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How hard is it to find work in the US as a foreign Front End Dev?

4 points by cupofjoakim ↗ HN
Ok, so here's the background info:

My girlfriend wants to move to San Francisco to study and she wants me to come with her. I wouldn't mind, since the US pay is better (and the taxes are lower) compared to sweden, where I'm from.

I'm a white, young male (22) with 2.5 years experience in my field, but I don't have a bachelors degree. I'm self taught.

From my understanding I basically have to find a place to work for that can sponsor me before I even apply for a visa, right? What would be the proper way of doing so?

I figured you guys probably are the best to ask, since I've gathered that many of you are non-US but still work there.

Note that this is NOT any kind of ad. I just want to hear from others experiences and see if anyone has any potential tips or suggestions on how to proceed.

EDIT: Might be relevant to mention that I'm more into JS than anything else, even though I do possess skills outside of the Front End Spectrum as well (Concept Developer, low-level UX as well as designer).

4 comments

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27182818284
Immigration issues aside, I think there is enough of a demand you have a shot of something. It might not be at the Big three (Apple, Facebook, Google) but I know a lot of smaller shops looking for talent. Places you haven't heard of at the national level, but that have 100 employees and need HTML people.

The hard part is definitely going to be the immigration / legal / visa issues, sadly.

cupofjoakim
I figured that. I'm not really sure on the works of the whole visa-deal, but I take it that my sponsor pays a bit for it all to happen. Which makes it harder to find an employer to act as one.
mehuldesai
Your skill in the js front-end is a valuable asset. Silicon Valley startups have moved architectures and frameworks from multi layer b'ends to far lighter archs on the b'end and new derivative next gen languages on the b'end. Eg like LAMP stacks, python and rubi (2 next gen functional languages). The line between f'end and b'end has shifted where the f'end takes on some of the responsibilty (via its own frameworks like backbone.js, node.js,etc...) that the b'end traditionally would have. Bottom line, trend is your friend and js and its frameworks are in very good demand more than ever in the valley!

I would say the biggies like ebay, google, apple , etc... may look at your degree (or lack of) and rank it for eng positions. I know goog may look at it a bit. they used to like high ranking colleges. However, for your valuable skill in js, small startups may value your skills and are open to sponsor. some are starved for f'end talent.

heres my advise to getting in to a small startup:

look in HN jobs, startups for hire indeed.com, network friends, linkedin etc... find small cos, private make portfolio of your apps, design docs, blogs, etc... and put them online. take them to interview and show them to everyone small cos may sponsor you. there is usually a cost in salary i think (20+%) demonstrate your knowledge of js in the interviews, good attitude *take a strong double shot cappuccino in the interview, it works for me to get my brain supercharged!

good luck

ghostdiver
> b'end > f'end

makes reading harder and does not give anything in return