A laid-off Google software engineer on an H-1B visa is offering advice to fellow tech immigrants on LinkedIn. The Chinese national, who also experienced a layoff at Amazon previously, shared his strategies for weathering job loss.
Having previously navigated a layoff in 2019 he took a proactive approach when he noticed Google initiating another round of job cuts. Seeing similar actions at other tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter), he realized that his own position could be at risk. Instead of waiting to be caught off guard, he chose to prepare in advance for the possibility of being laid off. His story underscores the unique difficulties encountered by H-1B visa holders during layoffs, where securing a new sponsoring employer is crucial for maintaining legal status in the country. He outlined five main strategies he employed to mitigate the impact.
5 tips the Google techie shared for H-1B visa holders in his post:
1. "As an immigrant on H1b visa, I got to know the rules. I read plenty of stories to learn how people lost their jobs and what they have done to deal with the immigration risks to buy them more time. I've had myself mentally prepared for the upcoming grinds that everything will be happening in a fast pace, I will have many bad sleeps, lots of difficult Leetcode and system design questions, and back and forth communications with recruiters, all in a few weeks. Those shouldn't be a surprise, in
in fact, they better happen sooner than later."
2. "DO NOT YOLO. I've been over conservative to my investment this year, and I postponed the plan of upgrading my apartment or getting a new car. For me I always had at least 12 months of living expenses in my checking account and also get mentally prepared to use them up in one day (I had similar experience when I got laid off in 2019, and I almost can't afford my flight ticket back to my hometown). Withdrawing all my hard earning money is difficult, but I have to get ready."
3. Backup my coworker's contact and work artifacts persistently, I mean, persistently, the techie wrote. "Having something in corp laptop is not persistent. I could easily lose them all in a flash, in fact I just lost them this week. I've had my coworker's contacts just in case I lost my sight to what's going on."
"Similarly, all work related content can be lost at any seconds. I kept a work journal on what I have worked on every week since last year, it would help me greatly in interviews."
4. He said, "Write down all the passwords of all the accounts. Payroll account, insurance account, 401k account, HSA account etc. I had everything anchored to my personal email in the first place so I will never have my account disappears."
5. "Help others whenever I can. I've read so many layoff posts on LinkedIn in the past two years and I can totally relate to them. Best I can do is to repost and offer a referral, even if there's not many openings at Google since 2022. I was happy to see some people secured their next jobs soon and some are giving their hands back to me this time."
"We are a community, it is a fundamental understanding that we as ordinary people are not competing with each other for given number of open roles. We are supporting each other," the engineer said.
"The party is over. Better refuse another Tequila shot, get your credit card and be ready to head to your car early, than pass out at the end of the show," he said.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/work/former-google-techie-offers-survival-tips-for-h-1b-visa-holders-amid-layoffs/articleshow/109817498.cms
