Japan experiencing American-like tech talent shortage

The NY Times reports on how Japan is facing an engineer talent shortage similar to the US. And, like the US, students are more attracted to the fields of finance, medicine, and even the arts.

And the end result will be engineers receiving increased compensation as they are in more demand. Until it reaches a critical point and it makes more financial sense to outsource to a cheaper location (India, China, or Slavic countries in the case of the US). And that has begun to happen in Japan. According to the article some firms already employ more engineer talent from countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia.

This is similar to the problem I faced while running a web development company from 1999 - 2006. Hands down the best developers were foreigners. This is not to say "American's" don't make for good workers, but rather than my experience is that foreigners usually made for great ones. That is -- they liked technology not just because it paid well, but because they had a true passion for it. Too many "American" workers walked in feeling entitled to greatness just because they had a degree in a tech-related field. They had nothing to show in terms of experience except a snazzy piece of paper. Meanwhile, the foreigners had examples of widgets and designs they put together as personal projects. And they were also more loyal to the company that furthered their advancement in the field. But then again, maybe I'm partial with my own family immigrant story.

I'm not sure if there is a solution, but there needs to be awareness of the problem. Engineering-types are lambasted in American culture as geeks or nerds. While much inroads have been made to make "geek" cool, the further extreme of "nerd" remains unacceptable. Being called as such in grade school remains social suicide.

So, let's start a campaign to make "nerd" cool. I wear a shirt with capital letters saying NERD. I'm may not exactly be an engineer, or even a full-fledged programmer, but I realize my entire industry depends on these creative geniuses.

Or, just do it for the kids.