4 ms·

> "Mr. Srini said the American visa restrictions had also crimped his ability to hire talented engineers. Because the primary visas used to hire software worker

> "Mr. Srini said the American visa restrictions had also crimped his ability to hire talented engineers. Because the primary visas used to hire software workers, known as H-1B visas, run out in a few days when the lottery is opened every April, he really has one chance a year to hire foreigners. And if they don’t win the lottery, they have to wait another year, often forcing Zenefits to find someone else." I don't disagree with the article in regards to easing the ability for entrepreneurs to come to the States and open a business but it has been proven time and again that most of the "we lack talented engineers, we need more H1-B's" is in fact "we don't want to pay the going rate in the States, we need more H1-B's"

aristidb 12y ago
The going rate being $9000/mo for an intern?
- selmnoo 12y ago
  Some of them should be getting $20000/mo, since they're doing work that really full employees are expected to do. But that aside, you're totally misrepresenting the situation here - $9000/mo is not the pay for an average intern. Consider the controversy only a few months back about interns working for Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg not getting paid at all.
djb_hackernews 12y ago
This part of the article really stuck out to me too. Are we supposed to feel bad for Zenefits here? If Zenefits is able to find someone else, then they didn't need the H1B to begin with... Not that it matters in the grand scheme, but I'm willing to write off Zenefits as a potential employer if this is the attitude of the founders.
- saalweachter 12y ago
  I think there is something weird going on. At least for tech, I think there's a mentality that our hiring pool isn't just "people who show up at our office with a resume" or even "people in the same country" but "the entire goddamn world". I don't know if this is good or bad, but I think it's definitely different from the way things used to be, and probably different from the way things still are in a lot of industries. So it seems reasonable to say that the current US immigration policies were not written with the whole-world hiring pool mentality in mind.

aristidb 12y ago

The going rate being $9000/mo for an intern?

selmnoo 12y ago
Some of them should be getting $20000/mo, since they're doing work that really full employees are expected to do. But that aside, you're totally misrepresenting the situation here - $9000/mo is not the pay for an average intern. Consider the controversy only a few months back about interns working for Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg not getting paid at all.

djb_hackernews 12y ago

This part of the article really stuck out to me too. Are we supposed to feel bad for Zenefits here? If Zenefits is able to find someone else, then they didn't need the H1B to begin with... Not that it matters in the grand scheme, but I'm willing to write off Zenefits as a potential employer if this is the attitude of the founders.

saalweachter 12y ago
I think there is something weird going on. At least for tech, I think there's a mentality that our hiring pool isn't just "people who show up at our office with a resume" or even "people in the same country" but "the entire goddamn world". I don't know if this is good or bad, but I think it's definitely different from the way things used to be, and probably different from the way things still are in a lot of industries. So it seems reasonable to say that the current US immigration policies were not written with the whole-world hiring pool mentality in mind.