I don’t think Bill Gates is being honest. There is no shortage of IT workers at any level. This boils down to money. Why hire an American worker, when I can get cheap labor imported into the country. I would refer those who are interested to Norman Matloff‘s work on the subject of offshoring and H1-B visas. I believe the IT industry will go the way of electronics. I would also urge people who are considering Computer Science (CS) related fields to consider other fields. As someone who has experienced the heart wrenching experience of trying to find decent work after graduation, I can tell you that the writing is already on the wall for the industry. Companies have already threatened to offshore jobs if the Computer Science enrollment doesn’t start to improve despite the fact that a shortage doesn’t exist. The information being disseminated right now is there is a “lack of talent.” The words used are vague to say the least. By what standard is “talent” measured? Many have noticed that a lot of free and public software is written in the USA, so there is more than enough talent right here. Companies can’t threaten to offshore and expect students to line up for CS courses with spurious job prospects.
Harry Chilinguerian
Alvaro Cordova