[masraum]

I'm in IT, so we are generally called or considered engineers even though we are not PEs, like an EE, ME, ChemE, etc.... I've been in this business for 15 years. I'm a network engineer working with routers, switches, firewalls, etc.... I've worked for several different companies over the years and have been involved in interviews and worked along side many, many folks since the beginning. Many, many of the folks that I've worked with have been foreign.

My experience with resumes and interviews has been that most resumes look like the glossary or index of a technical textbook, but 90-95% of the folks that I've interviewed couldn't back up what was on the resume whether they were foreign or domestic. I have also heard at least one story of a guy that I once worked with going into an interview, and when he started looking over the resume, realized that it was his own, but presented as the resume of someone coming from overseas.

I have personally dealt with folks that were exceptional at their job with minimal training and qualifications, and I have also met folks with certifications, degrees and training that couldn't network their way out of a wet paper sack. I've met folks that interviewed very well, but when you get them at a desk, you wonder who was in the interview because they somehow managed to talk a good game, but weren't actually able to do the job (foreign and domestic).

The only place that I've seen folks with MS and PhD is just recently, and the fact that they were interviewing for a position below mine seemed bizarre, but then they were trying to come over from India, and based on their resumes, they didn't really have anything going for them other than the degrees.

I did once work with a guy from China. He had a degree (can't remember if it was MS or PhD), but because it was from China, no one in the US would honor it. He was very, VERY smart, quite impressive actually. I've worked with a few other Chinese that were very bright, but they were if not born in the US, then had grown up here.

I think I remember a thread here once that was talking about engineers from Asia vs the US with an interesting bit of info that I believe may be accurate to a degree. They said something to the effect that if you want the job performed exactly to standard that Asians were great. And if you want a problem solver that can think outside of the box, get an American. In my experience, it seems like many/most of the Asian cultures value and promote that everyone conforms to the norm or standard, but in America, innovation .