SF Examiner
By Mark Helm
EXAMINER WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, August 20, 1999


http://eXaminer.com/990822/0822workers.html


Older engineers claim discrimination runs rampant in the high-tech world


WASHINGTON - Gene Nelson, an experienced computer programmer, has been
looking for work for two years. High-tech companies say they desperately
need computer programmers. It would seem like a perfect fit.


But Nelson has had only a few interviews and no job offers.


A Ph.D. in biophysics who has been programming computers since the early
1970s, Nelson has sent out hundreds of resumes and attended dozens of
job fairs. He has lowered his salary sights from $50,000 to $40,000.
Now, he says the mid-$30,000 range would be fine.


Knowing the dynamic nature of the high-tech industry, Nelson has been
careful to update his skills and has taught himself several computer
languages, including Java.


"I have the education, the experience and the skills, but I never seem
to be the person they're looking for," he says from his home in
Carrollton, Texas.


Nelson scoffs at the claim of the Information Technology Association of
America (ITAA), an organization representing high-tech firms, that there
are 400,000 unfilled software engineering and computer programming jobs
in the United States.


Nelson and other programmers say high-tech companies could find plenty
of engineers if they were willing to hire older workers.


"There's no shortage of high-tech workers," Nelson says. "There's a
shortage of high-tech workers under the age of 35."


William Payson, who runs SeniorTech Inc., a Campbell-based company that
helps high-tech workers over the age of 35 find jobs, agrees. There is
"out-and-out discrimination" in the industry against older engineers,
according to Payson.


"Most companies don't want older workers, and the managers make sure
these people are not hired," he says.


He says companies want young, cheap workers fresh out of college who are
willing to work 12-hour days for half the salary expected by more
experienced workers.


Profile of the work force


The statistics show the trend. Four out of five employed programmers are
age 44 years or younger, according to the ITAA.


High-tech industry representatives say part of the reason for the low
number of older programmers is that many of these workers migrate to
sales and management positions after working for a company for several
years.


They also say that as programmers get into their 30s and 40s, many of
them are unwilling to work the 12- and 14-hour days that are common in
the computer software industry.


John Palafoutas, spokesman for the American Electronics Association, a
Washington-based group representing electronics companies, says firms
would like to hire older engineers but that they often lack the
"cutting-edge" skills needed for current jobs.


"With the speed of this industry, companies simply don't have time to
train people for six months before they start work on a project," he
says.


Palafoutas and other employer representatives say the lack of skilled
workers threatens the health of the industry.


They point to a 1998 U.S. Commerce Department study predicting that the
information technology industry will need an additional 1.3 million
skilled workers over the next decade.


"If the talent drought continues, the entire national economy may feel
the effect of lost wages and slowed innovation . . . and the competitive
advantage that the United States has long held in technology may be at
risk," the Commerce Department report said.


Importing the young


The high-tech industry's call for more workers has been heard in
Washington, where Congress is considering expanding a visa program that
already allows tens of thousands of foreign computer professionals into
the country each year.


The program, established in 1990 to allow high-tech companies to quickly
bring in foreign workers with special skills, currently allows 115,000
workers into the country.


Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, has proposed raising the cap to 200,000, a
move enthusiastically supported by the industry.


"These workers are needed to ensure the growth of America's most
important industries," Gramm says. "High-tech, highly skilled people
create jobs. They don't take jobs away from Americans."


But engineering groups and computer experts say the visa program, known
as H1-B, is a way for high-tech companies to import cheap labor and to
avoid hiring experienced American workers.


"It's not about who has the "cutting edge' skills," says Norm Matloff, a
computer science professor at University of California at Davis.


"This is about who costs less - people with experience or people without
experience," Matloff says.


Qualified workers can be quickly trained in new computer languages -
usually in less than two months, Matloff says. He adds that most of the
foreign workers also need training in the latest skills.


A 1997 breakdown of Census Bureau data showed that 37 percent of college
graduates in the U.S. work force were age 45 or older, according to the
National Software Alliance, a Washington-based consortium of high-tech
industry, government and academic representatives.


But among computer scientists and programmers, only 23 percent were 45
and older.


The over-55 age group constituted 12 percent of the total
college-educated work force but only 5 percent of the information
technologies field, the analysis showed.


The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a
Washington-based group with 330,000 members, has found that for every
year of age, it takes an unemployed engineer an average of two weeks
longer to find a job. In other words, a 45-year-old is likely to stay
unemployed 40 weeks longer than a job seeker who is 25.


Paul Kostek, president of the institute, says the industry's push for
more foreign workers is simply a way to ensure a constant supply of
young, cheap labor and to avoid retraining older workers.


"Each year, a whole new crop of eager workers lines up at their door,"
he says. "It's great for (high-tech companies), but doesn't really do
much for the American engineers."


For John Popescu, a computer scientist in San Francisco, an expansion of
the H1-B program could mean that his two-year job search becomes much
harder.



Popescu thought his future was secure when he earned a computer science
degree from S.F. State in 1992. But after turning 30 years old, he
started to see a change in the attitude of prospective employers toward
his resume.


"All of the sudden, I didn't have the right experience, or the right
skills," he said. The job offers slowed to a trickle.


Now at 35, he has searched for more than two years for work but has had
only a few interviews and no job offers to show for it.


"I could understand not getting some of the jobs, but my background fits
so many of the openings that I don't see how I could not be right for
any of them," he says.


Popescu worries that an increase in available foreign workers will make
employers even more reluctant to hire older, American workers.


"Why hire an experienced worker, when you can get another person who
will work for half as much?" he says. Other dynamics at work


Robert Collins, executive vice president of InTECH Staffing, a national
information technologies staffing firm in Dallas, Texas, says part of
the problem is that companies want so-called "plug and play"
professionals who can jump into a project immediately with no training.


To find these people, he says, companies often "raid" other firms for
workers with specific skills, he says.


As a result, Collins says, companies worry that if they hire and train a
person, that worker will take the knowledge to another firm after only a
short time.


Kostek says that fear of losing workers is an important reason why
employers favor H1-B workers.


Under the program, the visa holders, who are allowed to remain in the
country for up to six years, can work only for the firms that sponsor
their H1-B visas. In addition, they must rely on their sponsor firms to
process the paperwork needed to secure a green card, or work permits for
immigrants, which eventually can lead to permanent citizenship - the
goal of most H1-B workers.


According to Kostek, this means that firms have little fear that these
workers will leave their employment, which allows the companies to train
them without worrying about whether they will take a better job offer
elsewhere.


"Basically, these people are indentured servants, who serve out six-year
terms," Kostek says.


Searching for a future


For some engineers, the attitude of high-tech companies toward older,
experienced workers has changed the way they view their future in the
industry.


P. Scott Horne, a 29-year-old computer programmer for a
Minneapolis-based firm, says he has already started making plans to move
into his company's management or sales divisions.


"Staying in programming just isn't realistic," he says.


While he believes the move will allow him to remain a part of the
industry, Horne says he and many other engineers and programmers who
make the switch would prefer to stay in their chosen fields.


"Going into management may seem like a step up, but it's really a step
out," he says. "I didn't study computer science because I wanted to be a
manager or salesman."


Matloff believes the often short careers of software engineers and
programmers threatens the future of the high-tech industry.


He says students considering electrical engineering or computer science
degrees may decide to go into other professions that offer better
long-term prospects.


"You're going to find fewer and fewer people willing to earn a four-year
degree that will get them a job for maybe 10 years, if that," he says.


Popescu agrees, saying he would advise college students to think twice
about becoming a software engineer or computer programmer. "I'd say look
at me," he says. "I'm 35 years old with a degree in computer science,
and I can't even support myself."