EDC Companies and Employment - Bill 31-0292

I'm not trying to derail the thread anymore. All i was trying to prove is they are locals being hired and I don't mean just "living requirement" locals. There's a good amount of locals at my work place who went to UVI. JahRustyFerrari instead of the back and forth we should be talking about why there's a small amount of Afro-Americans in the field. In the caribbean it's even worst. When I got hired the Lead said "you know how hard it is to find someone with your skillset on island?"...that bothered me. I'm very vocal about pushing Tech in the Virgin Island. I spoke to many people who ignored me at first but now are paying attention because I got a "good job" on island. It shouldn't be that way. We are apart of the problem. Let's look in the mirror first then address the unfair practices after. Look at most of the government websites..they suck. Most aren't even responsive.

Look at most of the government websites..they suck. Most aren't even responsive.

Not only unresponsive but very difficult to navigate.

I'm not trying to derail the thread anymore. All i was trying to prove is they are locals being hired and I don't mean just "living requirement" locals. There's a good amount of locals at my work place who went to UVI. JahRustyFerrari instead of the back and forth we should be talking about why there's a small amount of Afro-Americans in the field. In the caribbean it's even worst. When I got hired the Lead said "you know how hard it is to find someone with your skillset on island?"...that bothered me. I'm very vocal about pushing Tech in the Virgin Island. I spoke to many people who ignored me at first but now are paying attention because I got a "good job" on island. It shouldn't be that way. We are apart of the problem. Let's look in the mirror first then address the unfair practices after. Look at most of the government websites..they suck. Most aren't even responsive.

LOL...I hear you. I don't "sound Black" on the phone, so I get a lot of surprised looks when I show up for face-to-face interviews. We are definitely under-represented in this field.

International Capital and Management on St Thomas actively recruits for locals for good jobs. They've been running ads in the Daily News, and I know someone who got hired there, though she went to college in the States. They advertise their job openings frequently in the Daily News.

I just finished up my BA in Emerging Media

My engineer buddies can't even get their phone calls returned and you got a gig with a BA in "Emerging Media?" Do you have a "prominent" last name?

I just finished up my BA in Emerging Media

My engineer buddies can't even get their phone calls returned and you got a gig with a BA in "Emerging Media?" Do you have a "prominent" last name?

LOL. My background is from Antigua. You're showing your ignorance here. I went to Hunter University which had a 24% acceptance rate when I got in. I'm sure your buddy would tell you that to make traction in the Tech industry you don't need a degree at all. I graduated with honors when I got my AS so I choose to go into something that made me more rounded since I did more learning out of school. I know that having a Bachelor gets you to have the conversation and your skills talk after. There goes my love and hate with your posts again.

One of my buddies dropped out of Hunter's ComSci program and is making a little over an 100k right now

I graduated with honors when I got my AS so I choose to go into something that made me more rounded since I did more learning out of school.

(tu)(tu)

I graduated with honors when I got my AS so I choose to go into something that made me more rounded since I did more learning out of school.

(tu)(tu)

Not sure if this is sarcasm but your previous post just showed that you don't understand the tech industry at all. You also tried to bring down one of your own AND discredit my success to having a "prominent last name"...amazing. Have a nice day and I hope you feel better about yourself.

I graduated with honors when I got my AS so I choose to go into something that made me more rounded since I did more learning out of school.

(tu)(tu)

Great decision 😀

The Bachelors helps you get your foot in the door, but yes, it is all based on skills after that. When you're in a deadline-driven Agile/Scrum environment nobody wants to hear "I can't do that" LOL

I have observed terrible animus toward locals from EDC folks. Many have told me (when I am intentionally "yanking") that locals are lazy, stupid, do not show up to work, etc.

you feel that those comments are wholly unwarranted?

Many times the jobs are posted simply to satisfy DOL requirements.

I think this is the case most the time as well.. I work for the federal government down here and have seen Hires based on nepotism railroaded through the system with H E A V Y pressure from "above" to "get it done".... something that was a total shock to me as I didn't think that was even possible (though the amount of collusion is so high, any system will buckle when no one supports it).

I graduated with honors when I got my AS so I choose to go into something that made me more rounded since I did more learning out of school.

(tu)(tu)

Great decision 😀

The Bachelors helps you get your foot in the door, but yes, it is all based on skills after that. When you're in a deadline-driven Agile/Scrum environment nobody wants to hear "I can't do that" LOL

I know all about that life. Notice, I didn't mention internships or jobs I had in NYC. Yeah in my "Emerging Media" degree that monogram was laughing at. I was exposed to web dev/programming, game programming, film(editing, copyrights, history), motion graphics, 3D, and IoT. One of my professors who is actually now a good friend of mine used to be the chairman of the AIGA. I'm a great designer and a great coder...I'm an unicorn. If there's one thing I learned from being away from this rock is making yourself marketable.

Do you have a "prominent" last name?

Gee whizz, first it's the "elitist transplants" then it's the locals and now this crack about a name. Your condescending negativity has no filter and knows no bounds.

Good for you, cre!

I have observed terrible animus toward locals from EDC folks. Many have told me (when I am intentionally "yanking" ) that locals are lazy, stupid, do not show up to work, etc.

you feel that those comments are wholly unwarranted?

LOL LiquidFlouride!! It's just shocking to see how open they are about saying these things. Such statements would be seen as politically incorrect and highly offensive on the mainland. Yet when the obvious logical outgrowth is deduced (that there is a stigma against local employees) people deny to high heaven.

That sentiment isn't limited to EDC folks-- I've heard it from restaurant owners (who say local employees are bad), travel nurses, etc. It's pervasive. Honest people won't deny this.

I have observed terrible animus toward locals from EDC folks. Many have told me (when I am intentionally "yanking" ) that locals are lazy, stupid, do not show up to work, etc.

you feel that those comments are wholly unwarranted?

LOL LiquidFlouride!! It's just shocking to see how open they are about saying these things. Such statements would be seen as politically incorrect and highly offensive on the mainland. Yet when the obvious logical outgrowth is deduced (that there is a stigma against local employees) people deny to high heaven.

That sentiment isn't limited to EDC folks-- I've heard it from restaurant owners (who say local employees are bad), travel nurses, etc. It's pervasive. Honest people won't deny this.

I won't deny it. I have seen it first hand. I have a friend who has really worked hard to hire "local". She keeps having to let them go because they either don't show up, show up late or show up on time, but have to eat their breakfast on the clock. Perhaps this is just among the younger people who lack a work ethic but it certainly casts a bad shadow.

I won't deny it. I have seen it first hand. I have a friend who has really worked hard to hire "local". She keeps having to let them go because they either don't show up, show up late or show up on time, but have to eat their breakfast on the clock. Perhaps this is just among the younger people who lack a work ethic but it certainly casts a bad shadow.

I work for the federal government here, same exact thing (but, I can add a lot to that list).

Every

Day.

I supposedly work at a professional level too, where I work is I'd guess 85% "local".

I have observed terrible animus toward locals from EDC folks. Many have told me (when I am intentionally "yanking" ) that locals are lazy, stupid, do not show up to work, etc.

you feel that those comments are wholly unwarranted?

LOL LiquidFlouride!! It's just shocking to see how open they are about saying these things. Such statements would be seen as politically incorrect and highly offensive on the mainland. Yet when the obvious logical outgrowth is deduced (that there is a stigma against local employees) people deny to high heaven.

That sentiment isn't limited to EDC folks-- I've heard it from restaurant owners (who say local employees are bad), travel nurses, etc. It's pervasive. Honest people won't deny this.

That may be true for SOME people, but I would refrain from making generalizations about any group as a whole. Saying that "local employees" are bad is a huge generalization, and displays an astonishing disregard for, for example, the thousands of "local employees" who worked 16-hour shifts (sometimes 24) at the defunct oil refinery. There was one guy who hadn't had a sick day or absent day in thirty years, his name is Duval...it was in the local papers, so public record. His case was extreme, but the work ethic of those people should not be trampled on by broad generalizations.

Anyone who suggests that we as "local employees" all behave the same is a racist. If you really want to dig deep and uncover the ugly, you will find that a lot of the people who run EDC companies would never hire anyone who looks like a "local employee" if they had the choice. The primary purpose for being here is to collect on the tax benefits, it's all about the money. Being forced to hire people who they would never consider on the mainland is a minor inconvenience with a huge payoff.

It's definitely not all locals. There's a lot of hard working people out here but here's what I noticed. The nepotism that happens here tend to mostly be in public facing positions. Sometimes these people are rude or have bad habits and think it's ok to act how they act. There's usually no consequences for their actions. When you encounter people like that in public facing positions you tend to think that's how the whole organization is runned. Imagine someone coming from abroad and encountering these types of people it's very easy to make that generalization. I worked at FedEx office and you were written up for being late three times in a three month period(late being like 8 mins). Three write ups and you're fired.

Yes, the generalizations and the finger-pointing are plain daft. There are good employees and bad employees regardless where they come from. I was a business owner here for 16 years and dealt with them all, good and bad. The good far outweighed the bad because the bad didn't last five minutes (and there were some real doozies)!

Anyone who suggests that we as "local employees" all behave the same is a racist. If you really want to dig deep and uncover the ugly, you will find that a lot of the people who run EDC companies would never hire anyone who looks like a "local employee" if they had the choice. The primary purpose for being here is to collect on the tax benefits, it's all about the money. Being forced to hire people who they would never consider on the mainland is a minor inconvenience with a huge payoff.

That's the problem with stereotyping- it hurts the good ones. Some of the EDC people need to sit in on a local graduation ceremony and see how many locals we send off to elite colleges each year. The VI produces some very smart people, but that fact is often obscured by the brain drain. #BringBackOurYoungPeople

Anyone who suggests that we as "local employees" all behave the same is a racist. If you really want to dig deep and uncover the ugly, you will find that a lot of the people who run EDC companies would never hire anyone who looks like a "local employee" if they had the choice. The primary purpose for being here is to collect on the tax benefits, it's all about the money. Being forced to hire people who they would never consider on the mainland is a minor inconvenience with a huge payoff.

That's the problem with stereotyping- it hurts the good ones. Some of the EDC people need to sit in on a local graduation ceremony and see how many locals we send off to elite colleges each year. The VI produces some very smart people, but that fact is often obscured by the brain drain. #BringBackOurYoungPeople

Exactly. I graduated from St. Croix Central High. The funny thing is, many of the same young people who get the bad rap here go off to the mainland and do just fine in the middle of "Babylon". Many of us are denied the opportunity to return because we are stigmatized as "local", even though we perform well at IBM, Google, Boeing, Yahoo, and numerous other corporations. In addition, as Black professionals we are faced with the additional burden of having to prove that there are, for example, Black people who are good at computer programming.

Maybe we should take the initiative and start networking with each other, create a blog, form a community of VI tech professionals, keep each other advised of job opportunities in the tech field back home, and act as sort of a watchdog group to ensure that people do the right thing...for example, if a firm posts a tech job at DOL, make sure it is an actual job that the firm intends to hire somebody for, and not just a ploy to keep DOL happy so that the EDC status can be maintained and the tax benefits can keep rolling in. Remember that they are not here primarily for us, but for the money.

Members of the tech group can, for example, go to the annual EDC meeting usually held at Divi on St. Croix (not sure where on St. Thomas) and listen to the topics being discussed. Maybe you'll hear some firms asking lots of questions about how they can reduce the number of employees and reduce the time the firm's principals need to spend on-island, while suffering no reduction in tax benefits. You can learn a lot at those meetings, trust me. One of the goals of some EDC companies seems to be "maximize tax benefits while employing as few 'local employees' as possible, and at as low a pay rate as we can get away with".

Beware of firms/people who make scathing remarks about the "local employee". There is often a racist agenda behind those remarks. This needs to be brought to light when discovered.

Who knows, maybe having a unified tech community that polices its own and presents a professional face to prospective employers will help to erase some of the stigma.

How refreshing to see a positiver approach and a potential solution to the problem! Cast aside the "maybe" and put it into action. If I could be of any small help at all in putting it together I'd be delighted to do so. Anything to reduce the incessant back burner bleating. 😀

Our islands are small- it might take some time to build your group up. What about joining the VI Young Professionals Network? It seems to be affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce, which in itself opens up a fair amount of networking opportunities. Here on STX they met regularly for a while, maybe still do. Anyone have any experience with them?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/st-croix-young-professionals-network-61887924

https://m.facebook.com/YPNVI/

How refreshing to see a positiver approach and a potential solution to the problem! Cast aside the "maybe" and put it into action. If I could be of any small help at all in putting it together I'd be delighted to do so. Anything to reduce the incessant back burner bleating. 😀

I hear you! The "back burner bleating" (LOL...can I steal that? ) is most unproductive 😀

How refreshing to see a positiver approach and a potential solution to the problem! Cast aside the "maybe" and put it into action. If I could be of any small help at all in putting it together I'd be delighted to do so. Anything to reduce the incessant back burner bleating. 😀

I hear you! The "back burner bleating" (LOL...can I steal that? ) is most unproductive 😀

I graduated from Central High(04) also. I know you said you didn't get a call back and I don't know if you tried these tips so I'll just tell you em anyway because I personally want everyone to win.

1. Don't depend on the DOL. They're a waste. Think about it, you fill out an app and put your info online but if you go in to the acutal DOL there isn't anything they could do for you besides the jobs online. Why are all these people hired?

2. Reach out to the owners of all these companies on Linkedin. I didn't get a job at NEARiX but I was able to speak to Leon Hughes on Linkedin before I even got here. When I got on island he set up a phone interview with this guy but it was weird. I didn't know what the job title was until after I didn't get it. The point is I got the conversation going.

3. Call and follow-up. I seen people get traction because of that.

4. I sent a cold tweet to an owner of another company here and I got some work to design something for Tourism. It's probably going to go live next year but I figure that once you get traction here all these people are connect.

Please, please don't take these as an insult. It's a different market here so you gotta be creative. Good luck with everything. We should chat outside the forum.

Our islands are small- it might take some time to build your group up. What about joining the VI Young Professionals Network? It seems to be affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce, which in itself opens up a fair amount of networking opportunities. Here on STX they met regularly for a while, maybe still do. Anyone have any experience with them?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/st-croix-young-professionals-network-61887924

https://m.facebook.com/YPNVI/

Thanks for the links!
I envision a new network, possibly affiliated with VI Young Professionals but focused on Information Technology with a further emphasis on software development.

There are over one million IBM employees in India...imagine having one-tenth of one percent of that in the VI. We need a much greater emphasis on software development...that's where the jobs are, and they are great-paying jobs but you need the right skills. I recently helped a friend build an Android app that targets India's college-bound students. The app's database contains over 5,000 tech schools located in India!! If you have ever worked with an Indian programmer, you can see why IBM etc. are over there. We are so far behind it's sad.

I would like to see a network that is focused on creating a software development community in the VI that is strong enough to attract multinational corporations like IBM. You can't talk about being the "Silicon Valley of the Caribbean" if you have no computer programmers. Silicon Valley is all about programming. The IT infrastructure behind the programming is secondary.

I live and work in Florida. Tampa is often called the local Silicon Valley. Most of the high-paying tech jobs there are for .NET, Java, and other hardcore programming skills. A software developer in Tampa can expect to be presented with six-figure salary offerings once he/she gets past the interview process and an offer is made. I would love to see that kind of activity in the VI, but we need to get our act together.