[ale] OT: H1B: PLEASE DISREGARD EARLIER POSTS

[Carolinux.com]

Heck, I can do the devil's  advocate forever...

I wasn't at a startup. 
I worked for the Bank of America, NationsBank, C&S for those of you
who've been in Atlanta for a while, and several Florida predecessor
banks, all the way back to college in the late '70's.

I have always stayed in applications development, and I love it. 
Many many years on a mainframe, then PC stuff, then Unix/Linux/BSD
with web development.

I was happy. 

In the mid nineties, BofA started the 5% rule: fire the "bottom" 5% of
the IT staff every year.
It became brutal to see how that 5% was determined: in most cases team
leads fired the folks they didn't like personally.
In 1999-2000 the bank started spinning off non-bank functions: Compaq
took over desktop support, EDS took over networking & telephony.
My division was spun off to a California company who specialized in payroll. 
We were told that if we got cut within 2 years we would get the bank
years included in our severance.

18 months later they brought in H1B holders @ 30-35K/year as replacements. 
Again, my ignorance of the law prevented me from challenging their actions.

I was very very lucky. 
I got 46 weeks severance. 
I collected unemployment for 14 weeks, then found comparable
employment in the same town...

I have mixed feelings on this topic. I know that the cheapest
programmers will be employed. I think in some cases cheap isn't the
driving factor.
I can find work. 
I probably make less than most on this list, and arguably am more
technically astute than most.
Programming isn't a job for me, it's a passion. 
I'm more passionate at 52 than I was at 32...

I have mixed feelings about big corporations that depend on Uncle Sam
to protect their interests overseas, but would hire foreign (cheap)
labor before hiring qualified Americans.
I'm not talking IT here: WalMart is ruining this country. I refuse to
do business with these companies. (Even when they have a Linux laptop
@ $499!)

I need to get ready for work now. 


-- 
Bob Evans        bobevans19 at gmail.com 
http://www.carolinux.com   Bringing Linux to the Carolinas...
        
Home:(704)882-6214
Cell:(704)562-7166

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand
binary, and those who don't.