Considering relocation- is the Portland area for us?

[Nell Plotts]

The other issue Kellymom3 hasn't mentioned is proximity to family. They should put that on their list of 'think about's.

[Kellymom3]

Most of my extended family lives in CA, the closest around 3 hours from us. Since 2011 we've only been seeing each other a couple times a year, with the COL increases & gas prices we've been pinching every penny until it screams. The Portland area will be a little easier for visits, we'll be on the same coast, and my parents drive up to Washington to visit a couple of my aunts & uncles who live up there. Whether it's Portland or Austin, we're going to try to stay in touch with Skype and travel when the budget allows.

[Nell Plotts]

What are the chances that your parents would visit you in Austin? Traveling with kids to visit the grandparents is expensive.

[Kellymom3]

I think they would, probably every 3-5 years or so.

[NickyBilly]

Move further north. The Seattle area has so many high-tech jobs that they can't be filled. Amazon is hiring by the thousands, Google is opening up and hiring, not to mention F5, Tableau, along mainstays like Microsoft

[Kellymom3]

Thanks, NickyBilly. We have looked into the Seattle area a little, from what I recall I think most of the jobs are in a different area than what my husband does. Plus, the cost of living is higher than what we feel we can manage. But we'll definitely keep looking into it.

Some possible good news and fingers crossed. We got a call from one of the semiconductor manufacturing companies in the Portland area, and my husband spoke with her at length about his experience. As a result, she's setting up another phone interview next week with the hiring team, and if that works out, then they'll fly him up for a face-to-face interview. So that's encouraging, and at the very least it will be good practice.

[Nell Plotts]

Best wishes with the job search. Once that is nailed the rest is a cake walk.

[lurtsman]

Originally Posted by hamellr

Just check out Intel. I'm not sure what they have open, vs. what your husband actually does, but they're always complaining about not having enough qualified workers and won't Congress pretty please add a few thousand more H-1 Visa per a year?

All hi-tech fields are doing that.

There are plenty of qualified workers who would love to work there for normal wages. They want the visa so they can get over qualified workers for one third of the market rate. It has absolutely nothing to do with a shortage of employees, which does not exist in any field, and everything to do with not wanting to the market wage rate.

Similarly, there is no shortage of diamonds. You can have all you want at the market rate.

Make sense? I spent quite a while tutoring students in economics

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by lurtsman

All hi-tech fields are doing that.

There are plenty of qualified workers who would love to work there for normal wages. They want the visa so they can get over qualified workers for one third of the market rate. It has absolutely nothing to do with a shortage of employees, which does not exist in any field, and everything to do with not wanting to the market wage rate.

Similarly, there is no shortage of diamonds. You can have all you want at the market rate.

Make sense? I spent quite a while tutoring students in economics

.... you are ignoring a much bigger picture. You should look at what types of degrees Intel specifically is looking for, the number of employees they actually need, and how many people per a year graduate in the United States with that degree. Based on your statement above, you may be surprised.

While there is an element of truth regarding the H-1 Visas for some companies being cheaper and more desirable, Intel is not one of those. If that was remotely true they would not be pumping millions of dollars per a year into local schools like OIT where they hire just about every graduate of certain programs. Nor would they be pushing harder (and again investing millions,) for science education at a high school level in an attempt to get kids interested in science, and later engineering, at a college level. I can come up with another half dozen examples easily of where Intel is giving a lot of money away, but when you look closely it's in places that will indirectly help them at some time in the future.

If you look at it from a purely intellectual property standpoint, H-1 Visas do not make sense for Intel. Most employees under that program can only be here for three years, with a possible further three year extension. If you are a leader in the industry making cutting edge discoveries, it doesn't make sense to have a three year turnover of 75% of your workforce. Worse yet, having these people go back to your competitors with their knowledge of your processes. Processes that no matter how many NDAs and non-compete agreements you put on it, still get indirectly "borrowed."

Just the lost institutional knowledge alone every three years isn't worth it, you'll end up paying more in rework vs. what you saved by hiring an engineer at 1/3 or 1/2 the price.