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200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

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Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#101
post #66
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to hijack, but do you or your spouse have an opinion on the WSJ story about companies intensely curating their reviews (maybe even paying/threatening the employees and/or Glassdoor)? I noticed a local company I follow had fluctuating review counts between 30-45. I wrote a web scraper to see if reviews were being taken down, and for this company, over 20 1 or 2 star reviews have been taken down, but any new 5 star…

I used to work for a place where, during the 60 or 90 day check-in with HR after you got hired, HR would put a hard sell on you to write a Glassdoor review. It had the effect of flooding it with 4 and 5 star reviews from people who hasn't been around long enough to see any downsides to their job. Meanwhile, as the company began imploding, the folks jumping ship mostly didn't bother to write a 1 star review on the way…

Anyone trying to push me into leaving a review would be a massive red flag that'd instantly make me look for a new job and ensure I'd leave a 1-star review once I had one...

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#102
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does hiring qualified h1b visa holders have to do with anything? The desperate Americans are not qualified for the job. If they were it would be in the company’s best interest to hire the American. The h1b program requires paying a local market wage. Even if you don’t believe it does the effect would be to just lower wages, it would still be better to hire the qualified American at reduced wages rather than spon…

>What does hiring qualified h1b visa holders have to do with anything? Because as surprising as this may sound to you there are plenty of qualified talent already in the USA that can't compete with the lower wages companies can pay H1B employees. I see plenty of H1B employees who will literally eat shit from management over the fear of losing their status. I'm not against bringing in hard to find talent that we don't…

They can't compete? How can they not compete? The link you're showing me shows average wages for the H1-B group near $80k for all occupations. That's well above the median income for Texas, and well well above the poverty line.

So if this large pool of workers in the US can't "compete" what are they doing? Refusing to work and therefore making $0 rather than making $98k? That doesn't make sense. You seem to be implying these workers are displaced into other industries. These industries must clearly pay into the six figures, otherwise these workers are still better off competing with their h1-b friends. What industry are all these displaced American software engineers pushed into, pray tell?

Your link doesn't prove shit about market wage levels, as often H1-B offers are skewed towards more entry level positions, so of course the H1-B wage of all workers in broad job category may be lower than all native workers of all experience levels.

I'm not going to argue the point of whether H1-B's are offered lower pay. As I said, that merely lowers the market price of labor where the H1-Bs are allowed. If the companies were really saving money they could use the mere fact that they have access to H1-B workers and offer that pay level to natives. It would be cheaper and easier.

Please explain to me, if there is such a large pool of qualified workers, why they don't work for the reduced H1-B wages that you claim are setting the market rate. What is their better negotiated alternative?

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#103
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither :) You're missing an adjective from your observation: qualified. For any given position, even when you're pretty specific on the requirements, you will get an onslaught of applicants who have absolutely no business trying to apply for said position, but they do it anyways just because it vaguely matches a skillset they have and they need a job. This isn't a criticism of such persons; it's foolish for people t…

If they are on unemployment or receiving welfare benefits, they may be required to apply for a minimum number of jobs... in which case if they want to stay in their current situation, picking jobs you are obviously not qualified for is a way to meet the requirements without much risk of getting a job. Of course, if you do happen to get the job, at least its a much better one than you thought you could get!

This is a very cynical and broad statement that enforces the common myth that people on welfare are somehow lazy or don't want to work. Also a general disregard of people who are working and receive said benefits to make ends meet.

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what. F-1s, OPTs, H1B, are people too and as a rule are taking an enormous risk in life uprooting to a new country and a different language. Most of them have advanced degrees. Hundreds of them apply to open jobs too. They are human beings, and there are a lot of human beings - regardless of arbitrary imaginary lines that divide us - who are looking for work.

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There are 1.5 billion Indians and as a society they push their children towards education strongly. They don't make any less than other H1B hires.

I am not Indian, but I am not going to tolerate your vile, racist shit about being "overrun" and "indians bring down the standard of living wherever they move to".

I have found immigrants to the US, regardless of origin and regardless of culture of prior social status, take citizenship a hundred times more seriously than most native born Americans, because they don't take it for granted.

And that isn't the reason at all that 200k people applied to Amazon, either. H1Bs aren't the problem, they are a scapegoat.

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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There are 1.5 billion Indians and as a society they push their children towards education strongly. They don't make any less than other H1B hires. I am not Indian, but I am not going to tolerate your vile, racist shit about being "overrun" and "indians bring down the standard of living wherever they move to". I have found immigrants to the US, regardless of origin and regardless of culture of prior social status, tak…

I'll just mention to the sadly racist and ignorant nikofeyn since I can't reply to his post:

If groups of Indian immigrants tend to bring down the "standard of living" in your experience it probably has much to do with the fact that these are often young, unmarried men.

Anyone that has visited a college dorm knows that this low standard of living has nothing to do with race.

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#107
post #89
post #72

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This seems to be very relevant. I have double BSc and MSc degrees in STEM fields and am still struggling to find a proper job. On my first job I made less than 2k (for 4 days a week, but still). I've had offers which were even lower as well. I've seen people in other fields with a lot less education do a lot better. It really makes me sceptic about the shortage of developers in Europe. If there really would be a shor…

2k a week for 4 days a week sounds amazing, especially for a first job. I'd definitely take a pay cut for that deal.

He means 2k per month, but with a 4-day work week, so probably 32 hours. Not sure if that is supposed to be before or after taxes tough, if it's before taxes, ouch.

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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There are 1.5 billion Indians and as a society they push their children towards education strongly. They don't make any less than other H1B hires. I am not Indian, but I am not going to tolerate your vile, racist shit about being "overrun" and "indians bring down the standard of living wherever they move to". I have found immigrants to the US, regardless of origin and regardless of culture of prior social status, tak…

[deleted]

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you believe they have more rights to work in the USA than US citizens? A US Citizen can't even apply for the job the company slated for an H1B applicant.

"So you believe they have more rights to work in the USA than US citizens" What are you even asking? Do you know how many hoops they have to go through to get an H1B in the first place, and how many conditions they have once they are here working on one? Do you understand what it's like to be a month or so away from being deported if you get fired and can't find a new job, and living with the pressure every day? To a…

>Do you understand what it's like to be a month or so away from being deported if you get fired and can't find a new job, and living with the pressure every day?

That's the biggest reason why H1-Bs cause problems for American workers: people on those visas are under immense pressure to accept deals that natives and more secure immigrants would not. The pressure on American workers would be reduced if all H1Bs were converted to citizenships.

Re: 200k people applied for jobs at Amazon in a single week

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*Shortage of qualified people. I pity the people that have to filter that.

It's crazy what people think is acceptable. At least half of all the people that apply to our junior positions cannot answer simple question such as "how would you find the first "42" in an array of integers, and give me the index". If they don't have an idea of how to count with a for loop and write an if statement, they're not qualified for programming. Some even ask if they can take the "assignment" home and get b…

How do they get that far, does their resume look good?
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