Yet they have endorsed a bill that will have disproportionately adverse impacts on Asian Americans, who comprise more than half the high-tech professionals in Silicon Valley and about the same proportion of computer science majors at UC campuses. HR 3736, which just passed the House, would double the number of foreign programmers brought into the United States under H-1B visas to compete with those Asian Americans. The legislation, which likely will be enacted, comes at a time when many computer programmers over age 40 are finding it more difficult to get work in their field. Sandra Lee has found work only sporadically since being laid off a few years ago, in spite of her UC Berkeley degree, years of experience and her husband's position as a hiring manager. Though he did later manage to find a job, the experience so unnerved him that he vowed to steer his three children away from high-tech careers.
Age discrimination is rampant in the industry.
But any competent programmer could become productive in Java in a couple of weeks by simply learning on the job. Furthermore, even if the programmer took it upon himself to take a formal course in Java, that wouldn't be enough-employers insist on actual work experience in the language. That Catch-22 forces many programmers to leave the field. Industry lobbyists claim unemployment is low, but they miss the point. As employers shift their focus away from the older programmers, many new college graduates benefit, and some have gotten exceptionally good offers.