Anonymous
Anonymous
12/28/2024 12:06
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
It's absolutely crazy that MAGA is anti-education while our country desperately needs to IMPROVE education, particularly STEM.
All fine and good that we can bring in STEM majors from China and India but we ABSOLUTELY NEED a lot more home-grown STEM expertise.
We don't need to get rid of Department of Ed. We need to FIX it and use it to fix our educational outcomes and promote and probably even subsidize STEM and tech sector education for Americans.
All fine and good that we can bring in STEM majors from China and India but we ABSOLUTELY NEED a lot more home-grown STEM expertise.
We don't need to get rid of Department of Ed. We need to FIX it and use it to fix our educational outcomes and promote and probably even subsidize STEM and tech sector education for Americans.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:56
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is a raging attack on H1-B visa holders, highly skilled immigrants on Twitter right now. MAGA is roasting Elon and Ramaswammy for their support of the inflow of highly skilled immigrants in the country.
I cannot believe this is even an argument. People are so dumb.
I am an Indian American and my DH works in tech so I am quite familiar with the complexities of this topic. This issue is not simple, there is a genuine shortage of competent IT professionals, I am supportive of H1-B if they are bringing in engineers from IIT s( elite engineering schools in India, IITians command 100k salaries in India), bringing in IIT would truly mean bringing the “best and the brightest”, U.S can benefit tremendously from this IMO.
However, more often than not this is not the case, corporations are interested in bringing in the cheapest talent possible not the best and brightest, so this drives the wages down. Also, I truly feel we have plenty of talent here in the USA, they need to work on supporting our own talent rather than importing talent so corporations can benefit.
As for the hate, this is not new. People should hate the corporations that are enriching themselves over the backs of these people but as always it’s easier to hate brown people rather than take it up with powers that be.
This!
There aren’t enough of white, black, or Hispanic Americans to take IT jobs.
It’s a tough field and education and work experience needed is pretty tough.
That’s what stupid MAGAs don’t understand.
But in the meantime, I’m gonna get my popcorn 🍿 out!
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:49
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a newly minted STEM grad, one of the other crazy things we're seeing is that many STEM job postings are requiring, at minimum, one or more years of experience.
How is a new STEM grad supposed to get one or more years of experience if nobody will hire them? An internship doesn't add up to a full year, my and there aren't enough STEM internships out there to give all STEM students out there the experience that industry claims to need.
This has been my 2022 grad DD path. Right after UMD she secured and intern position with a contractor at 60k May. She became permanent in September and got a bump to 86k. A year later her whole group was laid off, but she was able to secure at TS with Poly a couple months prior. She was off for may 3 weeks, with tons of interviews and landed a position at 120k. A year later she's gotten a raise and close to 125k. A lot of her peers she graduated with that year have been somewhat successful. However I've heard the following years graduates have been having a tougher time.
Key thing is to land an internship program that provides sound experience, not just busy work. Experience weighs more than starting salary.
Or, the key thing was targeting jobs with TS, eliminating foreign competition.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:42
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a newly minted STEM grad, one of the other crazy things we're seeing is that many STEM job postings are requiring, at minimum, one or more years of experience.
How is a new STEM grad supposed to get one or more years of experience if nobody will hire them? An internship doesn't add up to a full year, my and there aren't enough STEM internships out there to give all STEM students out there the experience that industry claims to need.
This has been my 2022 grad DD path. Right after UMD she secured and intern position with a contractor at 60k May. She became permanent in September and got a bump to 86k. A year later her whole group was laid off, but she was able to secure at TS with Poly a couple months prior. She was off for may 3 weeks, with tons of interviews and landed a position at 120k. A year later she's gotten a raise and close to 125k. A lot of her peers she graduated with that year have been somewhat successful. However I've heard the following years graduates have been having a tougher time.
Key thing is to land an internship program that provides sound experience, not just busy work. Experience weighs more than starting salary.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:22
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
As the parent of a newly minted STEM grad, one of the other crazy things we're seeing is that many STEM job postings are requiring, at minimum, one or more years of experience.
How is a new STEM grad supposed to get one or more years of experience if nobody will hire them? An internship doesn't add up to a full year, and there aren't enough STEM internships out there to give all STEM students out there the experience that industry claims to need.
How is a new STEM grad supposed to get one or more years of experience if nobody will hire them? An internship doesn't add up to a full year, and there aren't enough STEM internships out there to give all STEM students out there the experience that industry claims to need.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:21
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
What mess is this; please do share.
It’s probably in her Substack here https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:18
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
America needs more STEM grads, innovators and tech workers. We should be investing in our people to pursue those paths.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:17
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
What mess is this; please do share.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-27-2024
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:17
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
There are already rules about posting jobs and having them go unfilled before getting a visa worker. They work around those rules. Another thing to remember is that not all of this is greedy corporations exploiting impoverished foreigners. Plenty of it is people already here getting family and friends here by any means necessary. I have firsthand experience with this.
In my own family I have a cousin in law who got into management at a tech company and his department now employs exclusively his extended family members. He sees nothing wrong with this. In his eyes he's helping his relatives which is what good people do. The problems of the American programmer aren't on his radar.
Last month I went on a job interview and the interviewer seemed unusually hostile, grilling me about my personal life (children etc.) I am not used to being treated that way because I am a highly competent scientist in an in-demand field. I asked for a lab tour and the interviewer refused. I peeked in the window on the way out and saw that only one ethnicity worked there. I did get multiple other offers so I'm not some unemployed person whining.
In my own family I have a cousin in law who got into management at a tech company and his department now employs exclusively his extended family members. He sees nothing wrong with this. In his eyes he's helping his relatives which is what good people do. The problems of the American programmer aren't on his radar.
Last month I went on a job interview and the interviewer seemed unusually hostile, grilling me about my personal life (children etc.) I am not used to being treated that way because I am a highly competent scientist in an in-demand field. I asked for a lab tour and the interviewer refused. I peeked in the window on the way out and saw that only one ethnicity worked there. I did get multiple other offers so I'm not some unemployed person whining.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:11
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Did Elon not know what he was buying when he spent $250 million on Trump and MAGA?
Is he going to demand a refund if Trump and MAGA continue to pursue their anti-immigrant rhetoric?
I partially agree with an earlier poster that it is a complex issue. I am a natural-born US citizen who works in tech. I agree that there are not enough US citizens in tech, and that not enough American kids are pursuing STEM fields, and that our math and science K-12 education could probably be better. Where there are genuine shortages, I think immigration and bringing in the best and brightest from other countries is worthwhile.
BUT that said, I also think that many qualified, competent and capable American tech workers are being passed over in favor of cheaper immigrant workers, my son is a recent grad in tech (degrees and concentration in computer science, data science and geospatial analysis) and right now the job market is tight, he's submitted application after application after application for months with nary any response. When our own kids, home-grown STEM majors are having a hard time, we can and should slow down on visas.
I also see cases where US companies (including Tesla) are asking for visa workers to fill positions that should be easy for American workers to fill, except they expect visa workers to do the work for $70k that US citizen workers get paid $95k for. The visa program undercuts salaries in tech, and that also needs to end. Getting foreign workers because they are cheaper was never the intent of the visa program and companies abuse it. The intent is to fill genuine shortfalls in the labor pool. The corporate abuse of the visa program and undermining of American workers needs to end.
We need a better system, maybe one that is directly tied to the job market, where companies should first be required to advertise available jobs with full transparency on job qualifications and expectations, matching current prevailing salaries and benefits, and for those job postings to go unfilled for several months before being allowed a visa so that American citizens get first dibs on those jobs. The same should be done in other sectors with labor shortages like farming, construction, hospitality industry and so on.
Thank you for this thoughtful reply.
I think one thing that gets mixed up in the conversation is quality vs. quantity in STEM work. Yes, there are a lot of STEM graduates that are having trouble finding jobs. But simply doing the coursework and getting a degree isn't sufficient. I suspect the strong demand in Silicon Valley is for people who have genius-level talent at algorithm design, circuit design, quantum computing, AI, etc., and those people are very rare whether foreign-born or native. I worked for a NASA center for 25 years, and I'd say 10% of our engineering workforce provided 90% of the real technology innovation for missions. Another 40-50% was capable of doing good, more pedestrian work, and the remainder were shuffled around from project to project, mostly working on paperwork. The frustration among hiring managers is that you have to cast a very large net (including foreign born experts) to find that golden 10% of the STEM workforce that will really drive innovation.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:09
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
This is actually exactly what needed to happen. Let's see how Trump responds. American workers are tired. Whether it is Bernie or Trump they support, there is a group who wants change and are willing to vote for it.
+1. If Trump’s term doesn’t improve things for American workers, the next president will surely be in the Bernie/Elizabeth Warren mold…Medicare for All, Wealth Tax, etc. The electorate is done with the corporate kowtowing.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:06
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
What mess is this; please do share.
She lays it out there. Go read it if you’re interested. As I specifically noted I cant link to it.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:04
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
What mess is this; please do share.
Anonymous
12/28/2024 11:03
Subject: Hate towards H1-B visa holders
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Heather Cox Richardson’s essay today is on this issue. I can’t link to it bc it comes via email but it definitely shows what a mess they’re making.
This is actually exactly what needed to happen. Let's see how Trump responds. American workers are tired. Whether it is Bernie or Trump they support, there is a group who wants change and are willing to vote for it.
Here's where we find out Trump really has lost it, is sleeping 20 hours a day, and someone else is scratching out the xmas tweets.