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Laid Off, Now What?

bharathpbhat.github.io

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Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#191

Post by ram_rar »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #177
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 prac…

I feel, its important to keep practicing every now and then. I usually swarm hard during job search and eventually lose touch. The again, have to go through the cycle. But every time, I go through, its lesser effort than before. But if you keep practicing all the time, then you'll always be prepared.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#192

Post by gcheong »

marcinzm wrote: post #118
TrackerFF wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the salaries are quite different, but at the same time - you're pretty much walking around in golden shackles, no? I can't imagine those salaries being relevant, other than a handful of places in the US. And for the price of a small 2-bedroom apartment in the SF-area, you can pretty much buy a mansion where I live. Then you have things like healthcare, school costs, daycare / cost of raising a child, etc. e…

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…

Sure but do people want to actually want to live in those places? My wife and I both live in SF and we were able to buy a house which would be impossible now, but I don’t think we’ve ever cleared more then 250K max combined in actual salary. Now with only one of us working which could drop to zero at any moment it seems a move to cash out our equity in the house and move to Europe is a more feasible option than staying in the US

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#193

Post by fishywang »

User23 wrote: post #185
fishywang wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure H1b is not a prerequisite technically. But say you are the employer, you want to sponsor this Indian person's E2 visa, but you need to wait for 11 years before they actually get the visa you sponsored and start to work for you. Now tell me how is H1b not a prerequisite in reality?

If it takes that long it's because the category you're in is heavily over-subscribed and at a relatively low skill level. Using H-1B to do an end run around that is common, but to call it a prerequisite is dishonest. Our immigration system has limits because we believe it is in our citizen's interest. This means not every foreign worker that wants to immigrate is going to get to. US law gives preference to exceptiona…

For E1 the queues for China and India born immigrants are still 2+ years long.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#194

Post by maxerickson »

mathattack wrote: post #27
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 concur that the H1B rules are awful. We should make it as easy as possible for the best in the world to come here. The laws as they stand directly abuse non-citizens for the benefit of companies, some of which are US based. The H1B holders don’t vote. The beneficiaries of a better system are more indirect, and less likely to make a case. (Most of us benefit when the best talent in the world is free to come here and…

We should just have really loose immigration laws that let lots of people in. Never mind the best in the world stuff.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#195

Post by lowiqengineer »

abnercoimbre wrote: post #150
lowiqengineer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of healthcare is minimal at Google. And yeah, you can easily afford a mansion if you want to commute long enough. 300k to 500k is enough for nice housing - unfortunately, as someone making $150k at 24 I’ll never have this American dream.

This is a rather damning statement and it saddens me that wealth keeps concentrating in such small pockets of America. I'm in Seattle but I have engineer friends in Florida making your salary and they definitely have nice houses.

I live in the northeast - even if I get promoted it’s unlikely I’ll break 200k. Down payment for a house around here is like 150k or more :/

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#196

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #115
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not offended and you have been polite, so please don't remove your posts. Renting vs buying is fine. We can choose to rent all our lives and frankly in the Bay Area buying isn't even that slam dunk of a decision anyway. My point was a bit more general. It's very common for people to argue 'technically' about how others should live their lives while missing their ground reality. For instance, it's easy to say "We…

What do Americans owe you? If its such a bad arrangement, why did you come to the US? > it translates to "don't buy a house, don't get too many possessions, don't marry[1], don't have kids". What percentages of Americans own a house. What percentage of Americans have kids? What percentage of Americans get married? You have some seriously entitlement derangement syndrome.

If you insist on inserting trollbait in a polite and calm discussion, well might I suggest that Americans, at the very least, owe us Thanks for the billions of dollars in taxes Indian Americans pay as the wealthiest ethnic group in the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U...

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#197

Post by jen20 »

scarface74 wrote: post #137
jen20 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. A house is an asset you can continue to own if you leave the country, by renting it. There is no requirement to be US resident or even eligible to visit the US to own property in the US. Breaking a lease can cost tens of thousands of dollars which is just waste - and if you ever intend on coming back to the country at some point, simply abandoning the lease is not advisable since the impact on credit…

Have you ever tried being a landlord if you are in another part of the same metro area that is only an hour away? I can’t imagine being a landlord dealing with rentals in another country.

This is what management companies are for.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#198

Post by lowiqengineer »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #174
lowiqengineer wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m really referring to the children of Googler parents.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#199

Post by [deleted] »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #196
rjkennedy98 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do Americans owe you? If its such a bad arrangement, why did you come to the US? > it translates to "don't buy a house, don't get too many possessions, don't marry[1], don't have kids". What percentages of Americans own a house. What percentage of Americans have kids? What percentage of Americans get married? You have some seriously entitlement derangement syndrome.

If you insist on inserting trollbait in a polite and calm discussion, well might I suggest that Americans, at the very least, owe us Thanks for the billions of dollars in taxes Indian Americans pay as the wealthiest ethnic group in the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_U...

[deleted]

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#200

Post by gcheong »

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.

Housing prices and the cost of any good school beyond a select few good public ones pretty much brings the lifestyle down to the same level. My friends with kids and solid incomes live comfortably but not extravagantly considering one lay-off can take your income from comfortable to 0 at a moment’s notice.
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