Vivek Ramaswamy set off a national debate by dissing America's "culture of mediocrity" while defending the mass importation of foreign workers to replace Americans.
Tell Rama-smarmy to stick to his own job. Doesn't he have enough to do? Americans did NOT develop their own culture of mediocrity. It was enforced on them from all angles. The problem is we were too goodhearted to accuse others of such ongoing sins / crimes / evil intentions / morally wrong, stupid and corrupt actions and intentions. I guess you could say we were naive. Psychiatry played a big roll in our decline.
For what it is worth, here is my experience seeking and vetting senior-systems-engineer and lower-level candidates in the U.S.
We do have talented American candidates. The job sites, however, will flood you with resumes. Some are manifestly unqualified and others outright lie. Many show patterns of short hops across companies, with stays under a year, or large, unexplained gaps of three or more years between jobs. Each give me doubts. Short stints and large gaps are easily filtered, but recruiters, both internal and external, have for the most part no idea how to narrow the field further.
References must be taken with a grain of salt. If a candidate is so great, why hasn't the person giving that candidate such a glowing reference hired the candidate? (When I give references I expressly explain to the hiring manager whatever it is about my situation that stops me from hiring the candidate myself. The most powerful truth I can convey is, "Had I [whatever I would need or justify me] to hire [person X], I would do so, and you would not have the chance.")
Many industry certifications are not worth the paper on which they are printed. I attended a couple vendors' certification trainings wherein the instructors told the class not only the exact test questions but, and here is the rub, that the correct answer would be marked incorrect. Only a specific, incorrect, answer would be marked correct. The only way to get credit for these questions was to attend the costly, vendor-provided training. (Cisco is the great exception to this rule. To this day, Cisco has no formal prerequisite for its flagship certification. Its tests are tough but fair. Thus Cisco's certifications maintain a good reputation: I know I can trust a C.C.N.A., C.C.N.P. or C.C.I.E. to have the corresponding skills.)
At the risk of getting myself deplatformed, I can share a few common issues with H-1B candidates. To be clear, I have met professional, diligent and qualified workers on H-1Bs or who, at one point, were on H-1Bs. I hired a 20-year-old Moroccan gentleman who had just arrived here who worked out great. As a numbers game, however, many will have, at the least, some degree of culture shock adapting to American life. Business culture is not uniform the world over. Dress, email etiquette and annunciation for phone conversations are likely issues. Many countries' education systems are great at preparing students for repetitive, inside-the-box tasks. Few really bread innovation. And, at this point, ours is not particularly great at it either.
Objective, written skills assessments were the one metric that proved effective for me when selecting technical talent. They also allowed me to widen my consideration to a larger number of candidates, because it took only a half hour to test each one. I brought each candidate into a conference room. I had the candidate place his or her cell phone on the table between us, where we could both see it. I gave each candidate the same written skills assessment.
Mine was a tough test. It was designed that way. The highest score I recall anyone ever achieving was 42 percent. A faked or exaggerated resume could not help a candidate. A lack of traditional educational credentials, itself, could not harm one. The high scorers in each round usually surprised the whole hiring team. Predicting results based on resumes, experience and credentials proved, for the most part, a fool's errand.
The tests also gave my company insulation in case its hiring practices were ever challenged. I could demonstrate exactly why we passed over a particular candidate.
This process left me with a few key takeaways:
1) The talent is there, the challenge is finding it.
2) Don't try too hard to filter the deluge of resumes subjectively or try to outsource that task to non-technical personnel.
3) The best talent often does not have the snazziest resume and is often not who you first think it is.
4) Credentials matter a lot less than candidates' internal drives to better themselves.
That Moroccan gentleman I mentioned earlier, for example, had less access to technology than I did growing up stateside. But he loved it. Because he loved it, he spent all the time he could with it and did whatever he could within reason to get access to it. And because of the time he spent pursuing his passion for technology, he had the high score among the candidates for that position.
Most times, however, the high score went to an American. That's not my opinion as much as it's how the cookie crumbled.
I can't help but ponder the (decades long) silence on the part of those who profess the need to hire / import "brains" from overseas while our "culture" and "public education" systems have been (deliberately!) subverted.
One might conclude that this all have been elements of a plan to deconstruct (what used to be called) "American know-how" and "Yankee ingenuity," and by so doing, neuter the USA as an economic (and so military) force in the world.
This country is destroyed for reasons mentioned incl. sending money overseas for wars that are none of our business. Financial issues, inflation on everything prevail and people aren't able to donate to various groups who are doing what is right. For many who can't make car or house payments who could be on the street or moving in w/ relatives.
As taken from the NY Post: President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sent a message Sunday ordering nominees to refrain from any posting on social media as Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to start next week.
“While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by The Post.
“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she said in the Dec. 29 missive.
We have been doing home church for sometime and online church services. Because most parents (church members) send their kids to public schools dumbing them down, we choose to interact with them because they remain oblivious to the issue. People won't listen or care to be informed.
We can witness online on a comment to the appropriate article or you tube video (like prophecy videos or blogs). I am a retiree and others I know also have despaired on former friends, family members, distanced themselves also gave up on friends who "don't want to know" while sticking with likeminded. For ex: trying to warn others to avoid the Covid bui weapon shots, but they trusted mainline news instead. I don't waste time on people leaning left. Pastors tried to warn also, causing people to leave the church.
India = well-known mediocre coders who frequently seek to hire & promote more and more fellow Indians once in the door. This is a generalization, but it’s true (see: Coding Olympics results, or ask around where it’s relevant), and yet they get a significant amount of the H1Bs out there.
Tell Rama-smarmy to stick to his own job. Doesn't he have enough to do? Americans did NOT develop their own culture of mediocrity. It was enforced on them from all angles. The problem is we were too goodhearted to accuse others of such ongoing sins / crimes / evil intentions / morally wrong, stupid and corrupt actions and intentions. I guess you could say we were naive. Psychiatry played a big roll in our decline.
For what it is worth, here is my experience seeking and vetting senior-systems-engineer and lower-level candidates in the U.S.
We do have talented American candidates. The job sites, however, will flood you with resumes. Some are manifestly unqualified and others outright lie. Many show patterns of short hops across companies, with stays under a year, or large, unexplained gaps of three or more years between jobs. Each give me doubts. Short stints and large gaps are easily filtered, but recruiters, both internal and external, have for the most part no idea how to narrow the field further.
References must be taken with a grain of salt. If a candidate is so great, why hasn't the person giving that candidate such a glowing reference hired the candidate? (When I give references I expressly explain to the hiring manager whatever it is about my situation that stops me from hiring the candidate myself. The most powerful truth I can convey is, "Had I [whatever I would need or justify me] to hire [person X], I would do so, and you would not have the chance.")
Many industry certifications are not worth the paper on which they are printed. I attended a couple vendors' certification trainings wherein the instructors told the class not only the exact test questions but, and here is the rub, that the correct answer would be marked incorrect. Only a specific, incorrect, answer would be marked correct. The only way to get credit for these questions was to attend the costly, vendor-provided training. (Cisco is the great exception to this rule. To this day, Cisco has no formal prerequisite for its flagship certification. Its tests are tough but fair. Thus Cisco's certifications maintain a good reputation: I know I can trust a C.C.N.A., C.C.N.P. or C.C.I.E. to have the corresponding skills.)
At the risk of getting myself deplatformed, I can share a few common issues with H-1B candidates. To be clear, I have met professional, diligent and qualified workers on H-1Bs or who, at one point, were on H-1Bs. I hired a 20-year-old Moroccan gentleman who had just arrived here who worked out great. As a numbers game, however, many will have, at the least, some degree of culture shock adapting to American life. Business culture is not uniform the world over. Dress, email etiquette and annunciation for phone conversations are likely issues. Many countries' education systems are great at preparing students for repetitive, inside-the-box tasks. Few really bread innovation. And, at this point, ours is not particularly great at it either.
Objective, written skills assessments were the one metric that proved effective for me when selecting technical talent. They also allowed me to widen my consideration to a larger number of candidates, because it took only a half hour to test each one. I brought each candidate into a conference room. I had the candidate place his or her cell phone on the table between us, where we could both see it. I gave each candidate the same written skills assessment.
Mine was a tough test. It was designed that way. The highest score I recall anyone ever achieving was 42 percent. A faked or exaggerated resume could not help a candidate. A lack of traditional educational credentials, itself, could not harm one. The high scorers in each round usually surprised the whole hiring team. Predicting results based on resumes, experience and credentials proved, for the most part, a fool's errand.
The tests also gave my company insulation in case its hiring practices were ever challenged. I could demonstrate exactly why we passed over a particular candidate.
This process left me with a few key takeaways:
1) The talent is there, the challenge is finding it.
2) Don't try too hard to filter the deluge of resumes subjectively or try to outsource that task to non-technical personnel.
3) The best talent often does not have the snazziest resume and is often not who you first think it is.
4) Credentials matter a lot less than candidates' internal drives to better themselves.
That Moroccan gentleman I mentioned earlier, for example, had less access to technology than I did growing up stateside. But he loved it. Because he loved it, he spent all the time he could with it and did whatever he could within reason to get access to it. And because of the time he spent pursuing his passion for technology, he had the high score among the candidates for that position.
Most times, however, the high score went to an American. That's not my opinion as much as it's how the cookie crumbled.
I can't help but ponder the (decades long) silence on the part of those who profess the need to hire / import "brains" from overseas while our "culture" and "public education" systems have been (deliberately!) subverted.
Exhibit 1 (of many possible): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/
Exhibit 2 (currently): https://ijr.com/teachers-will-no-longer-need-to-pass-basic-reading-writing-and-math-test-for-certification-in-this-blue-state/
One might conclude that this all have been elements of a plan to deconstruct (what used to be called) "American know-how" and "Yankee ingenuity," and by so doing, neuter the USA as an economic (and so military) force in the world.
This country is destroyed for reasons mentioned incl. sending money overseas for wars that are none of our business. Financial issues, inflation on everything prevail and people aren't able to donate to various groups who are doing what is right. For many who can't make car or house payments who could be on the street or moving in w/ relatives.
As taken from the NY Post: President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sent a message Sunday ordering nominees to refrain from any posting on social media as Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to start next week.
“While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by The Post.
“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she said in the Dec. 29 missive.
We have been doing home church for sometime and online church services. Because most parents (church members) send their kids to public schools dumbing them down, we choose to interact with them because they remain oblivious to the issue. People won't listen or care to be informed.
corr: choose not to interact
In keeping with your theme, I offer the following quote: " Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know."
Aldous Huxley
I am not anti-social, I am just anti-socialist. I try not to despair because I know there are at least two witness's that know, myself and God..
We can witness online on a comment to the appropriate article or you tube video (like prophecy videos or blogs). I am a retiree and others I know also have despaired on former friends, family members, distanced themselves also gave up on friends who "don't want to know" while sticking with likeminded. For ex: trying to warn others to avoid the Covid bui weapon shots, but they trusted mainline news instead. I don't waste time on people leaning left. Pastors tried to warn also, causing people to leave the church.
Excellent quote that in my mind says it all.
It also appears to be the root of the problem.
Your second paragraph, I am with you on that sentiment.
Musk and Ramaswamy need to stay in their lane. They need America, America does not need them.
India = well-known mediocre coders who frequently seek to hire & promote more and more fellow Indians once in the door. This is a generalization, but it’s true (see: Coding Olympics results, or ask around where it’s relevant), and yet they get a significant amount of the H1Bs out there.