Do you know any Software Engineers (or MENSA members) in LA ?

[SmartCode]

Short and clear! Nothing to say, this is a short realistic algorithm that seems leading to the goal!

Thanks for the responses of everyone, I received good advices from all of you in the range of only 12 hours, so I wish good luck to everyone in or outside LA in chasing of your most beautiful dreams!

Best regards

Martin

[Santa's Neighbor]

I don't know about the software angle, but there is a very active Mensa chapter in L.A. Their website is at Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa .

[coo77]

So are you trying to obtain a H-1B visa for temporary work for immigrants with a specialty??? With the business sponsoring you and having control of the visa, I think they can technically send you home once they are done with the visa. Also there is a cap of like 65,000 H-1B visas per year that fill up VERY quickly, usually within 4 days of the visas being available.

[SmartCode]

Very useful information, thanks. I'll read everything about the Mensa Chapter in L.A. and the H-1B. Yeah, we're filling the empty gaps in the puzzle!

[DeusEx]

Originally Posted by hsw

BTW, may want to drop mention of the Mensa stuff...many of the top engineers in SiliconValley are alums (or dropouts) of Stanford or Berkeley CS PhD and have met many morons over the yrs from those very same PhD programs...and have also competed against many brilliant engineers from crappy colleges...consider where the google co-founders did their undergrad before going to Stanford for grad school (and dropping out of the CS PhD pgm)

Where, may I ask, did you do your schooling, if you consider Michigan and Maryland to be "crappy schools"? Yes, they're not at the level of Stanford/Berkeley CS/engineering, but that doesn't mean they're not decent schools.

[SmartCode]

Oh, I forgot to ask - if I pass TOEFL or other legal English test, do I increase my chances to receive a job?
If TOEFL is not appropriate, what's the better solution to prove my English skills to my future American employer?

As I mentioned, my purpose is to be noticed, chosen and invited as a skilled worker, not to be an illegal immigrant. I read about H-1B visa (mentioned by coo77), and I saw that computer specialists have received 42% of the visas in 2008. That's good news. However, I also read that the people applying for these visas are many more than 65 000, so it seems it's also a matter of chance. A friend who had been in California told me that the first and the most important thing is to receive a work permit by an employer. The rest of the procedure is routine. It seems right - when you know where's the company location you can easily find a house nearby to save traffic problems and time (low traffic = low air polution, am I wrong?). I hope the corporations are not located in dangerous areas, so working in safe region and living in the same safe region, could increase the chances to have less problems related to the megapolises generally. Do I miss something?

Best regards

Martin

[GreenPenguin]

Originally Posted by SmartCode

Oh, I forgot to ask - if I pass TOEFL or other legal English test, do I increase my chances to receive a job?
If TOEFL is not appropriate, what's the better solution to prove my English skills to my future American employer?

As I mentioned, my purpose is to be noticed, chosen and invited as a skilled worker, not to be an illegal immigrant. I read about H-1B visa (mentioned by coo77), and I saw that computer specialists have received 42% of the visas in 2008. That's good news. However, I also read that the people applying for these visas are many more than 65 000, so it seems it's also a matter of chance. A friend who had been in California told me that the first and the most important thing is to receive a work permit by an employer. The rest of the procedure is routine.

Best regards

Martin

Not to burst your dreams of landing your dream job in LA, but the biggest hurdle is finding a company that is willing to sponsor you.

As mentioned before, there's tons of international graduates that are not able land a job right now and not forced to go back, not to mention that LA Country has one of the state's (if not country's) highest unemployment rates (~12%) so to say that it's going to be tough is a understatement.

Look at it this way, why would a company spend the time and resources to recruit someone abroad when they have plenty of qualified candidates right at home.

You really need to make yourself unique to "get noticed", there's plenty of other software engineers that are very smart you need to differentiate yourself from them. Especially if you're just going to submit your resume online.

Do you know how many resumes the top high-tech companies receive everyday (in the hundreds, if not thousands)? Also it's the large top high-tech companies that have the lawyers, resources and program that do H1Bs, the small start-ups are not likely to be able to sponsor any H1Bs.

That being said it's not impossible and do admire you pursuing your dream. The question is how bad you want it. Think of it this way, if it was so easy to do then everyone would do it.

You should check out socaltech.com to get a feel of the tech sector in SoCal, having worked/lived here for some years (both in LA and Silicon Valley), I believe SoCal is mainly centered around Media (TV/Movie/Entertainment: NBC, CBS, ABC, Disney, Fox, Ticketmaster/LiveNation) and Defense (Northrop Grumman, which most likely also require clearance which may also be a hurdle as a foreigner) there's other SW companies like Symantec and EA (but they a few and far between). And it's no comparison to Silicon Valley as tech goes.

I would really broaden your search to include other tech centers such as:
o Silicon Valley (NorCal - everywhere up and day the 101 are good bet, the who's who of tech is up there: Oracle, Apple, Google, Yahoo!, FaceBook, Twitter, Tivo, NetFlix, eBay/Paypal, Adobe, etc...)
o Seattle (Amazon, Microsoft)
o RTP - Raleigh, NC (It boasts the highest PhD per capita, so as a MESNA member you will fit in )
o Austin - Good group of tech companies here as with RTP (such as Samsung, Dell, IBM)

The other angle is to go into an entirely different industry (non-tech), and a good bet is to follow the "money" from the govt into fields such as healthcare, green tech and education. Those all need software engineers so having a unique background will help (like if you have a bio undergrad with CS that will definitely make you stand out).

As far as TOEFL goes unless you see it in the job description (which I actually can't recall ever seeing such a posting) I wouldn't bother unless you want to apply to a grad program in the US which it is a requirement. To prove your English proficiency, you do that through your cover letter (don't have one, you should cause it helps sell your story and can cover gaps in your resume plus it helps you stand out since not many ppl do it) and the interview (when you get to that stage).

First get the sponsorship so you can get in (narrow your search to companies that will sponsor you so you're not wasting everyone's time), once you're in and have gotten your H1B (think you need to work at the company at least a couple years) you can move to where you want (LA or where ever), the H1B is assigned to you so you get to "transfer" it to where you're going.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes!