Comments on: Shocker: We Still Suck When It Comes to High-Tech Education

By: Extech

Extech — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:38:14 +0000

I can’t believe that in all of these post not one of you have given consideration to the real problem. “WE HAVE BEEN OUT-ENGINEERED!” I have gotten my AAS degree as an electronic tech, plus I have been in the tech field for about 12 years now. I have worked everywhere from Compaq to Dell and a lot of EMS companies in between, so I’d like to think I am qualified to speak on the matter. I remember at one subcontractor place they put me to work trying to troubleshoot Cisco’s Presto and Nitro series of router boards (circa. 1999). These things were like 2×2 feet big and were crawling with all kinds of VLSI, ASIC, made by Altera, Xilinx and others. Needless to say while trying to troubleshoot the thing, I felt like throwing the oscilloscope out the window and walking out the door! Do these companies honestly expect a 2-4 year degree graduate to come in and be able to fix these things! SVEngineer, I can tell you’ve been around and I sympathize with you, all of your points are correct. Companies have taken the attitude “These guys aren’t going to be of any real use to us, so we might as well offshore to get as many millions as possible so our board members and shareholders will be safe while the rest of the middle-class goes under”. You have to know your ABC’s before your XYZ’s, so If you have a 2-4 year degree, in this industry, that puts you in the hole by about 60 years!

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes | Innovation Toronto

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:52:44 +0000

[...] Shocker: We Still Suck When It Comes to High-Tech Education (techcrunch.com) [...]

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes - Programming Blog

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:22:03 +0000

[...] Indeed, a recent study by the Bay Area Council, the Campaign for College Opportunity and IHELP showed that we’d need a 90% upswing in people graduating with degrees in science, technology, math or engineering to keep up with all the new jobs being created in that discipline. What created Silicon Valley was a culture of openness and there is no future to Silicon Valley without it. [...]

By: tech: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes | tech3bite

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:20:34 +0000

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes | Cellphone Ultra

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:07:14 +0000

[...] Indeed, a recent study by the Bay Area Council, the Campaign for College Opportunity and IHELP showed that we’d need a 90% upswing in public graduating with degrees in science, technology, math or engineering to keep up with all the new jobs being created in that discipline. What created Silicon Valley was a culture of openness and there is no future to Silicon Valley without it. [...]

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes

Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:06:45 +0000

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes | UpOff.com

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:37:05 +0000

By: Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes | Spin Valley Post

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:30:20 +0000

By: PointingOutTheObvious

PointingOutTheObvious — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:53:37 +0000

Being a former High School Science Teacher in the USA, I agree with Bruce. I have known many teachers with a PhD and many with just a BA or BS. This is common in a state that pays teachers based on the number of college units they have completed in their subject area. Although a teacher must know a subject to teach it, knowing a subject does not necessarily make a person good at teaching that subject.

Also, High School teachers must know their subject to teach it; Unfortunatly Elementary and often Middle School teachers do not. One huge problem (one of many) that I see with our system is requiring elementary teachers to teach math that they never understood themselves. They are hired to teach all subject areas to kids from K-6th grade, and recently students are supposed to be taught different math concepts at younger and younger ages. Since their teachers usually do not understand the math (or science) concepts they are supposed to teach, the students do not learn the concepts correctly, and then come to higher grades with more math issues than if they had never been exposed to the math concepts in the first place.

Also, there is too much concern about getting students to graduate high school and college; forgetting that 8 years of “higher education” is just a waste of time, money, and energy if nothing useful was learned or developed.

By: SVEngineer

SVEngineer — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:15:44 +0000

True enough, but don’t get me started on elections in this country…

By: proamerica

proamerica — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:57:17 +0000

“government refuses to enforce laws concerning fake qualifications and unpaid bench time”

Again Rob supports the ‘vermin’. He’s getting better at acting like a NASCOM writer and burying his agenda in other rhetoric.

By: che

che — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:52:29 +0000

I am in the same situation, During our graduation I couldn’t find many people who got a job. So surprised to read the statistics. Are we dumb? or I didn’t search enough for jobs?

By: Rob Preston

Rob Preston — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:39:17 +0000

Reid’s claim that we should “levy a payroll tax” is the most ridiculous of them all. If the government refuses to enforce laws concerning fake qualifications and unpaid bench time, what is is going to make them magically enforce something like that? With a written pledge? Give me a break. Reid knows it would turn into another unenforced mandate that sounds good on paper but never works in the real world.

How about a law making it against the law for a politician for lie?

- write me at ‘Global CIO’ rpreston@informationweek.com

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:10:12 +0000

Except that nowhere in the Constitution are corporations given the right to vote.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:08:12 +0000

Correction – stock’s now at $142 – using mostly American labor.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:07:38 +0000

If Indians are so much more brilliant then American programmers, then where is the Indian operating system. Indians go to Japan and try to say they are the experts in software and the Japanese look at them and say “Are you nuts? The whole world knows Americans are the experts – just look at their operating systems”. The Indians walk away red-faced. Because we allow open foreign control of our media, India, Inc. is doing a number on the U.S. public with all this propaganda – meanwhile the companies they take over ALL DIE. And the U.S.A. is dying along with them. It is ABSURD to think that people who cannot even remotely make their own country work can “help” America. They are here to take from us, and that is all.

By: Sst

Sst — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:47:12 +0000

Agreed. This is a scam. We need to employ American tallent. PC affirmative action and quotas are driving real talent out of the system. All this nonsense it making the US a mediocre country. What happened to giving opportunities to the most deserving talent. You can’t legislate acheivement.

By: FormerH1BWorker

FormerH1BWorker — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:45:57 +0000

PhD teachers? What school have you attend to? If it is no secret?

By: Jayesh

Jayesh — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:33:57 +0000

Yeah. The smart asses in America destroyed the world economy. Go figure! Does that prove US economists are worlds most stupid?

By: Jayesh

Jayesh — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:30:50 +0000

@Samir: your US bhakti is appreciable. But, wanted to comment on opening up US economy vs Indian economy. First of all capitalism is the US concept that it preaches in the whole world and now, when it is hurting; they are talking about protecting US interests. The Indian economy is closed and it needs protection because unlike US; INR is not the world currency thus, India can not keep printing money and spend. The only way it can trade internationally is to produce goods/services and sell it outside then and only then it can buy stuff from the world and for that it has to pay in US dollars. So, it has an inherent disadvantage (the same goes for all other countries whose currency is not dominated in international trade). Thus, allowing unabated imports of subsidized american goods (steel and agri products) would be unsustainable for it.
This has also created a huge disparity between relative purchasing powers vs real transaction rate between both currency. So even though 1 US dollars can buy 48 Rs.; you can only buy goods and services worth Rs. 5-7. So, as long as these natural barriers are there; India must protect its industries and try promoting home grown industries.

By: John

John — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:15:16 +0000

Yeah. The moment you do that labor rates would go high over here and as a result more jobs would be shipped to India/China/Indonesia. Sounds counter intuitive but, very true. At least, some one on H1 spend almost 80% money here in US to fulfill the great american dream.

By: John

John — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:13:44 +0000

Since, you have been dodging EB2 I’ll point it out. EB2 also has wait periods of more than 4-6 years for Indian and Chinese. Currently, one has to find a company that would sponsor H1 and would also be willing to do GC processing. Add 1-2 years for labor clearance and I-140 in 4-6 years wait period i.e. on an average one would have to spend 5-6 years in a company to get GC and get out of shackles of H1B. Go figure! And, read carefully about EB1. It is for someone with very advance degree i.e. you won’t qualify even if you had MS from MIT/CalTech/Stanford.

By: John

John — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:04:41 +0000

How abt a guy unemployed with skills in BI, DWH, Web Dev with double masters including an MBA and a patent in his name? Times are tough don’t laugh. You never know when you are on the other side.

By: Vincenzo Corleone

Vincenzo Corleone — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:07:20 +0000

Just to clarify, EB-1, 2 and 3 are not visa categories, they are Green Card categories. And it’s not about quotas.

I’m afraid you’re missing my point. My point was that for visa beneficiaries placed in the EB-1 Green Card category – those with exceptional skills – THERE IS NO WAIT! NONE! EVERY PERSON WHO WAS PLACED IN THOSE CATEGORIES RECEIVED THEIR GREEN CARD. THERE IS NO WAIT. The only real wait for a Green Card are for those in the EB-3 category – THOSE WITH NO SPECIAL SKILLS. So I’m not sure what you’re complaining about.

I can only assume you want to flood the market with more average workers. You mentioned in one of your previous posts that you think US workers should be protected in some way regarding wages, suggesting that H-1B visa holders are paid less. I applaud you for that much. However, you want to flood the market with more people. And what effect will that have? It will drive down wages further. That’s your agenda, isn’t it? You can admit it. It’s pretty obvious.

By: ateacher

ateacher — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:27:02 +0000

Yeh, of course we don’t suck at high tech HIGHER education. We are by far the best at high tech ed. But, most of those graduates quoted above are foreign (or 1st, 2nd gen American) students. I’ve taught in high schools in South Central LA and Harlem. There are a few good schools between Atherton and Alexandria; but for the most part, it’s so much worse than you can imagine. Forget a homegrown tech/science talent pool, ’cause we can’t fix this system. Sorry.