Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

@3tab+1mi3U7MV: Congrats to you, but that's the exact point. "2 bit average" work is not something that should qualify for Ann H1B. It should be reserved for someone with a specialized skill that can't be taught in a 3-month community college course.

Q and other companies lean on H1B visa holders because they know they can make them work 14 hours a day without complaints. They consistently give H1b holders rankings of 2 or 3 in order to motivate them to work harder, but also because that's generally the upper bar for Indian tech workers anyway. They can work hard but have zero ability to innovate. That's fine and all since plenty of positions don't require innovation skills, but that's not what the H1B program is fir.

It's not about H1B. Jobs are moving to Offshore. You can see the example of Qualcomm itself. If this is the case, more problem for jobs in USA.

Companies want to have employees who can work 13 to 14 hours a day without complain.

The point isn't that H1Bs cannot do the work capably. The point is that the H1B program is supposed to be reserved for positions for which no domestic candidates can be found.

An H1B from a middling undergraduate school in a foreign location cannot possibly fill a position that a domestic worker could not fill. The H1B program should be reserved for candidates with technical skills that are unique, which does not include average Python code monkey.

The H1B program started with helping PhDs from all over the world come here and bring their expertise, but US tech companies have abused it. There is absolutely no way a 22-23 year old has specialized skills that deserve an H1B designation. Even worse, H1Bs who are program managers is an absolute insult and travesty.

On the other hand, extending H1B offers to foreigners who pursue PhDs in the US makes perfect sense. Train greatness here and keep them here, but importing undergrads is a recipe for disaster.

Lol ! Look at all the anti h1b comments! Well I’m on h1b cane from a no name engineering Indian college and I’m perfectly capable of doing the absolute 2 bit average work at Qualcomm, and will suck on the ti-s of uncle sam till the end of my days, just bought a 1.3m house and a AudiA5 last year , shove your phds and MS degrees up yourself 😎

@vvo+1mi3U7MV: this will hurt you but numbers of master candidates per class in India is less than 20. To get to this list is lot tuff than to get admission in US.

You get what you pay for. Just ask the customers of any company that sent its tech support or customer service overseas.

@vvo, did you experience indian candidate without US degree preferred over US undergraduate student? Does Q even hire them?

@vno+1mi3U7MV - I'm not sure I fully agree with all of your statement.

I have seen plenty of resumes come across my desk that look just as good as those from India, but when I push them, up the chain, lo and behold, they decide some 22 year-old from India on an H1b is "better qualified" than a C.S. major from a U.S. state School.

The discrimination and favoritism towards cheap, easily manipulated labor is clear.

The other issue is that Directors an VPs want to secure long-term engineers for years; knowing an H1B won't leave for nearly a decade makes them look better than a bunch of Americans who could leave whenever they want (and when someone leaves, you on't always get to replace them right away based on budgets).

The US higher education system is a mess, but a degree from Indiana State U is worth 100 times more from a piece of toilet paper from a "top university" in India.

The H1b visa program isn't the cause of all our problems. Rather, it's the higher education system that's the real culprit. As we all know, American colleges are run like businesses, and the costs are often exorbitant, making it unaffordable for most regular Americans. Just look at how many people graduate with crushing student loan debt, and how Congress keeps blocking efforts to forgive those loans. Tech companies can't find enough skilled workers from the domestic labor market, so they're forced to open their doors to foreign talent. Unless we can stop these ridiculous political disputes and tackle the root issues head-on, H1b visas will likely remain a necessary solution.

If they cannot hire h1 by they will move overseas.

@kjt nailed it. You are absolutely right. I have seen the same pattern since I started my career in the tech industry.

I think point of original post is that tech giants other than Q favor H1b's as well, just that current and ex-qcommers whine more about everything, including layoffs. I don't think Q can beat the scale and unpleasantness of the Faang layoffs, but of it does color me surprised.

You can't get better compliant not complaining slave worker than jobs.

In the bigger picture h1bs are cheaper although they may be paid the same $$

H1Bs are significantly cheaper in the log run for companies and hurt Americans. The starting pay only needs to be in the "acceptable range". So, if the range for a Senior Engineer is $80-120K, the H1B starts at $80K.

Q and other companies know that H1Bs won't negotiate (whereas an American might), so automatically, they are cheaper.

Secondly, H1Bs don't complain for fear of getting fired for the initial 5-7 years. Companies also know that Americans can jump to a better offer at a competitor, don't have to work 120 hours a week, etc. because Americans are not effectively indentured slaves.

H1Bs are supposed to be reserved for the best and brightest of foreign talent, people who offer skills not easily found among Americans. A 22-year old junior engineer with decent Python skills, a middling IT minion, or a decent paper-pushing Program Manager should not be acceptable H1B candidates, yet that is what we have.

if the U.S. government had any foresight, they would either turn down the H1B spigot by 90-95%, or even better, tell companies that there is a tax of $100-200K PER H1B employee (as well as for every IT job sent too India) that goes straight to either funding better healthcare or tech schools in the U.S. I think we would quickly see that the tech industry's "need" for H1Bs would plummet.

H1Bs do not get the same pay as “regular” workers… keep googling lawsuits and you will see that pay may start the same but H1Bs get smaller raisers and bonuses than regular workers…

H1B gets paid the same amount as anyone else, the only difference is the company controls their entire livelihood.

Qualcomm favors H1B workers as well. This isn’t a secret nor show anyone anything they didn’t know. Meta and Qualcomm prefer cheap labor.