My hot take on Microsoft laying off 9,000 people at the same time as requesting 14,000 foreign worker H1B visas:

As a software developer, I call bullshit. Qualified just means intelligent. Train your employees, and hire American.

The guy I hired was a serious expert on floppy-based copy encryption. How many of those are there? What do you do if you need one, and the only one you can find is in Canada, and looking for work? Do you go without, hire someone in the US, smart to figure it out on their own over time, or hire a foreigner to accelerate your business? I'm asking - what's YOUR plan in this case?

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Your anecode is interesting. But, I'm really curious how long ago it was that you hired an H1B employee. . . 5yo, 15yo? Reason I asked is I'm reasonably confident the process has SIGNIFICANTLY eased over the past decade, such that the barriers are MUCH lower/relaxed now. I agree there's no competition in hiring between sales and engineering. But it IS my impression that companies these days are using (and abusing) the H1B process to hire cheaper/foreign engineering talent over Americans.

It was indeed 25 or so years ago at least! So I don't claim to have my finger on the pulse of what's going on now, I grant that!

I’d buy the argument except 1. H1Bs are 95% low quality, from experience, all other indicators 2. Have you used Windows 11? Big signs of technical decline 3. Intel hired lots of H1Bs and what happens? INTC screwed, might not come back No wonder you’re using old hardware!

I watched as 22 native born developers turned to 6, all replaced by Indian nationals. Started with a consultant, then outsourcing, and finally direct hire. There is a whole industry around this. All to cut costs, not talent based.

Call me naive, but if six guys could replace 22, how can you conclude they were anything BUT talented?

Banger. Couldn’t agree more.

This sounds a lot like "how it worked 20 years ago" but i'm not convinced that it's still the way you say.

Of the tech layoffs, what percentage are H-1Bs? I'd venture to guess close to 0. The issue is MS is getting rid of good technical talent who are American citizens and then hiring non-citizens. It's not just MS. Every tech company in Silicon Valley does this, too.