Ask HN: How to get a good pay SDE job in US?

10 points by SinghCoder 5 years ago | 19 comments

I am a student pursuing Btech in Computer Science from a reputed college in India(BITS) and would like to settle in the US after my graduation. I have done 2 internships in tier 1 companies, 1 of which is currently ongoing and lasts 6 months, and one internship in Govt research institute, all are SDE based interns.

I have an SDE job offer from Amazon and it does allow the at-will foreign transfer, but it takes 3-4 years and WLB is not great as I have heard.

I do not have any research experience per se and would not even like to go in those fields (ML/AI), I am mostly a systems guy doing backend/scripting stuff.

I would love to hear from people with some similar background on how did you get a job in the US, how difficult it is to get a job there for a person from India? Is it necessary that I do an MS there at some university? When should I start applying and how? If anyone else would like to pitch in and give their viewpoints, I would be glad to hear from you.

This is my first post at HN, so forgive me if I violated some rules

vsskanth 5 years ago |

Please be advised that if you're born in India, you can never "settle" in the US. Green card backlogs for Indians are very long (100+ years). Barring some exceptions, You will be on H1B forever. Most Indians currently in the US can only stay here as long as they are employed in their profession.

With that being said, the best way to get a job in the US is completing grad school (takes 1-2 years). While studying you can pursue internships at US employers, use OPT to work a full time job, while your employer applies for your H1B.

If you want to enter US already employed, you probably should work for a company with significant US presence like Google MS or Amazon in India. It will take a few years for you to become senior enough to transfer on L1 and transition to H1B.

Companies (non-shady ones) typically don't hire new employees for US directly from India. There's a lot of uncertainty and long lead times associated with the H1B process. You can only apply for a new H1B every April and there's a lottery.

SinghCoder 5 years ago | |

Thank you for the reply. I would be graduating in June, is it late currently to consider applying for grad school? I have a good enough GPA(3.828) though no research experience, but maybe I could get LORs from some of my professors, some of them know me well.

And do you believe I could get the ms funded somewhat or atleast get loaned without collateral( I don't have any)?

If the question becomes off topic, lemme know and I could post another one then.

vsskanth 5 years ago | | |

Yeah you can apply for the spring semester.

typically you don't get funded for MS at admission. Some unis might give you a tuition scholarship. You might find an assistantship once you're here.

If money is an issue I would recommend applying for cheaper schools like TAMU, or just working in India for a couple of years and saving up.

I remember SBI had some special education loan scheme for NIT IIT BITS graduates. Might want to check that out.

You have to show you have finances for a year to get an I-20 (you need it for the student visa).

j45 5 years ago |

I would advise that you consider researching Canada in addition to US. Lots of jobs moving there, and the social supports are much better.

Don’t just look at what you make, but what you keep and save. Applying and work for a company remotely may help you with a move one day.

The best advice I can provide is don’t take advice about another country from your home country. This will likely be the hardest but in time it will make sense.

patrick_halina 5 years ago | |

If you can survive the cold, there’s lots of tech job openings in Toronto at top tier companies. You won’t make as much money as the US but you can buy a house in downtown Toronto for $1M US. Once you get a Canadian citizenship, it’s possible to work in the US whenever you want with a TN visa.

SinghCoder 5 years ago | | |

How hard is it to get the Canadian citizenship?

Also, is it possible to get job without ms in Canada? Do companies hire Freshers?

If yes, any tips on how/where to apply for that?

Bucephalus355 5 years ago |

Cloud certs are currently the most desired in the US right now. By that I mean, in order of precedence ... AWS, GCP/Azure, and then Oracle. I would also add the recent certs from Elastic/Hashicorp/Kubernetes are becoming more popular.

These certs I have consistently seen lead to jobs, even for those in difficult to place circumstances. They also I believe train you well for the job at hand.

SinghCoder 5 years ago | |

Thank you for the suggestion, I would look into this.

someday_somehow 5 years ago | |

> These certs I have consistently seen lead to jobs, even for those in difficult to place circumstances.

Even for those without much experience?

DividableMiddle 5 years ago | |

certs from any particular vendor?

uberman 5 years ago |

What visa is Amazon proposing to sponsor you for?

SinghCoder 5 years ago | |

afaik, it sponsors for L1 visa only. I need to become SDE2 first, and then after 1 more year with VP's approval, the transfer happens

angrais 5 years ago | | |

The VP of Amazon has to approve all visas? VP as in Vice President?

Also, who's to say the VP will approve?