Facebook can't hire good engineers because good engineers don't want to work there.
STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
131–140 of 245 posts
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
H1s get to work with worse bosses on worse projects and less chance of promotion/raises. Or you get shipped back.
What is the basis of your assertion? There are at least 250,000 H1B workers in the USA. Do you seem to suggest this is true across the board? In my experience in most 'good' companies (e.g. Texas Instruments that is discussed in the article), such exploitation doesn't occur, based on the anecdotal evidence that I've heard.
Look at the top 5 companies requesting H-1Bs between 2010 and 2012. All are outsourcing companies.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/top-10-companies-request-visa...
These companies typically exploit their workers with lower pay and threats to send them home if they don't play ball. Or are employing people to offshore jobs.
The "good" companies that use H-1Bs are a fairly small percentage of the number of visas issued.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#133I find that hiring practices can often discriminate against those who grew up poor/not middle class.
I remember someone writing about how they hired saying things like "I look for evidence of interest in technology from a young age." Well, I had tons of interest in technology from a young age, but my resume can't reflect that. I didn't have a computer until I was about 13 or 14 because we couldn't afford one earlier, even though my parents really wanted one. I think our school library might have had one computer for the whole school, which was not available. I certainly couldn't go to expensive tech camps or the like, we couldn't afford it. I did get all the science books from the public library and read them as much as I could. I didn't start programming until college. I get very very positive reviews from all the jobs I ever worked though, but my resume might be passed up because I didn't have the opportunities others had.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#134>> $19 billion in cash and stock (slightly less than the inflation adjusted cost of the Manhattan Project) Holy Crap !!! That cannot be right - surely not.... Edit: According to Wikipedia : "The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $26 billion in 2014 dollars)." So, if you allow 7bn to be slightly less, then yes. It is right. And the…
A fellow kindred spirit. That is also the point that jumped out at me and made me wonder what in the hell society has devolved into.
The disciples of Rand spend their money on the strangest things.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#135This post is largely about discrimination and uses Brian Acton as a timely centerpiece. The truth is however more complex (IMHO): - Culture matters a lot in hiring. By this I mean a Stanford grad is much more likely to hire another Stanford grad in a field of qualified candidates. This isn't simply a form of nepotism as such. Two grads from the same college will share a larger common cultural base; - The culture the…
It allows bodyshops to hire people from, say, China and India and pay them a pittance The H1B lets you transfer your visa very easily. The frustrating thing is that people aren't aware they can do it.
Body shops typically lock employees into restrictive contracts where punitive relocation "costs" are levied if the employee leaves before the contract is up.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#136I really dont see the STEM shortage that people are talking about. Last year I graduated from a local college and we had no shortage of STEM from Biology to Comp Science to Information Systems. We recently bought an engineering school full of students so next year our STEM foot print will be even larger. Lets be honest here sometimes its cheaper to use foreign labor and that is why these companies are doing it. I don…
"Lets be honest..." Yes, let's. I want Mark Zuckerburg to admit out loud that the reason he can't find qualified engineers is because he's not willing to pay. No more of this "they don't exist" lie. This, coupled with the Google/Apple/Intel/Adobe/etc. collusion to prevent salary negotiation wars, it's very clear: Silicon Valley companies aren't special anymore. They are now just like every other corporation in Americ…
> I want Mark Zuckerburg to admit out loud that the reason he can't find qualified engineers is because he's not willing to pay. No more of this "they don't exist" lie
Except Facebook was instrumental in breaking the hiring cartel, because they were totally willing to pay. AFAIK, that's still true.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
" That's the big problem in most interviews - candidates treat it like a test, where there's just the right answer, and nothing else. " Humm no. Google interviews are (or at least were) pretty much right or wrong answers mostly. The best interviewers could do what you say, but for the most part, no.
I have to ask - is that your personal experience, or what you read about the interviews?
"is that your personal experience"
Correct
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#138Sounds like Facebook et al should be investing some of this money into university CS/CE/CIS programs along with internal training programs if they are truly concerned about the lack of qualified personnel. A billion dollars goes a long way.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#139Interesting article. Whenever an article like this pops up the usual chorus is, there is no skill shortage, just a shortage at the price the employer is willing to pay. Sadly I've seen myself as someone on the hiring side of the table fall into a few of these traps listed in the article. A newly minted Phd, is one type of person that I've found myself having trouble hiring. Same with an newly minted Masters. The reas…
As a PhD who tried to get a job outside my field of expertise I'm glad you mentioned your reluctance to hire them, as it was certainly a vibe I got. For any people hiring potential PhDs out there, I'd like to clarify (and generalize) our pros and cons. We probably don't really expect to be paid much more, unless the job is one that we are uniquely suited too. We more than make up for our lack of experience by being extremely self-motivated and self-starting. Odds are good that we have above average speaking and communication experience. Our biggest drawback is that we may take a while to become "team players". This includes a capacity for being overly critical and tendency to overthink things.
Re: STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp
#140Brian Acton's rejection by Facebook is used as a pro argument for the idea that tech companies are just pretending to not find qualified candidates, when there are plenty. I am not sure which way it is but the argument used is flawed. Brian Acton never stated that he went to Facebook to be a programmer. Not even a senior one. At that moment he already had managerial experience, having lead large dev teams at Yahoo. It way more likely that his Facebook interview was centered around a managerial role and the fit, for one reason or another was not there.
Not taking any sides, I want to say that Brian Acton's example is just a nice/easy/convenient media story. Not at all indicative of anything related to availability or lack of STEM people.