IT Brain Drain per BG
During his round of media appearances following his appearance at Congress, Bill spoke on National Public Radio about the IT worker issues.
During that interview, he argued that Microsoft seeks the most talented Computer Science graduates from the "best schools in the world", which he repeatedly explained are those in the U.S. .. his words. And the "problem" his company faces is that many of the most talented graduates are not native to America, and so are here on student visas, which expire when they graduate, forcing those top-level graduates to return to their own countries and await the granting of a work visa, like the H1-B, for which there is both an exceedingly long waiting period and an exceedingly limited number.
By the way ... there is an exceedingly limited number available because the U.S. government claims it wants American companies to do a lot of hiring of American workers, so if you're out of a job in IT, you're either living in the wrong place or without the proper credentials ... according to them.
Once Bill's company hires a top-level Computer Science graduate, with starting pay of at least $100k/year, from one of the "top schools in the world", he claims to build groups of additional employees around the treasured CS grads, to support them in their ground-breaking work. He argued that his company prefers to hire American talent in these roles, and that there are very few American top-level CS graduates available.
So, to paraphrase, "Give Microsoft more foreign worker visas and we will hire more Americans, too."
It is not enough for Microsoft to establish corporate presences in other countries ... getting all of those American support personnel visas to do their jobs in almost every other nation is far more of a hassle than getting the foreign nationals to work in America. Think about THAT for a moment as you bash U.S. visa policies, all of you Brits.
The "tech investment gap" referred to in this article's headline, in Bill's robust capitalistic mind, would have to do with both the investment in foreign workers' abilities to maintain their jobs in America and in American scholastic achievement. Congress can only help with the visa element. Excelling in the scholastic element is up to those who seek work in computing-related fields.