Job Hunting in USA on H-1B–Initial Screening, Telephonic and Face to Face Interview

 

Usually the selection process starts with Initial Screening by the recruiter. In initial screening, recruiter will call you on your phone and will go through your resume/cv verifying what you’ve mentioned in your resume/cv regarding your education background and work experience.

Recruiter might also setup a first telephonic interview with one of the technical staff member from recruiter’s technical interviewer’s panel, to make sure you score well in end client’s interview.

Technical interviews, be they telephonic or face to face, can include:

• Typical What-is questions – What is OOP?
• Copy-paste bookish questions – How IoC is different from DI?
• Real-life troubleshooting questions
• Scenario based problems

[ Click to view list of topics for Java Developer roles (under section “Selection and Interview Process” ]

Make sure you know every single thing that you’ve mentioned in your resume/cv.

Make sure you state clearly, if you are guessing some thing and are not sure about it, honesty is very very important in such interactions.

It is recommended to always go for the face to face interview option; it is far more effective than telephonic or video interviews. You can communicate more effectively when you are interacting directly, you can make long lasting impression, you can establish more effective connections.

Updates on Companies in Pakistan, Sponsoring H-1B Visa

 

Now, it’s Royal Cyber!

As per my source, Royal Cyber is now offering H-1B Sponsorship to candidates who fulfill following criteria:

• Minimum of 16 years of education – with 4 years bachelor’s degree.
• 5 or more years of professional development experience.

Royal Cyber

US Headquarters

Royal Cyber
55 Shuman Blvd, Suite 1025, Naperville,
IL 60563 USA.

Pakistan Office

Suite # 1101-1104, 11th Floor,
Ceasers Towers (National IT Park),
Main Shahrah e Faisal,
Karachi, Pakistan.

Click to view a complete list of companies in Pakistan who sponsor H-1B Visas.

H-1B Work Visa–Recent Trends–Salary or Compensation

 

Salary brackets for fresh H-1B Candidates, who do not have any work experience in USA before, are as follows:

Developer (0 – 5 years of experience)
US$ 3,500 – 5,500 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 40 – 55 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Senior/Lead Developer (6+ years of experience)
US$ 5,500 – 7,000 per month (Employment Contract)
OR
US$ 55 – 80 per hour (Consultant Contract)

Why there’s a difference between Employment and Consultant Contract? please refer to my previous post which discuss the topic in detail.

In order to come up with a realistic estimate of your salary, you should consider following factors:

1. State & City/Area – Each state has a slightly different salary scale because they differ with others on following:
   1. Taxation Laws – Some tax more while others tax less
   2. Economic Activity – Some are Hub of economic activity while others are not
   3. Cost of Living – Some are cheaper while others are expensive
2. Client Profile – Whether your Client is a small or medium or large Enterprise OR it’s a fresh Start-up company (low funding or high funding?)
3. Quality of your Experience – Your foreign experience counts when you have worked for companies that have International presence of at-least presence in USA. On the other hand, if you have worked for companies who are unknown in USA market than you might not be able to leverage upon your experience.
4. Time of Entry – This is also important as to when you enter the USA job market. Whether it is a hiring season or not. Whether supply is adequate or there’s a high demand.
5. First Impression – The most important factor, if you were able to market yourself effectively in your interview/test/meeting there’s a bright chance that you can tip the scale in your favor.

H-1B Work Visa USA–Recent Trends–Candidate Profile/Skills

 

So what kind of candidate profiles/skills, H1-B sponsor companies are interested in? I’ve depicted the most recent visible trends (in the last 3 or 4 years?) as follows:

Technology

1. Java Platform ~ 70%- 80%

2. .Net Platform ~ 15% - 20%

3. Others ~ 1% - 5% (Oracle DBA/Functional/Technical, SAP, etc.)

 

Job Role

Software Engineers / Senior Software Engineers / Software Developers / Team Leads / Technical Leads etc.

In short, they are interested in people who do “LESS TALK & MORE WORK” and their definition of “WORK is CODING”. A word of caution for you; if you have highlighted your Management experience and skills in your resume or cv, chances are that you will not make it to the shortlisted candidates.

Why is that so? my investigation suggests that there are numerous factors involved. First, “Demand leads the way” i.e. technical resources who are hands-on and can be productive from the very first day are actually in great demand in USA. But, don’t get me wrong, other job roles also have a demand, like:

Product Managers, Program Managers, Project Managers, Project Coordinators, Scrum Masters and other PMO related roles.

QA Managers, QA Engineers, Senior QA Engineers, Testers, QA Automation Engineers, QA Leads and other QA related roles.

But, typically those who are pulling resources from Pakistan or India or China, are bent on hard-core developers.

Second, developers rate are usually higher and hence better profit margin.

Third, communication is often a problem area with majority of Pakistani or Indian or Chinese resources and effective communication is a key requirement for any managerial or senior level position.