I recently ran into a situation that at first I thought was just an abnormally, but later I have found that it’s a common practice with Overseas Contracting firms and their partners here in the US.
After interviewing several candidates for several positions, most, if not all, of the candidates were H1s. The knowledge they seemed to possess did not seem to match what their resumes showed. I finally decided on a few that were closer than others to what I needed. After working with them for several months, I have been amazed at how little all of these contractors know.
One of the contractors I decided on showed 3 years experience here in the US on multiple .NET projects. Later after his contract ended, he confided in me that he had lied on his resume and that in fact he only had just gotten in the US when I hired him and that this was his first project. Which was quite obvious after the fact, considering his skill level. (Just want to say he was a very likeable guy and he did catch on quickly). He told me that all three of his representing firms (A major Indian firm, Broker and US firm) told him he had to show at least 3 years US experience to get an interview. He also told me he argued that it was a lie and more or less told him if he wants to work in the US he had to lie on his resume.
I decided to do a little more research to see how common this is, since it appeared this was in fact very common. Turns out this was the case with almost every contractor I have looked into about this. Please don’t ask for results on this survey or how I verified this. Turns out this is a common practice across firms not just this particular one I initially ran into.
The resumes are written in a manner that you can not verify the employment of the contractor at the other accounts and when asking the recruiters to verify the resume they just lie and say everyone said great things about them. Most companies who use contractors don’t verify H1 status either, meaning that even though they say they have been in the US for years, in fact they only received their H1 status very recently.
H1b’s are suppose to be here to supplement the “perceived” shortage of IT people here in the US. With this happening, the shortage is nonexistent because our college students are graduating with almost as much knowledge as the contractors we are bringing in. I have many more thoughts on this, but this email is not about H1s being allowed in the US, but about how they are being represented by Indian and US firms.
This is a heads up post. When interviewing, make sure you verify the candidates skills and their resume thoroughly and not just the employment history.