- Thursday, March 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
While thousands of Indian workers employed on temporary visas in the US got fired in recent layoffs in the tech industry, they have found support in their peers who have come together to help them find work in the country, the BBC reported.
Amit (name changed), a software engineer, recently lost his job at Twitter, but he said that he has already given a few job interviews and even got a “reference for a good role”.
He has thanked his peers in the industry for helping avoid dire consequences. These peers are actually coming to the rescue of many tech workers like Aakash by making use of their professional networking.
“Hiring managers and engineers on LinkedIn I’d never contacted before have been sharing my profile in their companies and this has helped me get a few interviews,” he was quoted as saying by the BBC.
According to the report, a number of support groups have come up both online and offline following mass layoffs that happened at major tech companies in the US.
In the recent months, firms such as Meta, Twitter, and Amazon have fired thousands of staff members amid growing concerns over an economic slump. Indians working on H1-B visas — a non-immigrant visa under which companies can employ foreigners for up to six years — have also been impacted and they have now found themselves in a precarious position to find a job within 60 days time or leave.
Tech employees who are aware of the uncertainty that comes with the H1-B visas have come together to help their jobless peers to find another employment before they are asked to leave the US.
They are contributing by means of sending encouraging messages, flagging job openings and using personal networks to attract people such as immigration lawyers, recruiters and job hunters onto common platforms to find solutions to the problem.
Vidhi Agrawal and Shruti Anand, who have been employed by tech firms on H1-B visas, have formed a database to bring together the jobseekers with prospective employers, the BBC report added.
“These [the laid-off employees] are among the top tech talent in the world,” Agrawal was quoted as saying.
“From the resumes we see they’re well-educated, super-skilled and making upwards of $250,000 [£203,400].”
She added that several companies, including her own, are open to hire from the available talent pool.
Agrawal added that she, along with Anand, has been helping “resumes be seen by the right people” and “fast-tracking referrals and interviews” since they are aware of the uncertainty that the H1-B visa-holders face.
“Hiring managers understand that this is time-sensitive. I know of people who are being fast-tracked for interviews. Going through multiple rounds of interviews in a company within a month is unheard of,” she said.
“Vidhi’s efforts have directly resulted in me getting a reference for a good role,” Aakash, who moved to the US six years ago from India, said.
Amit, who comes from a low-income background in India, said he was good at studies and wanted to make it big in career.
“So my family supported my education in the US by taking a huge mortgage. They have sacrificed their dreams and happiness for me to achieve mine and I am forever indebted [to them]. They are completely dependent on me,” he told the BBC.
His “most important concern” at the moment is finding a job and the support he found from fellow professionals is heartening, Amit added.
