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I didn't get an H1B visa in the lottery. I didn't magically vanish and made place for an American engineer. My employer moved me to UK and I got paid very simil

by kozikow 11y ago

I didn't get an H1B visa in the lottery. I didn't magically vanish and made place for an American engineer. My employer moved me to UK and I got paid very similar salary. I know about many USA tech companies increasing size of their European offices, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Palantir. It is bad situation for everyone. USA general public: Role of USA as the tech capital of the world is diminished, as there is more intellectual capital elsewhere. My taxes go to UK rather than to USA. Tech companies: They need to open offshore offices. Foreign tech workers: There is less choice of companies in Europe (especially startups). Some people may want to live in USA for various reasons. The only potential beneficiaries are American tech workers. I believe that the benefit is only in the short term. If tech companies could get all engineers they want into USA, they wouldn't need to open offshore offices. As soon as offshore office is opened, the company have access to more engineers than they could import to USA, as not all people are open to relocating to USA, regardless of Visa situation. Therefore, "value" of an American engineer drops more. Edit:typo.

DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
>> ... including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Palantir ... Palantir is opening up a EU based branch? Where? I think people who work there should be put on lists and never be allowed to work in a normal company again. If by now a person still thinks it's ok to work for Palantir they really should be closely watched.
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  So a good fraction of Stanford CS grads should never be allowed to work in a normal company again? They're in their early 20's and got swept up by the recruiting machine. It's like brandishing all Goldman Sachs analysts who joined the firm pre-2008 as having evil intent rather than just having been ill informed.
  - DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
    Oh I'd go much further. They should be judged like a Nazi German in WWII. If you are complicit in supplying technology to the surveillance state and have the knowledge that cowardly drone-operators are killing innocent[1] people around the world (while calling their children targets "fun sized terrorists"). Then they should not say "oh but I needed the job". Millions of Germans were also only doing their jobs during the holocaust. The difference is those who happily concur and support these sick systems and those that rise up and distance themselves from it or fight it. It is that black and white unfortunately. But only because current US legislation with their war on everything made it so. It is up to Americans to change it and as a non American I'd judge anyone who doesn't rise up and distance themselves. You should be on the streets protesting and not behind laptops and cowardly half-arsed remarks hiding yourself. Downvote me all you want I really don't care. [1] https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/ https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/ edit forgot to add the link
    - Buge 11y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
- Fiahil 11y ago
  First, their EU based branches have been opened for years, the last one being Paris. Second, you should defined what is a normal company. They are pretty much the same as any big tech company, and they are definitively hiring the same profiles as Google, Facebook or Criteo, in a very similar process. Last, what makes working for Palantir worst than, let's say, working in adtech, fintech, or anything resembling a buzzfeed-like mobile social network?
  - KingMob 11y ago
    The controversial part is Palantir's deep connections to the CIA and military intelligence.
  - DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
    Palantir a normal company? Palantir is helping California police develop controversial license plate database: http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4478748/california-license-plate-reader-database-palantir http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4478748/california-license... Congressman continues drumbeat on controversial intel system: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/congressman-continues-drumbeat-on-controversial-intel-system/ http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/congressman-continu... CIA-funded upstart: THE TRUTH about Prism and NSA's web snooping: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/10/palantir_denies_powering_prism_spy_system/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/10/palantir_denies_powe... Helping Build The Surveillance State Is Good Business: Palantir Gets $196 Million More In Funding: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130927/17175624683/helping-build-surveillance-state-is-good-business-palantir-gets-196-million-more-funding.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130927/17175624683/helpi...
- kozikow 11y ago
  Palantir have pretty sizeable engineering office in London. I never worked for Palantir, so I don't know the details, but I have a few friends that do. My bet would be something between 50-300 "core" software engineers and about twice as many forward deployed engineers. Engineering office have been opened for about 2-3 years.
makomk 11y ago
Presumably your employer needed your specific skills and genuinely couldn't find an American with them. This is exactly the purpose H1-B visas are supposed to serve, and as you've demonstrated the lottery makes them useless for that - the odds of the person you desperately need getting through are too small. The reason H1-Bs work for the outsourcing firms in the article is because they're just using H1-Bs to get cheap, low-skilled replacements for US workers. They can simply take on so many applicants that after the lottery, enough are left to fill their recruiting targets, because they're not looking for any special skills.

by kozikow 11y ago

DyslexicAtheist 11y ago

>> ... including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Palantir ... Palantir is opening up a EU based branch? Where? I think people who work there should be put on lists and never be allowed to work in a normal company again. If by now a person still thinks it's ok to work for Palantir they really should be closely watched.

hkmurakami 11y ago
So a good fraction of Stanford CS grads should never be allowed to work in a normal company again? They're in their early 20's and got swept up by the recruiting machine. It's like brandishing all Goldman Sachs analysts who joined the firm pre-2008 as having evil intent rather than just having been ill informed.
- DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
  Oh I'd go much further. They should be judged like a Nazi German in WWII. If you are complicit in supplying technology to the surveillance state and have the knowledge that cowardly drone-operators are killing innocent[1] people around the world (while calling their children targets "fun sized terrorists"). Then they should not say "oh but I needed the job". Millions of Germans were also only doing their jobs during the holocaust. The difference is those who happily concur and support these sick systems and those that rise up and distance themselves from it or fight it. It is that black and white unfortunately. But only because current US legislation with their war on everything made it so. It is up to Americans to change it and as a non American I'd judge anyone who doesn't rise up and distance themselves. You should be on the streets protesting and not behind laptops and cowardly half-arsed remarks hiding yourself. Downvote me all you want I really don't care. [1] https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/ https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/ edit forgot to add the link
  - Buge 11y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
Fiahil 11y ago
First, their EU based branches have been opened for years, the last one being Paris. Second, you should defined what is a normal company. They are pretty much the same as any big tech company, and they are definitively hiring the same profiles as Google, Facebook or Criteo, in a very similar process. Last, what makes working for Palantir worst than, let's say, working in adtech, fintech, or anything resembling a buzzfeed-like mobile social network?
- KingMob 11y ago
  The controversial part is Palantir's deep connections to the CIA and military intelligence.
- DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
  Palantir a normal company? Palantir is helping California police develop controversial license plate database: http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4478748/california-license-plate-reader-database-palantir http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4478748/california-license... Congressman continues drumbeat on controversial intel system: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/congressman-continues-drumbeat-on-controversial-intel-system/ http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/congressman-continu... CIA-funded upstart: THE TRUTH about Prism and NSA's web snooping: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/10/palantir_denies_powering_prism_spy_system/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/10/palantir_denies_powe... Helping Build The Surveillance State Is Good Business: Palantir Gets $196 Million More In Funding: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130927/17175624683/helping-build-surveillance-state-is-good-business-palantir-gets-196-million-more-funding.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130927/17175624683/helpi...
kozikow 11y ago
Palantir have pretty sizeable engineering office in London. I never worked for Palantir, so I don't know the details, but I have a few friends that do. My bet would be something between 50-300 "core" software engineers and about twice as many forward deployed engineers. Engineering office have been opened for about 2-3 years.

makomk 11y ago

Presumably your employer needed your specific skills and genuinely couldn't find an American with them. This is exactly the purpose H1-B visas are supposed to serve, and as you've demonstrated the lottery makes them useless for that - the odds of the person you desperately need getting through are too small. The reason H1-Bs work for the outsourcing firms in the article is because they're just using H1-Bs to get cheap, low-skilled replacements for US workers. They can simply take on so many applicants that after the lottery, enough are left to fill their recruiting targets, because they're not looking for any special skills.