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Updates to H-1B

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Re: Updates to H-1B

#811

Post by rbanffy »

fmeyer wrote: post #331
rbanffy wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's much much better for America if tech companies hire workers in the US I used the same argument in Brazil to support a strong free software preference in all government functions. Support from voters in Redmond wouldn’t get anyone re-elected in Brazil.

Then we got RedHat using the same strategy to sell support for the government :D

They had a huge office in São Paulo back then. For all I know, it's bigger now. A good friend of mine spent so much time in airplanes between São Paulo and Brasilia that his skin was dry as a turtle's.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#812

Post by gorbachev »

remarkEon wrote: post #246
hash872 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is only 4% of the world's population, so there's an enormous number of extremely smart people who live outside its present borders. I don't think anyone believes that even the world's greatest educational system can bring all of its students up to an extremely high level of general intelligence. We should be letting very smart people born outside the US emigrate here, which is a win-win for everyone involved

Sure. But the government of the United States is, allegedly, there for the benefit of its citizens. I'm not really following where this "should" comes from. "Should" in what volume? "Should" over what time frame?

Allegedly...by and large the US Government operates, however, for the benefit of corporations and rich folk (with some exceptions). If they want to hire foreign labor, the US Government is going to make it happen.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#813

Post by jeffhuys »

ritcgab wrote: post #94
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.

Guy who born with natural citizenship is too privileged to imagine how hard it is to get a green card.

Psst, the societal opinion on this has shifted.

We shouldn’t feel bad about protecting ourselves.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#814

Post by sgerenser »

jmyeet wrote: post #606
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.

Here's a reform I'd like to see: if you've had layoffs in the last 24 months, you as an employer are ineligible to apply for or sponsor or hire an H-1B visa holder for any similar position and "similar" here is broad. Big Tech, for example, treats SWEs as largely interchangeable. Make a SWE redundant and you can't hire another SWE--anywhere in the country--who is a visa holder for 24 months. You can buy your way out…

This sounds good in theory, but I suspect it would cause companies to mostly switch from layoffs to aggressive performance management (i.e. firing for “poor performance”, stack ranking, etc.)

Re: Updates to H-1B

#815

Post by Cumpiler69 »

titanomachy wrote: post #539
remarkEon wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's much much better for America if tech companies hire workers in the US, regardless of whether they are citizens. Americans are eligible for those jobs, and that money stays within our economy. Versus employing workers elsewhere, where American's can't easily be hired, and those resources leave the US. I want to pick on this point, because it's the general refrain about this topic. If there is some thing that Ame…

The median American is not smart enough to do complex software engineering, just like they're not smart enough to be a doctor or college professor. All cognitively demanding jobs compete for the same (probably single-digit) percent of the workforce. Better education could certainly prepare more people to do these jobs, but it's not a given that there are enough smart people in the domestic workforce to do all the cog…

>The median American is not smart enough to do complex software engineering

How many jobs require complex SW engineering rather than basic SW engineering?

Re: Updates to H-1B

#816

Post by Spooky23 »

RHSeeger wrote: post #738
Spooky23 wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defense contractors are usually located in out of the way places. If you work for the USAF Lab in Rome, NY, you make less than a Facebook intern, but the only guy richer than you in town is the state trooper with overtime. They are also stable gigs with good benefits.

Yeah, but you also have to live in Rome, NY. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to live in a major city; but being _near_ one is pretty handy. And if the job doesn't pan out, then being in Rome, NY means your options for the next job are extremely limited. Unless your family is ok with uprooting and moving (probably _again_), the pay to move to Rome for a job would need to be catastrophically large to lure me there.

Exactly. The fit for an employee is challenging, but for the right person it’s the ideal job.

Alabama, ditto. There is no amount of money that would compel me to live there. But for the right person, it’s paradise.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#817

Post by enkid »

dijit wrote: post #794
Ardren wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I can't imagine why companies don't want to hire you

its perfectly acceptable to be bitter and express it sometimes when you have the perception that life has been unfair to you for half a decade. It doesn’t necessarily speak to the parent’s attitude before becoming bitter. Hard to draw such a direct conclusion for me.

[flagged]

Re: Updates to H-1B

#818

Post by enkid »

Me001 wrote: post #570
0086b416f103 wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We cannot find qualified applicants. Your company is incompetent. I've applied to hundreds of companies like yours within Huntsville, AL in the past year, rejected or ghosted all the time. Defense morons will talk about how hard their work is and how they can't find anyone to do it. Completely skip over how prevalent affirmative action is in their hiring process; who were you guys interviewing in 2020? Why is the d…

Defense morons should be a more common term. These guys have been given free money for generations in VA and can barely do anything other than suck cash from the government. I’m an American it’s disgraceful they are children compared to my Asian colleagues.

What a weird last sentence.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#819

Post by Cumpiler69 »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #124
jonny_eh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Global competition exists. If US companies can't hire the best, others will. I hope you don't assume that all the best workers/researchers are born within US borders.

I don't think countries should hire the best. Pretty good should do. They should foster a greater sense of community within their borders. Now, I'm not against immigration. I myself am an immigrant. But I think there's too much global fluidity and not enough attention paid to taking care of one's own.

>not enough attention paid to taking care of one's own.

Because that's not profitable.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#820

Post by Cumpiler69 »

sunshowers wrote: post #200
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?

Education. Learning. Expertise. As Asimov pointed out, "[t]here is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been." American culture is profoundly anti-intellectual. Every Dunning-Kruger rando thinks they have something valuable to contribute to every discussion.

>American culture is profoundly anti-intellectual.

Then why are US tech companies the most successful?

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