Average Salaries

Life and the strange turns it takes always amazes me.  There was a time just 4 years ago I was making $2000 a month, and it would have a been a dream to make $50,000-$75,000 a year.

But forget about what I make, and lets us talk about what I pay my employees.  By the second year of working for me, 90% of my employees are making $84,000/yr or more, with an average being close to $100,000 and a high of $180,000/yr.

Yes, life is amazing, 4 years ago I was making $2000 a month and now I pay my employees on average $100,000/yr.

I really love what I do! Life is amazing!

Students for my Classes

People always come to me and tell me that they can get me more students and want to be paid for that, or they will come to me with ideas of a partnership and want me to recruit students for them.

I turn down all these ideas. 

The reason I do not go out and recruit more heavily or keep only 20-30 students in training is that, I can keep an eye on all aspects of training and marketing.  If I become any bigger I have to trust a lot more people with my kids future and I am unwilling to do that.

The only reason to recruit more students is to make more money and the day my life becomes a quest to make as much money as possible, than I know something has gone wrong.  I am passionate about a lot of things but making more and more money is not one of them.

I am very happy with our intrinsic growth and I really do not want anymore students.

To all those of you that want to partner with me, no thank you.  I simply do not trust the rest of you to do justice to my kids.  Most you are all about money and will lie and cheat to make money and you will cut and run if a kid needs more help, and these are traits that I will not put up with in my partners.


 

Recent Masters Graduates

I have trained so many college graduates and have seen them get placed and I have seen them make the same mistake over and over during marketing and I am going to point these out.

Advice for Recent Masters Graduates or for people going through consulting companies for placement:

1) Remove LinkedIn Profile

2) Remove Facebook Profile or make it completely private - No information shows up.  Make all pictures private.

3) Create a new email ID, do not use the same email as your private email address and do not use your college email on your resume.

4) Google yourself and see what shows up - HR will Google you - Remove Negative material

5) Make sure to have 2 references with company email ID's from your last project

6) Make sure you know your last project on your resume - Remember that you have to be able to talk about this project for at least 15 minutes non-stop.

7) Know who the implementation partners are on your resume.

8) If a question is asked during interview - DO not answer Yes or NO.  Give complete answers, I am going to do a You Tube video and posted a link on this blog entry so that everyone can view it to get an idea on how to answer interview questions.

9) Be Confident - HR personnel are trained to hear for voice nuances.  The more prepared you are the more confident you will be.

10) Make sure you know which version of the software the companies are implementing.

11) Do not put your graduation date on your resume.  But be prepared with an answer that matches your resume in case you are asked during the interview.

12) Do not put your birthday on your resume

13) If you are asked what your status is, your answer should be EAD.  If they ask which type of EAD, answer GC EAD.

14) Be prepared to answer and defend the visa you entered the USA on what your current status is.

15) Write out a 2 page summary of all your projects and practice with a friend your answers.

In my experience most people need 2-3 interviews before they are selected for a project, so be persistent  and do not feel upset by a few failures. 

Work hard for 8-10 hours a day until you get placed, there is no substitute for hard work.

Large Corporations and GC

I have a friend named Sunil.  When I used to work at CCSI, he come over on a H1B from Hyderabad.  The kid was brilliant and got a position at Foremost Insurance in MI.  He worked for CCSI for about 1 year and then he was offered a full-time position at Foremost and he took the job.  His salary was actually less than what he was making as a consultant, but he liked the idea of a full-time job and he took it.

Now what is the most important thing for a F1 or a H1B consultant.  For an F1 it is to get a job and then H1B, but eventually it is to get a Green Card.  I would say for 95% of the F1 and H1B candidates that is the most important thing for the future.

I say this, because it sounds exciting and the right thing to do, which is to get a full-time job at a large corporation, but the one problem you will face is that they will do the Green Card (GC) filing on their terms and in their own time.  If the manager promised you to file you a GC on EB2 and later the company decides to file on EB3, well too bad, there is nothing you can do.

Let us get back to Sunil.  He got the full-time offer at Foremost Insurance and then after sometime they filed for his GC.  After about 1 year, Foremost Insurance outsourced that entire division to Computer Science Corporation (CSC), and he had to start the entire GC process all over over again which he did, and now he has come upon the 6 year time limit and GC has not progressed to a point where he can stay until he get the approval or denial of the GC.

So here he is, after 6 years, no GC and having to go back to India.  See you Sunil, I will miss you, you were a terrific person.

So there are some benefits to joining a large corporation, but I think as far as the most important benefit of working with smaller companies the main benefits are:

1) Getting your GC filed on your terms.  You are very important to a smaller company and can dictate your terms as far as the GC processing.  You want to insist on EB2 filing, you can get that done at a smaller company.  For a larger company, they have their own policies and they will file as per their terms.

2) Market Slowdown - When the market is hot, it is great at a larger company, but most large companies will fire you right away in a market slow down.  They could careless about you and your H1B problems or even the GC processing.  I know so many people that have come back to smaller companies after getting fired from large companies and lamenting over having to start the GC process all over again.

In summery I would say that there are a few benefits by working for large corporation, but as far as the most important things which is to get a GC, it is much better to stay with a smaller employer where you are more important and can be assured of a GC under EB2 category without any hiccups.

Why is Embedded Systems so Hot?

Sometimes I simply do not understand why certain IT fields are so hot.  I have been stressing how the demand for Embedded Engineers has been red hot.  We had a class start last weekend and I had one student arrive 10 days back for the class and after just 2 weekends of classes, he has been placed and will be starting his new job on Monday.  How crazy is that.  There are still 3 weeks of classes left, and he already got placed, that shows you how crazy the demand is for Embedded Engineers? 

Companies are begging me for resumes so that they can setup interviews.  The demand is mind boggling. 

So for all you electrical and electronic engineers, this is the chance to get placed very quickly.

Since the demand is so hot I am starting another new batch from Oct 27th, so if you want a job as an embedded engineer, come to VXL, we will work hard and make sure that you are placed within 30-60 days of arriving at our campus.