Day: December 18, 2025

A while back, I responded to a want ad on one of the job search sites.

Within a couple of days, I got an email from a company called Ace IT.

This company is peopled with nothing but Indians and probably owned by Indians as far as I can tell. It’s located in Austin, TX and after much back and forth, several “pre interviews” and their highly unprofessional cancellation of one of their “evaluations”. They finally got round to admitting that the position I’d applied for didn’t actually exist, but for an undefined “Fee” or fees they would accept me into their training after which I’d be sure to get a job, and they’d help…

In other words they wasted a ton of time trying to lure me into plunking out a bunch of cash to them buying “Training” then would in all likelihood not come through with any real position.

Based on my experience with them, I concluded they were a scam and disengaged.

Jump forward 4 months and they call again. They’re routed to voice mail and within seconds of them leaving a voice mail, there’s an email about the Software Quality Assurance position I “recently” applied for.

The email was addressed to “undisclosed recipients” 

Uh huh… 

The sender was a different person but the game was the same. In the intervening time, I have very specifically avoided anything to do with Ace IT so as not to waste my time.

Later in the day, I got another phone call that went to voice mail from yet another person, followed by the exact same email with a new sender’s name. Again the email was addressed to “undisclosed recipients”.

I was mildly annoyed, and again wondered if I should write a letter to the Attorney General of Texas to report these apparent scam artists.

While pondering what I would put in such a letter, I wondered if this sudden resurgence of Ace IT was due to more or less recent moves within the federal government. Specifically those moves concerning H1B visas.

Then my annoyance turned to a big smile.

Staffing firms have in recent years become overwhelmingly Indian, even those that were known for decades in my industry as being useful and reliable.

I haven’t spoken to a native English speaker at any recruitment firm for at least a decade.

Aerotek, who for years was my “Goto” staffing firm during the 1980s, ’90’ & 2000’s has been overrun by Indian workers. Back in the day, I had a particular guy at Aerotek that kept me working with pretty continuous contracts. We’d sometimes have lunch or meet for happy hour in Irvine. He’s long since gone and I haven’t spoken with anyone at Aerotek for at least a decade. I stopped dealing with them because they stopped being able to get me in front of hiring managers.

If Ace IT is desperate, and it appears that they are, it may mean that the Trump administration’s stance on H1B visas is having an impact. I love that.

If they’re not going to be able to funnel low wage, low quality H1B people from India into American jobs, they’re going to have to become a real recruiter or they’re going to have to close their doors.

I vote for the latter. I really hate people playing bait & switch. Especially when their game pollutes the actual hiring pool and creates postings for jobs that aren’t real.

I know I’m sounding more nationalistic, but the fact of the matter is these firms are nothing more than obstructions to the real job market. I’d like to see them all investigated for fraud and where applicable deportation or criminal proceedings.

The H1B system has been abused for decades and I’m all for it being completely reworked.