HR and off-shoring

Wally McClure had an interesting response to Intel's CEO regarding some comments he made about off-shoring.

To a certain degree, I agree that HR is often a big problem in big companies. They create barriers to getting the right people, for reasons I can't explain. On my current gig, we lost out on the ultimate .NET guru because HR kept screwing around, not making phone calls, delaying the background check, etc., so he went elsewhere.

I agree that if a company wants to off-shore, that's what they should do. It's a global economy, and in some cases our skills are becoming commodities. It just depends on the skills. While it is happening quickly, it does happen in every maturing industry.

I do disagree with Wally about immigrants coming for “our” jobs, with companies overlooking the home bodies. I don't think we can universally apply the idea that there are qualified Americans available and plentiful for all skills, in all parts of the country. I'm the only “white guy” in a team of seven .NET developers. Here in Cleveland, I get recruiter calls weekly because they can't find qualified people. Trust me, we're even willing to work with “hello world” code monkeys and train them. They just aren't here.

I think there's a lot of hype about off-shoring, and it's not as big of a deal as it's made out to be. Easy for me to say because I have a job, but I've been on the street enough in the last four years to understand the market. It's self-adjusting, and will continue to do so for the next few years. New stories in every magazine every month (and now News.com) aren't going to change that. Legislators shouldn't change it.