are afraid to do more than asked because they want to deliver on what is specifically being asked of them

I will say that there is a peak in salary in becoming any type of engineer. In sales, the upper ceiling is greater for the top performers. But I would wager that very few salesman make it to the upper echelon. Plus, I would also say that there is more pressure to constantly hit the sales quota each month than what software engineers have to deal with. If you can stomach the math, and science principles behind the code software engineering is a good field.
 
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I definitely went into the wrong field........though to be fair, I could be making decent bank if I was agreeable to relocating and I'm not. In fact, I was called about an ESRI Instructor position just last month, but I would have had to move to San Antonio, D.C., or Redlands. The crazy thing is that all of the classes I would be teaching would all be online, so I'm not sure in this day and age why this couldn't be something I could do remotely. However, the lady did say that this may be a possibility in the next couple of years, especially for those with specialized knowledge............I teach both Python and R with respect to environmental GIS. To be able to work from home AND teaching would be an absolute dream job.

Python (and R) are hot... you could be banking it if you worked as for a firm/ consultant. Is it the health factor you are teaching? (not that is anything wrong with that, but just referencing the $$$).
 
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de9b49f9039c2087301abf87d29c908f_4ca51416a51778a2ba2b0fd9e4010d4a.jpg
 
To be honest, I don't know.........and you would have to geocode it FIRST using a streets/parcels layer and then use that output to get an x/y. If you want it done, I can do it for you using my software.

EDIT: I wouldn't ask for anything.........unless it became a regular thing of course.

Also, have you tried Google Earth Pro? It has geocoding functions, though might not be as accurate as you need.

@Bartdog

If you want, send me your data and I'll try it out for you. I'm pretty good with Google Earth, I use it in 'Web GIS' classes. If it works like you want, I will create some instructions (with screenshots) so you or someone at your work can do it from then on.

Geocoding with Google Earth Pro Import
yeah... I'd love to send you my data but the government kinds frowns on that, HIPAA being a stingy little bugger. :D
 
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