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Just got laid off in Southern California: Jobs anyone?

5/22/2003 7:59 PM
Dave B.	Just got laid off in Southern California: Jobs anyone? Underwriter's Laboratories has become a "global" company. Migrating work overseas has resulted in 3 layoffs in the past two years. I got hit by this last one today, being low man on the totem pole. Anyone know of any jobs for a Senior Lab Tech/ Electrical Maintenance Worker type guy who has some experience in electronic musical instrument repair, CoGen plant, underground/overhead construction, telephone tech & such experience? (I also have 20 years experience in public speaking). My first thought is getting into an electrician apprenticeship program but I don't know of any in my area at present. I grew up on a farm and am a jack of all trades type person. Know any Rich and/or famous people that need someone to take care of their ranch? I live in the Corona/ Riverside area just east of Orange county. DB

5/22/2003 7:59 PM

Dave B.

Just got laid off in Southern California: Jobs anyone?

Underwriter's Laboratories has become a "global" company. Migrating work overseas has resulted in 3 layoffs in the past two years. I got hit by this last one today, being low man on the totem pole.

Anyone know of any jobs for a Senior Lab Tech/ Electrical Maintenance Worker type guy who has some experience in electronic musical instrument repair,
CoGen plant, underground/overhead construction, telephone tech & such experience? (I also have 20 years experience in public speaking).

My first thought is getting into an electrician apprenticeship program but I don't know of any in my area at present.

I grew up on a farm and am a jack of all trades type person. Know any Rich and/or famous people that need someone to take care of their ranch?

I live in the Corona/ Riverside area just east of Orange county.

DB

5/22/2003 10:37 PM
Dr Krumpet	Part of the problem is that foriegn H1B visa workers with technical skills continue to come to this country from places like India and take American jobs. I myself lost a job to a Pakistani/Indian programmer who was not an American. And nobody cares. I have complained before about the issue of American workers being displaced by foriegners on American soil but nobody gives a shit. Do you care? If you don't care about this issue than I really don't want to help you. Are you a do-gooder who wants to let foriegn labor into the US without restrictions? If so, you're on your own when you loose your job. The solution is simple. Send all the foriegn H1B workers back where they came from so that Americans can once again get back to work again. And this is not against Indians or Pakistanis specifically. The same goes for English, French, German, Canadians, and all others coming to the US to take jobs from Americans as well. The fact is that the US government too often puts the interests of foriegners before US citizens. Bush has done this as well. Think twice before you vote for him the next time.

5/22/2003 10:37 PM

Dr Krumpet

Part of the problem is that foriegn H1B visa workers with technical skills continue to come to this country from places like India and take American jobs.

I myself lost a job to a Pakistani/Indian programmer who was not an American.

And nobody cares. I have complained before about the issue of American workers being displaced by foriegners on American soil but nobody gives a shit. Do you care? If you don't care about this issue than I really don't want to help you. Are you a do-gooder who wants to let foriegn labor into the US without restrictions? If so, you're on your own when you loose your job.

The solution is simple. Send all the foriegn H1B workers back where they came from so that Americans can once again get back to work again.

And this is not against Indians or Pakistanis specifically. The same goes for English, French, German, Canadians, and all others coming to the US to take jobs from Americans as well.

The fact is that the US government too often puts the interests of foriegners before US citizens. Bush has done this as well. Think twice before you vote for him the next time.

5/22/2003 11:29 PM
Steve A.	No more BU__SH__! Dr. K. The fact is that the US government too often puts the interests of foreigners before US citizens. Bush has done this as well. Are you sure that it isn't the interests of the big businesses that hire the H1B workers? There has got to be some advantage to them laying off an American worker and hiring a foreigner... If there was indeed a shortage of trained American workers in a specific field I could see the advantages of the H1B program. Like after WWII most of the rocket scientists that we hired came from Germany since they were the real experts in the field. But letting in foreign workers to take a job from a US citizen— that is like shooting ourselves in the foot! But don't forget an even bigger threat: outsourcing services overseas! I think that it was Speed who was telling us that a lot of companies are contracting with Indian businesses to handle technical support. Not to mention that a lot of the programming is being done overseas. Steve Ahola

5/22/2003 11:29 PM

Steve A.

No more BU__SH__!

Dr. K.

The fact is that the US government too often puts the interests of foreigners before US citizens. Bush has done this as well.

    Are you sure that it isn't the interests of the big businesses that hire the H1B workers? There has got to be some advantage to them laying off an American worker and hiring a foreigner...

    If there was indeed a shortage of trained American workers in a specific field I could see the advantages of the H1B program. Like after WWII most of the rocket scientists that we hired came from Germany since they were the real experts in the field.

    But letting in foreign workers to take a job from a US citizen— that is like shooting ourselves in the foot!

    But don't forget an even bigger threat: outsourcing services overseas! I think that it was Speed who was telling us that a lot of companies are contracting with Indian businesses to handle technical support. Not to mention that a lot of the programming is being done overseas.

Steve Ahola

5/22/2003 11:37 PM
Lee M.	If you are a "knowledge worker" who sits at a computer or telephone all day and your job doesn't require face-to-face contact with others, you're job is in jeopardy. I have a friend at a major American transportation-industry company and they just out-sourced all their applied mechanics jobs to an Indian company. Many of the American automobile manufacturers have taken to hiring contract workers because it's cheaper to pay the contract firm $50/hr than it is to pay the engineer $75K/year plus benefits. As soon as the new vehicle launches, they tell the contract worker they don't need him anymore and he's back in the pool, praying for another assignment.

5/22/2003 11:37 PM

Lee M.

If you are a "knowledge worker" who sits at a computer or telephone all day and your job doesn't require face-to-face contact with others, you're job is in jeopardy. I have a friend at a major American transportation-industry company and they just out-sourced all their applied mechanics jobs to an Indian company.

Many of the American automobile manufacturers have taken to hiring contract workers because it's cheaper to pay the contract firm $50/hr than it is to pay the engineer $75K/year plus benefits. As soon as the new vehicle launches, they tell the contract worker they don't need him anymore and he's back in the pool, praying for another assignment.

5/23/2003 12:05 AM

Gil Ayan

On 5/22/2003 11:29 PM, Steve A. said:

[QUOTE]Like after WWII most of the rocket scientists that we hired came from Germany since they were the real experts in the field.
[/QUOTE]

It's funny, I never thought of it as us "hiring them." I thought some had deffected before the war was over, and the rest were probably not given much of a choice "Now you work for us!" It would make sense.

[QUOTE]But letting in foreign workers to take a job from a US citizen— that is like shooting ourselves in the foot!
[/QUOTE]

I agree. I'd like to make a distinction though, and not extend that concept to ALL immigrant workers across the board, especially those without papers who work for $10 a day and have no rights at all and always get a bad rap. I sincerely don't believe those folks hurt anyone since they do shit jobs that few others would want, especially at minimum wave (or in the case of undocuemtned workers, well below minimum wage). Sadly enough, all of us that consume agricultural products, for example, benefit from these guys' sub-human conditions.

quote:
"I think that it was Speed who was telling us that a lot of companies are contracting with Indian businesses to handle technical support. "

I have witnessed that. Being a Dell user, I had to call a number of times before my system was finally debugged. On one occasion, the customer service call was answered by a fellow in India. You'd figure with the long distance tolls and all of that it wouldn't be cost effective, but obviously Dell was saving money that way. I am not sure whether they have discontined that practice, since I never got any Indian folks on the phone again.

Cheers,

Gil

5/23/2003 12:28 AM
MBSetzer	AOL telephone tech support has been coming from India for a few months now and it is abysmal in many ways. One of which is now you can no longer go up the chain until you find someone who knows the answer or has been there long enough to help. At least they know where to draw the line and tell you they have no further information, but sometimes this point is well below the level of support which the greenest young US techs were giving by the seat of their pants before. (I also have 20 years experience in public speaking) Dave, I did not know that. My past suggestions for working at a port laboratory may be unrealistic, maybe you could build on this and become a coach for executive presentations. A couple years of that and you might be considered as a full-time spokesman for a worthwhile organization even without a journalism degree. Mike

5/23/2003 12:28 AM

MBSetzer

AOL telephone tech support has been coming from India for a few months now and it is abysmal in many ways.

One of which is now you can no longer go up the chain until you find someone who knows the answer or has been there long enough to help.

At least they know where to draw the line and tell you they have no further information, but sometimes this point is well below the level of support which the greenest young US techs were giving by the seat of their pants before.

*(I also have 20 years experience in public speaking)*

Dave, I did not know that. My past suggestions for working at a port laboratory may be unrealistic, maybe you could build on this and become a coach for executive presentations. A couple years of that and you might be considered as a full-time spokesman for a worthwhile organization even without a journalism degree.

Mike

5/23/2003 1:21 AM
Steve A.	Gil: I'd like to make a distinction though, and not extend that concept to ALL immigrant workers across the board, especially those without papers who work for $10 a day and have no rights at all and always get a bad rap. I sincerely don't believe those folks hurt anyone since they do shit jobs that few others would want, especially at minimum wage... Well, when I graduated from high school 34 years ago, all of the stoners got jobs working in restaurants... that option is no longer available to high school graduates today since hispanic workers have taken over most of the restaurant kitchens. So the stoners today are stuck with jobs at pizza joints... You could say that if they did away with illegal immigration, then they would have to hire Americans for those jobs, and they would become once again decent jobs. I suspect that if that were to happen, we wouldn't have any more farms in the US... Agreed, but here's a suggestion to consider: why not offer some sort of temporary work visa for the illegal aliens doing farmwork so that they could be legal? We need them to do work that no one else will do so why not decriminalize them? Besides being legal they could start paying income taxes on their earnings... --Thanks! Steve Ahola

5/23/2003 1:21 AM

Steve A.

Gil:

I'd like to make a distinction though, and not extend that concept to ALL immigrant workers across the board, especially those without papers who work for $10 a day and have no rights at all and always get a bad rap. I sincerely don't believe those folks hurt anyone since they do shit jobs that few others would want, especially at minimum wage...

Well, when I graduated from high school 34 years ago, all of the stoners got jobs working in restaurants... that option is no longer available to high school graduates today since hispanic workers have taken over most of the restaurant kitchens. So the stoners today are stuck with jobs at pizza joints...

You could say that if they did away with illegal immigration, then they would have to hire Americans for those jobs, and they would become once again decent jobs. I suspect that if that were to happen, we wouldn't have any more farms in the US...

Agreed, but here's a suggestion to consider: why not offer some sort of temporary work visa for the illegal aliens doing farmwork so that they could be legal? We need them to do work that no one else will do so why not decriminalize them? Besides being legal they could start paying income taxes on their earnings...

--Thanks!

Steve Ahola

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