Mark77

Its not extreme though -- I know guys who have EE PhD's who are in the same boat, even after 7 years of post-grad work on their M.Sc.'s and PhDs. Sent out thousands of applications, only to receive very minimal employer interest.

Most of us who have gone through STEM programs know they're harder than your typical Arts or Business degree. For many of us, it was essentially a labour of love. When I went into EE/CS, I never believed that I'd live in a Mansion, or drive a Maseriti. I thought I was signing up for a relatively decent middle class career. Yet to see 2/3rds of STEM graduates unemployed or underemployed strikes me as crazy. Even crazier is importing hoardes of cheap guest workers on the H-1B, while domestic talent isn't even given consideration.

Sorry, I'm not interested in working for the Armed Forces. And your link only brought up a handfull of jobs that were anything but at the very senior level.

In fact, most of the jobs listed have this restriction on applicants: "Current permanent Department of the Navy civilian employees " or similar. I count only a half dozen positions that may actually accept applications from outsiders.

jym626

If you were really desparate for a job you would not be quite so picky. Good luck to you.

noimagination

This might be of interest:
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c2666.pdf

jym626

1957 publication?? Did someone open a time capsule?

ken285

Browsing through the last few pages of this thread, there wasn't anything glaring that I disagreed with. Yes of course it would be better for our economy if Americans bought the products we developed.

However, I still don't understand how we would prevent the potential outsourcing. Wouldn't that be the next step for companies if H1-B is cut back significantly?

BEngineer

Contrary to what Mark77 have said about the job market for ece, my personal experience is a very good one. All of our year of software and electrical engineers (2010) got positions within a year. A good handful (including myself) got into fortune 100 companies (even though i did move on to the public sector within 8months on the job). It only took me a week to have interviews started rolling in and by the end of the month I got 2 offers to choose from.

I am an electrical from Alberta Canada if that changes anything.

NeoDymium

Outsourcing is a whole different monster with its own set of woes. H1-B cutbacks would have a pretty small effect on outsourcing because outsourcing is awful unless it really, really, really saves money.

NBrink

For what it's worth, I've had a pretty good experience myself. I have an okay GPA (3.3) in Materials Engineering from Cal Poly SLO. Landed an internship at Phillips 66 over this last summer, and between ending the internship and getting an offer I sent out maybe a dozen resumes. I accepted the offer from Phillips 66, but in the past week or so, I've gotten several requests for interviews (which I of course turned down). Quite a few of my classmates have jobs lined up already as well.

A pretty small sampling to be sure, but from what I've seen engineers are in demand.

KamelAkbar

No. If it was a good call to outsource a job, it's already been outsourced or will be outsourced regardless of whether or not it could be filled by an H1-B engineer. H1-B engineers aren't cheap, they're often just more educated/experienced and maybe a little easier to exploit than an American engineer would be.

jym626

Outsourcing seems to cause as many problems as it solves. People seem to job hop like crazy, so there is often trouble with continuity due to the very high turnover. Also, hear (anecdotally) that there is a tendency to say "yes" to everything, but fail to be able to deliver what they agree to.

noimagination

Outsourcing and offshoring are not equivalent, even if the terms are sometimes erroneously interchanged by elected officials and the media.
I thought it was a good complement to the anecdotal information on the previous page. I'm sure one could find similar figures for other decades.

NeoDymium

Outsourcing and offshoring are more similar than you seem to think. Even if you outsource within the country, you start to develop problems. Business is all about location, and it has to be a very good deal to move a factory from a prime location (where else would you set up shop?) to a substandard yet cheaper one.
The difference we're more interested in is between "offshoring jobs" and "importing labor." Outsourcing is close enough to interchangeable here.

jym626

Yes, the only major difference between outsourcing offshore and offshoring within ones one company is one extra layer of bureaucratic junk.

jym626

Oh, btw, several Fortune 100 companies are now requiring all their outsourcing agencies within the US providing contractors, to have their employees as W-2 workers, not 1099 independent contractors. This has had good and bad effects, butis leading to some contractors that dont have sufficient documentation/visa/work status to not be able to go on the payroll.

raiders83

Quote from Mamaroneck

I don't get the $5000 referral thing. To find an engineer that newmont hires, can't I just go to the newmont company search directory? I'd work in Northern Neveda, can't be all that far from Vegas for weekend trips, right?

Six hours from where I live. Four hours form salt lake and four hours from reno. The referral is what everyone else has mentioned. Biggest problem with getting a job in gold mining right now is that as soon as the economy improves, gold should drop and layoffs are very likely. Barrick dot com and newmont dot com have alot of listings for jobs all the time.