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Laid Off, Now What?

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Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#111

Post by devmunchies »

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…

> Typically it's the Democrats who are pro-immigration

Actually its business tycoons who want cheap, abundant labor. Getting the media to frame it as a social issue was genius.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#112

Post by tomp »

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 in Europe, you’re probably at least 2x worse off. (This is of course for top talent working in tech/finance/both.)

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#113

Post by nbm »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #17
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…

> "My grandparents were labor leaders and I'm pretty certain they'd be ashamed I can't or haven't done more to rectify this. Unfortunately tech unions are typically the ones railing against H1Bs entirely. The mere presence of H1B workers fundamentally increases worker supply (by definition). In fact it was the "US Tech Workers Union" that championed recent actions against H1B workers. And let's be honest they were no…

The “US Tech Workers Union” doesn’t appear to be a union at all. It appears to be a subsidiary of the “Progressives For Immigration Reform” non-profit aimed fairly exclusively at the H-1b issue, and the only spokesperson I can see for it is the executive director of PFIR.

So, I wouldn’t take the “US Tech Workers” as being representative of tech workers or tech workers unions without further research.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#114

Post by nbaksalyar »

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…

> Before that, you technically had to leave the country the day you were laid off

Interestingly enough, there's a very similar system in place in the United Kingdom (Tier 2 General). Not only you have to leave within 60 days after being laid off, but there's also a "cooling-off period" of 1 year, which means that you can't get a new visa during this period and effectively it resets your time until permanent residence, so you have no option but to start over.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#115

Post by rjkennedy98 »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #55
mathattack wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t intend to seem callous, so please help educate me. If you marry a citizen, that accelerated the Green Card. If you marry a non-citizen, your situation is precarious, so why not rent rather than buy? I’m not arguing that the rules are right. (They are clearly wrong) Just that if you’re ina precarious situation, avoid doing things that make it worse. When I lived abroad, the expats were all aware of being on bo…

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.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#116

Post by rhexs »

marcinzm wrote: post #90
TrackerFF wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be a mostly US-centric thing. I live in Scandinavia, and I have yet to encounter the levels of rigor I see in the US (tech) interviewing process - which is kind of weird, as we have much, much more stringent workers rights/laws, making it more difficult to get rid of a bad hire. Sure, US companies, especially in tech hubs, operate on a completely different scale than companies over here - at least in term…

The US pays a lot and there's a lot of competition for positions. The H1B system doesn't help that competition. When you have 50 well qualified applicants (ie: could pass most interviews) per position then you need some way to weed out 49 of them. Resumes can be exaggerated and downright lied on so once there's enough competition using them just means you're selecting the best liars/sociopaths.

I think there's certainly some truth to coding interviews being an effective mechanism in shifting hiring towards H1Bs. It's much easier to say that Americans can't do the job when you create a test around studying for 500 hours to memorize hundreds upon hundreds of coding puzzles in order to build up a mental encyclopedia of how to quickly apply your algorithmic "training" to the puzzle of the day.

I'd bet H1Bs are going to be much more motivated to jump through that hoop. Benefits them and the company doing the hiring that conveniently just can't find enough qualified American engineers to do the job.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#117

Post by lowiqengineer »

carls wrote: post #75
lowiqengineer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but no amount of preparation has been able to vault me to even close to the elite, mostly because I guess I don’t have the genes for it.

While you are correct in that (1) the credentials/pedigree and (2) some measure of intelligence will strongly positively impact job searching, your original comment seems to imply that this is sufficient. Then, this comment that I'm currently replying to, pins most of the responsibility on not "having the genes for it." Your HN username also leads me to think you have a "fixed mindset" around your capabilities. Regar…

> The insecurity gnawed at me and made me engage in many foolish behaviors during college, and also caused me to constantly compare myself with others. I was ultimately very unhappy. Through a series of experiences (i.e. therapy, honest introspection and self-reflection, conversations with trusted friends, being challenged on my mindset by others), I slowly came to understand how my mindset contributed to the same failures I was complaining about

I was the same way in college, but I also didn’t go to Berkeley, rather a school 80 or so spots below. I wish I could fix myself, but the therapy I’ve done hasn’t helped and my general lack of accomplishments in life contributes.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#118

Post by marcinzm »

TrackerFF wrote: post #102
lowiqengineer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Over here, there seems to be much more emphasis (and trust) on your resume, and the hiring process is more focused on fit. If you have the basics down, most can be thought - but it's pretty difficult to teach culture. That's probably because OP makes triple to quadruple your total compensation at minimum as an L5 ML Engineer at Google. https://www.levels.fyi/ Total: $356,119

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 then or get promoted to making $600k+.

edit: Two engineers together can make $700k+ which is $450+k after taxes per year. After one year and reasonable spending that's enough for a down payment on a house in the Bay Area. Every single year you get enough to pay for 1.5 kid's worth of college education at a top private school. Very few costs actually matter in comparison at that point.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#119

Post by vecinu »

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…

I went through something similar but remember the name of the game is to not volunteer unnecessary information.

Did you tell the agent you didn't leave after you were laid off? Or did you just ask for a new TN once you had a new offer?

It seemed to me like being too truthful could hurt your chances more than to just ask for a new visa and let them process the TN as needed.

Some employers wouldn't even report your termination date until some time in the future to give you time to find a new job.

Re: Laid Off, Now What?

#120

Post by pbourke »

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…

> Why not help your origin country with your knowledge?

I moved from Canada to the US in 2007. Things were different then, and the opportunities in the US were unique (I joined Amazon). The longer you stay, the harder it is to return: your network changes, you get used to life in the new place, etc.

I will say that I’ve pondered the question of moving home nearly continuously since moving here and there always seems to be a compromise that we’re not ready to make yet. In the case of Canada, it was often the housing prices in the places where we’d like to live.

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