After yet another round of layoffs in Development, Subsurface and Wells, all the UK-NL-India LNNs are still here and we are firing local Americans. Even the Iranian LNNs are still here. If we can’t get jobs in their countries and we can’t get jobs in our countries, what are we supposed to do? We produce more than half the oil this company sells. Technically, in my experience, the local staff with PhDs are easily the best performers at Shell. All these expensive LNNs are embarrassing in terms of their technical knowledge but are all about organizing workshops and trying to get “visibility”. They might have been the best and brightest in their base country but they cannot possibly make the cut here. I hope the new government guts the USCIS such that it takes more than 2 years to get an L1 visa approved.
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Preach! If you want to benefit from the American economy, policies, subsidies… hire Americans!! It’s what the Dutch do.
I doubt he knows. I must assume of he did, he would publicly shame the company into a different strategy given that USA is such a large consumer of Shell products. That is his style.
People here kidding themselves that top talent is working in o&g.
The days when o&g paid top dollar are over, and so the best talent is going elsewhere.
if they want the best people they will have to pay for them and so they won’t get them
it takes money to make money
shell has decided they would rather underpay 10-15% below the market in technical roles and then bring in foreigners to get JG2 under their old countries money which winds up being like 30% under local market when you do the math but still a good deal for LNNs
to put it simply, shell chooses to be cheap all the way down and nobody, LLN or local, is top notch in competency. don’t kid yourself on LNNs being better and follow the money.
Base country change requires a US greencard and 5 year stay as an LNN in Shell’s host country and a guarantee from VP/HR/ discipline lead that the new base country makes sense business wise. Imagine taking care of that when leadership changes every year.
L visa holders can apply for US greencard self petition EB1 or EB2 but this takes 2-3 years. In other countries, LNNs need to legally stay for 5 years to get permanent residency.
HR understands this so LNN contracts are typically set under 5 years to make it harder for LNNs to stay permanently.
The base country change requires a stable organization for 5 years at the very least, which is very unlikely for commoner LNNs in JG3-5 nowadays.
Of course the high flyers can always wing it, but face it they are not at the same playing field anyway with 99% of the staff population.
Let's face it. Shell only get second rate US employees. Otherwise they would be working at XOM, CVX, COP etc ..... Only natural to supplement them with superior LNN folks .....
LNNs get paid less than locals but still a lot more in their base country currency when converted from dollars + all the five star perks and insurance which comes with being an expat. Still the LNN typically seeks a base country change esp if they are on the "high flyer" list. The rest of us....stay politely in the commoners queue and watch the VIPs pass by.
Lol. You tell em cowboy. They paid for all the po boys and abita ambers too ... Those were the good old days when the Gulf of America was still called Gulf of Mexico .....
@a1+1jjx2h5pk It is a UK company actually ... Soon to be a US company
They may get less pay than local staff. But LNNs get the gold plated Expatriate Medical Insurance. That’s a game changer. Also, so many of them try to change base country. My VP, my GM, my Development Manager and my team lead all came to the US as LNNs and changed base country. Now, in Shell statistics they show up as US based staff getting US pay without having to pay US student loans. Not that they don’t deserve their jobs. But no US based staff could go to their countries and pull that off.
Wow, that’s just what the world needs now, fewer bicycles and more Silverado 2500‘s. Careening to the future in a duelie probably isn’t the future to which we should aspire.
Fries with that, too?
Can't compare NL to US. NL is stagnant with slow growth and low wages. US is fast moving with high wages. They ride bicycles, US drives Silverado 2500. We are not the same.
You do realize that’s not any better right? That means Shell brings you to a high cost of living country and underpays you. And guess what? You can’t leave or move jobs because of your visa status.
So not only was a US citizen displaced and replaced with a foreigner but the company also underpays them and you can’t do anything about it.
Sounds to me like Shell is the only one winning in this scenario it’s a tried and true gimmick used by a lot of companies to save on labor costs.
I want to point out no one ever calls NL intolerant or racist when they keep foreigners from taking jobs from NL citizens and have laws to do so but they’re quick to do that if it happens in the US and displace US citizens.
Many LNNs are actually paid lower than US local staff, especially in Upstream. HR gave them the salary portion of an expat with no bells and whistles, a JG4 LNN working in upstream may only get 100 kUSD, much lower than a US graduate.
Oh you need daddy Trump to help you ? You poor thing ... You clearly won't cut it in the real world buddy ....
I would suggest Shell has been following the actions of the past/current US President by hiring only the best and the brightest. And we’ve seen how that’s worked out in both cases, haven’t we?
Shell used H1Bs for foreign graduates of US universities. Like if a British girl comes to Colorado School of Mines and gets a geology degree, she would be sponsored for an H1B.
These nepotistic LNNs wouldn’t ever be eligible for H1B in spite of the industry focused on getting people eligible for H1B. Shell brings LNNs on L1 visas. The burden of proof for those visas is quite low. They can bring anyone who has worked for any Shell office overseas for at least two years. But they’ve taken that loophole and rammed a double decker bus through it with anyone with a pulse and basic literacy qualifies.
your problem is that you assume that the best and brightest are being brought instead of a bunch of people friends from their own country.
or perhaps, for every good top 0.01% enabled to work here by the program, there are dozens of people who simply are cheaper than a local. there is literally an industry centered around making job posts that don’t hire anyone in order to qualify the position for H1Bs.
there is an entire industry of fake universities who will offer multiple masters in order to keep people on CPT and OPT.
it is not racist or intolerant to ask for a crackdown on skilled immigration! specific to shell, buddies come then hire their buddies. be honest , open your eyes, do research.
there
that’s exactly right. the netherlands has preferential hiring they have to hire an NL candidate if one applies and they are an eligible country. they also always count as an eligible country for a remote role. so i don’t want to hear any dutch person telling me about how changing our laws to do the same would be bad. they can change their laws to not prefer their own people first or they’re hypocrites, plain and simple.
That's ignorant. Shells strength is it diversity. Diversity of ideas, diversity of culture, diversity of education, and the list goes on. We need to open up Shell US to more global workforce. We need their best and brightest to solve the tough renewable energy challenges that the world is facing. Together we make Shell the best company in the Energy Corridor.
Have you tried to get a job in NL? Their laws won’t even let them consider you for LNN even if you were willing to take the pay cut. We need laws like that. Oh and there used to be this old HR EVP who was brash but blocked all base country changes to the US. We need people like her again.
People at the GM level got hired into roles posted as NL based positions. They converted them to US based jobs and hired LNNs. The corruption is off the charts.
we can only hope!!!
i’m sick of reading about a certain countries citizens on here and fishbowl
- they whine about not getting christmas off when they get festival days and bank holidays
- they whine about american pay when they get 15% annual raises and competitive market allowance for years running
- don’t know or don’t care about higher cost of living, no notice termination, leadership being 90% foreign and growing after each reshape
get out! go back to your own country. how dare you get all that and whine then come here chasing american pay and keeping all the rest too.
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I remember the days when NL expats filled up one Shell square and Shell paid their rent in the Garden District. Every single local hire was better than the best one of those self important Dutch. But it is a Dutch company and we will always be below them in the pecking order.