ashwinaj

Whenever there is a post on H1B, there are two contrarian views:

1. Let everyone in

2. Let no one in

There has to be a middle ground, skewing on either side depending on economic conditions, job availability etc. You have to concede not all foreign workers are good (subjective I know and also I'm saying this as someone who is on H1B). So the idea of giving a green card to someone just because they have a US graduate degree is not wise at all. I believe that it is something that should be earned (I don't know what the definition of "earned" should be) not given away; I bet if the roles were reversed, us foreign workers would expect the same criteria in our home countries.

> RE:R&D, that's... not true. At the mega-scale, Cisco will fund regular moonshots that they'll "acquire" for ~$0.5B upon success.

Yes they are external entities, not part of Cisco. Cisco I believe calls them "spin-ins". They aren't Cisco employees though.

> > and take moonshots to enter new markets big enough to make a dent

If you're talking about FAANG, which I assume you are, that's possibly true. But they aren't the only "big companies". There are tons of big cos which do not do any R&D (Cisco, Oracle and the like) and instead acquire startups to grow. And here's the kicker, they don't care for employee development; so choose wisely.

Well put. Another stupid "Hate China" propaganda piece; no wonder people have lost faith in journalism.

This was told to me by someone who recently got into Google:

"It is irrelevant whether you can come up a solution all by yourself. Being able to understand and remember the optimal solutions for those questions is the key. All the interviewer is looking for is whether you can write those optimal solutions literally on the whiteboard."

We can debate (and people have here) about whether it makes sense and the like, but this is the reality. Make this process as mechanical as possible, everyone knows it's a stupid game and yet we all play along.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http...

> Pro: You get to build things from scratch, I like this one most.

That hits the nail in the head! Having exprience in building things from scratch has to be invaluable down the road in your career.

Well he doesn't have a job now, does he? ;)

> It's not healthy to equate the two - as the 'startup' scene in America is actually very vibrant, while there may be an issue with small business formation

A very valid and smart observation. I read the subject title and I was like "What????". No country is even remotely close to the US with respect to startups.

> Github

Think of it as simply a place in the “cloud” to store our code and provide use with free hosting for our website. Cost? FREE forever

What?? If you want your code to be stolen, sure it's free i.e. public repos are free, not private repos.

Well, I meant the person or persons who discovered yogurt, may they rest in peace.

My comment in no way was denigrating Bulgaria...come one, you guys gave us yogurt and Hristo Stoichkov ;)

Whoever you (they?) are I hope you RIP.

Yogurt is my life saver....

Sure, he rightly points out that you need a plan. My comment to "just quit" was specifically to convice yourself that it's time to leave, with the assumption that you have a plan in place.

How about just quitting because you don't get good work (whatever that definition might be)?

I find it hard to believe that most people in so called "top tier" tech companies do compelling work. Not everyone gets to work on de jour areas, most people work on maintenance and improving old code bases (BTW, there is nothing wrong with this)

> They are not unique, precious snowflakes of rare skill, they are replaceable cogs in a machine that exists for a single purpose, profit

Totally agree

> Massive IT education programs now underway everywhere in the world will ensure that the corporations will have vast masses of foot soldiers so they can concentrate on what matters

Not yet, source most FB engineers get paid a lot.

Thanks, that sounds like a good way to screen someone.

I've thought a lot about this (and I'm sure others have to); I think candidates generally fall in two buckets:

1. Can code:

    a. Gifted: 

These have a natural talent for coding and can crank out code at the drop of a hat

    b. Persistent: 

Have moderate-good talent for coding, they make up the gap with gifted coders with sheer persistence and relentless pursuit for making themselves better

2. Cannot code/haven't coded in a long time

How can you test for coding? In my view it's certainly not some academic question or the in-vogue programming interviews book. This is clearly proven to be red herring. Also at least in the bay area, there are set questions that FANG and other companies have which are shared all over the internet and amongst friends who work there. So an interview becomes a casting process for a role, where the script is the questions you have "rehearsed". This is an absolute facade and needs to stop!

I ask simple programming questions and look for "naturalness" in the way they answer and talk through the solutions. No complicated brain teasers or the smug "look at me, I know this obscure/complicated algorithm invented before I was born" questions.

Coding is one facet, the other one is design. No matter how good a coder you are if you have bad design skills it doesn't matter. How do you test for design?

1. Resume experience: Talk through technical issues/challenges, pros/cons etc. of projects they've done before

2. A simple-moderate design question: If someone lists distributed systems as one of their skills, ask them a question on it. A decent amount of determination can be made about a candidate they way he/she answers.

I'm refining my process after each interview I take and would love feedback.

> startups should NOT hire and give large 'management' roles to. Namely middle managers who come from large bureaucratic, declining public companies.

Couldn't agree more, and the worst part is that they're unable to adapt and drink the "big company" kool aid.

I reluctantly agree with you. Employees are smart, especially the ones that harass others and they need to be exposed.

Well put! Instead of downvoting the authors comment, take a moment and think about it...

The same analogy can be made for NYC with the finance industry.

> Be Marcus Aurelius. Become a stoic.

Great advice. I was naturally stoic, but the daily rigors were chipping away my stoicness. A book I'd recommend reading "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" to reset your thinking and paying attention to what is really important in life.

Oh...those lovely childhood memories using MS Paint on Windows 3.1 (although this looks like the Win 98 vesion)..thanks this is awesome!!

> In the sense that you are cautious to accept

What anyone eats is their own business, me or anyone should not judge. My point was there is a slanderous judgement on one's character based on personal diet choices which is ridiculous.

Let me give you an example; in Texas I once had colleague who was extremely conservative and has a tremendous amount of Southern pride (he has a confederate flag on his Jeep). Professionally speaking, I never had any issues with him whatsoever. I can't say the same about a fellow Indian who despises me (personally and professionally) just because I have a personal choice of eating beef. This is the a subset of American "individuality" I'm talking about; that despite the differences they are willing to work together. In India (and Asian countries, or so I've heard) people conflate personal and professional lives, which IMO is backward and stupid.

Therefore if you choose to be American or live in America, you need to accept that people are different and learn to accept as they are. Just because someone is different from you doesn't make you superior or inferior. Now, I know you can give me examples of tensions between race relations in the US (which I agree totally exists), but people try not to mix professional vs personal lives as much in the US as elsewhere in the world.

Cool so you had to make a "throwaway" account to make your point, very brave. If you see my other posts I am not sucking up to white people or any other people. I call a spade a spade.

How so?

The example I used for myself is the typical group/herd mentality that people have (unlike individuality). The assumption is I'm a Hindu Indian, hence by definition I should not eat beef. And if I do I'm a "bad" person/outcast, rather than someone who is different from you despite sharing a similar background.

No. I used them as an example to highlight them as a group who had to assimilate in a mainly protestant country.

See my example of assimilation to my reply to "ryanianian" in the thread below.

I can bet my bottom dollar that Indians (who are Hindus) give me weird looks and comments, not based on environmental destruction but some moron who came up with this rule that Hindus are not supposed to eat beef (but meat from other animals is okay).

If you look up the original Hindu texts, it specifically says you should not eat meat, respect nature and animals; which means you should NOT eat any kind of meat.

Yes they aren't, and I'm arguing is that it should. My point was specifically towards "For MS and PhD students staple their passports with a green card immediately", although the op did not use this phrase it is somewhat implied that someone who has a graduate degree should be allowed to stay and work indefinitely.

When I mentioned assimilation, I meant a certain acceptance of the American culture. I did not in any way mean complete abandonment of your "native" culture.

One of the most obvious things I saw different about Americans is their sense of individuality; you'd see a super conservative person living next to a hippie in peaceful co-existence (although these days the media would make you think otherwise).

As an example, I'm mostly vegetarian (for staying healthy, I'm atheist) but I do like the occasional steak. If I say to a fellow Indian (or naturalized Indian American) that I eat beef, I will be mostly ostracized (I'm assuming that this person is Hindu, which may not be the case). I personally don't care what anyone thinks about my personal choices, but this is an example of people not assimilating and accepting what is generally accepted American trait of "individuality".

> So? You're criticizing chinese people pretty explicitly. Don't try to hide behind your race.

No it's true for Indians too. I said "It's hard not to overlook the fact that a lot of would be immigrants make no effort to assimilate" which includes Indians too.