HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing

My plan to save the housing market, the economy, and HostGator simultaneously…

Written by Brent Oxley on September 27, 2007 – 3:56 pm -

First off HostGator is not in any kind of trouble so don’t let the title scare you.

One of the biggest issues plaguing HostGator from day one has been finding qualified system administrators. Getting business is the easy part for us! At times we purposely slow down sales in order to allow for the hiring of support techs to keep up with growth. The majority of job applicants we receive are from qualified system administrators with a great deal of experience in this industry, but they reside overseas. If they had a quick, easy, and legal way to come over to America, than we would be hiring them left and right. Unfortunately, this is not an option.

The plan:

I propose we allow any foreigner who purchases a home and lives in it, to become a US Citizen. What about their family? Allow them to stay on some type of visitor pass requiring them to live at the same house until they one day move out to purchase their own home. We could even charge a visitor tax that will contribute toward any costs that may come from their stay, such as schooling. The money generated from this program would result in billions of dollars a year in tax revenue.

The housing market currently has approximately 4.5 million unsold homes. I have no idea how many home sales something like this would generate, but I’m willing to bet it would be at least a million. HostGator alone would purchase a dozen plus homes if it meant a highly skilled admin from another country could come to America to work for us. This would be a major boost to the housing market, crashing home prices would stabilize and perhaps even start to rebound. If an immigrant is required to purchase a home before becoming a US citizen, than they are most likely either going to be making a very good living.

These people coming to the U.S. would be the system administrators, doctors, engineers, programmers, and would fill the void of many other specialized jobs that companies like HostGator are in dire need to fill. Do we need to worry about terrorists entering our country this way? Sure, but not anymore than we do about the 9 million illegal immigrants currently living in our country. Do we need to worry about American jobs being lost? They are already being lost due to the outsourcing that occurs. HostGator does not outsource and we actively seek employees that are local to our Houston office. However, with a field as specialized as web hosting, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the right talent.

We are paying our Chief Technology Officer $100,000’s of dollars a year through our Canadian office, yet he is not legally able to come work for us in America. We have spoken to several immigration lawyers, and no one can get him in. He has been denied at the border numerous times. Our CTO, David Collins has no criminal record and is by far the most honest person I have ever met.

Our government needs to stop bleeding money and start running a more like a business. Dave is begging to work for us in America, and would be paying taxes on his high salary income. He is the smartest administrator anyone in our company knows, and if it was not for him the 100+ HostGator employees would most likely be unemployed. We have a lot of businesses and people willing to pay big bucks in order to be allowed to live and work in America.

What makes a company great? Is it the pretty office, the cool name, or nifty business cards? No!

To be the best you have to have the best working for you. If our country keeps turning away the brightest such as Dave it’s only a matter of time before we are no longer the most powerful nation in the world. If you’re a part of the U.S. Government and are reading this please stop forcing American businesses to outsource to other countries. Allow us to bring in the talent we need to stay competitive with other nations. You can play it off and pretend it’s not a problem. After all HostGator, which is not that big, is the only company with this issue, right? It looks like Microsoft, is being forced to open a Canadian office to find the talent it needs.

“Microsoft Corp. plans to set up house in the Vancouver area this fall with a new software development centre that would attract talent without encountering U.S. immigration issues.” “The company said the new location will “allow the company to continue to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by the immigration issues in the U.S.”
Source: http://www.thestar.com/article/232774

$50,000 Reward:

We our offering a $50,000 cash reward to anyone that can get our CTO
David Collins legally into America! If it’s a bribe we have to make, it’s a
bribe we shall. If you’re sure you can do it contact jobs@HostGator.com
We are also offering a $3,000 reward to anyone that can refer us a
system administrator that we hire. Please email jobs@HostGator.com for
more information

Posted in Brent Oxley, Gator Politics |