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Updates to H-1B

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Re: Updates to H-1B

#431

Post by huevosabio »

asoneth wrote: post #336

I wonder if switching from a lottery to an auction would help curtail some of the abuse? That is, for each position a company wants to fill with a non-citizen they also have to bid on the visa fee they're willing to pay. The highest ~7,000 bids that month are accepted and paid to the government in exchange for a visa. We could debate things like sealed-bid versus open auction and uniform-price versus paying your bid…

Probably hundreds of thousands. A big reason master programs can command such a massive price tag is that they are tickets to enter the US labor market.

It also has the benefit of giving the government an incentive to increase the quota to get more revenue.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#432

Post by screye »

pseingatl wrote: post #2

Cancel the program. It's not needed. It's used to game the system. It's not supposed to be a backdoor to a green card.

> not supposed to be a backdoor to a green card

So...what's the front door to the green card ? How does one arrive legally to the nation with the highest [1] historic immigration rate of any nation in the world ?

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/net...

Re: Updates to H-1B

#433

Post by Aperocky »

remarkEon wrote: post #91
crmd wrote: post #68

It’s never been clear to me why this program exists in the first place, other than to put downward pressure on US STEM wages. What am I missing?

You're not missing anything. Other than that, seemingly, STEM roles are the only industry where the laws of supply and demand do not apply, and a positive supply shock of something does not, for some reason, drive down the price.

STEM roles already pay incredibly well in this country, and even more so if you compare it globally.

What is the downward price shock you're talking about? What do you think the salary would or should be, assuming all H1B worker are magically gone the next day?

Re: Updates to H-1B

#434

Post by devnullbrain »

PittleyDunkin wrote: post #322
throwaway7783 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, I have interviewed hundreds of people in the last decade, and I can tell you that most are not good enough. There are companies that are downright abusing H1B for wage suppression, but as a startup founder, I will try my hardest to avoid hiring people who I have to squeeze their salary's worth and still get mediocre results (nothing to do with citizen or not - I had this experience with a Canadian contractor -…

> Okay, I have interviewed hundreds of people in the last decade, and I can tell you that most are not good enough. Me, too. I straight-up disagree; I think interviewing is just so broken it gives a false impression of quality issues in the labor pool. Realistically if you have a handful of core skills you can ramp up to basically any problem with enough time. That's time on the order of months , maybe, not years . C…

>I think interviewing is just so broken it gives a false impression of quality issues in the labor pool.

I've been in a team where hiring requirements have emerged through the filter of HR almost unrecognisable. Naturally, they're still objective requirements, so qualified candidates are filtered out before ever meeting someone who could judge if they're qualified. It gets noticed, but nothing happens. Of course it doesn't: you're stepping on important toes.

That's how it tends to work. Candidates are filtered out by non-technical staff, including openly using programs that filter out CVs missing keywords. In smaller companies, this even gets farmed out to third-party recruiters that have poorly aligned incentives.

How can we know if candidates are qualified? We never see most of them.

It's hard to imagine many things worse for productivity than bad hiring processes. But it's all just accepted.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#435

Post by taurath »

snakeyjake wrote: post #342
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.

My employer cannot hire H-1Bs. You must be a US citizen to work for my company. No "US Persons" (visa holders) or foreigners allowed. You have to be eligible for a Secret security clearance. You don't have to get one if you don't want to as there is usually plenty of uncleared work to go around, but you have to be eligible in case that goes away and we need to put you in for a clearance. We cannot find qualified appl…

[flagged]

Re: Updates to H-1B

#436

Post by macNchz »

snakeyjake wrote: post #342
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.

My employer cannot hire H-1Bs. You must be a US citizen to work for my company. No "US Persons" (visa holders) or foreigners allowed. You have to be eligible for a Secret security clearance. You don't have to get one if you don't want to as there is usually plenty of uncleared work to go around, but you have to be eligible in case that goes away and we need to put you in for a clearance. We cannot find qualified appl…

Do you drug test? Sounds like a place that might. A fairly significant proportion (though definitely not all) of the best developers I've ever worked with would simply pass over places that seem like they would.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#437

Post by BeetleB »

stackskipton wrote: post #233
BeetleB wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software is one of the few STEM fields where one can get a fantastic job with just a Bachelor's. In most other engineering fields, a MS gives you a significant boost, and a PhD may do so as well. The reality is that in most of those fields, few Americans get an MS/PhD. Go to a typical engineering department and you'll often see the majority of advanced degree students are foreigners. So it's a question of: Do we want…

I think vast majority of Americans not going on to higher education is because system is so screwed up due to debt and unlimited student visas. Debt means most Americans go "I need to enter into the job market so I can pay off these debts". Also, alot of foreign students are willing to work/study insane hours because visa hanging over their head. I have a friend who got MS in Engineering but didn't want to continue b…

> I think vast majority of Americans not going on to higher education is because system is so screwed up due to debt and unlimited student visas.

For undergrad, I understand the frustration, although student visas have almost nothing to do with it. As an example, when I was in my undergrad (for engineering), there was only one foreign student in my engineering classes. Almost all the foreign students were at the MS/PhD level. The number of foreign students in the undergrad population was easily under 5%, if not under 1%.

Probably true in most no-name state schools.

> Debt means most Americans go "I need to enter into the job market so I can pay off these debts".

An MS is only 2 years, and you should go only if it's fully paid for (quite often the case in engineering). And you typically don't accrue interest on undergrad debts for those 2 years - so it's only delaying paying off debts by 2 years.

No - most Americans don't do MS in engineering, simply because they don't want to and don't value it.

> Also, alot of foreign students are willing to work/study insane hours because visa hanging over their head. I have a friend who got MS in Engineering but didn't want to continue because he looked at what's required and started talking with his mentor about his PhD. His mentor said it's 996 schedule and if you don't want to, I can likely find a student visa student who will.

Entirely dependent on the advisor, although I do suspect your anecdote is becoming more common. Also, likely more common at top tier universities and less so in no name state universities.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#438

Post by darth_avocado »

dcrazy wrote: post #410
snakeyjake wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My employer cannot hire H-1Bs. You must be a US citizen to work for my company. No "US Persons" (visa holders) or foreigners allowed. You have to be eligible for a Secret security clearance. You don't have to get one if you don't want to as there is usually plenty of uncleared work to go around, but you have to be eligible in case that goes away and we need to put you in for a clearance. We cannot find qualified appl…

> 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

Companies can chose to not sponsor visas. That’s not illegal.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#439

Post by zipy124 »

snakeyjake wrote: post #419
p1esk wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we pay well. No, we don't pay as much as Meta. How well do you pay? If I were at Meta, my total comp would be 500-600k. I make half that at a small startup. Can you afford me?

How many years of experience? I fall almost exactly on the low end of this range: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/senior-aerospace-engineer... With 15 years of experience. I'm at the low end of my peers. Like I said, auctioning off access to your users to advertisers pays better than the European space agency.

Wait the low range of that link is £45k but you say work study placement people get $75k a year?

Re: Updates to H-1B

#440

Post by UncleOxidant »

edm0nd wrote: post #394
UncleOxidant wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, you can't work remotely. You (even programmers!) have to touch the things we build in order to build them and nobody has an ISO certified clean room in their house. What part of the country are you in?

a lot of these fed or sec clearance type jobs in VA/Maryland area.

They talked about manufacturing satellites, some of this aerospace stuff is in Alabama because a senator back in the 60s got some space contracts for the Huntsville area - good luck finding people who want to move to AL. Not saying that the poster is necessarily in AL, but if they are then that could be a reason they're not finding people.
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