AT&T CEO suggests that our education system has failed

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 09:40 AM

AT&T CEO says hard to find skilled U.S. workers - Yahoo! News

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.

"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.

Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as AT&T's repatriation of service positions and education grants, he added.

So what could be done to turn this around?

bheld · 03-27-2008, 09:47 AM

It would be great if people actually got involved in solving problems instead of just bitching about them.

The problem is that there's no central location for educational policy and practice research and dissemination. This is something ideally suited for the federal government but it can't be an executive level office or else some moron like Bush would be able to neuter it like he has with every other single government entity under his control. You've got thousands of school districts out there all doing things in a thousand different ways and there needs to be somebody or something setting the parameters for school operation in this country.

School choice and vouchers aren't going to fix the problem this guy is talking about. There needs to be a rethinking of the whole system.

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by bheld

It would be great if people actually got involved in solving problems instead of just bitching about them.

The problem is that there's no central location for educational policy and practice research and dissemination. This is something ideally suited for the federal government but it can't be an executive level office or else some moron like Bush would be able to neuter it like he has with every other single government entity under his control. You've got thousands of school districts out there all doing things in a thousand different ways and there needs to be somebody or something setting the parameters for school operation in this country.

School choice and vouchers aren't going to fix the problem this guy is talking about. There needs to be a rethinking of the whole system.

Perhaps I should have said "Let's look at this from a problem solving point of view", not a "let's automatically say centralize or decentralize depending if we're collectivist or individualist" point of view

The answer to everything is not necessarily centralize/regulate or decentralize/deregulate, IMO.

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 09:56 AM

By the way, this is similar to what Bill Gates has been saying for a long time.

bheld · 03-27-2008, 09:57 AM

Your dismissive attitude isn't really enough to constitute a valid counter-argument.

What's your proposal? Praying? Cutting taxes?

bheld · 03-27-2008, 10:00 AM

By the way, this is a problem that goes deeper than just the schools.

The education system has only failed as much as the housing, healthcare, and nutrition systems have failed.

WickedLou9 · 03-27-2008, 10:13 AM

Well let me be the contrarian here and say that if they are having a hard time finding workers, perhaps they should offer more money. During the dot com bubble, these tech people were being pumped out of colleges and universities like crazy. I was one of them. At the time, we were hearing stories about people being offered signing bonuses right out of college. There was no shortage of technically skilled workers. I would even argue that the bubble resulted in an over abundance of "skilled" workers in a particular field. I am sure that this resulted in fewer people chosing other professions.
Our colleges and universities are still some of the best in the world. Our lower levels of education might not be that great but no one is "skilled" untill they either go to a trade school after k-12 or some sort of college or university. If you graduate with a degree from any of the top tier schools, you should be a desireable worker in whatever field you have chosen. If AT&T or Microsoft or whoever, is having trouble finding skilled workers, they should offer more money for those positions to encourage more people to pursue them. They can't just sit there and complain about not enough skilled workers and expect that people will suddenly decide to become skilled. THat's the free market my friend. If you can't find enough workers, offer more money for those positions.

Let me also add that customer service is a shitty position to have to work. You are mostly dealing with people who have problems and that are angry. If you take a job in CS, your plan is usually to leave that position as soon as you are able. So what these CEO's are actually saying is that they are having trouble finding workers for customer service at the salaries they are offering. I bet if you offered 45k a year instead of 30k a year, you would have a greater number of applications and more skilled workers applying for those positions.

Phantom · 03-27-2008, 10:14 AM

Maybe the problem has nothing to do with education, health, housing etc. and simply is a lack of desire to prosper.

I think the sense of entitlement among Americans is going to be our downfall, not any failures in government systems.

Scrum · 03-27-2008, 10:19 AM

His problem isn't a lack of skilled workers, it's a lack of skilled workers that will work as cheap as the labor in India.

bheld · 03-27-2008, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Phantom

Maybe the problem has nothing to do with education, health, housing etc. and simply is a lack of desire to prosper.

I think the sense of entitlement among Americans is going to be our downfall, not any failures in government systems.

Have you seen how materialistic kids are these days? It's definitely not a lack of desire to prosper.

WickedLou9 · 03-27-2008, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Scrum

His problem isn't a lack of skilled workers, it's a lack of skilled workers that will work as cheap as the labor in India.

fucking exactly.

WickedLou9 · 03-27-2008, 10:23 AM

And let's not forget that the reason they are brining back these jobs to US soil is not because they are altruistic or they are great patriots... they are bringing them back because thier CUSTOMERS demand it. no one wants to call AT&T customer service and get someone in another country who speaks poor english and who can't really help them. IT's up to each company to decide whether the costs involved in hiring workers on US soil offset the costs in terms of customer satisfaction.

Phantom · 03-27-2008, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by bheld

Have you seen how materialistic kids are these days? It's definitely not a lack of desire to prosper.

Materialistic is part of the problem. They want the things, but they don't want to work for them. Everyone wants something for no work. This isn't new, but more recently it seems like people think they are entitled to wealth for no work. That's the problem.

Why shouldn't AT&T send the jobs to India?

Shouldn't the person in India be able to compete if he/she want to work hard? Should we automatically favor someone here in the US because of nothing more than where they were born? That doesn't seem fair to me.

Scrum · 03-27-2008, 10:26 AM

I wonder what area they are hiring the positions? I know it's not around here.

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 10:26 AM

If this is the case then why can't my company find quality people without an average 2 month search? Why is it so easy to get a job in technical positions right now?

There may be a lot of people who were pumped out through those new horizons type schools, but there aren't a lot of people who are truly qualified producers. The guy has a valid complaint.

I agree about offering more money, that's what we've done, but even doing so hasn't increased the number of good candidates we interview.

Scrum · 03-27-2008, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

And let's not forget that the reason they are brining back these jobs to US soil is not because they are altruistic or they are great patriots... they are bringing them back because thier CUSTOMERS demand it. no one wants to call AT&T customer service and get someone in another country who speaks poor english and who can't really help them. IT's up to each company to decide whether the costs involved in hiring workers on US soil offset the costs in terms of customer satisfaction.

Great point. They want something for nothing.

WickedLou9 · 03-27-2008, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by thewise1

If this is the case then why can't my company find quality people without an average 2 month search? Why is it so easy to get a job in technical positions right now?

There may be a lot of people who were pumped out through those new horizons type schools, but there aren't a lot of people who are truly qualified producers. The guy has a valid complaint.

I agree about offering more money, that's what we've done, but even doing so hasn't increased the number of good candidates we interview.

If you are picky about who you hire, as you should be, it will take a while to find the right person. We go through the same thing where I work. We have an exhaustive interview process where the candidate is here literally all day interviewing with 8-10 different people. Eventually you do find the right person.

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by bheld

Your dismissive attitude isn't really enough to constitute a valid counter-argument.

What's your proposal? Praying? Cutting taxes?

Well, first we'd need to define the specific goal. If you don't know what you're trying to solve, you're not going to be successful solving it.

I would think a good goal that would solve this problem at a deeper level would be to create a generation of entrepreneurial individuals who do not have a sense of entitlement, are hard working, can think critically, and are skilled at English, mathematics, history, and physical sciences out of high school. That's not to say only those subjects, however.

Do you think that goal covers it? Once we've got a goal we can discuss ways to get there without necessarily falling back on the tired arguments of centralize/decentralize - we can just propose solutions to the problem instead.

thewise1 · 03-27-2008, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

If you are picky about who you hire, as you should be, it will take a while to find the right person. We go through the same thing where I work. We have an exhaustive interview process where the candidate is here literally all day interviewing with 8-10 different people. Eventually you do find the right person.

Right - we have a similar process, of course.

The thing is, it's really hard to find that fit, which is my point. That kind of person is really hard to find, because there aren't that many of them in general.

WickedLou9 · 03-27-2008, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by thewise1

Right - we have a similar process, of course.

The thing is, it's really hard to find that fit, which is my point. That kind of person is really hard to find, because there aren't that many of them in general.

I don't know if that is a problem with education so much as it is with the position itself. If you are looking for an experienced person for a highly specialized sort of position, there won't be alot of them out there. Alot of companies don't want to train anyone these days. They want someone that they can hire who will just hit the ground running. If everyone is looking for the same thing, and no one will spend the money to train anyone, there will obviously be a shortage of workers for that kind of position. I know for my company that they don't teach what we do in any school. Sure you might get the basic tools you need but our business is unique, as are many successful US businesses. If you don't want to train someone, it's going to be harder to find a fit.