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India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

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Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you used to pay $50k for low-end tech jobs, you can probably find someone in the US to do it for $70k. The H1B is meant to fill skill gaps, NOT save money on those skills. If a company can't operate by paying market rates, that's a business model problem.

So that change in business model will likely mean more outsourcing of jobs. The fundamental goal of any company is to save money.

Absolutely. The onus is on the business themselves to facilitate that, not the government via the H1B.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#102
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

130K in Kansas City >> 130K in SF. Hope they take geography into consideration.

Why? This is great for programmers in areas like KC.

I live in KC, 130K is a GREAT salary. I think almost all tech jobs top out at low 100's here. But that is a very good living here. Er..I mean... kansas city sucks. DONT come here. Stay away. There be dragons. Its polluted, crime ridden, and full of RSTS/E machines.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$130k is a bit low for only 2 years of experience, but go deep in an area and you could get there. I think doubling down on React would be your best bet; the key is depth not breadth. (knowing Swift at a React job not really valuable; knowing Docker or hard-core backend - more than just building CRUD apps with Django - complements your React skills)

My day job is swift iOS development until recently. I learnt react redux etc etc for side project which I am doing. I have developed CRUD apps with some extra stuff like celery tasks , web sockets etc. I am at a point where I can pick up new languages/frameworks in a breeze (Yet to learn how to do non trivial functional programming though). Yeah I know key is depth, but I am interested in too many things :(.But indus…

Personally I'd stick with learning ML and be poor for a few years :-) You'll be setting yourself up for the next 20 years instead of the next 2.

In the long run I think ML will explode, whereas strictly web technologies is either a race to the bottom that's highly competitive, or a never ending hamster wheel where you're chasing the latest framework.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#104
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

130K in Kansas City >> 130K in SF. Hope they take geography into consideration.

Even better imagine houston where there is no state tax. There's no way one can pay 130K.

I'm having a difficult time imagining a scenario where an energy company in Houston or a tech company in Austin needs to search overseas for candidates with skills who aren't worth multiples of 130K/yr in value.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#105
post #21

ex-H1B Indian here, now permanent resident of Canada. Left US for good, because I was being exploited by tech firms taking advantage of my H1B status. This is a welcome change in my opinion. H1B workers were exploited by the Indian body shops as well as American employers. Raising the minimum wages will prune the bad apples and make H1B a visa system for the truly skilled candidates. Quirks: 1. Find & shutdown fake e…

What is "future GC"? I googled it with success. Thanks.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#106
post #8

Heh. Depends on which part of India you're referring to. The younger me would have found it more difficult to get foreign assignments that form the foundation for a lot of the house buying and marriage making here, but I think the slightly more experienced folks like present me welcome the change - that is the low end of the salary range I'd expect if I was going to jump countries with a family, and now I don't have…

> Dowries will also likely go down

I can't help wondering, how does being in IT and travelling to USA affect female Indians' marriage prospects? There's definitely quite a few Indian women in american IT, expecially project management.

I more or less understand how for a male this is very desirable, can you fill me in what's in it for females?

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#107
post #21

ex-H1B Indian here, now permanent resident of Canada. Left US for good, because I was being exploited by tech firms taking advantage of my H1B status. This is a welcome change in my opinion. H1B workers were exploited by the Indian body shops as well as American employers. Raising the minimum wages will prune the bad apples and make H1B a visa system for the truly skilled candidates. Quirks: 1. Find & shutdown fake e…

What is "future GC"? I googled it with success. Thanks.

I meant without success...

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#109
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infosys has market cap 34b, Flipkart valuation is tumbling and now at 5b. While not as cool as startups, Infosys and TCS are still much bigger and more stable companies.

by that measure all other startups suck and only microsoft or yahoo/alibaba is worth anything. I'm talking about aspirational reach - a H1B+TCS is not aspirational anymore.

No one is saying startup suck. you said: Infosys and TCS are NOT India's representative companies anymore.

More executives in the US and Europe probably know the big firms than the startups. Clearly they are representative. Do younger engineers aspire to join Flipkart more than Infy, probably but that doesn't make it representative to others.

Re: India's tech industry panics over U.S. plans to change high-skilled visas

#110

As an Indian who spent a lot of years on H1-B visa, I welcome this move. Though while talking about this subject, one should bear in mind that "Indians on H1-B" are not a homogeneous group. There are those, employed by the likes of AmaGooFaceSoft / Unicorns or graduating from mid-top tier universities, who will benefit by the proposed changes and who were indeed the "target audience" in mind when H1-B was linked to "…

>>There are those, employed by the likes of AmaGooFaceSoft / Unicorns or graduating from mid-top tier universities, who will benefit by the proposed changes and who were indeed the "target audience" in mind when H1-B was linked to "getting high skilled immigrants in the US".

Pray, educate us how modifying a XML or Json while working directly for AmaGooFaceSoft automatically makes you a 'highly skilled immigrant' and working through a outsourcing firm and doing the very exact same work doesn't.

The worst thing I have seen among Indians which often comes and bite us is to actively treat other people's work as beneath us.

By the way there are tons on projects in the outsourcing firms you mentioned which demand far higher quality and productivity than your ordinary project at AmaGooFaceSoft will ever ask. This is about work, not which company you work for. But I don't expect our fellow Indians to understand this any better given how we treat the social conditions we are born into as permanent positions for life. I can absolutely understand how some one with a job in AmaGooFaceSoft might think of people from outsourcing firms as lesser children of god, and they being masters of the universe, despite in many cases the former doing far better quality of work. In India workplaces are treated as status symbols for life and displayed on house nameplates and marriage invitations. So I realize the obviousness of 'they' vs 'us' context here.

If you don't speak up now, or take a stance just because it helps you, please note it well, you are next.

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