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Laid Off, Now What?

bharathpbhat.github.io

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Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#171

Post by yibg »

returningfory2 wrote: post #31
JonLim wrote: post #22

Does the 60 day timeline include the amount of time you need to be approved for the visa, as well? I wasn't laid off, but am in the process of changing employers with my TN visa. This is probably the least smooth part of the entire interviewing/job changing process, at least from my perspective, as a software dev who doesn't have a degree in computer science or computer engineering. Wish it were all a little more tra…

> Does the 60 day timeline include the amount of time you need to be approved for the visa, as well? No. You must start a new job within 60 days. Due to H-1B portability rules, you can start a new job as soon as your employer has filed paperwork with USCIS. The H-1B processing time doesn't count. I recently started a new FAANG job on H-1B, and because I received an RFE it actually took nearly 3 months after starting…

What happens if it’s not approved?

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#172

Post by marcinzm »

tus88 wrote: post #69

Strange how HN is so keen on having millions of people come here to compete for your job and put downwards pressure on wages.

Amazingly, most ethical people who are doing well aren't selfish enough to hoard all of it for marginal gain to themselves at massive cost to others.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#173

Post by 49yearsold »

H8crilA wrote: post #169
49yearsold wrote: post #157

This is mind boggling to see so much effort need to put into getting into FAANG. I am 49 years old and working as an engineering manager in a public company. I have spent decades writing large distributed, Saas, on-premise, enterprise application - many of which I helped implementing, architecting and supporting. Then I just went to leetcode and saw one of the "EASY" question about how to prepare for FB interview. It…

I mean, are you still writing any code? If not then those questions will look pretty damn difficult, as their objective is to filter for people that know how to write code (it's a high precision, lower recall filter, though). As an engineering manager you're probably not really writing any code on a regular basis. It's the same for expecienced managers in a BigCoolKnownCorp that I work for, I think they would have pr…

Correct - I don't write code 100% of my time but I do code reviews on daily basis, involved in architecture, design of new feature; implementing a side project using swift, xcode,java for personal finance app. But still I feel so clueless when I see these questions on leetcode or similar sites.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#174

Post by aaronblohowiak »

lowiqengineer wrote: post #123
marcinzm wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a large place, you can save money for a decade in one location and then use that $1-2 million you built up to move somewhere cheap, buy a mansion and not give much a shit for the next 40 years. Taxes are also generally lower so you keep more. Healthcare costs don't matter since your employer pays for that and gives you good health insurance. School/child only matters later, and you can either move away by t…

I grew up with a dad working for 70-120k and a mom at home. I can’t even imagine how nice the lifestyles of Bay Area kids are.

the parenting attitude isnt "we got it made, lets enjoy the good life", it is "i expect you to do even better". also, most kids are not the product of 750k hh income families. the median hh income is about a hundred k.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#175

Post by vsskanth »

firebaze wrote: post #97
jdsully wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not an act of omission, this is a result of compromise with factions that don’t want immigration at all. The fact it discourages people is a feature not a bug.

If you immigrate, you emigrate. If you successfully immigrate (let's say in the U.S.), you have skills sought there. Those skills are probably also in demand in your origin country. You'd stand even more of a chance to be one of a few in your home country, gaining status, gaining visibility, turning the tide. I know I'll probably be flagged for this question, but still: why do this? Why not help your origin country w…

You can get better value for your skills and objectively achieve more results by moving to a place with a more developed ecosystem for your industry.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#176

Post by saltybytes »

contingencies wrote: post #20

I had a commercial investment related visa in the US. Our mobile digital video company, in which I was basically #2 right under the CTO, was very successful and was acquired by HTC. Unfortunately, my position disappeared in the restructuring. I phoned up the immigration department and they said I had 10 days to get out of the country. This was 2011.

This. Happened to me as the agency I worked for got bought and pretty much everyone lost their job due to redundancy. I was CTO back then and I it hurt to see my team of engineers, creatives dissolve within a few days.

Since I was unable to find another position in an instant (was on H1B) I took the offer of the purchasing agency to work as a database admin just to stay in the country. I took a huge pay cut and a significant change in my career. Never was I able to return to a managerial position after.

It seems racist to bully the crém de la crém of tech workers to find a job in such a short period or to get the hell out of the country. I have not experienced such a hostile work environment in any other country.

Now that I have a family I'm thinking to move to Europe where there's health insurance even if I lost my job. You receive financial aid for children (if you happen to have some), most countries in Europe offer free nursery schools, just to name a few pros.

"Thanks US for taking advantage of all H1B workers. But I'm outta here."

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#177

Post by PragmaticPulp »

drinchev wrote: post #166

Probably my 1 year old daughter talks right now, but I really have no time to do stuff on the weekend. I'm happily not living with a visa though, but still I think if you don't have enough time, you can always "spend" some career achievements and go to a less paid gig. When the market recovers your career will recover too.

Interview prep sounds more onerous than it really is. Any experienced dev can churn through most interview practice questions quickly. It’s easy to look at the total number of questions and feel overwhelmed, but really practicing in 30 minute bursts here and there is sufficient for 95% of job interviews.

I’m also a parent. I’ve found that lunch breaks are a great time to practice.

But really there’s no reason to practice unless you’re job searching. If you’re laid off like this blog post is talking about then you’ll have plenty of time to practice.

I agree that this idea of spending all of your free time and weekends on side projects and practice question is nonsense, though. I don’t know anyone who does this.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#178

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

nrmitchi wrote: post #32
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…

> Do people here know that even this 60-day grace window was only put into place relatively recently by the Obama administration? My worst situation dealing with this was a TN status rather than an H1B, where I was told at a border that I could be ineligible for admission to the US because I had no left the day that I was laid off from a previous position. I had to tell the CBP officer that there was a 60 day grace p…

You at least were 'lucky' enough to reach the border. I know several people who weren't even allowed to board flights because the airlines run their own small 'judge jury and executioner' system whereby they will refuse to let you board if they feel you won't be allowed at the border. Sure this works for trivial cases like checking Visa stamp etc. but immigration rules are way more complex than that but try explaining that to the underpaid worker at the airline counter while 50 people are lined up behind you and making noises for you 'holding the line up'.

And these actions are taken outside the US (at the home country airport) so realistically speaking you can't even sue them or anything.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#179

Post by tus88 »

marcinzm wrote: post #172
tus88 wrote: post #69

Strange how HN is so keen on having millions of people come here to compete for your job and put downwards pressure on wages.

Amazingly, most ethical people who are doing well aren't selfish enough to hoard all of it for marginal gain to themselves at massive cost to others.

Secure employment is hardly a marginal gain. Then again, HN used to be filled with engineers, now it's filled with entrepreneurs hoping for cheap labor so it makes sense.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#180

Post by marcinzm »

49yearsold wrote: post #157

This is mind boggling to see so much effort need to put into getting into FAANG. I am 49 years old and working as an engineering manager in a public company. I have spent decades writing large distributed, Saas, on-premise, enterprise application - many of which I helped implementing, architecting and supporting. Then I just went to leetcode and saw one of the "EASY" question about how to prepare for FB interview. It…

As I understand it, manager positions a tFAANG require some amount of leetcode as they want people who are technical (and they define technical as being able to do leetcode). Not sure how much they weigh that portion of the interview. That said, leetcode takes practice and is not an innate skill for the vast majority of people. I don't mean practice as in "an hour here and there" but more like "4 hours a day for two months." There's a reason people call it grinding leetcode.
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