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Laid Off, Now What?

bharathpbhat.github.io

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Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#41

Post by nickysielicki »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #10

H1B rules are quite ridiculous (or more accurately, cruel). Do people here know that even this 60-day grace window was only put into place relatively recently by the Obama administration? Before that, you technically had to leave the country the day you were laid off. Never mind that you might have a house a family and might have been living here for more than a decade. You would officially be staying illegally if yo…

I fully support immigration reform and expedited citizenship for skilled workers. I empathize with you. I have a lot of friends from school who have to deal with this, and it sucks.

On the other hand, the H1B system isn’t supposed to import fungible labor. These visa are supposed to be for highly specialized labor — highly specialized to the point that the openings are rare. It’s hard to fault an abused program for being inconsiderate of a problem it wasn’t supposed to solve.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#42

Post by nph5667 »

I find it quite amusing the efforts programmers have to put into a job interview. Especially comparing to what they will be doing every day at job if they are accepted. It's two separate worlds - job interview and job itself.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#43

Post by ramraj07 »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #8
oDot wrote: post #7

The current state of job interviews is terrible. Just the fact that studying for a few weeks affects their outcome should raise eyebrows everywhere. And don't get me started on lack of job-related questions, false negatives and having to guess what interviewers want to hear

[Edit: Parent commenter has now reworded their comment to remove confusion] Huh? OP wasn't a rando who just 'studied' for a few weeks and passed. He has been working in Tech for 7+ years [1]. If anything the moral of this story is it doesn't matter that you have a 7 year experience, you still have to do fucking Leetcode for 2 months if you want to get a new job. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharathpbhat/

I see _some_ potential acceptability to this idea though. There are a few hypotheses for this to be true:

1. If you're not a good programmer even with leetcode practice you can't get good 2. If you're a good programmer with leetcode practice you eliminate anxiety and are able to perform optimally according to your programming skills

Thus, it is definitely semi annoying that you need to "prep" for interviews with leetcode, its not the absolute worst thing in the world. Software engineers in the US tend to routinely forget how good they have basically everything compared to every other profession / nation out there.

This is also coming from and Indian dude currently back in India after a decade of being in the States. I think a 60 day window is perfectly acceptable (not great but not terrible either) for immigrant workers. I'm still glad for the opportunity this gives people. You're supposed to be a smart cookie anyways right? Didn't you know these terms when you started? Perhaps you should have made sure you had an exit plan. It's definitely on you if you come on a h1b and instantly proceed to buy a mansion that you can't sell off and leave nation if needed. Also, people blame their kids for not wanting to move them back to their original countries - I feel like the kids will be alright. It's probably the adults who will despise going back to a "lesser" lifestyle or something.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#44

Post by paxys »

confidantlake wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every one of the numerous studies done in this area over the years has come to the clear conclusion that high-skilled immigration produces a net economic benefit to the country and its workers (here's a recent one - https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Impact-of-H-... ). Silicon Valley itself wouldn't exist had it not been openly attracting talent from all over the world, and the difficulty in getting visa…

The study is unconvincing. They mention that fields with more h1bs have lower unemployment. Well no kidding, in demand fields attract more h1bs, it isn't the h1bs making it more attractive. Another problem with the study. "...the program enables employers to hire foreign workers when they cannot hire U.S. workers" This is such a lie. My brother has looking for around a year and cannot get his first position. Past few…

You've highlighted the problem with public discourse in the country. "I'm going to choose to ignore all scientific evidence because my brother can't get a job and it feels like H-1B is the cause" - sadly applicable to any policy topic where politicians & media are taking advantage of people's emotions.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#45

Post by gcheong »

lordnacho wrote: post #24
oDot wrote: post #7

The current state of job interviews is terrible. Just the fact that studying for a few weeks affects their outcome should raise eyebrows everywhere. And don't get me started on lack of job-related questions, false negatives and having to guess what interviewers want to hear

It's bad, but compared to other industries there are some real pluses. At least you can actually hunker down and do these silly tests. There's a huge amount of advice on the technical stuff. And yes it means people who have a job already are disadvantaged, but that also means people who have no income have a way in. In a lot of other industries, there's no real way to boost your game. Often it's purely reputation of…

If only it had stopped at fizzbuzz as a quick check for whether you can meet the lowest bar for coding I think it would still have some merit but it just seems to have gotten out of hand to the point that ability to get a job now is completely decoupled from your prior experience.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#46

Post by ralph84 »

paxys wrote: post #25
mancerayder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Typically it's the Democrats who are pro-immigration, but in reality they don't care much about H1B style immigration and are in fact likely against it due to American tech unions hating H1Bs, Wait, what? Tech unions? I've never seen a single union in my entire 20 year career. I was sympathetic up until you complained about that. What unions? The H1B stuff goes back and forth politically. If you ask me, if the econ…

Every one of the numerous studies done in this area over the years has come to the clear conclusion that high-skilled immigration produces a net economic benefit to the country and its workers (here's a recent one - https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Impact-of-H-... ). Silicon Valley itself wouldn't exist had it not been openly attracting talent from all over the world, and the difficulty in getting visa…

It has to be more than just a “net economic benefit” in a country with such large wealth inequality. Something that makes Jeff Bezos $1 billion and costs everyone else $900 million is a “net economic benefit”, but that doesn’t make it desirable for anyone except Bezos.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#47

Post by titanomachy »

dccoolgai wrote: post #12

These are all great tips. It is a really well-written article with great advice. I just come away from this with a crushing sense of depression driven by the following thoughts: I can't believe this is how the country I live in treats people who bring their high-demand skills here. 60 days or get out. This absolutely effects every engineer. Even the most racist ones: that there is a bedrock of people they are allowed…

It wouldn't be so bad if Indians and Chinese could actually immigrate. They have to stay in this precarious H1B state indefinitely, since getting a green card is effectively impossible for people from those countries.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#48

Post by bzb5 »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #10

H1B rules are quite ridiculous (or more accurately, cruel). Do people here know that even this 60-day grace window was only put into place relatively recently by the Obama administration? Before that, you technically had to leave the country the day you were laid off. Never mind that you might have a house a family and might have been living here for more than a decade. You would officially be staying illegally if yo…

Staying in a foreign country is a privilege, not a right.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#49

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #40
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #10

H1B rules are quite ridiculous (or more accurately, cruel). Do people here know that even this 60-day grace window was only put into place relatively recently by the Obama administration? Before that, you technically had to leave the country the day you were laid off. Never mind that you might have a house a family and might have been living here for more than a decade. You would officially be staying illegally if yo…

If the Democrats are "pro-immigration", they haven't actually succesfully done much to show it. Generally, not limited to H1B. this country has become very anti-immigration generally, and I hate it. There isn't really such a thing as a "tech union" in the USA. I don't think very many tech H1B holders are working in areas with any unions. (And if they were wouldn't many union members be H1B holders themselves?) Actual…

DACA was an executive order by a Democratic president.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#50

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

dragandj wrote: post #34
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems strange to buy a house in a country that can kick you out on no notice through no fault of your own. OK, it's strange to buy a house. What about marrying and having a kid? Many H1B workers here have lived there for decades (with no realistic hope of a green card in sight). Must we stay childless because we can be kicked out on no notice? I know your statement is well-intentioned but it comes off as one of…

AFAIK, marying a citizen gives you a straight path to resident papers and, later, citizenship, in the western world, including USA.

Marrying a citizen, yes. But the chances of H1B visa holders marrying other H1B visa holders (or people from back home) are pretty high given that the elephant in the room is that all of this discussion disproportionally affects Indians and Chinese.
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