Working in the US
 

Hi,

I am a software developer in the UK and would like to hear from anyone that has moved to the US to work/live.

I am looking for employers at the moment to sponser my H1B visa, is there anybody that can give me some advice, help, tips or even a carrer! :)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Colin

Re: Working in the US
 

Good luck....getting sponsorship is a major turnoff as it's a hassle for the company...but what might help would be an awesome recommendation from somewhere big.....

Re: Working in the US
 

Hey Bobz,

An awesome 'recommendation from somewhere big', like where, you have/know/are 'somewhere big' :)

I have the skills, the experience and the personality, just need to get into that interview.

Re: Working in the US
 

Basically to get the edge, your company has to be huge or done something really cool and then have someone high up or in something really cool write a really good recommendation that'll get noticed about what you do there that's above just work

Re: Working in the US
 

May be I can help I was on the US for 3 years doing my MS and then on H1B for a credit card company. My company did shut down eventuallya nd I had a nightmare switching the H1B to another company. My experience is that they dont even even see your app if they sense you are from another country let not the interview. I had local degree exp but still did not get anything there so either you can pay some amount to local companies to sponsor you and then go there on H1B then switch after u get another one.
Companies are not interested and at this time IT has lost value and for H1B they need to prove so many things that I thinkg you might have to forge the idea the best one for you todo is
apply for MS in computer science at www.mum.edu
they have a good program where u can work and they wil sponsor you after u study for 1 year so many people have gone through that way so try that way which is the best for u as u can work an get a US degree at the same time
Let me know if i can help you
Anup

Re: Working in the US
 

pokhrea:

Thanks for replying.

I have been applying for mnay jobs and have been letting the company know that I am willing to pay them back any expenses they occur, so I guess I will just have to wait and see. My brother-in-law lives in Atlanta and his old boss used to sponser people so he has tried to put a good word in for me as well.

In terms of studying, I have 6 years further education in the UK including a BSC(hons) in computer science, so I dont really want to study any more, but I guess if that is what I have to do then I will give it a go. I would like to think that 5+ years experience and the degree would be enough.

Thanks again for you help, it is all much appreciated.

Kind Regards
Col

Re: Working in the US
 

My wifes father and her brother have both become american citizens living in Atlanta.
Could they sponsor myself and my family?
If so how long would this take and how much does this cost?

It would be a great deal easier to get a job in the US if I am living there and would not require a h1b, I could get some contracting work whilst finding a permanant job.

Just an idea...any thoughts??


Col

Re: Working in the US
 

I'm not even sure that your in-laws can sponsor you to emigrate to the US. Check on the US Immigration & Naturalization website.

If it is possible, it will mean a long wait because of the tenuous relationship you have to the sponsor (it's relatively faster if it was say your parents).

You should have a look at the US Immigration and US Visas forums to see the kind of scenarios are available to get to the US legally. Your most recent post is not really appropriate for Working in the US forum and you'll get more appropriate responses in one of the two forums I suggested BUT read and search through them first.

Re: Working in the US
 

Hey,

Thanks for the reply, I will have a look in the other forum.

I should have made myself more clear in the previous question.
I did not mean my in-laws sponsor me, but sponsor my wife instead.

I will look into this in the other forum.
Thanks for all your help though.


Kind regards
Col

Re: Working in the US
 

Hello Cokey, what kind of software development are you in? I could get you some addresses for some computer games companies if yer like, But I dont know of thats your street? Lemme know. I dont recall any games companies in Atlanta.

Re: Working in the US
 

Hey Hugh,

Thanks for the reply.

I mainly program business applications, I currently work for a gas management company developing software to manage gas flows in europeans pipelines.

I guess a majority of games programming in mostly in C/C++ and I have not done any of that since university!

My main skills are with VB, XSL/XML, Oracle, ASP, COM+. That kinda thing, basically n-tier business applications. Although I do produce ecommerce web sites as well.

If you or anybody wants to have a look at my resume then let me know, I will be happy to send to you.


Thanks again for your help.

Kind regards
Colin

Re: Working in the US
 

No worries, my Brother in Law dabbles in Oracle, but he's in Luxembourg, I guess that's not much good to you. If I hear anything will let you know.

Re: Working in the US
 

Many of the IT jobs in the US are being outsourced to India and other countries and if Bush gets re-elected then it probably will not get any better. IBM had a layoff of at least 15,000 in 2002 I believe. The IT job market is flooded with IT professionals scrambling for employment at the moment here in the US.

Re: Working in the US
 

Hi, has the situation improved in these past months? What about the communications networks field?

Re: Working in the US
 

Nope. As someone mentioned previously the market is flooded with I.T. "professionals"; a US citizen will have a hard time getting a job let alone someone from overseas.

Re: Working in the US
 

My British husband and I (American) left London and came to the States 6 months ago; in the UK he had a great IT job with a local council. He not only holds a degree, but has a very strong, impressive CV. To date, he has applied for over 80 jobs, has only received 2 interviews (one was non IT-related), and not been offered anything.

We're seriously considering returning to the UK. I am a Legal Secretary and know I could get a great job over there (I had no problem finding work for a solicitor when previously living there.)

We really thought he would be spoiled for choice with employment over here. We really thought our quality of life in the US would be so much better than the UK, but we're not so sure now. Six months is a long time ...

Re: Working in the US
 

Its tough these days, thats for sure. However, H1Bs are still being snapped up so somebody is employing 'aliens' somewhere.

Some sites to try;

http://www.craigslist.org/sof
This is for jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, but explore the other areas of craigslist - they may be jobs in other parts of the country.

http://www.monster.com
Pretty popular job posting site. Covers all industries all over the US

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com
Similar to monster

http://www.linkedin.com
This is a "networking" site. You put in your details and you can connect with other people you know, or request connections with other people with, say, similar skills to you. Very IT biased at the moment. They have added a new job search thing recently - haven't tried it myself.

There are also newsgroups you can search for. Google groups is probably the place to search those.

I was very lucky to get over to the US. I saw an advert in Computer Weekly way back in 1994 from a small San Francisco based consulting company, and they were looking for my skills. I got the job, they got me an H1B visa, and I came over. Transpires they specialised in bringing over Aussies and Brits (mainly Aussies since the company was run by one of 'em). They were mostly a "body shop" and just wanted to get you contracted out wherever they could for as long as they could. They got me my start so I can't complain too much!

Now I have a green card (after a long time waiting) so I am free to move about as I please. Silicon valley is still a great place for "startups" (companies that get financed by venture capital) so lots of potential jobs. However, less are now looking to take on H1Bs. My current company is a startup, but I'm not so sure I would have got the job if I was on H1B (there are no H1Bs in the company right now). However on the plus side, this was the first and only company I talked with when I was job seeking - and they offered me the job. This was back in December 2003. I'm still there now and they are currently hiring. Its not all doom and gloom.

Hope this has been useful. And good luck.

Re: Working in the US
 

I'd agree that networking is the best solution. You have to have something special enough to be considered worth more than the average IT job-seeker already there; then you have to find the right person looking to fill that job; and the window for starting the job has to correlate with the availability of H1B visas.

I got through the first 2 hurdles, and even got an expenses paid trip to go to the interview and look around San Francisco & the Valley. The thing that snafu'd me was that the 65,000 FY2005 visas have all gone, and the 20,000 new ones are only being distributed to US degree holders. This means I wouldn't be able to start work until 1st Oct (or Sep?), which was too late for the company in question.

Bill Gates made an interesting comment the other day - the H1B cap is all about not letting too many clever people into the US to work. It just encourages 'clever people' to go work elsewhere, and for US companies to oursource work to China or India. I don't support immigration caps for qualified workers anywhere.

Andy.
(Now going to work in a European country...)

Re: Working in the US
 

IBM just had another layoff these past few months, somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 I believe.

I got over here the easy way, married a yank. I started off temping for Manpower then got into the computer company I was temping at, then started learning coding. Been in my line of work for 6 years now. Also know local developers who got laid off 3+ years ago and still haven't found anything in their field. It sucks. :(

Working in the US
 

In the US for 7 months now
135 job applications. Yes, 135.
Only 2 promising, quality job interviews
0 job offers
:(

Re: Working in the US
 

Sorry to hear about that. Has he read the job seeking advice on the recent threads in the USA forum? There seemed to be some good info there on Americanising a CV etc..