Not just a number: Engineer finds it hard to compete against foreign tech workers

This story shows just what a vicious battle Indian Mafia is waging on American workers.

https://www.mlive.com/jobs/2010/04/not_just_a_number_engineer_finds_it_hard.html

Michigan Job Search asked readers to share their stories of long-term unemployment

to put a face to the unemployed. Here, this engineer shares his story about the difficulty of competing for tech jobs with foreign workers.

“Up until 2002, I was doing incredibly well. At that point, I had 15 years of professional experience with several companies. I had many of the necessary certifications that were in demand. I had peaked at nearly a six-figure income. Then the bottom dropped out.

Congress voted to raise the H-1B visa limit “temporarily” to 195,000 workers per year for the following three years. An H-1B visa worker is a foreign worker who is usually educated and skilled. They are “sponsored” by a company in the U.S.

In 2002 I lost my job to layoffs. And suddenly I went from getting calls weekly for jobs to not even getting responses on resumes I sent out.

On the interviews I did go to, the places were filled with foreign tech workers. And more often than not, the hiring manager was from India or China. I had no luck getting a job. These were large companies in Michigan with a large engineering presence; hiring mostly foreign tech workers.

After being unemployed for a year, I picked up and moved on to a job that paid $10 an hour and stuck that out until getting laid off in September 2008.

Recently, even after seven years of being away from the tech job market, I was getting calls from recruiters pretending to be interested in giving me a job. I think what they were looking for was an “unqualified American worker” so they could say they offered the job to an American before hiring a foreign worker. I was extremely frustrated to get so many calls that were obviously getting my hopes up when it seemed they knew full well they weren’t going to offer me a job at all. These were major recruiting tech firms in Michigan.

My unemployment benefits run out this week. It pains me that the people running this country care more about employing foreign workers in our own backyard than they do American citizens. Even now, with unemployment so high in the state of Michigan, companies are hiring H-1B workers more than ever.

I hope those workers pay taxes because we’ll need the money to help fund food stamps and welfare.

Todd Farkman”