Filling Vista and other jobs at Microsoft
In an interview with Managing Director of Federal Government Affairs, Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft PressPass asked about the difficulty of filling technology jobs at Microsoft.
PressPass: Bill Gates also discussed the challenge Microsoft faces in filling jobs in specialized areas due to a shortage of highly trained U.S. professionals. Are there any legislative efforts that Microsoft supports to increase the number of workers in the pipeline to fill these positions?
Krumholtz: There are two sides to this issue. First, we as a nation need to do more to encourage our kids to look at math and science disciplines and get enthusiastic about pursuing careers in those fields. Doing so is critical if we are to ensure that our workforce of tomorrow will have the skills it will need to compete in a global economy. That’s why you see a lot of companies like Microsoft focused on K-12 education and the role technology can play in education.
We also need to do more to enable our existing workforce to use information technology in their daily lives and to be able to pursue employment where a solid understanding of IT is a prerequisite. Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program, where we partner with nonprofits on the local level, both here in the U.S. and around the world, to establish Community Technology Learning Centers (CTLCs), where the underserved communities are able to develop basic IT skills, is one example of an effort to improve the basic IT skills of our workforce.
The other side of this issue is immigration reform – in particular, business immigration. There are a number of different programs through which businesses are able to hire foreign nationals, even on a temporary basis. All of those programs have fairly significant limitations. For instance, there is the H1-B visa, on which Microsoft and other technology companies rely on to hire foreign nationals where there is not a U.S. candidate with the skills required for a particular position. Federal law limits the number of H1-B visas per year to 65,000, and that number is taken up almost immediately by the candidates who are already in the pipeline.
It’s a significant challenge, particularly when recruiting at our colleges and universities. In many cases, well over 50 percent of the PhDs or masters in computer science and engineering are foreign nationals who, if they’re going to be hired by a U.S. company, need to be hired through the H1-B visa program. The limits on the H1-B program seriously impede U.S. companies’ ability to compete in the global market. It also affects the ability of U.S. companies to keep projects in the U.S. In many cases it’s not a matter of whether the work will be done, but where.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: IE7, Windows Vista
0 opinions for Filling Vista and other jobs at Microsoft
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: