> Yep, Mike, you're exactly the Indian subcontinent H1-B I was talking
> about. Couldn't communicate with them. They could code in C. But I
> speak English and Spanish, not C or Indian (any dialect).
> And the ones I
> knew of were not well paid, no where near as well paid as the English
> speaking C programmers who were looking for (and not finding)
> work they
> could make a living off.
In the late 80's/early 90's I headed a software team made up almost
exclusively of people for whom English was a second language. Some were
pretty sharp, some were dull as marbles. Some were fractious, some were
total team players. The only Indian of the bunch, however, was a *very*
dedicated worker. She called me at 8:30 one morning to ask if it was all
right if she didn't come to work that day. Her son had been born at 5:30 (a
week premature) and her maternity leave wasn't scheduled to start until the
next Monday. She did quality work -- not brilliant, but thorough. It was a
pleasure to work with people that dedicated. I have no idea what their pay
scale was. I do know, however, that management gave the big raise to the
only one I'd have fired. They didn't bother to ask the lead for inputs,
though. That company is now about 10% of the size it was.
Oh, and we completed a project in 15 months that sales had promised in 9, so
we were considered a failure. The fact that the Systems Engineer told them
it was an 18 month project, and that none of the three other companies
trying to deliver in the same time frame finished in two years wasn't even
considered. This was accomplished despite the language problems in a mix
of:
2 Chinese from Hong Kong
2 Chinese from Taiwan
1 Indian
3 Syrians (*don't* call them Arabs)
1 Canadian
3 US citizens
We in the US have a distorted view of a "living" wage. Most of the world
would be glad to have what we refer to as poverty. The difference being
that they would make much better use of that money. They haven't bought
into the "gadgets" mentality that the US has. I know a poor person who
always is broke, but always has that latest CD that he wants. You can also
tell when the bean counters have taken over the Engineering department.
Don't blame the people who are improving their lives, blame the bean
counters.
In Harmony's Way, and In A Chord,
Tom :-})
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Thomas A. Condon email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Computer Engineer phone: (360) 315-7609 |
| Barbershop Bass Singer Registered Linux User #154358 |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
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