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India warns UK over IT visas

Written by Lisa on April 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

India on Monday warned the United Kingdom about the problems faced by Indian IT professionals in getting visa to the European nation.

In a meeting with his British counterpart – Vince Cable, secretary of state for business – Anand Sharma said the Indian companies would be forced to shift their base to other European countries if the UK failed to resolve the issue.

Indian IT companies have been facing problems in transferring their IT experts and high skilled workers to their UK based operations because the UK Border Agency treats intra-company transfer of IT experts as prospective immigrants. This has affected the operations of all the Indian IT companies having operations in the UK.

Shama is in the UK with an Indian business delegation to attend the 8th round of India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting.

Sharma also raised the issue of the Indian students studying in UK universities who are not able to find work post studies.

17 Apr 2012

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_india-warns-uk-over-it-visas_1676829

Categories: IT Visas - Tags: , ,

Asian recruiters on the prowl for IT managers

Written by Lisa on April 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

The technology jobs market in China, Hong Kong and Singapore is picking up in 2012 despite continued uncertainty for firms exporting to the US and Europe, with growing opportunities for ex-pat IT pros, according to recruiters.

Michael Page International’s Employment Indexreport for Q2 shows things are beginning to get back on track after economic instability abroad coupled with the Christmas break and early Chinese New Year caused many firms to put their recruitment plans on hold.

Michael Page’s managing director for north and east China, Andy Bentote, told The Reg that while things are still a tad restrained for companies heavily reliant on exporting to Europe, confidence is strong with those firms focusing mainly on domestic markets.

“In terms of new roles clients are passing us, the numbers are strong but they are giving a little more thought into who they choose – now they have to be 90-95 per cent certain to give you the role,” he said.

“Anecdotally though, increasing numbers of ex-pats are coming into China, and they’re coming in mainly at IT manager or senior managerial level.”

Sectors experiencing particularly strong growth in China include retail, e-commerce, gaming and business services, he explained.

Given that Hong Kong and Singapore are more heavily reliant on financial services, the IT jobs market there is currently experiencing less dynamic growth, said Bentote.

However, around a third of recruiters are looking to hire across the board in these regions and the majority expect a stable business environment going forward, the report found.

Phil Muncaster

5 Apr 2012

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/05/michael_page_q2/

Categories: IT Professionals - Tags: , , ,

Facebook hires software engineers from India to fill US posts

Written by Lisa on March 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment

MUMBAI: Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, is doing something that no domestic or multinational company has done before – hire software engineers from India for positions based in the United States.

Typically, global firms such as IBM and GE hire in India for positions here and send some of these recruits abroad for specific projects. However, Facebook’s open invitation in a newspaper advertisement last week seeking applicants “to work in the US” is being regarded as a first.

“It is unusual and I haven’t seen anything like this,” said Sharad Sharma, the chair of industry body Nasscom’s software product forum. The advertisement in The Times of India pointed applicants to an online coding challenge for 86 open positions in software engineering in Chicago, Dublin (Ireland), New York and Seattle.

Those who solved the puzzles were promised a phone interview. The online test is being done in partnership with InterviewStreet, a startup founded by Vivek Ravhishankar, a graduate of the National Institute of Technology in Tiruchirapalli. Facebook is a client of InterviewStreet.

Facebook declined to comment for this story. The California -based company has filed for an initial public offering which is expected to value it at around $100 billion. India, where it has some 46 million users, is one of its fastest-growing markets and an important source of talent.

Facebook has a development centre in Hyderabad and last year it hired an NIT-Warangal graduate for its office in Palo Alto in a campus interview. Ajit Isaac, chief executive at Ikya Human Capital, a Bangalore-based HR solutions company, was of the view that Facebook might have conducted a survey to find out what kind of people work well at their company.

“The desired results at their Hyderabad office might have made them to hire some talent for the US.” Ganesh Shermon, country head for the human capital practice at the Indian arm of audit and advisory KPMG, described Facebook’s move as an “interesting development” if the company is willing to get those hired from India a work permit.

According to Prabhakaran Murugaiah, founder and CEO at Corp-Corp, a Virginia-based technology staffing company, companies hiring from India for jobs based in the US is rare, but this will probably increase because of talent shortage in the world’s largest economy. “Unemployment in the technology space is only 3.7%, which is virtually zero talent available for the current skills in demand,” he said.

“The current wave and exponential growth in cloud, mobile, big data and IT security will create several thousands of jobs in next 6 to 18 months.” IT services and business process outsourcing firms employ some 2.5 million people in India and are stepping up hiring in the US in the face of strong sentiment against offshoring of jobs.

Facebook’s hiring plan and its ability to get the India hires work permits will happen in the backdrop of complaints by domestic software firms about higher visa scrutiny.

Srividya Iyer

28 Mar 2012

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/facebook-hires-software-engineers-from-india-to-fill-us-posts/articleshow/12433245.cms

Categories: Indian IT Professionals - Tags: , , , ,

IT Inc welcomes easing of US visa norms

Written by Lisa on March 24, 2012 · Leave a Comment

NEW DELHI: In good news for Indian travellers, the United States on Wednesday said it would waive the personal interview for some Indians who are renewing their visas, valid or expired, within four years.

“This new programme will permit consular officers to waive interviews for some qualified applicants who are renewing their visa within 48 months or four years, of expiration of their previous visa and within the same classification as the previous visa,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Janice Jacobs said.

The new rules will apply to those within categories of B1, B2, C and D.

Asked to specify the possible beneficiaries, Jacobs, who is in the country for the 2nd US-India Consular Dialogue, said, “It will apply for tourists, business travellers, crew members and for students.”

“Beginning today, our consulates in India are introducing a new programme to streamline the visa renewal process. Over time, this programme has the potential to benefit hundreds of thousands of visa applicants here in India,” she said.

Read more »

Categories: US Visa - Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Employment bright lining in cloud computing

Written by Lisa on March 15, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Cloud computing will be responsible for one in six new jobs in the next three years, according to a survey commissioned Tuesday by Microsoft and conducted by the technology research firm IDC.

The survey showed that while using Internet-based services to host IT systems is a form of outsourcing, cloud systems have actually created jobs.

According to the survey, cloud computing will create 70,000 new jobs in Canada by 2015, out of a total of about 400,000 estimated new jobs that will be created in that time. Montreal will see 7,800 of those new jobs.

John Weigelt, the national technology officer for Microsoft in Canada, said when large companies outsource their server needs to a cloud system, it allows their local tech departments to become less involved in day-to-day problems and maintenance, and allows them to concentrate more on how technology can spur innovation.

But cloud services also help create new companies by allowing entrepreneurs to set up businesses with far fewer costs than in the past.

“We’re seeing a lot of entrepreneurs start businesses with no IT department at all,” Weigelt said. “Now you can make use of your (computer) service as you require it. You can serve as few as 100 people and then scale worldwide in a rapid fashion.”

The Canadian Alliance for Advanced Technology warns, however, that Canada needs a national vision to help businesses leverage the Internet to improve their products, or they’ll become less competitive on the world stage.

He said one area of huge growth is in embedded systems, as everything from toasters, refrigerators and power meters are now starting to include Internet connections.

“We’ll have no more industry in Canada if we don’t go very quickly toward embedded systems, that is for sure,” said Jean-Guy Rens, senior analyst at the consulting firm Sciencetech.

Jason Magder
14 Mar 2012

Categories: IT Jobs - Tags: ,

IDC, Microsoft see 70,000 Canadian jobs in the clouds

Written by Lisa on March 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Forget about silver linings. If predictions of a recent IDC survey pan out, the cloud is one giant goldmine .

The analyst firm forecasts that cloud computing will create no less than 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015. Microsoft Corp., which commissioned the survey, also says that IT innovations created by cloud computing could produce no less than $1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues.

Just over 70,000 of these jobs will be located in Canada. InToronto, new jobs associated with the cloud will increase by an average of 20 per cent annually, resulting in more than 14,500 jobs by 2015.

Last year, according to IDC, cloud computing helped businesses around the globe create in excess of 1.5 million jobs. More than half of those jobs were in the small and medium sized business sector. InToronto, businesses with less than 500 employees will see an increase of more than 6,300 new jobs by 2015 while larger companies will see an increase of more than 8,100 jobs.

But the main message of the survey findings is not job creation alone. Of course if cloud computing delivers on those numbers, it would certainly be great for the economy. But let’s not be dazzled by the mega job projections.

The bigger message behind the survey, I believe, is how cloud computing has grown to encompass every industry and why businesses should determine whether they should be using cloud technology or not.

The same survey said that in 2011, businesses worldwide spent more than $28 billion in cloud services. That same year, cloud services helped businesses around the world generate more than $400 billion in revenue.

“These are not just technology companies we’re talking about, and they are not just large enterprises. Cloud computing has the potential to create an impact on almost any business in any industry,” according to John Weigelt, national technology officer for Microsoft Canada.

He further explains that not all the projected jobs will be in technology. “When companies are able to cut costs on technology through cloud computing, their resources are freed up to explore other projects, develop other products or services. New jobs come up in administration, sales, marketing or other departments.”

Weigelt sees the cloud as a “revolutionary technology”. He compares it to electricity which radically changed people’s day-to-day lives, how we conducted business and created goods. “The cloud today is transforming how we see business happening, how we manage computer resources and how we manage the market place.”

I do see how it has been able to aid a lot of organizations to maximize resources, improve processes and even discover new opportunities. However, for all the success stories around how companies have managed to use cloud computing, the technology is far from mature and certainly not for every business. The recurring reports of outages and crashes, massive data breaches, and even the all too many examples of cloud providers’ failure to address critical factors such as privacy, lead me to believe that attaining a universal confidence and faith in the technology is still – up in the clouds.

Weigelt admits “cloud computing may not be for every business.” He is also right when he says that companies should investigate if any cloud service might help out their business.

Companies need not turn their businesses upside down just to shoehorn cloud technology into their process or network. But if such a large amount of money is being spent today by other businesses in cloud computing and if other businesses (including the competition) are reaping rewards and revenue from it, a sensible entrepreneur would probably find it worthwhile to investigate.

Rather than taking a dive, businesses I believe should move cautiously, taking care to keep their focus on their business needs and goals rather than on the technology.

Nestor E. Arellano

6 Mar 2012

http://blogs.itbusiness.ca/2012/03/idc-microsoft-sees-70000-canadian-jobs-in-the-clouds/

Categories: Tech Jobs in Canada - Tags: ,

Expats play larger role in mid-tier IT firms

Written by Lisa on March 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment
BANGALORE: Bangalore-based product engineering and IT solutions company Mindteck earlier this month appointed a foreign national, Wayne Berkowitz, a former IBM executive, as its new CEO. According to the CFO Suresh Rao, Mindteck is gearing for its next level of growth and “Berkowitz will draw our strategic direction as we look to transition from a services oriented to solutions firm.”
Mindteck is amongst a growing list of mid-sized Indian IT companies that are looking to leverage on leaders with global experiences to drive global growth and become more relevant to customers.
When Ashok Soota left MindTree last year, the company appointed Albert Hieronimus in his place, as chairman. Hieronimus is also the chairman of the executive board at Bosch Rexroth AG. The PhD mathematician has nearly 30 years of industry experience at Mannesmann and Bosch Group companies, and he has experience in sales, finance, planning, management accounting, human resources, development and information processing.
Mphasis last year brought in a new chairman, Friedrich Froeschl, a person with broad industry experience in companies across technology and private equity. He also brings global experience, having worked in several continents with groups like Siemens.
Foreign nationals are often present on boards of mid-sized IT companies, but typically as external or independent members lending their names to help build the reputation of the organization and sharing their experiences. But increasingly they are taking on board positions with greater responsibilities. In some cases, expats are being appointed to lead key industry segments.

Categories: IT Professionals - Tags: , , ,

35,000 new IT jobs in Australia – and migrants needed to fill them

Written by Lisa on March 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Thousands of new jobs are set to be created in Australia’s digital economy, but there are not enough workers to fill them.

According to the Australian Computer Society, the booming digital economy may lead to the creation of 35,000 new ICT jobs by 2013, but Australia will not have enough candidates to fill these positions. The latest report found that while the digital economy was worth $100 billion last year and 14,000 new jobs would be created in 2012 with another 21,000 expected in 2013, university ICT enrolments were down in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. According to the report, and TechWorld, national enrolments are now less than half the enrolment numbers of a decade ago.

ICT skills brought by migration were also down. The report found that temporary ICT migrants arriving in Australia declined 25 per cent in 2011 to 8,530.

ACS chief executive, Alan Patterson, said that the Compendium confirmed Australia’s urgent need for coordinated policy focus on ICT given its value and the demands in the broader economy for skills. “Although ICT demand is increasing even in uncertain economic conditions, the number of domestic students choosing ICT as a career is insufficient to meet demand,” he said in a statement.

Patterson added that ICT enrolments are continuing to decline as a percentage of all higher education enrolments and the drop in skilled ICT migration suggests Australian employment requirements cannot be met easily.

29 Feb 2012

http://www.australiamagazine.co.uk/?p=1265

Categories: IT Jobs, Work in Australia - Tags: , ,

Tech firms hiring non-EU workers to fill skills gap

Written by Lisa on February 21, 2012 · Leave a Comment

TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES hired non-EU workers on more than 1,000 occasions last year to help plug a job gap in the industry, which is estimated to have between 2,500 and 3,000 unfilled positions.

Just under 1,200 permits were issued last year to non-EU nationals to fill positions in the IT sector. These comprised 493 green cards; 452 work permits; 137 intra-company transfers; and 116 spouse/dependant permits.

Although the HSE received the highest number of permits for non-EU employees, totalling 237, the remainder of the top 10 companies that acquired permits for employees in 2011 was dominated by IT companies, with Wipro Technologies, Google, Tata Consultancy, Infosys Technologies, LM Ericsson and Facebook all making the list.

However, Paul Sweetman, director of ICT Ireland, the communications and technology arm of Ibec, and the Irish Software Association (ISA), said that with more than 4,000 job announcements in the sector last year and over 700 this year to date, the acceleration in growth in the industry was a “good news story” for Ireland. The IT job gap is common in other jurisdictions also, he said.

“The skills demand is acutely felt in every technology hub,” he said, citing numerous European countries where there is a job gap in the sector.

“Many technology hubs are only waking up to the fact that there’s a skills demand where we have acknowledged that skills demand, and are working to address it.”

He added that a joint initiative between the Government, ICT Ireland and ISA launched last month aimed to address the job gap through short, medium and long-term education initiatives.

Barry O’Leary, chief executive of IDA Ireland, said the National Skills Bulletin 2011 showed that 88 per cent of computer systems managers, 79 per cent of software engineers and 84.5 per cent of computer analysts and programmers are Irish.

“Availability of skilled labour is one of the primary reasons, cited by our client companies, for locating operations in Ireland.

“The recently published IMD World Competitiveness Year Book 2011 ranks Ireland first in the world for the availability of skilled labour,” Mr O’Leary said

He said that a number of its client companies have specific language requirements that sometimes have to be met by sourcing staff from outside Ireland.

Overall, the number of “active” non-EU permits stood at 16,256 at the end of December 2011, which marks a 14 per cent decrease on the previous year.

The number of new permits and renewal permits issued last year stood at 5,200 – consisting of green cards, intra-company transfers, spousal/dependant permits, training and work permits – which were issued to people from more than 100 non-EU countries.

This is the lowest number of non-EU permits issued since 1997. The highest level was recorded in 2003 when 48,000 permits were issued.

The highest number of permits issued in 2011 went to those working in the health sector with 1,343 permits issued. More than half of these were spouse/dependant permits.

Meanwhile, 248 work permits and 197 spouse/dependant permits were granted to those working in the catering sector, usually in restaurants that specialise in ethnic cuisines such as Indian, Thai or Chinese.

PERMISSION TO WORK BY NATIONALITY AND EMPLOYER: BY NATIONALITY (new permits and renewal permits)

India 1,646

Philippines 753

USA 493

Romania 327

China 253

Malaysia 181

Brazil 162

South Africa 122

Pakistan 113

Ukraine 100

BY EMPLOYER

HSE 237

Wipro Technologies 161

Google 148

Tata Consultancy Services 99

Ernst and Young 59

Beaumont Hospital 50

Infosys Technologies Ltd 42

LM Ericsson Ltd 37

Domestic and General

Property Support Services 31

Facebook 30

20 Feb 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0220/1224312049446.html

Categories: IT Jobs - Tags: , ,

IT jobs market unfazed by UK unemployment

Written by Lisa on February 17, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Jobless figures continue to rise, but IT jobs are still growing

IT is doing “a little” better than other sectors in terms of the number of jobs available, according to IT jobs board CWJobs.co.uk.

This was good news for the IT industry as the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed today that the number of unemployed people in the UK had risen 48,000 to 2.67 million in the quarter – the highest rate since 1995.

“We’ve seen small increases in the overall number of IT jobs in the UK for the last nine quarters,” said Richard Nott, website director at CWJobs.

He stressed that the increases, while there, have only been small. Although, an (ISC)2 survey yesterday showed that the employment rate – at 96 percent – was going strong for information security professionals.

“The market overall is medium robust. It could always do a lot more, and we’re nowhere near 2006 or 2007 levels. We’ve got a long way to go to get back up to those levels,” he said.

Nott said that the demand was very strong for certain skill sets, particularly in Internet development, such as Javascript and HTML. People with experience of work in the Agile framework and technologies were also in high demand.

“A lot [of the growth] has been led by the financial services.

“This is counterbalanced by the decrease in the demand in the public sector, which has decreased significantly in the last 18 months. But we’ve seen people moving from the public to private sector,” he said.

In addition, the retail and media sectors are driving demand for IT skills, as they strive to put their businesses online, and to improve their online platforms.

Specialist IT recruitment agency Maximus was even more confident about the state of the IT jobs sector.

“For me, those figures are definitely not reflected in the IT sector. At the moment, Maximus is experiencing one of the busiest periods in the last three to four years. We have a very strong pipeline, in Europe and in the UK. We are having to expand our team of recruiters to deal with [the workload],” said Satnam Brar, managing director at Maximus.

However, a recent survey of IT professionals has found that more than a fifth (22 percent) of respondents – 504 in total were questioned – were concerned about job security.

The survey, conducted by OnePoll for cloud computing and communications services provider Star, also found that only half of the respondents said they were currently employed full-time by the company for which they were working.

Star believed that this job uncertainty implied that many IT professionals are actively looking for a job, making it difficult for companies to retain important skills.

Anh Nguyen

15 Feb 2012

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/3337738/it-jobs-market-unfazed-by-uk-unemployment/

Categories: UK IT jobs - Tags: ,

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