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I was a full time H1B employee at AMEX for 3 years. Its not only the Indian outsourcing firms who abuse the H1B visa system. All American companies including AM

by throwaway2017ab 10y ago

I was a full time H1B employee at AMEX for 3 years. Its not only the Indian outsourcing firms who abuse the H1B visa system. All American companies including AMEX also do that. The company never even had plans to give me a promotion, not even increase my salary a bit even though I worked hard than the Americans for 3 years !. They pretty well knew I was an indentured servant and paid me 79K/annum. All salary raises and promotions were going to a handful of lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish. They will never bother to fix bugs or do production releases( because for them, its not cool, we do only cool stuff like React,Angular 2, nodejs & docker. Customer escalated bugs are not cool, let an H1B slave do it). Anyways, now I am an ex-H1B, I left US and currently residing in Canada with my permanent residence process well on track. I will get PR within 1+ years. No one is going to abuse my status in Canada. I am totally free to work anywhere for anyone. The feeling of freedom when I left US is so gratifying. My PR process is not tied to my employer, its in my control and Canada's express entry system gives importance to my skills than my luck as in H1B. Its a good thing that the minimum wages are being raised, it will control the abuse to some levels,like they did to me, but then there is a problem of jobs being fully outsourced. Why should I bother now. Its all behind me. US and its broken H1B immigration system ! Downvote all you want. I am happy, I broke out this modern slavery system.

usaphp 10y ago
> "I worked hard than the Americans for 3 years !. They pretty well knew I was an indentured servant and paid me 79K/annum. All salary raises and promotions were going to a handful of lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish." You seem to have a pretty aggressive attitude towards people whose country gave you job and paid much more than you were making in your home country. You also seem to have a measure of how hard someone works based on when they come to work, in tech it's who works smartest not hardest is the most valuable. > "I am happy I broke out this modern slavery system" Did Americans force you to come to states and work for them? It was your decision and you were always free to go and find something better in a different country if you wished.
- thesagan 10y ago
  I don't know. He might have had a choice between two shitty options, and took the less-shitty-but-still-shitty option. Many people don't want to go that far from home, friends, and family unless things need to immigrate for... tough reasons. You know, fallacy of relative privation and such. And as a "native" American, many of us are, or look, lazy compared to a lot of H1-B workers; both of which I personally know many. He's allowed to complain, because I'd like to be allowed to voice complaints from time to time, too. The Brits have the "chins up" monopoly, anyhow. ;) (Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty cheery guy.)
- gdilla 10y ago
  god forbid wanting to be treated fairly!
- throwaway2017ab 10y ago
  > aggressive attitude towards people whose country gave you job Am I not paying taxes just like everyone else ? So should I bow down my head just because I worked in some country ? I worked legally & sincerely and paid taxes. I will stop my aggression if I am given back the extra taxes that I paid which I have no use of being a temporary worker. Also remember that this is not your country. The country belongs to natives, your forefathers were refugees who took over. So there is nothing to be proud of it. > how hard someone works based on when they come to work, in tech it's who works smartest not hardest is the most valuable. It was not only "when" they came to work, If you read further, you will know that Americans generally are not ready to fix production bugs or grep log files or even do a maven release, atleast thats what I have seen. They drink coffee and gives all the work to H1Bs. Even they apply for the patents which they make them do using ideas from contractors of CTS, Syntel or TCS and Americans take credit for that. It will be fun if the H1B programme was fully stopped, because those lazy ones will have to start working again rather than free riding on H1B contractors. If you think you are smart. I challenge you, learn a foreign language(eg:Hindi), goto that country and try to compete with the native workers there, like I did. I learned English, got my Computer Science degree(very cheap) & I am competing with people like you. I will bet a million dollar that you don't have any other skills than being a keyboard warrior. > It was your decision and you were always free to go and find something better Well, thats what I did. I didn't sulk & whine, I left US and is in another country which values my skills and not treating me as indentured servant. I really wish H1B visa system be stopped. The fun will start then, all those lazy ones who free rides and abuses H1B employees will feel the heat, because profit loving American corporates will outsource more jobs than they are doing now.
acchow 10y ago
That sounds like a toxic company culture and I'm sorry you experienced that. But H1B's can be transferred to a new job. Why didn't you apply to a different company. Working harder than everyone else for a year should put you way ahead, no?
- throwaway2017ab 10y ago
  > H1Bs can be transferred to a new job Its not easy as it sounds. Even if I goto a new company, its the same broken immigration system I have to face, and the job change is not that easy, more complications and risks when your green card process is in progress(even the entire process will be reset in some cases). There are many aspects & risks an H1B employee should consider before changing the job. The GC wait times for Indian born workers are around 7 years for EB2 category. Imagine, the worker being thrown out of his queue position just because he changed his job ! Draconian rules H1B visa has. H1B visa is like a bunch of non-compete clauses written all over it. The worker is exploited in his salary,job mobility, promotions, raises and cannot question the employer on any grounds, because if you are fired, you are illegal from the very next day and have to leave the country ! > Working harder than everyone else for a year should put you way ahead Well, I don't know how to explain that, you should work there to experience it or take a look at glassdoor reviews for amex.
flukus 10y ago
> I worked hard than the Americans for 3 years !. They pretty well knew I was an indentured servant and paid me 79K/annum. All salary raises and promotions were going to a handful of lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish. I've never seen hard work produce good results in software. In fact, I've seen it create more issues than it solves. Hard work produces many LOC, but that creates a maintenance burden.
- throwaway2017ab 10y ago
  why do people take things out of contexts and bisect and trisect them word by word ? When I said "I worked hard.." did you think I was burning my midnight oil ?. Trying to make software work by trial & error ? So to clear it out, when I said "worked hard"..it means sincerely & smart, rather than lazing around, because now I see two comments glorifying smart work rather than hard work. You even went on to predict that hardwork creates more LOC. wow just wow. You are one of those "smart" workers aren't you. I admire you.
  - flukus 10y ago
    > why do people take things out of contexts and bisect and trisect them word by word ? When I said "I worked hard.." did you think I was burning my midnight oil ? Yes that what it sounded like, especially when you contrasted it with "lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish". Also based on a decade of working with migrants often, I can't fault their work ethic but the results have usually been subpar.

usaphp 10y ago

> "I worked hard than the Americans for 3 years !. They pretty well knew I was an indentured servant and paid me 79K/annum. All salary raises and promotions were going to a handful of lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish." You seem to have a pretty aggressive attitude towards people whose country gave you job and paid much more than you were making in your home country. You also seem to have a measure of how hard someone works based on when they come to work, in tech it's who works smartest not hardest is the most valuable. > "I am happy I broke out this modern slavery system" Did Americans force you to come to states and work for them? It was your decision and you were always free to go and find something better in a different country if you wished.

thesagan 10y ago
I don't know. He might have had a choice between two shitty options, and took the less-shitty-but-still-shitty option. Many people don't want to go that far from home, friends, and family unless things need to immigrate for... tough reasons. You know, fallacy of relative privation and such. And as a "native" American, many of us are, or look, lazy compared to a lot of H1-B workers; both of which I personally know many. He's allowed to complain, because I'd like to be allowed to voice complaints from time to time, too. The Brits have the "chins up" monopoly, anyhow. ;) (Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty cheery guy.)
gdilla 10y ago
god forbid wanting to be treated fairly!
throwaway2017ab 10y ago
> aggressive attitude towards people whose country gave you job Am I not paying taxes just like everyone else ? So should I bow down my head just because I worked in some country ? I worked legally & sincerely and paid taxes. I will stop my aggression if I am given back the extra taxes that I paid which I have no use of being a temporary worker. Also remember that this is not your country. The country belongs to natives, your forefathers were refugees who took over. So there is nothing to be proud of it. > how hard someone works based on when they come to work, in tech it's who works smartest not hardest is the most valuable. It was not only "when" they came to work, If you read further, you will know that Americans generally are not ready to fix production bugs or grep log files or even do a maven release, atleast thats what I have seen. They drink coffee and gives all the work to H1Bs. Even they apply for the patents which they make them do using ideas from contractors of CTS, Syntel or TCS and Americans take credit for that. It will be fun if the H1B programme was fully stopped, because those lazy ones will have to start working again rather than free riding on H1B contractors. If you think you are smart. I challenge you, learn a foreign language(eg:Hindi), goto that country and try to compete with the native workers there, like I did. I learned English, got my Computer Science degree(very cheap) & I am competing with people like you. I will bet a million dollar that you don't have any other skills than being a keyboard warrior. > It was your decision and you were always free to go and find something better Well, thats what I did. I didn't sulk & whine, I left US and is in another country which values my skills and not treating me as indentured servant. I really wish H1B visa system be stopped. The fun will start then, all those lazy ones who free rides and abuses H1B employees will feel the heat, because profit loving American corporates will outsource more jobs than they are doing now.

acchow 10y ago

That sounds like a toxic company culture and I'm sorry you experienced that. But H1B's can be transferred to a new job. Why didn't you apply to a different company. Working harder than everyone else for a year should put you way ahead, no?

throwaway2017ab 10y ago
> H1Bs can be transferred to a new job Its not easy as it sounds. Even if I goto a new company, its the same broken immigration system I have to face, and the job change is not that easy, more complications and risks when your green card process is in progress(even the entire process will be reset in some cases). There are many aspects & risks an H1B employee should consider before changing the job. The GC wait times for Indian born workers are around 7 years for EB2 category. Imagine, the worker being thrown out of his queue position just because he changed his job ! Draconian rules H1B visa has. H1B visa is like a bunch of non-compete clauses written all over it. The worker is exploited in his salary,job mobility, promotions, raises and cannot question the employer on any grounds, because if you are fired, you are illegal from the very next day and have to leave the country ! > Working harder than everyone else for a year should put you way ahead Well, I don't know how to explain that, you should work there to experience it or take a look at glassdoor reviews for amex.

flukus 10y ago

> I worked hard than the Americans for 3 years !. They pretty well knew I was an indentured servant and paid me 79K/annum. All salary raises and promotions were going to a handful of lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish. I've never seen hard work produce good results in software. In fact, I've seen it create more issues than it solves. Hard work produces many LOC, but that creates a maintenance burden.

throwaway2017ab 10y ago
why do people take things out of contexts and bisect and trisect them word by word ? When I said "I worked hard.." did you think I was burning my midnight oil ?. Trying to make software work by trial & error ? So to clear it out, when I said "worked hard"..it means sincerely & smart, rather than lazing around, because now I see two comments glorifying smart work rather than hard work. You even went on to predict that hardwork creates more LOC. wow just wow. You are one of those "smart" workers aren't you. I admire you.
- flukus 10y ago
  > why do people take things out of contexts and bisect and trisect them word by word ? When I said "I worked hard.." did you think I was burning my midnight oil ? Yes that what it sounded like, especially when you contrasted it with "lazy Americans who rolls into the office whenever they wish". Also based on a decade of working with migrants often, I can't fault their work ethic but the results have usually been subpar.