Former Google techie offers survival tips for H-1B visa holders amid layoffs

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:
“Since the first round of massive layoffs at Google in Jan 2022, I started to realize this could happen to myself at anytime for no reason,” he said.

He said that he had asked himself hundreds of times when he walked into the office what if he could no longer do it again, and how could he protect himself. He added that instead of getting hit totally off guard, it would be better to prepare for it ahead of time to 'embrace' the layoffs.

Here's what the former Google engineer did:

1. He mentioned that as an immigrant on an H1b visa, he had familiarized himself with the rules. He stated that he had read plenty of stories to learn how people lost their jobs and what they had done to deal with the immigration risks to buy them more time.

He explained that he had mentally prepared himself for the upcoming challenges, expecting that everything would be happening at a fast pace.

He anticipated having many sleepless nights, encountering lots of difficult Leetcode and system design questions, and engaging in back and forth communications with recruiters, all in a few weeks. He emphasized that those things shouldn't be a surprise; 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," he said in his post.

3. He emphasized the importance of persistently backing up their coworker's contact and work artefacts. He mentioned that merely having something in the corporate laptop was not persistent, as he could easily lose them all in a flash, which had actually happened to him that week. He further explained that he had his coworker's contacts stored just in case he lost sight of what was 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. He mentioned that he had read many layoff posts on LinkedIn in the past two years and could totally relate to them. He stated that the best he could do was to repost and offer a referral, even if there weren't many openings at Google since 2022. He expressed happiness at seeing some people secure their next jobs soon and some giving their hands back to him 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 concluded.


(With TOI inputs)