Software engineer describes his experience with H1B.

X/Twitter ^ | 12/30/2024 | John Konrad

[SeekAndFind]

My friend @JoshuaSteinman is dropping bombshells about H-1B visas, and I’ve got a story to add.

tl;dr – It’s a cultural problem.

I spent years in India, working directly for one of the country’s wealthiest individuals. He recruited me for my computer skills to lead some of the most ambitious, technically challenging projects ever attempted.

We broke world records and unlocked trillions in wealth. My boss? He now lives in a skyscraper in Mumbai.

Toward the end of the project, he told me his best engineers were leaving for Silicon Valley, lured by unbelievable salaries. So, on his recommendation, I packed up my family and moved to California.

Here’s where it gets weird: I was (at least for short periods of rime) chief of that massive project, with ultimate responsibility. But guys several rungs below me - men way less qualified for any job - were getting H-1B visas and landing incredible salaries in tech.

I got turned down for every tech job I applied for.

Looking back, here’s why:

1.I told the truth. The foreign visa applicants? Many claimed to work in different departments or roles to fit the narrative. I admitted I worked on oil & gas projects. That’s considered “dirty” and “irrelevant” in tech. http://2.My school wasn’t on “the list.” I graduated from @MaritimeCollege —what @stevenujifusa calls “the Harvard of Maritime.” Highest attrition rate in the country. 185 credits. Classes like spherical geometry. But it’s a state school in The Bronx.

Tech doesn’t care. They rely on lists of “approved” “Ivy Plus” schools, as @bhorowitz admits in The Hard Thing About Hard Things.

But there’s more to it. It’s a cultural problem.

American applicants are at a disadvantage because we’re too easy to vet.

•Work for an Indian oil company? Don’t mention it on your resume.

•Work for a Chinese communist spy agency? Just leave it out.

•Wrong degree? Ask the school to reword your transcript or reframe it as a minor.

As an American, it’s incredibly difficult to lie. HR WILL call my references and confirms every detail of my background.

But for foreign applicants? That’s a lot harder to verify, so they get a pass.

And beneath it all? “Tech culture.”

Read any book about the industry, and you’ll find a near-religious obsession with maintaining “culture.” It’s a startup mantra: hard work, positivity, willingness to take risks.

But the dirty secret? “Tech culture” also harbors disdain for: •“Dirty” industries like oil & gas. •Christian values or Republican politics. •Anything less than an Ivy League education.

This isn’t just about H-1Bs. It’s about arrogance baked into an industry that weeds out Americans for not fitting their mold.

I’m not surprised that zero of Josh’s friends from the Trump administration got hired in tech, even at the highest levels.

If you’re a foreign conservative? They’ll hire you because it doesn’t code against “tech culture.” (E.g. I have several ultra conservative very religious Hindu friends who don’t have this problem) But if you’re an American who doesn’t fit their narrative? They’ll weed you out.

It’s time to talk about the serious cultural problem in tech—and how it’s harming American workers.

Tech has serious biases. They either need to toss them out and hire the best candidates or figure out how to properly vet foreigners who don’t fit their BS culture.

P.S. I did find a way around this BS. Start a company yourself m. I did and raised over $6M for one company.

How did I do it? I dropped any mention of my religion, politics, oil drilling experience and state school education from my capital raising meetings. Worked like a charm.

As an American it’s literally easier to get million dollar checks than a middle level job at Facebook or Apple.

Watch this:

H-1B’s and political discrimination by Big Tech

[In_Iowa_not_from]

$100K+ is low?

If you're working 60+ hours a week, that is definitely low for the education and experience required.

A person making $30/hr working 60 hrs/week would make about $110K. You can make that kind of money in Iowa with a welding certificagte from a community college. Some of the union factory jobs here start at even more than that for unskilled labor.

Making that and having to live in an expensive location like Silicon Valley? That would be a joke.

[grey_whiskers]

Indians are racist AF.

Stop apologizing.

[dadfly]

sorry! (lol)

[grey_whiskers]

I might drop out and work at a local factory.

No more 20 hour days.

[RoosterRedux]

Bfl

[The Unknown Republican]

Bingo!

[rellic]

I was a Boeing engineer. In Experimental flight test.
We were on the high end of Boeing engineers.
We had lots of Vietnamese, Iranians, and of course white
Americans. Our biggest problems occurred when we had some Indian managers. They just didn’t get it.
Our American managers weren’t much better.
We were like herding kittens. That much talent in that small of an area was out of their control.
We were given assignments and budgets and we got it done.
Best manager I ever had was a Lesbian that said just get it done, ask for help help when you need it.
My best and most productive years at Boeing.
After the merger I decided to leave as I could not stand the change.
Wonder why newer Boeing Planes are shit?
Us good good guys left.
About half my family worked for Boeing at one time or another.
And a good many of my friends.
None of us advise any of our family to work there now!

[The Duke]

When you wrote that article 18 years ago I had my own tech company, and had employees in Argentina. I had two rules, though ... 1) Pay 60% what I would pay a US employee and ... 2) Hire a US-based employee for every offshore employee I hired.

This proved to be a good formula. The 60% pay rule, believe it or not, resulted in me paying much better than the big international companies.

Argentina was a good choice due to minimal time zone issues. Also, the people there had a wonderful culture and had excellent English language skills.

[Sicon]

“$100K+ is low?”

It is where I live in NJ. $100k isn’t even close to enough to live comfortably.

[GingisK]

I have worked independently from corporate employment for many years. My work is all done with 1099 reporting. I design uP based circuits, and then write the software that goes on them. If the client wishes, I then write user and technical documents for the project. Any photos that go into those documents are of my making. I also have a small machine shop and a 3D printer, so I can deliver prototype gizmos that are ready for functional demonstrations.

I've never been unemployed, and they pay me at my asking rate. Its a odd little niche. This has kept me insulated from corporate grief. It is disappointing to hear about these dirty corporate treatments of my peers.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: The solution is to either (a) terminate the H1-B visa program, or (b) impose a fee on employers for each H1-B they sponsor so the cost of these employees is higher than a US employee would be.

That will address the issue somewhat.

But With high speed internet, the cloud and networks, people can do the job remotely from ANYWHERE.

I worked at a company that develops products for the airline/airport industry… we’ve been doing this for years!

[fuzzylogic]

Interesting....although with the inflation they’ve experienced I’m not sure that is now the case. We did work with an Argentinian company several years ago, good rates. We tried to use them again recently...rates had doubled.

Sounds like a good formula though. Time zone and language issues kill projects.

[fuzzylogic]

I’ve seen companies with an Indian CEO. Once in, layoffs of American workers. 90% moved to India. Then the senior leadership becomes Indian. You can almost smell ‘the club’...and you’re not in it. Even (Indian) strangers, when introduced, seem to have a warm welcome to each other that’s not present to others.

I hate their caste system. I hate their attitudes toward female babies. I hate their dowry culture.

I’ve met some wonderful Indians. I’ve also met the worst slimeballs I’ve ever met, all seem to be Indian. Why is it that all the ‘scam call centers’ seem to be in India? Entire teams of people knowing they’re ripping people off. Group theft. The have no morals.

[MayflowerMadam]

“I hate their caste system.”

I had a run-in with an Indian chick — an interior decorator who was re-doing my boss’ house. She was from the high level of the caste system in the old country.

She’d come in to the office, demanding to speak to him about trivial things like paint colors, and ordering us to pull him out of important meetings to speak to him. We’d just laugh at her, and it really pissed her off.

Finally, I clearly told her that in America we don’t have a caste system and she’d be much happier here if she came to terms with that. She settled down quite a bit.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yes, our friend who used to pull down over $200,000 per year coding got sideways with his employer because of his ethics, political identity etc and they let him go and have actively black balled him in the industry. Being MAGA is a death sentence in tech world.

He just developed a new app for party boat navigation and there is a lot of interest til the prospective buyers hear from his old employer. He’s hoping when Trump takes office things will change.

[Tommy Revolts]

The fraud is way worse than just this. What about the H-1B indentured servants flooding our jobs for lower wages.

Who do you think is paying their tuition?

[In_Iowa_not_from]

The highest paying jobs are along the “I-35 corridor” — Des Moines, Ames, Fort Dodge, Mason City, etc. Of course, it also has the highest cost of living. Housing prices have doubled to tripled in this area within the last 5-7 years.

Here’s Barilla (the pasta company) in Ames:

General Utilities Technician - Ames, IA
Barilla Group - Ames, IA
$31.74 Per Hour

Packaging Operator (Night Shift) - Ames, IA
Barilla Group - Ames, IA
$25.31 Per Hour

Maintenance Technician (Night Shift) - Ames, IA
Barilla Group - Ames, IA
$34.91 Per Hour

Here’s Nestle in Fort Dodge, IA:

Maintenance Mechanic | Starting Pay at $29.05hr

Production Operator | Starting Pay at $24.60hr

Maintenance Mechanic | Starting Pay at $29.05hr

What does Nestle pay in California?

Job Title Hourly Wage
Production Supervisor Nestle $33.63
Nestle Manager $29.11
Gastroenterology Technician $23.04
Tablet Press Operator $18.65
Nestle Usa $17.29

https://www.nestlejobs.com/locations/fort-dodge
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Nestle-Salary—in-California

[central_va]

Why should anybody take the hard STEM courses, when you end up working long hours for low wages? It created Catch-22 vicious death spiral. American do not want to study these degrees, so foreigners are imported, so then even less Americans want to study these subjects.

Sadly many on this forum can't understand what you are saying. They just can't get it.

[central_va]

It makes sense to a non MAGA traitor.

[NorthMountain]

H1-B visa program should be terminated with prejudice, and the aliens present in these USA on it should be deported. It’s designed for fraud and deception and therefore unreformable.