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Comment by denimnerd42 | Hacker News Reader

come on you can't make blanket statements like that. Plenty of my Ivy friends who took the tech path are senior ICs at big tech, startups (not founders), etc. Same as the stanford, caltech, MIT kids.. some are managers now of course.

they're just normal people who happens to be extremely smart and also from wealthy backgrounds. maybe some day they'll be C-suite but they're only mid 30s right now. I would say only a handful have the personality traits for C-suite or founding a company anyway. they're mostly just nerds who went to a top private HS and got perfect SAT scores.

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Nope, I worked at two FAANG companies and with not a single Harvard or Stanford graduate. I hosted an intern from Stanford once who received a top of band return offer and rejected it for a "better option." I had one coworker from MIT who admitted he should have gone in finance instead. He later left for a prestigious hedge fund and 7 figure compensation. Most of my coworkers ended up here on H1-B visas from top schools in their home countries, but no network or strong family wealth here in the US. I always joked that Harvard graduates are above putting up with the semi-annual hoop jumping FAANG companies have for "performance reviews."

Quant trader at a firm that I've never even heard of but routinely pays even engineers 7 figures

I've also heard working at such firms has crazy finance hours too, which dissuades me from working there.

Are you an MIT graduate? I am told the recruiters don't accept job applications, they only reach out to people directly to invite them to apply.

I'm a mid career staff engineer & manager, and like many I filter out recruiter cold emails.

Plus I wouldn't let that dissuade me from attempting to figure out how to break in if it lead to x2 FANG compensation rates consistently at the same work load.

> Most of my coworkers ended up here on H1-B visas from top schools in their home countries, but no network or strong family wealth here in the US.

That's an interesting matter on its own. Americans are jumping through 12 stage interviews at a chance for a job and getting ghosted while somehow people from other countries are quickly filling up corporations.

It's also weird that so many people with no local connections and no reason to stay in the country get important roles in tech companies, return home, and data is consistently being leaked or "hacked" through various vulnerabilities obvious to employees.

it says more about your skill that someone from 3rd world country, whose parents earn $10/mo is more skilled and smart to pass interview.

Keep in mind it is more expensive for company to hire foreigners as there are 12 hoops to bring foreigner in board, they just desperate for any talent that can do the job (at high bar though)

Nah. H1B sponsor mills are a well documented issue that the US government has been trying to handle for a while now. These organizations go as far as filing multiple applications so they can more easily push one through. [1] It's nothing to do with "skill level" but everything to do with employers pushing down wages and wanting employees that are easily churned when necessary and kept obedient with the threat of their contract and thus visa and livelihood being cut at any time.

The "Americans just aren't good enough!" excuse hasn't been bought by anybody for years now. It's boring and desperate sounding.

There's nothing wrong with hiring workers from other countries. The H1B system just promotes abuse.

[1] https://content.techgig.com/us-govt-to-end-h1b-visa-abuse-he...

WiPro H1B contractor mill staff are very very bad. The other person is probably talking from their non-wipro hiring experience.

You're talking about two different things. Google, Microsoft, other FAAGs's H1Bs are not the same as Infosys or Wipro.

Your coworker from MIT left to be a quant/software engineer at a hedge fund, or was the role non-technical?

"Normal people" aren't afforded the same opportunity or even half the chances in that just so happens from "being from wealthy backgrounds.". I think that's the issue.

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