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Laid Off, Now What?

bharathpbhat.github.io

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Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#201

Post by triceratops »

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…

> This is such a lie. My brother has looking for around a year and cannot get his first position.

Anecdotes are not evidence. Maybe your brother is bad at interviewing. Getting the first position is always the hardest.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#202

Post by jdashg »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #186
addicted wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole argument that Democrats, who have voted for bills that help resolve H1B issues by vast majorities and Obama passed executive actions that among other things allowed H1B spouses to work, provided a grace period, and until Republicans sued and had it rolled back in court allowed for H1 B green cards to be filled from infilled green cards in other categories, don’t really care is a remarkably wrong statement,…

> and the other side doing pretty much all the can within the legal powers they have to improve the situation Except they aren't. There is a clear 'caste' system when it comes to the immigration Democrats care about. Their primary focus is on immigration across the Mexican border (a lot of which is often technically or borderline 'illegal') which they want to make as legitimized as possible as the Hispanic community…

Democrats do not desire Hispanic immigration because they're likely to vote democrat. It's convenient but not all convenient things are causal.

By and large Democrats prioritize the most disadvantaged first, and that's poor immigrants, many of whom happen to be coming across from Mexico.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#203

Post by nph5667 »

tomp wrote: post #107
nph5667 wrote: post #42

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.

Better than doctors who have to put 10+ years into a job interview...

Do you think so? I am not familiar with doctor's state of things, but do they have to prepare for 10 years for each interview during their career, or just once in a lifetime to get into a profession? Are they tested on irrelevant stuff to their job's duties every time they change the job? I am genuinely interested. I see that the current state of job search/acquiring in software industry is inadequate both for employers and candidates. Both sides can tell you horror stories in that regard. And I cannot say nobody tried to innovate here. They definitely did - certification efforts, recruiter's tests, not to mention each company has it's own "system". Nevertheless, what I see here is that you are almost always tested for irrelevant stuff, stuff you can completely get out of your head the moment you are hired. Until the moment you have to find a new job. Something's wrong here.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#204

Post by speedgoose »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #187
simonkafan wrote: post #124

This sounds horrible to me. I mean, do you really want to spend your life having to deal with leetcode for several months every 2-3 years? Maybe some people find coding interviews and leetcode problems exciting, I find them tedious and want to avoid them. Not talking about the pressure to find a new job in 60 days. So no FAANG? Indeed. You only live once and can spend your time better.

If someone offered you a $100-200K bonus to complete LeetCode problems for a month, would you turn it down? There’s a lot of anger about the process, but it’s really impossible to beat the effort vs. reward balance.

The nice salaries are also there to attract talented people despite all this bullshit.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#205

Post by imhoguy »

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…

Just wondering. Can't this time-out be life-hacked somehow with getting e.g. no pay and no show up job just to stop the timer, or just creating LLC and employing oneself?

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#206

Post by triceratops »

tomp wrote: post #112
ram_rar wrote: post #99

My undergrad college final year students were one of the last ones where many of us inclined towards coming to US for grad school. This was back in 2013, when INR was also doing very poorly and I remember, my semester fees was as volatile as crypto. Nowadays, I always tell my junior folks to calibrate all the pros and cons on being in H1b visa very seriously. The level of uncertainty can drive you nuts. Its not just…

I’m not from India but from an almost-first world EU country, and I’ve been working in London for a while. My advice for someone else in my position (starting out) would definitely be to try to go to the US. Salaries are just so much better, it’s incomparable. You could save in the US in a year as much as you would make (post tax) in Europe in 5 years. Even in London and Switzerland, pribably the best-paid countries…

Combining your advice and that of GP, it sounds like the optimal course of action is "Work in the US for 6 years, save as much as you would in 30 years in Europe, then move somewhere else"

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#207

Post by stack_underflow »

titanomachy wrote: post #47
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.

Hell, I'm Canadian and I also bucket into the India group since I was born there. Doesn't seem to matter that I was less than a year old when my parents immigrated to Canada either.

I don't have high hopes for ever receiving a green card: https://medium.com/@happy_sushi_roll/the-endless-wait-for-a-...

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#208

Post by ivalm »

chucky_z wrote: post #72
dragandj wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A close friend of mine got married 3 years ago. He is a dual citizen of China and the USA. His spouse is a Chinese citizen. This straight path you speak of they have been filing paperwork for and fighting for, for 3 years now. I believe he is just in the path to permanently moving to China and revoking his US citizenship status. Everything about this process sucks. :(

Strange, my Chinese citizen wife got her conditional green card within ~6 months of application (about a year ago, we’ve been married less than 2 years and she took a few months to apply since her status wasn’t pressing). One thing they ask is if you are a member of the communist party (my wife never was), and I guess if the answer is yes things may be more complicated. I, myself, am a naturalized us citizen (from Eastern Europe, my dad got an E1 in 2001).

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#209

Post by tiziniano »

barrkel wrote: post #129
tiziniano wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean it is economics 101 that H1B's depress wages. I'd say especially since the demand for technology is relatively more inelastic that the increases on labor supply. There is a lot of money involved in masking this fact, but let's agree on something. There is always a tension between what part of economic surplus workers get and what part capital (shareholders) get. The sky high returns on capital in tech are poss…

It's not actually obvious in "Economics 101" that wages are depressed by the best and the brightest coming to the US. What you're not taking into account is the relative efficiencies of scale. When there's more talent in a particular geography than somewhere else, high value global companies can grow in a way they can't elsewhere. A precondition of that is lots of raw material - people - who can be repurposed by the…

Exactly, even though the economies of scale were making the economic value of the company much higher, this extra will just keep disproportionately going to the shareholders. In fact, the bigger the companies, the more power they hold in wage negotiations. Think about an efficient market with many, many buyers and sellers. What kind of equilibrium does it reach? Now think of a few big companies, hiring from an ever increasing supply. The companies grow bigger, but the wage that laborers receive, will decrease. At some point it becomes this question, why should American workers give up an ever bigger part of their wage to shareholders and other immigrants?

In spite of their best efforts, most of the software development still occurs in the US. Think Microsoft hasn't tried to offshore as much as possible to India and China, building dev centers there? Or Google and FB?

Even then, just look at what kind of workers end up being imported through this programs. Not always the best and brightest. Many do entry level jobs not even in software development, for outsourcing companies.

I'm not saying outright ban immigration but better control is needed. (And saying this as a non-American living in the US). Something that struck me as particularly interesting and President Trump recently commented, is how about making companies bid for a fixed number of visa slots. Whoever pays the highest salary, gets the visa. This would certainly make companies be able to bring the brightest, while raising wages in general.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#210

Post by akiselev »

kshacker wrote: post #139
akiselev wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when you have a supportive (non-exploitative) employer it's an unbelievably precarious position (personal story time!). In order to renew an H1b visa [1], immigrants have to go to a US consulate, which do not exist within the borders of the United States so leaving the country is required. For the vast majority, this is a day trip to Canada or Mexico or a small vacation to visit family in their home country so i…

In order to renew an H1b visa, immigrants have to go to a US consulate I think you may be confusing 2 things. H1 Validity and H1 Visa. You can extend your H1 from within US and most people do. No one is forced to go out and come back. However, to extend H1 Visa, what you say is true. The difference is that visa allows you to go out of US, and then come back in, and for you to come back in, you need a visa that is val…

I'm not confusing them, I just oversimplified the interaction between the petition expiration date and the I-94 expiration date. I forgot to add that my comment above applies to applications that go through consular processing though, which is a very important detail.

H1b applications processed by consulates don't receive an I-94 which means that the application is "approved pending a visa stamping". The new work authorization isn't active regardless of whether they are already in the United States legally or not, until the person leaves the US and goes to a visa stamping at a consulate.

You are describing the happy path for tech workers, but in my experience (90s Soviet block exodus) most families had to go through consular processing because it places a smaller burden of proof on the applicant vis a vis things like legal status in the United States and their home country. Lots of families from the Soviet block had a hard time assembling the required documentation in the chaos of the 90s and anyone who overstayed a H1b or student visa even a day because they wouldn't or couldn't uproot their families has to go through this process.

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