Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Updates to H-1B

uscis.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

971–980 of 1001 posts

Re: Updates to H-1B

#971

Post by chipsrafferty »

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…

You can't find qualified applicants to work on poor quality technology.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#972

Post by chipsrafferty »

jrs235 wrote: post #872
DanielHB wrote: post #842

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They want top tier talent to work on crappy quality products/code Meaning people who can unravel all the crap they have to maintain but with no agency to enact any sort of long term fix. Plenty of this kind of work going around, the older the codebase is the less willing people are to work on it. Soon good engineers don't want to anymore and mid engineers are not good enough to even tweak it. Leaving the only lever t…

This. "You can't pay me enough to work on something where I have almost no agency to do anything without constantly raising my hand, asking if I can improve something, then having to wait and wait and wait for approval to consistently be told 'No.'". Unless I'm allowed to be free to do other things while waiting or allowed to work remote/asynchronously (not tethered/shackled to a desk/keyboard), then I might be open…

The last sentence is key. A quality dev can do all the work required to make par with 5-10 hours of work a week. They can be happy if the salary is good enough and they approach it from a "don't care, getting paid" mindset. However, if they're forced to be in an office instead of remote, where they can do as they please with an extra 25-30 hours a week vs. a standard job, they will be miserable.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#973

Post by chipsrafferty »

fn-mote wrote: post #600
biztos wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to pile on, but if linear algebra is really a part of the day-to-day job and not some manager’s mistaken idea of a proxy for more general talent, then you’re hiring specialists and the pool will not be that large. People who remember all their math and enjoy it and can also code, are also very employable at all the AI companies and departments, including at Meta. And how do you know if someone’s eligible for secu…

> if linear algebra is really a part of the day-to-day job [...] then you’re hiring specialists It kind of bothers me that the parent and other readers here are passing off knowing linear algebra as some kind of esoteric skill. Linear algebra is a year 2 course in a undergraduate eduation. There are polished libraries to make it fast. Unless you mean enough knowledge to be writing linear algebra libraries , there is…

I didn't take it in college. Never needed it in my swe career. I am the norm.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#974

Post by chipsrafferty »

tgma wrote: post #519
brookst wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, because obviously we as a country should prioritize creepy VR avatars over understanding climate change. By this reasoning no charities should exist (they pay less than commercial orgs) and even people who are willing to work for less in order to feel good about their contribution should not be allowed to. It’s a very cynical, even nihilistic view.

> Yes, because obviously we as a country should prioritize creepy VR avatars over understanding climate change. As a country we have decided to let the market decide what to prioritize. Who are we to judge "creepy VR avatars" are less important if people are willing to fair and square pay for them? If they are creepy, don't pay for them. > No charities should exist. No that is not the appropriate conclusion. People a…

You have a good point. We should fund government positions more so they can pay people better. Then the government orgs would have better talent and produce better output that would benefit everyone, since these are charities.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#975

Post by chipsrafferty »

atlgator wrote: post #562
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…

The pool of Americans that can qualify for a clearance is very small. You'd be surprised how many people have poor credit, bad debt, foreclosures, foreign connections, drug use and/or arrest history. It's not a fair comparison to the applicant pool available to your typical industry business. When I got my TS out of college, the OPM agent went to my old frat house and interviewed people at random, then went to my gir…

None of those disqualify you, necessarily. They are first and foremost concerned about 2 things: can you be honest with them, and can you keep secrets.

Even if both of those were false in the past, you could still pass.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#976

Post by chipsrafferty »

atlgator wrote: post #582
foobiekr wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

past drug use does not preclude a clearance (edited)

It absolutely can. Depends on the drug and when it was last used, if you had any drug-related incidents or court ordered rehabilitation.

It can, but not necessarily.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#977

Post by s1artibartfast »

cibyr wrote: post #950
s1artibartfast wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are mixing up purpose and effect. The purpose is to provide more and cheaper STEM workers. The effect is downward pressure on wages. Phrased differently, the goal is to help industry, not hurt workers. Hurting some workers is an acceptable cost, not the goal. One idea is that having a thriving industrial ecosystem helps those same workers more than the downward pressure.

The purpose of a system is what it does.

This is an insane sentiment. It's interesting that I've heard a few times in this thread. I wonder where this logical failure comes from.

If I rock it explodes killing all of the astronauts, was that the purpose of the rocket and the mission?

If I crash my car on my way to the store, is that the purpose of leaving my house?

Re: Updates to H-1B

#978

Post by Shocka1 »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #903
SauciestGNU wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I work in person for less money when I can work remote? For in person work on critical applications like satellites, I'd expect (spitballing here) a staff eng to be making 300k base with substantial bonus/espp on top. Consider that most midsize tech companies are going to pay staff level 200k or above and ask how the company in question compares, before pricing in the crushing inflexibility of in person wor…

> I'd expect (spitballing here) a staff eng to be making 300k base with substantial bonus/espp on top This is a fairytale in DoD work and while I think there's room for us to improve our compensation I'm not sure this is a reasonable number at the moment. Please don't flame me for this, just sharing my opinion. I work on a critical DoD new-work project. The only way to achieve that number in this sector would be priv…

I don't work for the DoD, but announcing it seems like bad OPSEC?

Re: Updates to H-1B

#979

Post by Spooky23 »

heartbreak wrote: post #686
Spooky23 wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers aren’t fungible, and are hard to hire. Try getting a bunch of people to sling some boring Java or mainframe code. They don’t exist. The trap with the older worker is a guy wants $250k, but will perform at the level of a $75/hr body shop guy. Skills don’t align - that’s always the risk of engineering.

> The trap with the older worker is a guy wants $250k, but will perform at the level of a $75/hr body shop guy. Casual ageism as if it won’t be you one day

Already there bro.

Engineering is traditionally boom/bust. The baller tech dudes in 1973 were designing parts for F-15’s and making bank. By 1993 the movie “Falling Down” had come out and thousands of those folks were discarded. A big feel good stories were a bunch of aerospace engineers who applied their skills to designing low flow toilets.

It happens today in tech. How many high dollar Storage Administrators are deployed in your company? The highest paid contractors in many companies were the high priests of the SAN.

The vicious cycle in tech is you get trapped in a bad specialty or pulled up into middle management and purged. It mostly timing and luck. Nobody gives a shit that you were the man with some old semiconductor process. Likewise, nobody is going to pay a premium for some dude whose been a manager for a decade to sling Java.

Re: Updates to H-1B

#980

Post by grecy »

kqgnkqgn wrote: post #120

Seem like sensible changes, though more is still needed. Requiring H1B holders to leave the country to renew paperwork is an insane anachronism. The per-country caps also seem like a throwback to the early 1900's era immigration exclusion policies. Re: the concerns over "immigrants taking our jobs!". As a native-born American working in a large tech company today - the threat is very clearly not from H1B's and other…

> Requiring H1B holders to leave the country to renew paperwork is an insane anachronism

FWIW every country requires you leave and come back to change or renew visa status. The computers and processes are all setup at points of entry and just aren’t designed for people that don’t physically leave/enter.

It’s so common the guys at the us/Canada land border call it “flagpoleing” because you literally drive a u turn around the flagpole and go back. I’ve done it a dozen times, even driving 4 hours each way in a gnarley winter storm into Alaska and back to Canada at -45.

Post reply on HN