There are many people leaving Microsoft right now. Mostly good people. There are four types of people who stay at Microsoft:
1) Top performers who are on a fast-track (<1% of workforce)
2) People who can't get jobs elsewhere (30%)
3) People who have families and are tied to Redmond area (40%)
4) People who can get jobs elsewhere but have visa restrictions and are afraid to upset their status (30%)
Everyone else leaves or has already left within 2 years. I joked with a colleague yesterday, "Hey, have you talked to anyone from the old team?" "Yeah, I've been forwarding their resumes..."
Microsoft is working to reduce people in #2 and #3 through its performance review system. They then want to increase people in #4 so they have more people who can't leave them as they start cost cutting when Win8 isn't a roaring success.
I personally find it heart-wrenching to watch friends who would leave their abusive situations and work for a start-up but cannot due to silly visa paperwork. I just don't trust that Microsoft would want more people to come without restrictions to work for a specific company. It does't benefit them at all.
I just wish skilled computer science people could work for whomever they want. Our industry would be so much better off. So long as you pay taxes and are a lawful person, I support anyone living in this country.
I just wish skilled computer science people could work
for whomever they want. Our industry would be so much
better off. So long as you pay taxes and are a lawful
person, I support anyone living in this country.
Amen to that. I wish more people though this way. Citizenship based on birthright is a really antiquated notion in my view and I'm surprised more countries, at least smaller ones, haven't experimented with this idea more.
>I personally find it heart-wrenching to watch friends who would leave their abusive situations and work for a start-up but cannot due to silly visa paperwork.
H1B holders can switch from company to company without problems, there is a small amount of paperwork and a fee. Greencard applications are also transferable.
Comments
There are many people leaving Microsoft right now. Mostly good people. There are four types of people who stay at Microsoft:
1) Top performers who are on a fast-track (<1% of workforce)
2) People who can't get jobs elsewhere (30%)
3) People who have families and are tied to Redmond area (40%)
4) People who can get jobs elsewhere but have visa restrictions and are afraid to upset their status (30%)
Everyone else leaves or has already left within 2 years. I joked with a colleague yesterday, "Hey, have you talked to anyone from the old team?" "Yeah, I've been forwarding their resumes..."
Microsoft is working to reduce people in #2 and #3 through its performance review system. They then want to increase people in #4 so they have more people who can't leave them as they start cost cutting when Win8 isn't a roaring success.
I personally find it heart-wrenching to watch friends who would leave their abusive situations and work for a start-up but cannot due to silly visa paperwork. I just don't trust that Microsoft would want more people to come without restrictions to work for a specific company. It does't benefit them at all.
I just wish skilled computer science people could work for whomever they want. Our industry would be so much better off. So long as you pay taxes and are a lawful person, I support anyone living in this country.
>I personally find it heart-wrenching to watch friends who would leave their abusive situations and work for a start-up but cannot due to silly visa paperwork.
H1B holders can switch from company to company without problems, there is a small amount of paperwork and a fee. Greencard applications are also transferable.
Being on a visa allows you to switch jobs. The new company has to pay a small fee to do it, but any medium-to-large company will do it.