NYCPHP Meetup

[Ajai Khattri]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008, Christopher R. Merlo wrote:

> There is that, if you want to look at it cynically.

And why not? We should be more cynical in this hypocritical country. 

That's why we have had an absolutely appalling government for the past 8 
years - we SHOULD be more cynical so we dont let this happen again!

> And I think it goes back to the preparation angle.  Other countries place a
> far higher emphasis on early education, and so therefore children are more
> comfortable with math and science

Exactly.

> geeks for it.  And, by the way, based on my totally unscientific,
> insufficient, and now-cloudy observations from my days in industry, foreign
> IT workers often have a far tougher time moving up the corporate ladder, and
> potentially for the same reason that some Americans might -- an inability to
> communicate effectively gets them labeled as "dumb" or "lazy", etc., by the
> people whose opinions matter, when in fact, they might just be incredibly
> smart and talented products of a technical school rather than a liberal arts
> school.

Not quite right - I think there's a gap in your knowledge here about 
foreign workers. Since I came to the US on an H1B visa I probably have a 
better understanding.

Technical workers will most likely be on an H1B visa and so the following 
apply:

1) You cannot transfer the visa to another company. You need to get a new 
visa. Since 9/11 this has been made much much harder (I'd say practically 
impossible). So if you're offered a management positiion in another 
company you couldn't take it anyway.

2) An H1B visa is limited to 6 years tops (initially its 3 years but if 
you're lucky you can extend it to 6 years). So a tech workers won't be 
around long enough to move up.

These two facts most likely limit how far foreign tech workers can 
advance.



-- 
Aj.