Tech Industry
Yesterday
2253
Do people underestimate E6 role at meta?
Tech Industry
2d
8054
What happens when most of your team is Indian?
Tech Industry
Yesterday
421
Does it make sense to move back to India for Indian techs in the US without a Greencard?
Today I Learned
Yesterday
1463
White male privilege is real
Personal Finance
Yesterday
594
Biden wants to raise capital gains tax to 40%
I don't think many people here understand the economics of consulting companies, so I thought I'd bring more visibility into that area. Disclaimer - I've never worked in that area but have heard about it from friends. Many think if only there was a salary based lottery, they'd be able to stop all abuse. I don't believe that. Many consulting companies charge much higher prices from their clients & take huge cuts of their pay. Like a company would be charged $90 an hour but the dev actually gets $30-$40. So on paper the salary would be $150k+, which would defeat the purpose of merit/salary based visas. Also the incentives for running consulting firms are really high, and if more people knew about it they'd try it. Imagine you're a dev having worked a few years and know a ton of people/have a network & supply of fresh grads from your university. Your job pay may be mediocre, but now suppose you get 5 people together and form a consulting company. You supply those 5 fresh grads to a client who is paying $80 an hour for experienced contractors (you falsify the info and claim the fresh grads have 5 years exp) and you take 50% of their pay (fresh grads are happy to just have a job that would apply for their visa). $40 * 5 = $200 for every hour they work. Suppose 40 hour weeks, and you're already earning $32k more per month with just 5 people. I've heard of people who have setup 20-person operations and are earning millions every year. It's just damn lucrative and I'd be lying if I say I never thought about getting a piece of the action myself. Of course it's not easy to get a stream of paying clients, which is why many middle-aged people with 10+ years of exp and important contacts in their industries generally form these firms together with their friends. Of course I don't condone this practice, it sucks and ruins the job market for both locals and fresh grads. But at the same time it's a safety net - for the unlucky who don't manage to get jobs by graduation. It's a gray area, like many things in life. What kind of clients you ask? Literally every company hires contractors. The only solution I can see is to have stricter checks by companies on their contractors - which is something you can't legislate I guess. #h1b #consulting #bodyshops
Contracting is enshrined in the US economy. You cannot escape from that.
Twitter, I think your understanding is wrong. Billing rate and salaries are two different things. You have to mention actually salaries in visa applications and also W2 forms in extensions. So if there is a salary cap around it, there is no getting around it. if 150k is the salary base for e.g, it has to be actual base salary - it will impact lot of consulting companies for sure. Regarding starting a consulting business- it may seem like a great idea but building a business is usually quite difficult and it takes years of work. So don’t think about just the billing and the cost - there are lot of other costs and risks involved The large consulting companies are derisking their visa dependencies - You will be surprised that FANG companies employ more visa dependent people than consulting companies. There are about 300k people in I-140 GC backlog and only 40k people are from consulting companies. So maybe this 40k will become 10k in the next two years if salary sorting is enforced and extensions are denied but it will not magically disappear. The 260k people in product companies can feel aggrieved whenever one person from consulting company gets a green card but believe me that number is statistically insignificant. The key issue which is hurting a lot of people is GCs especially Indians and this is because maybe 80% of H1bs go to Indians and only 7% of GCs because of country cap. The only way to bridge this gap is to put a country cap on H1bs or removing the country cap on GCs. Contracting helps large product companies significantly - it is part of their economic model and helps derisk. Best wishes and hope whatever you are looking for works out for you friend
Ok, thanks for your viewpoint. Yes my understanding may have been wrong. I agree that contracting is important for derisking and also it is like a safety net for many immigrants, and without this safety net many people would not even try to study here. Also curious about the source of the 300k/260k statistics? Your point about the imbalanced H1Bs vs GCs is spot on. Both options seem difficult and require a balanced compromise.
It’s an estimate (I don’t think 100 percent accurate numbers are available) Here is the reasoning. Hope it helps : 1) No of people with I-140 in Nov 2019 : https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/USCIS_FOIA_EB_backlog.pdf. Movements differ by country to country but last six months have seen lesser demand and more movement. The 300k number is estimate reducing a certain percentage- e.g people who will/have move back, who will abandon for other countries in the next decade, some who may have got in the last six months etc - if you want to be conservative maybe the number is 350 or 375k. This includes both India and China 2) Visa holders in IT consultancies is estimated at about 80k : https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/tcs-infosys-cognizant-hcl-tech-employees-on-h1b-visa-in-us/amp_articleshow/76638231.cms Most folks in these companies don’t get filed for GCs unless they wait for a few years. Many of them prefer to go back - it is easier if you have come on a deputation unlike if you do your MS in the US. Location changes are very common in consultancies and hence lot of LCAs are filed - denial rates are very high - some as high as 50 percent. So uncertainty is much higher Unlike product companies, you have to pay for your GC - lawyer costs go up to 10k. This is also prohibitive for junior employees Employee churn is high and many employees join product companies within 2-3 years. E.g Amazon has 2-3 k alumni each from all the major IT firms So if you take a conservative stance that 50 percent of this 80k have I-140 approved, it is probably 40k you are talking about
Know of an IT director who works at a well known company . Hands out contracts to his friend’s consultancy. Both profit and live like kings . Three houses , BMW , investments in property in India. Absolutely zero LC or any substantive work for them apart from finding people to work for them and file their h1b with inflated resumes . Came to US in 90s through TCS.
That's crazy. How come the well known company doesn't have losses due to inexperienced workers among them? How is it sustainable!
Name and shame