IT recruiters. An observation. And your thoughts too, please.

[MaxDepth]

The IT world is slowly recovering and some jobs are popping up. To keep aware of the job market out there I have resumes posted on several jobs websites.

Now here is what I noticed. When a job posting matches my resume, I get flooded with contracting and placement agencies (naturally). But what I do see are companies that neither local nor have a local rep. And the overwhelming number of these recruiters are Indian.

Are Indians the new Japanese? (in the 80's, many business where either starting or making joint ventures in Japan) Are companies hiring Indian personnel to draw attention to companies looking to outsource to India? Or are recruiters getting paid less and relying more on comissions (than before), so that these new recruiters are basically sieving through the resume stream panning for whatever gleams (shotgun effect at finding hires) and those new to the country are picking up these jobs more than whites (or other minorities)?

Right now I have looked through 10 separate emails for one job posting. Only one recruiter name is close to being pronounciated casually by me.


What are your thoughts?

 

[Ameesh]

Are Indians the new Japanese?

hahahaha

is orange the new pink?

 

[Frdm51472]

Perhaps they are just better educated or have better skills or are better workers than Americans? I know as an IT director that I could care less what race a person is when I hire them.....but then, it probably makes you much more comfortable to think that recruiters are just grasping at straws because someone has a better job than you do.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Frdm51472
Perhaps they are just better educated or have better skills or are better workers than Americans? I know as an IT director that I could care less what race a person is when I hire them.....but then, it probably makes you much more comfortable to think that recruiters are just grasping at straws because someone has a better job than you do.

How much less could you care?


I think Indian companies are seeing a better way to market themselves.

 

[Frdm51472]

Hehe, less than I do right now!!

 

[Nitemare]

My consulting agency is composed of 70% Indian, don't mind it except for the brief times they get in touch with me and I have to decipher their messages.

Sad thing is half my customers are Indian and I understand them fine, it's just the FOB Indians or those still in the motherland that think everyone can understand their butchering of the English language.

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: Frdm51472
Perhaps they are just better educated or have better skills or are better workers than Americans? I know as an IT director that I could care less what race a person is when I hire them.....but then, it probably makes you much more comfortable to think that recruiters are just grasping at straws because someone has a better job than you do.

Yeah, but government work always goes to the lowest bidder anyway. So things like race really aren't important, much like quality either I suppose.

This is not a rant against any particular culture or ethnicity. I'm just wondering if my observations are really true or have I been sensitized (through media and email hype) into recognizing this?


And it is true, there are people with better jobs than me. But the Spinnaker bar in the Grand Caymans can only support three bartenders. <sigh> But I'm on their callback list!

 

[Frdm51472]

Heh, is that some sort of slam against me for working for the government. Sorry to disappoint but I make over market average for my position in the IT industry. We also do very high tech stuff not seen in the private sector, such as telemedicine. Our salaries and positions always attract top applicants and very numerous high quality applicants. GA is a very progressive state technology wise and IT salary wise.

 

[MaxDepth]

meh. For what I do at a Fortune 5 company I am way overpaid. And I'm bored to tears. I couldn't care about salaries right now when I am not being challenged in the workplace. And plus it is smart to keep an eye on job openings at all times. To say that one is secure in their current placement is someone not being realistic.

Still with the IMs I've been getting, it seems that people are more aware of nationality or ethnic origin within the traditional workplace. It used to be the manufacturing sector who worried about losing their jobs to foreign/cheaper labor. So where I haven't found any studies citing an increase or decrease in foreign or ethnic distribution within the IT sector, I have found more and more annecdotal evidence that shows an increased awareness in ethnicity.

So this was I was wondering about, not whether or not your paycheck is bigger than mine.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: MaxDepth
meh. For what I do at a Fortune 5 company I am way overpaid. And I'm bored to tears. I couldn't care about salaries right now when I am not being challenged in the workplace. And plus it is smart to keep an eye on job openings at all times. To say that one is secure in their current placement is someone not being realistic.

Still with the IMs I've been getting, it seems that people are more aware of nationality or ethnic origin within the traditional workplace. It used to be the manufacturing sector who worried about losing their jobs to foreign/cheaper labor. So where I haven't found any studies citing an increase or decrease in foreign or ethnic distribution within the IT sector, I have found more and more annecdotal evidence that shows an increased awareness in ethnicity.

So this was I was wondering about, not whether or not your paycheck is bigger than mine.

Do what I'm doing milking it for all its worth until I have to get a job in another field

 

[Frdm51472]

Originally posted by: MaxDepth
meh. For what I do at a Fortune 5 company I am way overpaid. And I'm bored to tears. I couldn't care about salaries right now when I am not being challenged in the workplace. And plus it is smart to keep an eye on job openings at all times. To say that one is secure in their current placement is someone not being realistic.

Still with the IMs I've been getting, it seems that people are more aware of nationality or ethnic origin within the traditional workplace. It used to be the manufacturing sector who worried about losing their jobs to foreign/cheaper labor. So where I haven't found any studies citing an increase or decrease in foreign or ethnic distribution within the IT sector, I have found more and more annecdotal evidence that shows an increased awareness in ethnicity.

So this was I was wondering about, not whether or not your paycheck is bigger than mine.

I was by no means comapring paychecks. I was responding to your obvious negative assumption that a government worker is somehow substandard. Sorry if I do not run around like chicken little because there are some immigrant employees in the IT field. Anyone who feels that their job is threatened by them is probably being paid more than they are worth or has less skills than required in their current position.

 

[Gunnar]

I think the reason is that many many Indians setup consulting shops during the dotcom boom days. The way it worked was that theyd find computer people in India, sponsor them to come over, and charge an arm and leg for their services in these companies that were desperately in need of IT.

Nowadays, with people getting laid off, refusing to sponsor people, and general malaise in the market, I guess they are looking for new talent that would require less overhead on their part. So finding candidates locally is a good idea, since they cant get companies to sponsor anyone anymore.