STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp

Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by puppetmaster3 on Monday March 10, 2014 @11:29AM (#7373460)

" just a shortage at the price the employer is willing to pay." - preach it.

In a fair market, price goes up to increase the supply.

For example lawyers. I'm paying $600 /hr. Plenty of them around, no shortage.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by rooted on Monday March 10, 2014 @11:48AM (#7373589)

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by jnbiche on Monday March 10, 2014 @12:04PM (#7373694)

Of course it's not. Why is it reasonable to pay lawyers $600/hr but to pay a skilled computer engineer the same is interpreted as a joke? That's not a rhetorical question -- I'd really like to know the answer.

Actually, I suspect I know the answer in many cases, but I'm curious what other people think.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by nostrademons on Monday March 10, 2014 @05:13PM (#7375728)

My understanding of how legal billing works is that you aren't actually buying one person's time for $600/hr, but you're buying a team of junior paralegals, legal secretaries, and young associates and one big-name attorney to supervise them. The big-name attorneys make a lot, but nowhere close to $600/hour; even if they're partners, a lot of money is going to the salaries of the paralegals, legal secretaries, and $160K/year associates under them.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by maineldc on Monday March 10, 2014 @02:39PM (#7374831)

Is your lawyer an in-house general counsel? Probably no. Do you require this person's services for ~40/hrs per week, every week for years on end? Probably no.

I would certainly pay an amazing engineer $600/hr if I could call on them at any time and get billed at increments of 6 minutes, but that would be an insane way to build software (I know lawyers who think its an insane way to do law, but it is the system).

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by matz1 on Monday March 10, 2014 @12:35PM (#7373925)

Because there are less lawyer than engineer. You can't outsource lawyer from different country.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by stonemetal on Monday March 10, 2014 @02:58PM (#7374951)

You can't outsource lawyer from different country.

Maybe not trial lawyers or other positions where you need a warm body in the courtroom, but entry level lawyers are feeling the outsourcing squeeze as well.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by Kluny on Monday March 10, 2014 @02:42PM (#7374855)

Source? I'd be willing to bet there are just as many lawyers as engineers.

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Re:STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisiti... by matz1 on Monday March 10, 2014 @04:16PM (#7375414)

Different country has different law.

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