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With all flashy racial movements and Amendments, US still somehow makes it to the bottom 10 countries for racial equality, even worse than a totalitarian country. There is nothing wrong with US racial system. The survey is wrong. You are doing great. Keep heading to that direction.

[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2021-04-...


I’m not surprised that people perceive the US to struggle with racial equality when it (a) has indeed struggled with racial equality since founding and through civil war and (b) airs its dirty laundry pretty openly.


Yeah, I mean police killing innocent black people on the streets is quite public indeed.


I hear a rumor that Microsoft, Apple, and Google are practicing hiring bias in favor of Indian candidates. Stories from retired engineers [0].

0 - https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-bias-among-Indians-of-hir...


> Why is it more ethical to favor those born with ability than to favor those born with connections?

Because this is the land of opportunity. See for yourself how a privileged spoiled brat from Ivy league universities behaves in this country [0]

0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6vlu1FRaic


> The US has invaded multiple countries and overthrown just as many in recent memory. China has done no such thing.

Did you properly learn Chinese history? [0]

0 - https://www.laowaicareer.com/blog/has-china-ever-invaded-ano...


Did you forget about the Sino-Tibetan war? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_War

The rest of the examples are also a stretch.

China has certainly not done anything on the level of invading Iraq, overthrowing the governments of Iran or Chile, or destabilizing the middle East.


> if an Indian becomes a manager, soon all his department becomes Indians

It can get worse. "Woman was told she’d be fired if she didn’t marry boss’s Indian relative so he could immigrate here" - [0]

0 - https://www.surreynowleader.com/news/judge-annuls-hairdresse...


Just saying, this isn't quite relevant to CS. This was a hairdresser with a business. So, the Indian person in charge was most likely not well educated. It is disingenuous to extrapolate that to H1Bs.

Secondly, this happened in Canada where Sikh/Punjabi immigration was not skill based, but rather fueled by mostly uneducated people looking for a better life. This is completely in contrast to the H1B which is a skill based employment visa.


> Indian person in charge was most likely not well educated

Here are some educated managers in US tech companies - [0]

0 - https://www.teamblind.com/article/Do-all-Indian-managers-suc...


I haven't seen Blind take on overall positive stance on anyone ever. The complete anonymity of every poster invites hate, this likes of which I have only seen on 4chan. That being said, there are a decent number of accounts which go both ways.

Being a manager usually takes English proficiency, so Chinese managers in western companies are not as common. Given the racial breakdown of people in software, that leaves most people with either an Indian or white manager.

However, people never generalize white people culturally, because it is well understood that their color doesn't say much about how they are culturally or ideologically wired.

Similarly 'south asians' as a racial group are pretty culturally and socio-economically diverse. So generalizing such a huge subgroup is not very helpful. People differ in key ideologies of how to go about things as you cross state, religious, developmental lines in south Asia.

That being said, I can hypothesize why certain Indians may display traits that are considered undesirable among managers. But that write up must wait for another day.


> They have a point based system which lets decently talented immigrants in

I keep hearing about Indian tech talents but I haven't met one in real life yet. The ones I know are very good at nepotism. They usually exaggerate each other's works and belittle non-Indians' works. At my workplace, many even take credits of others. I understand that they are doing all of these to reinforce the rumor of Indian tech talents and to pressure managers to hire more Indians. However, I must admit that I haven't met one with actual technical skills and decent characters. IMO, many are political talents.


> I keep hearing about Indian tech talents but I haven't met one in real life yet.

Then you need to work at a better place :) Unfortunately, its very easy to form a bad opinion about Indian tech talent by working at places which hire the cheap talent. When companies offshore or hire contractors, they forget a key principle which applies everywhere in life, 'you get what you pay for'.


Be warned! There is no correlation between being a great software engineer and having a rewarding career in the workplace. You need other skills to survive the politics in hiring and promoting as well[0].

0 - https://cis.org/North/Oracle-Sued-White-Males-Indians-Receiv...


Oracle isn't a good example. Newer companies pair career development with individual developer impact.


Do you consider yourself lucky or it's a normal career path for all PhDs?


Perhaps a better question ... how long is your situation going to last? Academia offers stability to an extent .. say post tenure. Industry does not imho.


Statistically, most PhDs will work in industry because academia is a pyramid. Do PhDs get higher paid jobs in industry than academia? Unsure.

Entry postdoc salaries in the UK are on par with industry outside London (£30-40k). Over time industry will probably pay more, but professors earn £60k minimum so they're hardly underpaid.

Being a postdoc is something of a sweet spot. You get paid enough (finally) to enjoy life a bit, you have immense working flexiblity and you aren't lumbered (yet) with the bureaucracy of the university system. The only way to advance is usually to take on teaching loads and more admin.

But.. postdocs are almost always contractual, lasting 1-3 years. This has benefits: most people do a couple of postdocs before getting tenure and it allows you to move around the world if you like. Academia is only permanent if you get tenure, and even then it's still dependent on your research output and teaching performance. If you got a job in a grad scheme, you'd have a more stable job after finishing your PhD.

Getting tenure is hard. This is absolutely not the normal route for PhDs, as much as they think it is. There are far fewer permanent positions than there are postdocs, so it's not uncommon for people to move abroad just to get a stable job.


Unrelated slightly, and I'm not European, but do postdocs/professors really make less than SE1s at FAANG in the UK?


Speaking from experience as a postdoc, we earn less for sure, but from what I can see a postdoc in the US earns about the same. In the rest of Europe things are a bit different. At the extreme end, in Zurich you might earn 100k CHF as a postdoc if you're lucky (but you pay 30EUR for a pizza). Even at really top-tier places like TUM, you're going to be on 35-40k EUR.

A typical professorial scale in the UK (most universities publish this information publicly) ranges from £60-120k.

You have to realise two things. First, that FAANG are crazy outliers. Second, that UK universities are publicly funded and with few exceptions, justifying six figure salaries from the taxpayer is difficult. A lot of professors make good money on the side by doing consulting.

I believe this is different in the US, as a lot of universities (like Stanford) have huge private endowments. I'm not sure how it works at places like Oxford where the university owns half the centre of town.

A senior engineer in London or a tech hub like Cambridge might make six figures, but that's after several years probably. For engineers, there are much higher salaries to be found elsewhere in Europe in places like Munich.


I'm from the UK and professors aren't paid huge amounts, but remember that salaries are lower here than in the USA even in tech/software.

60k is a senior software engineer salary (especially outside of London)


Both this comment and the parent are fair points.

I don't believe my situation is rare: this position was considerably easier to attain than a faculty position.

Stability is better and worse. It is better in terms of resources (I don't have to apply for grants, I can get summer students, and not for grad student descent! ) but it certainly has less job security than tenure.


No racial profile but there is a section about racism in the CS Department. LOL


"Comments should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


All talk no action. That's how horrible technical interviews exist to this day. We should all turn away from such discussion since it just wastes hours of people's life for no results as we soon realize that 'interviewers keep asking these questions because they can'


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