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Comment by ameen | Hacker News Reader

I know. I get paid lower than an entry level engineer while managing, developing and maintaining the entire web presence for our company - public site, e-commerce store, etc.

I get paid 1/50th of what the company made in e-commerce sales (similar amounts through other channels).

I can’t quit and prepare for a job interview as I need to maintain visa status. And my workload averages ~60h/week.

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The visa situation is just terrible, I knew so many smart coworkers who were afraid to move because of H1B uncertainties. Ultimately this hurts everyone in the industry because labor markets require a liquidity to function properly.

What uncertainties exactly? Just interview normally and if you get an offer then you can accept the offer and they will start the H1B process. You will get the H1B approval in about three weeks. Then you can put your two weeks notice. Overall it will take around 5 weeks from your offer date to your joining date which is pretty reasonable. If there is a delay in the H1B or it does not get approved, then you can continue to work at your old place. Pretty much everybody on H1B these days is following this process.

I'm curious: you've chosen to tie this pretty closely to your real world identity. Aren't you concerned at all that a company that you're beholden to and is willing to underpay you will just let you go if they find this?

It sounds like (guessing based on phrasing) ameen is the only, or only senior, technical staff member? Why would they let them go? If I were a cartoon-villain, mustache-twirling higher-up for said company, what this post tells me is that the situation is currently working, that my employee knows the score, and they don't seem liable to do anything about it except complain on the internet. In a really evil way, wouldn't it be reassuring to them?

I should be clear, I sympathize with the situation and hope that ameen's employer is not cartoonishly evil, and instead would maybe even realize they have improvements to make. But just thinking about possible outcomes of someone venting on the internet, firing doesn't seem like one that makes any sense.

If they are such a central team member to an ecommerce operation, likely the company feels equally stuck with them (e.g. how many sales would be lost if the site went down while looking for a replacement, and would the company even survive that?).

Totally, nail on the head. And folks from my company don’t really frequent HN (although I wish I worked for such a company).

I’ve learned a great deal about how not to run a business, treating employees right, delegating tasks/responsibilities, designing for automation, etc. I do hope when I get my green card to start my own startup (lifelong goal of mine) and try to set an example of everything I see wrong with our industry.

Not really, while the status quo isn’t the best - I trust my abilities at getting into a similar level company in the industry.

I do doubt my abilities at getting into FAANG without preparing for interviews just because so much of them are just not part of my day to day.

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