‘Social media helped me’. How an Indian computer engineer in the US who was fired got a new job – Moneycontrol
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My San Francisco-based son had booked his tickets to visit India on Diwali. Two weeks before his scheduled departure, he called to say that he may have to reschedule his journey.
I thought this was because some work had come up.
A few days later he told me that he was cancelling his trip because he was joining a new company and was awaiting his `changed’ visa status.
This was when the story unfolded.
He had just lived through a highly stressful 60 days when you either land a job or pack your bags.
My first reaction was: “Why was I kept out of this for so long.”
But then I paused and realised that this was perhaps the best he could do to minimise the stress.
He knew that every day I would ask him about his progress and he would not have a reply.
Adesh (name changed), a computer engineer, worked at a pharma company and was aware of the job situation, but did not foresee any problem for himself. Till he got a call after his daily meeting and was curtly told about the company’s decision to put the brakes on some projects.
The looming recession in the US exploded in our faces when Facebook’s parent company Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts. But the signs were already there for the past year, especially for small and medium-sized start-ups.
Adesh said he was very troubled for the first two weeks, thinking that he would have to leave the country. Social media, especially LinkedIn, was a savior. By the third week, he had started to go for interviews.
That was when anxiety swapped places with hope.
It was only after hearing my son’s story that I scrolled through social media to understand the job situation. I was shocked to see these digital platforms inundated with stories of desperation. It was not just in the US — job insecurity seems to have become an incurable global malaise.
But the problem made front-page headlines only after bigwigs like Facebook and Twitter announced massive job cuts.
The situation is more distressing for those on an H1B visa, as the 60-day countdown begins the moment they lose their jobs. The challenge is to change their status from unemployed to employed by the 59th day. Else, it’s a one-way ticket home.
“It is certainly an extremely difficult situation, but there may be a way out. The important thing is to apply to as many places as possible. By the third week, I became more confident about where I was headed, and by the fourth week I had an offer,” said Adesh.
The uncertainty also depends on the job sector, as the openings vary for each sector.
“When you are hired by these companies, it relaxes the 60-day timeline. I got one such offer, which relieved the pressure somewhat,” Adesh said.
But is it really worth living in such an uncertain climate, I asked my son.
“Of course. Why not? Six years of working in the US has taught me new hard and soft skills, taught me how to innovate,” he replied.
But Adesh does not deny that he was in a very tough spot considering the slim deadline.
“You have to reach out, reach out, and reach out. There is no space for self-pity. The more you reach out on social media, the better are your chances,” he says.
Although he got a job by the fourth week, it took some time for the lawyers at his new firm to submit his application for the new visa.
Adesh got his new visa three days before the deadline expired on November 1. But there is a lesson he takes forward.
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