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Updates to H-1B

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Re: Updates to H-1B

#421

Post by dosinga »

booleandilemma wrote: post #357
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #161

A supposed shortage of qualified US applicants for tech jobs, especially software developers, doesn't jibe with the huge numbers of US developers currently looking for work, including highly experienced older workers suffering from age discrimination. I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of H-1B positions are ones where the hiring company has even looked for US applicants.

H-1B is a scam for hiring Indian developers who then become beholden to the companies they work for. That's it.

ah yes, like the CEOs of Google and Microsoft

Re: Updates to H-1B

#422

Post by 999900000999 »

daveguy wrote: post #87
999900000999 wrote: post #82

I'd rather have H1-B visas be a 5 year unrestricted work permit. America needs to keep attracting the world's best and brightest, but linking it to a specific employer is problematic. Opens up employees to mistreatment. I'd say charge a straight up fee, 500k upon approval. That gets you 5 years, if your wiz making 400k a year it's a great deal.

If you're trying to get the best and brightest why would you charge 500 thousand dollars?! I don't care what kind of wiz you are, that's prohibitive.

You need to already have means otherwise your out competing the lower end of the tech sector.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#424

Post by PittleyDunkin »

dunkelheit wrote: post #404
PittleyDunkin wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a shortage of applicants willing to work at what companies want to pay. That and companies are just hilariously bad at finding workers they want to hire for nebulous reasons. I have no doubt even if my company hired 95% of the workers it had marked down as "no hire" they'd be able to squeeze a salary's of value worth out of each of them (well, if management is competent, which it tends to not be). I'm sure…

> That and companies are just hilariously bad at finding workers they want to hire for nebulous reasons. I have no doubt even if my company hired 95% of the workers it had marked down as "no hire" they'd be able to squeeze a salary's of value worth out of each of them (well, if management is competent, which it tends to not be). Isn't it ironic that a comment making fun of companies for not hiring workers who can bar…

> Well, guess what, managers are hired workers too,

I didn't comment on hiring "managers", did I?

> Can we blame people for being "selfish" and not wanting to work in this kind of environment?

I did cop to this behavior, right? I do agree. It makes my life easier rejecting candidates. I'm just saying this complaining over lack of quality talent seems like the corporate equivalent of feigned helplessness rather than an actual problem.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#425

Post by n144q »

acedTrex wrote: post #413
n144q wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not surprised. People don't like the fact that they actually need to be competitive in skills to get a job. Had there been no H-1Bs, they could submit a resume and immediately get a job offer! No joke. I look around in my company, Indians and Chinese (among others) are good at their jobs and do amazing work. Some people just don't like that. They blame not being able to get a good job offer on Indians taking awa…

You have had a very different experience with h1b workers then I have.

That says more about your company, and perhaps yourself, than anything else.

Companies like Google and Meta don't pay people on H1B 400k/yr just so that they walk around doing nothing.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#426

Post by snakeyjake »

buckle8017 wrote: post #398
snakeyjake wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The linux kernel is dual-use.

This is why you can't hire anybody competent. Maybe try admitting what you're building and justify it as necessary instead. Insulting people's ability to reason is a certain way to repel anybody with a brain.

I used to build fantastic little things the likes of which no human being had ever seen before that have killed many, many, people including (if reports from that side of the company are right, and they are) thousands and thousands of Russians and their tanks.

Now I design radar panel assemblies for weather satellites.

They're both a good living.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#427

Post by BurningFrog »

cherryteastain wrote: post #366
BurningFrog wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a market with free pricing there are , pretty much by definition, no shortages or surpluses. Instead prices go up or down until supply and demand meet. So talking about "shortages" in this context doesn't really make sense to me. Yet that's the terminology in this field, and the resulting confusion is unavoidable.

> On a market with free pricing there are, pretty much by definition, no shortages or surpluses. Remember the "chip shortage" all throughout the pandemic? It's not like the whole world switched to a Soviet style command economy between 2020 and 2022 yet we still had it.

That's an interesting case!

ChatGPT mentions some factors for why suppliers didn't just raise prices until the demand met the supply:

1. The industry often has long term contracts that fixes prices months or years in advance.

2. Even without such contracts, the value of stable, long-term relationships with major customers made suppliers keep prices stable.

3. Governments intervened to prevent "price gouging" for favored industries, and even without such intervention, perceived price gouging can be more damaging long term than is made up for by near term profits.

So you're right that there was a real shortage for a time.

But note my original caveat: "On a market with free pricing". Unfree pricing (contracts/regulation) was one factor.

But PR considerations, which I admit I didn't think of, was also a factor. So I learned something here!

Re: Updates to H-1B

#428

Post by pknomad »

n144q wrote: post #411
FL33TW00D wrote: post #208

Surprised by all the negativity here. The USA benefits enormously from skilled immigration: "doubling the size of the US H1B visa program increases US and EU growth by 4% in the long-run" From a recent paper here: https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article-abstract/doi/10...

I am not surprised. People don't like the fact that they actually need to be competitive in skills to get a job. Had there been no H-1Bs, they could submit a resume and immediately get a job offer! No joke. I look around in my company, Indians and Chinese (among others) are good at their jobs and do amazing work. Some people just don't like that. They blame not being able to get a good job offer on Indians taking awa…

It's also missing the point. The verbiage around H1B is "to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities", not artificially inflate competition for jobs. This issue was contentious even during the good times and I'm not surprised that it's flaring up during the bad times.

There are plenty of smart and excellent workers who come mainland China and India for sure but there are plenty of people who don't or come through the abuse of the program.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#429

Post by AlotOfReading »

jmb99 wrote: post #387
geertj wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why linear algebra? Honest question, i have not seen this as a specific requirement before.

It can be inferred that they’re making satellites, or at least satellite components. It’s pretty likely that vector math will be involved in some of the software being written in that context. In particular, if anything they write involves navigation (which is a lot of things when it comes to satellites, from actually maneuvering to observation correction) you need to have a pretty good understanding of linear algebr…

Sure, but there's a huge spectrum between "mild competence" and "can recite strang's verbatim". My experience is that companies emphasizing specific math skills beyond normal professional baselines typically expect the latter despite usually offering the same (or lower) salaries than the former.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#430

Post by dcrazy »

snowwrestler wrote: post #420
dcrazy wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You must be a US citizen to work for my company. No "US Persons" (visa holders) or foreigners allowed. This is illegal under IRCA unless another law or government contract mandates it. [1] If every single role at your company requires a Secret clearance, then I question how separate “your part of the company” really is from the part that makes weapons. [1] https://www.eeoc.gov/national-origin-discrimination

Obviously this company is a government contractor.

Not all government contracts require all employees working on the contract to have clearances or be US citizens.
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