And I am paraphrasing here, that US universities are not producing enough engineers and so we have to outsource the jobs to Asia - especially India.
He is lying.
The reason Microsoft jobs are being outsourced is because the value of the work verses the cost is cheaper in a country like India. These days most of the work is done by ‘core teams’ the rest is just porting over stuff or in other words do the same thing over and over again where ‘ingenuity’ is little at work, mostly it is recursion.
What he really wanted to say was that he is mad at US universities for being biased against Microsoft and Microsoft products. Clearly in any Computer Science department in the US the emphasis on Microsoft products is far less than the emphasis on diversity of platforms, especially when compared to the total market share of Microsoft.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
He is making a case to lift the limit on H-1B visas. Kinda goes against your “cost is cheaper in a country like India” theory, don’t you think? He wants to hire more people in the US and give them comparable salaries.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/27/technology/microsoft_visalimits.reut/
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
No I don't think so. Cost is still cheaper in India.
But the typical CS college graduate from India knows a hell lot more about Microsoft's products, especially Microsoft's DEs and probably has half a dozen MS certifications under his belt. He wants US universities to follow which I don't think is happening anytime soon.
The H1-B hopla is about the LongHorn project. It is already delayed and I personally don't think it is because of not having enough engineers.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
Ofcourse, cost is cheaper in India. Thats a non-argument.
But Gates is primarily griping about lack of sufficient number of engineers in the US, as a premise to be allowed to import more engineers. Alternatively work will be outsourced to other countries, both because of availability of engineers as well as cost concerns.
Hypothetically, if visa limits are removed, do you still think MS will outsource work at the same pace to India? No, they will fly in more engineers to US. They will still outsource, yes, but in less numbers.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
Bhaijaan, I am all for removal of H-1B limit. But I doubt MS can sustain that demand.
In around 1999/2000 the Visa cap was increased due to high demand from the tech industry. The following years not enough applications were filed, and then with the dot com bust there was a political backlash and I remember they reduced the H-1B back to it's original number. Now, just for this big ass project Microsoft needs people and they need 'em fast and so they want H-1B removed. Once the product is released and they still want people, then we will talk.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
What he is saying is that having cap is redundant. This function should be based on market demand. Its not for MS to sustain the demand or whatever. If any employer is looking to hire and can not find employees locally or within US, they should be able to get people from anywhere in the world, rather than worry about visa caps and all that.
To give you an example, accounting industry is desperately looking to hire experienced people because of all the expanded demand and workload under the new rules/laws post-Enron. There are just not enough people here. We hired anyone we found locally, and right now we had to hire about 45 people from various parts of the world, and had to scramble to file the visa applications lat week because the cap is reached by end of April. That is the problem.
Ofcourse, to lift visa caps entirely is a political hot potato. And thats a whole other different story.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
Bhaijaan, here is the inside scoop from my co-workers who just returned from WinHEC.
A few years ago getting in on the design part of Microsoft Windows was really hard and to get them to listen to your concerns as a developer were pain in the behind. But from the past couple of years the trend has changed. My co-workers site the main reason to be Microsoft loosing market share in OS even though revenue & sales are an all time high. But it could be just a change of heart for all I know. Anyway, according to them, now Microsoft wants to work with you, they follow-up with you and are far more concerned to keep you, the developer, happy.
Why the change? Well, in the middle of Longhorn project which is the next generation to XP they really looked at the feedback and decided to make it the all in all OS rather just another rapper on the old stuff. They are promising a Win 3.1 to Win95 kinda change. But after making that decision they found out it is not so easy. The project got delayed and delayed and now the customers who planned their own products around it are getting a bit agitated. My co-workers, who by the way are mostly Desis, complain it is not a matter of shortage of engineers but a matter of poor management.
Anyway, NPR did a piece on his comments and read the letters/emails they received from listeners. Considering the fact that most NPR listeners are laid back relaxed kinda junkies, the comments weren't very kind.
I totally agree with Gates on the caps but his comments are directly related to what Microsoft is going through right this year. I know Indian friends who went back home not because they don't want to stay in US but after spending 6-9 months without a job they have no choice but to go and try their luck in India.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
whatever. Today the US announced increase of the H1B visas by another 20000.
Ajee, what are you saying man? in one breadth you say Gates wants to import more H1B's and that he's lying about inadequate local supply - doesn't one corraborate the other? even granting your theory about LH needing a 100000 more engineers, so he needs them, america can't supply enough so he gets them from India..
like we need F16s, don't have them locally, so we get them from amreeka
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
Just so it is clear to anyone who is reading this, the additional 20,000 H1B visas are only for those who have advanced degrees (Masters etc) from a US institution. Not every foreign skilled worker will qualify.
Re: Bill Gates nay farmaya
^ that ought to solve the problem for almost all F1's dudes nervous about the 1 (now 2) year practs. just walk around piscataway and you'll find 20,000 of them talking in Hindi while watching Govinda