I believe that it is possible to work for a tech employer on a H1B Visa, where the visa comes from a charitable / academic organisation offering to be your 'primary' employer, not requiring you to work full-time with them, and being willing to work with you to get the H1B through their process that is not subject to the lottery process / visa cap. You can then work most (but not all) of the time with a 'regular' employer that you find the normal way, on that H1B visa.
>>> I am SURE I saw some service that helps to orchestrate this, presumably unusual but not illegal, arrangement, with uncapped / no lottery organisations - do you know about this? Can it work? <<<
In practice I am sure it could work well to work part-time for a "institutions of higher education or related/affiliated nonprofit entities and nonprofit or governmental research organizations." and then most of the time for a regular (e.g. startup) employer.
As a Londoner this was the aspect of the piece I found most hideous. The whole city runs on a quiet attitude of 'money above all' that makes living here as someone on the outside of this world frustrating
> In a recent press release, Shamji was identified as the chief executive of yet another company, DarkByte, which bills itself—in language so laden with jargon that it cannot be explicated—as having something to do with A.I. (Marc Sinden, whom the Shamjis hired at the Mermaid Theatre back in 1993, summarized Akbar’s modus operandi for me as “Big announcement, and then fuck all.”)
> "We are delighted to collaborate with HPE to elevate this AI Cloud Service offering, further capitalizing on the growth of AI applications and building our next-generation digital infrastructure," says Akbar Shamji, CEO of DarkByte
Companies like HPE have partner programs that companies can self register to join.
This is because most MSPs are small mom-and-pop shops and a company like HPE or ServiceNow can't justify the headcount to have a personalized partner program for each MSP or small business.
PRNewswire is also basically an RSS feed. Every company publishes random PR listicles on there. I have no idea why (the newer generation of larger tech companies don't, but legacy ones do), but they do it.
I have done exactly this on an iMac. Thankfully a wired mouse was in the same building. But I was shocked, reflecting on how easily I had suddenly made my computer almost totally inoperable, by accident, without a warning.
Feel you distortion. It makes you really feel a bit shaken, when you have your internal view of what you can do, what you are good at, and think 'yeah, I'm decent'. And then you interview / apply and the rejection seems to be saying 'you go it wrong bro, WE don't think you are any good!'
I feel you on the point about missteps. It boggles my mind that negligible things like 'not quite enough detail in an answer' is enough to offset my years of highly relevant experience, obvious enthusiasm, and solid CV and get me rejected out of the process.
I would love to meet the candidates that beat me to these roles. I tell myself they are simply me, but more polished and more FAANG. So I never stood a chance.
I'm in London. Today was a low point. I've been slowly expanding the aperture of what I would be open to doing, and haven't been going for volume applications because of my weird background.
The last few rejections have really shaken me because I (to my detriment) get invested. As best I can tell I'm perfect, get a first round interview, excitement builds, then get rejected...
For me a big learning is that your CV and fit ONLY serves to get you into the first round. They do NOT get to the end and then 'add up' everything they know about you, such that being outstanding in terms of relevant experience can offset whatever petty box ticking result they get from the interview. You have to be perfect in the interview. Provide perfect examples of your experiences. Precisely detailed and structured answers. Highlight impressive outcomes.
It simply doesn't matter what you have done, in that interview if you don't bring it you are kicked from the process. It hurts.
I can't help feeling like I am wired wrong if I can't give them what they want.
I am in the US, but otherwise your situation highly resonates with me, and I feel your description could be used to describe my own search.
I've been looking, applying, and interviewing (though not as often as I would like nor expect from my volume of applications) for 8 months. After some recent disappointing news, I am looking to be moving away from software development and systems-at-scale roles, and spending more time and effort at IT support / system administration roles in the future as I can't help but feel the industry just isn't interested in any desire to grow and develop professionally, they just want the perfect applicant that has already used the technologies they need for 2-5 years and won't waste time on anyone else.
It doesn't help my own confidence that I have "FAANG" experience (I'll leave it to the reader to decide which FAANG belongs in quotes), and it hasn't helped my response rate or evaluations.
In any case, it's disapointing, and I feel your struggles. I wish you the best, and hopefully your newfound perspective separating the CV and the interview will help you spend less time and anguish over the less important parts
Appreciate the support jechamt. Good luck on your own journey.
It's undeniable that practice makes for better interviewing - I tend to index way to much on researching the company and industry, and not enough on the tricky art of impressing them by emitting words in the right way!
I have “FAANG” too but as a contractor and I feel like it’s hurt me more than it’s helped because everyone wants to give me super rigorous coding assessments or questions my few month gap.
I don't know if it helps or not, but getting rejected does not always mean that you cannot give them what they want. It means that they found someone else who can and chose them. You never know if your rejection was a case of them not liking you at all vs. them being really crushed by having to choose between you and another person, both of whom they really liked.
I believe that it is possible to work for a tech employer on a H1B Visa, where the visa comes from a charitable / academic organisation offering to be your 'primary' employer, not requiring you to work full-time with them, and being willing to work with you to get the H1B through their process that is not subject to the lottery process / visa cap. You can then work most (but not all) of the time with a 'regular' employer that you find the normal way, on that H1B visa.
>>> I am SURE I saw some service that helps to orchestrate this, presumably unusual but not illegal, arrangement, with uncapped / no lottery organisations - do you know about this? Can it work? <<<
In practice I am sure it could work well to work part-time for a "institutions of higher education or related/affiliated nonprofit entities and nonprofit or governmental research organizations." and then most of the time for a regular (e.g. startup) employer.