
Ask HN: Startup promised me a job, then backed out after the internship - throwaway87
TL;DR; Student from Europe, did an internship in a NYC startup, got promised to be hired. After having made all the plans for moving to US, the offer was retracted.<p>In August I began an internship at a New York startup. Since I’m European, I had no expectations that it would have led to a full-time job, given the hassle of getting an H1B visa (in fact, I was already surprised that the company sponsored my J-1 for the length of the internship).<p>After just a few weeks, the company was impressed with my performance (they told me I had already accomplished more than they expected from the whole three months) and they gave me a full-time offer. Compensation, option, benefits, visa paperwork, all there.
I took some time to decide, as I was considering other opportunities, and eventually accepted.<p>My girlfriend is American (we met in the UK, where we both did our master’s), and this was the best opportunity to keep living with her, with a nice, well-payed job in a cool town in the US.
She stopped arranging for a post-study work visa in the UK. I refused opportunities with Google, Bing, and two startups. I told all those people I wasn’t able to consider any offer, since I had already accepted one (so I thought).<p>The last day of my internship we made the last arrangements for my return.
I had a conversation with the main engineer, who also mentioned that the company could request a green card for me after a few years on the H1B. I received greetings and “see you soon” from everyone, including the founder.<p>Yesterday I received a phone call from the founder, saying that they "changed their mind", and they are stopping the visa application.
He mentioned that, for that position, they want someone more experienced with web development and UX. He added that they expected something more from the last part of my internship.<p>I’m shocked.<p>No one ever gave me a hint that I was doing something wrong. The founder himself had called me several times to show the prototype I was developing to investors.<p>I cannot stress how unfortunate this is for me. I was making plans to live in the US with my girlfriend. I left some of my stuff in the city. I even lost the opportunity to apply to the green card lottery, since it closed yesterday.
If I didn’t know I had a job, I would have spent the past two months looking for one, preparing for interviews, moving forward with the other possibilities I had.
My girlfriend would have applied for a visa in the UK, since I was more likely to get a job there.<p>I am now in the US for a couple of weeks, using the grace period included in my J-1 visa to travel with my girlfriend. At the end of November I will have to leave the country.<p>I’m a Mathematics graduate, with good programming skills, knowledge of CS, experience with machine learning and information retrieval.
I need to find a job in the US. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a startup, I will go for a big corporation if that makes it easier to obtain a visa.
I’m also interested in any subtleties regarding visas: is there a way I can come back as a tourist and apply for jobs? Can my girlfriend do the same in the UK (or even just move there with me until she can apply and obtain a work permit)?<p>Any advice? Similar experiences?
======
cletus
There are three possibilities here:

1\. You really did disappoint at the end of your internship. I've seen this
happen. People get complacent. Take a good, hard look at what you've done and
see if there's any truth to it or that someone could get that impression;

2\. The company's situation changed. Funding may have fallen through. There
may be a power shift in management. Who knows? or

3\. They were lying to you the whole time.

I suspect (2) but, then again, we only have your side of it. I don't mean to
sound harsh here. I know nothing about you.

It's time to look on the bright side: you got a three month internship out of
this. If you can find someone from the company to get a reference from then
that's valuable.

The US operates basically on "at will" employment. With very limited
exceptions (eg the Americans With Disabilities Act) they can withdraw that
offer and that employment at pretty much any time. If you can demonstrate
damages and they can't justify it, you can sue but you'll need to show damages
and honestly it's not worth going down that route _even if there is a breach
of contract_ , which is a somewhat separate issue.

If you had offers from other companies, go back and contact them. Tell them
you'd originally planned to keep working for the company you were interning
for as you were really excited about what you were working on and who you were
working with but that offer fell through. This is a perfectly acceptable
situation and one that won't tarnish you as a potential employee.

If the company was dishonest with you, either from the beginning or at the
end, then what happened is a good thing. Better to discover this now than 1-2
years from now when they shaft you out of your options or the like. Integrity
and honesty matters. Do not go work for a startup if you don't trust who
you're working for. Reputation is everything.

Lastly, I'm glad (for your sake) that you didn't drag whoever this was into
the public by naming and shaming them. As tempting as that might be, don't do
it. You seriously undermine your ability to get any reference from someone
working there and, honestly, this tends to make whoever is slinging mud look
bad as well. Just move on.

~~~
frossie
_If you had offers from other companies, go back and contact them._

Absolutely. If you (the OP) are from Europe you may be used to well-defined
hiring windows where a job ad closes on date X and after that it doesn't
matter if you are a triple-Nobel-prizewinner, you will not be considered.

The US has a much more fluid model in the commercial sector (in fact it is
possibly to apply and be hired where no job has been advertised at all). There
is nothing dodgy about directly contacting people you had good leads with and
mentioning your circumstances have changed, recap anything positive they have
said to you previously, and re-attach your resume.

Standard job-seeking advice applies, for example don't go into any details
about the previous employer or the fact that you are desperate for a job in
the US. Keep it to the minimum facts.

~~~
rmc
_are from Europe you may be used to well-defined hiring windows where a job ad
closes on date X and after that it doesn't matter if you are a triple-Nobel-
prizewinner, you will not be considered._

That's not been my experience at all. I'm in Ireland, an EU member state, and
I've worked at several small technology companies, and I've replied to job
postings on mailing lists that are 12 months old and they are still hiring.

IMO it's only really big companies / public sector etc. that have these crazy
rigid rules. (cf. Yes Minister)

~~~
mobiplayer
Same here in Spain.

~~~
bocanaut
Same here in Germany

------
gojomo
It's unfortunate, and it sounds like they should have been better/earlier in
communicating intent to you. But there could be other factors, like financing
falling through or real skills-match concerns that only emerged in the last
few weeks of the internship, that contributed to the situation. And even if
they had hired you, it's possible for the situation to change in just a few
weeks or months – so them following through with the offer was no guarantee of
settled long-term employment, either.

On the bright side, there's lots of hiring of people with your skills right
now, in NY and the Bay Area [1]. Though the work-eligibility factor will
complicate and slow any processes, you could probably start (and complete)
many interviewing processes in the next few weeks, and might have several
offers by the end. So I would use your 'grace period' for that, rather than
travel, if living/working in the US is your top priority.

Also, because of the arbitrariness of current-era US immigration law, I would
make sure you get your visa advice from a specialist, or at the very least a
sponsoring-employer, rather than a comment-thread. This seems to me like an
area where a single inadvertent admission – "why yes, I did talk about job
opportunities with a stranger standing next to me in line at Disneyland" – can
lead to a bureaucratic troubles that are almost vindictive in their
application.

[1] See for example the recent "Who's Hiring (November 2011" thread:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3181796>

------
asanwal
Sorry to hear about this situation as it sounds horribly stressful. My only
piece of "advice" is to use the next few weeks to do the job search in lieu of
traveling. NYC has lots of great startups and your background is prob relevant
to many of them. It may require some 'ground & pound', i.e. cold emails,
knocking on doors, etc but if you meet enough folks, one might click. And
after all, you only need one job.

To this end, we're hiring for someone with a machine learning/information
retrieval background so if you're interested, ping me (email is in my
profile). We're going through the Visa formalities for another hire so are
getting to know the process as well. Of course, that's putting the cart before
the horse so reach out if interested and we can at least get the convo going.
And we can expedite the conversation/interview process given your predicament.

More on the jobs here - <http://www.cbinsights.com/hiring/>.

------
brk
Most likely is that something unanticipated happened at the company.

Anticipated funding didn't come in. Company is pivoting. Or maybe just the
founders nephew needed the job that was going to be yours.

Ultimately, the chances of finding out exactly what the root cause is are
practically nil. The employer had no formal obligation to you (this is how it
generally works here), and on top of that general fear of lawsuits will also
prevent them from telling you exactly what caused their change of mind.

It's an unfortunate situation, but your best option is to simply move on(
recognizing that it may be less than 'simple').

------
mechanical_fish
I don't know what to say other than to agree with you: This was awful behavior
on the part of your prospective employer.

I have no facts but I can ask more questions: How do the H1B rules work? If
you had been working for the company for a single week before they fired you,
would your legal status be different than it is now? Or would you have had to
be there a month? A year? More than a year?

Many startups are on the verge of going broke. ;) It kind of goes with the
territory. And it's not as if a company that is about to go broke always sends
out clear signals of that. Generally you find out in a big hurry. Like when
your employer shocks you by suddenly reneging on a deal that you both spent a
lot of time making.

It would seem, then, that startups might be especially risky for visa
applicants. Though much depends on the details of the immigration process. I'm
sure many people around here know those details very well, however.

~~~
Lewisham
H1-B becomes invalid if the company fires you. It would have been worse if
he'd already got here, but knowing how much effort goes into moving countries
(particularly to the US), that is a very small consolation.

~~~
stdbrouw
Some consolation, in that case, according to Wikipedia: "if the employer
should dismiss the employee, the company is liable for any reasonable costs
associated with relocation back to the employee's last foreign residence"

~~~
tptacek
Reasonable costs here appears to mean "a plane ticket home", and appears to
only apply if the former employee elects to return home; in particular, the
first page of Google results will tell you that the company isn't responsible
for moving the former employee's property (which is the real relo expense).

~~~
stdbrouw
Ouch, didn't know that. Thanks.

------
EGreg
Contact me, you'll find my email on <http://qbix.com/about> (I'm Greg). We are
in NYC.

Check out what we are building first, and let me know if that's something you
would be interested in working on.

~~~
xxbondsxx
No offense, but visiting Andrey's website and reading the top post here:

<http://tarantsov.com/>

kind of rubbed me the wrong way. First he states that whitepapers are a
'shitload of crap' and then he has 'NIGGAS' in his most recent tweets. Now
imagine you are a black grad student in CS -- not the most warm welcome. You
might want to think about endorsing his personal site on your startup page.

~~~
driverdan
If he was a cofounder or a member of upper management I would be concerned.
But he's not, he's a developer. Are you saying you agree with the personal
opinions of everyone you've worked with? That you shouldn't work somewhere
because another employee has questionable / controversial opinions? Give me a
break.

~~~
tensor
The issue is not so much that an employee has questionable opinions, but
rather that his company endorses his blog containing those opinions with a
direct link:

 _"Rather than talk about what he does, check out his website."_

While I'm sure that post was not on his site at the time the company decided
to link to it, they are still currently in the awkward position of endorsing
it. I find it ironic that in support of his anti-intellectualism Andrey
references an essay by Paul Graham discussing the differences between
engineering and science. This essay does not support his point unless you only
bother with the most cursory of glances at it.

------
erikb
Often there are other factors involved, like an investor who backed out. Think
about the last time you had to say no to somebody. It is hard to say no to
other people and the reasons we call them are often not the real reasons. Try
not to take it personal or understand it as something unfair. Things like that
happen to everybody from time to time.

------
pedalpete
I always liked the saying 'you can control what others do, but you can control
your reaction to it'.

It is entirely possible that the start-up you were working for is having some
issues, and are therefore unable to hire you. Or maybe they are being
acquired, and can't talk about it, but also can't hire any more people.

The fact is you don't know the actual situation, only what the founder told
you, and it is possible that he can't tell you the real reason. Maybe he is
saying what he is saying to make himself feel better about something. Whatever
it is, it doesn't matter.

Have you considered going back to the other companies that wanted to interview
you and see if they are still interested?

Though it may seem like things have been really screwed up, you never know
what will happen. This could turn out better than your original plan.

Best of luck

------
alexholehouse
In terms of returning to the US, you can enter and look at applying for jobs
while you're there (meet people, have interviews etc) but you'll still need to
go through the H1B procedure, which typically takes 6-8 weeks.

The visa waiver program (VWP) means you can be in the US as a tourist for up
to 90 days at a time, with only 180 days in total in any one year period (*
I'm 99% sure it's any one year period, though might be worth double checking).
So the likelyhood is even if your in the US for that time you'll have to leave
before the paperwork goes through. Immigration can get a bit funny though, so
don't bank on being able to make loads of trips (they like you "out" as much
as you're "in")

Now a word of warning. As a recent grad trying to convince US employers to H1B
you and bring you over is hard. You're in a better position than 99.999% of
the population though - math and machine learning is hot in any company. The
issue the company has to decide is, "Is it worth us spending the money and
time trying to get an H1B for this guy, or none of the hassel for a 'home
grown' employee". If they can get your for 1-2 years it may well be, and
experience with your previous company is a big plus.

Finally, trying to get interviews from the UK to the US is very tough. I
wouldn't recommend applying for job boards, but look at contacting CTOs tech
leads directly. Maybe my case is unique, but I applied to about 150 job board
postings over about 3 months for a jobs in the US. I have an undergrad from
Oxford (biochem) and masters in CS from Imperial London (GPA 3.7/4.0
respectively) and I heard nada from anyone except literally the first add I
applied to. However, I've had quite a few interviews through just emailing
people, so it is possible.

If you want any more info feel free to contact me (through the various means
on my HN profile). For the record, I was in a _VERY_ similar situation to you
in terms of the US/UK issues.

[EDIT: Sorry, I _totally_ projected that you're actually from the UK because
of your English and what you said about moving there. I think everything still
stands though, assuming your country participates in the VWP?]

~~~
Lewisham
_As a recent grad trying to convince US employers to H1B you and bring you
over is hard._

No doubt. I feel very, very bad for the OP, but I am a little surprised at
this:

 _I refused opportunities with Google, Bing, and two startups. I told all
those people I wasn’t able to consider any offer, since I had already accepted
one (so I thought)._

If the OP had done all the required research (and it certainly looks that
way), it must have been clear that the H1-B is nothing to mess with. Turning
down opportunities until you have the visa in your hand and you've gone
through customs sounds crazy to me.

Getting a visa is very hard. It's not Google/Microsoft's first time at that
rodeo. Even better, big companies don't change their minds in a hurry. The
startup was always much riskier. Funding might change, a new better candidate
might appear, the whole company might pivot away from your skillset.

I realize its easy to point out flaws from the safety of my desk chair, and I
have nothing but sympathy for the OP. I've been there when I had to leave the
US the first time after my studies ended, and it's really hard. But that
experience has what bred my heathy paranoia for these things. Always take the
safer bet.

~~~
alexholehouse
Sure - I had sort of assumed those offers were for non-US locations though?
I've been approached by a number of [american] companies and recruiters for
jobs in London.

I'd be really interested to hear about the H1B from the employers'
perspective; there must be some HN members who've engaged in the process?

------
dennisgorelik
Here's your best strategy in three easy steps:

1) Marry your girlfriend.

2) Get your family-based Green Card.

3) Get a job for one of the companies that you previously rejected or even
from another company.

~~~
olegious
Agree with this- I'm going through this process right now (the only difference
is I'm the US citizen and we're getting married as a result of a normal
relationship)- it is fairly simple and most importantly for you- fast.

You get married (can be a civil ceremony- which takes a few hours to arrange),
file your paperwork and pay the $1500 fee- in about 2 weeks you receive a
confirmation and a short time later you receive a I-94, which gives you
permission to work, remain in the US and right of return as long as your
application is pending. You then go to an interview to prove that your
relationship is real.

------
drivingsouth
call back google and explain what happened. If you're good they'll get you
back even if you said no at first.

Next time sign contract before saying no to others

------
MattBearman
Was there any other interns there at the same time as you were? That phone
call almost sounds like it was intended for someone else.

------
diedsj
I've been in similar position as you, so i feel for you. I've worked in the
USA and Canada for several companies in the past, and also went through
several visa procedures (partially). My suggestions is to start an LLC in the
UK and contract yourself out to one or multiple (startup) companies. That's
what I did. Not only does that evade a lot of visa headache's, and makes it
way easier for companies to recruit your services. It also turns you into an
entrepreneur, which is a more productive way to live your life ihmo. Who knows
you might be hiring people yourself soon.

You have to fly back and forth atleast once every 3 (or 6?) months. But if
you're smart you have your client pay for that. (much cheaper then navigating
visa-applications) The only thing to watch out for at the customs is if they
ask you what your doing here is that your here for either "sales meetings" or
"training of people". Don't say your just working here. and always have a
recent, written letter from one of your client-companies on you, inviting you
to come help em out with trainings or other interim-solution providing. I've
avoided any immigration problems like this for years. Worst thing: they will
have you explain it, and then they realize its a grey area and they cant
really give you any problems for it.

~~~
skurry
Not sure if that's good advice. Committing immigration fraud and lying to
border officials can get you in serious trouble (18 U.S.C. § 1001). Not only
you, but also the company that's paying for your services. It's only a matter
of time until a CBP officer starts asking questions about those month-long
sales meetings and training sessions.

------
neurotech1
Just a quick thought. There is the possibility they misunderstood the visa
process. J-1 is a business/cultural exchange visa that requires a 2 year
absence before re-entry under a H-1B visa or similar. Perhaps someone told
them a J-1 visa was easier to get for an intern. During the H-1B process, they
discovered the 2 year absence rule, and had to rescind the offer.

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-1_visa>

~~~
baddox
If that's the case, why in the world wouldn't they tell the guy? According to
his account, the closest thing to a reason for termination was that they
"changed their mind."

~~~
brk
_If that's the case, why in the world wouldn't they tell the guy?_

Just a guess: worry of a lawsuit.

If they give no reason (as they are entitled not to), it's hard to make a
"counter-attack". If they give any specific reason the OP potentially has some
sort of discrimination angle to pursue.

------
motters
Traditionally, interns and foreign exchange students are used as slave labour,
then disposed of when their tenure expires. One thing that I found about
business, which initially was a shock but soon became the expected norm, is
that people will make all sorts of promises about all sorts of things
(especially pay, employment or promotions) and the substantial majority of
those promises will be broken. Usually such promises turn out to merely be pep
talks.

~~~
latch
Someone needs a history lesson. Slave labour? Please.

------
redcircle
Feel relieved that you discovered their true character before you actually
moved there and joined them and invested time with them. They are probably
lying about your performance to have an excuse to rescind the offer --- now
you know something about their character. They should have been honest about
whatever circumstances changed such that they couldn't hire you anymore.

~~~
redcircle
Out of curiosity, why was I down voted on this comment?

~~~
felipemnoa
I did not down vote you but probably because people only know one side of the
story.

~~~
redcircle
Yes, that is a good point, and something I see too --- I was just trying to
take a shortcut, and say it from the poster's p.o.v., and like usual, my
shortcuts backfire.

------
ig1
Did your girlfriend finish her degree in the last 12 months - if so she can
probably qualify for a Tier 1 (Post-study work) visa which will let her stay
and work in the UK for up to two years (at which point she'd be expected to
switch to a different visa if she wants to stay).

But the important point is that it wouldn't be contingent on her having a job
offer.

------
devs1010
just a word of advice, if you're on an H-1B, you probably don't want to rely
on a startup for your job so maybe this is a wakeup call. You would ideally
want to work for a more established, larger company to where you can have some
assurance of their continued stability since, as you know, its rather drastic
what happens if you lose your job. Not trying to be harsh but just speaking
from experience of having worked with startups, both of which had at least one
person on H-1B (I myself am American).

------
ksolanki
Let me address the visa part (with a disclaimer that I am not a lawyer, but
have gone through the visa-related ups and downs myself).

1) You CAN come on tourist visa and try to look for a job -- it will give you
about 90 days with a max of 180 days at a stretch. Super strictly speaking,
tourists are not supposed to look for jobs, but I know people who have done
this.

2) H1B visa allows premium processing so you can get it approved in 14 days,
if you or your future employer can pay $1225 premium processing fees. You can
get more information from uscis.gov -> forms -> premium processing. Let me say
this again: H1B process does not have to take several months.

As others have mentioned before, I would suggest you to contact companies that
offered you jobs but you declined.

~~~
dennisgorelik
Why even bother with H1b if he can easily get family-based green card by
marrying his girlfriend?

BTW, that's best sort of marriage when love and business interests align.

------
spulec
If you're still interested in NYC startups, check out yipit.com/jobs and email
me(steve@yipit.com). We're hiring and have sponsored visas before.

------
thibaut_barrere
Sorry for you, that's a pain. My advice would be: let go this specific job and
search for a job right now; you have until the end of November if I
understood?

As you had opportunities with Google etc - why not recontacting them? Turns
out the initial plan didn't work out.

------
sshillo
Checkout out adaptly.com if your interested send an email to sean@adaptly.com.
Articles:

[http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-29/tech/30216948...](http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-29/tech/30216948_1_social-
media-advertising-twitter)

[http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/11/05/lessons-
from-1...](http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/11/05/lessons-from-12-new-
york-entrepreneurs-after-a-year-in-the-business/)

------
baddox
The same thing happened to me, although thankfully I wasn't as invested in the
promised job as you were. I worked remotely for a startup for 3 months. It was
a well-paid programming internship, and the plan was for me to relocate and
come on full-time at the end of the internship.

Three months into the internship, the founders scheduled individual meetings
with every employee. They told they were letting me go, and that it was
because the company was "going in another direction" or some such. I and
another intern were being terminated, supposedly based on seniority.

The technical cofounder said it wasn't at all related to my performance, and
even wrote me a great letter of recommendation that helped me get a job. And
yet, a few weeks later, this startup had programmer job openings posted on its
website. I heard later a rumor that they had basically run out of money, but I
don't _really_ know the whole story.

That was my first experience with a startup (after spending a lot of time here
and becoming enamored with startup culture), and I must say it _almost_
discouraged me from joining a startup. Luckily, I still kept looking, because
I'm quite satisfied with where I ended up.

------
Swizec
IANAL, but an option to consider is going to the US for the 3 months a tourist
visa allows you. You can use this time to look for work and there shouldn't be
any problems as long as you don't actually work ... and there shouldn't be any
real problems even if you do work but that's highly illegal and I did not
suggest you do anything like that.

A loophole exists however. You can open a business in the UK that does
consulting for the US job so technically you are employed in the UK and are
staying in the US on an extended business trip. These can legally last up to
something like 6 months (I think). This should give you enough time to come up
with a proper solution.

The consulting thing is how developers are usually employed in my neck of
Europe because it enables a lot of tax tricks and is generally easier for
people. And while this scenario is battle tested for remote work, I am not
sure how it actually goes over when you also relocate to the US.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, consult with an immigration lawyer
before you do anything.

------
latch
For what it's worth, I quit a bad investment banking job a couple months ago.
Shortly after, a company (also in NY, the same?) approached me and gave every
inclination that they wanted to hire me (not the first time the company had
approached me). I did a contract for them, to see whether it was a good fit
for both us of (I had doubt about the specific position). I thought I did a
good job, took 3 weeks instead of 4, got positive feedback, blah blah blah.
Silence.

Finally, I got the 'you are too qualified' email. Which to me is just a really
rude way to say 'you aren't qualified enough'.

Anyways, I lost 2 months of not looking for a job and not focusing on the
right goals. I'm obviously to blame (at least in part) because I know/knew
stuff like this happens, and that's life (I'm 10 years out of school, and have
seen it before).

The point though? Some people are asses. Some people aren't honest. Some
people simply can't handle a bad situation. Often times, people are just
really, really, poor communicators.

I hope things work out for you.

------
zamzara52
I had a very similar experience. During my internship with said startup, there
was talk of giving me some equity at the end of the summer, going big and
doing some really nice and fancy things.

At the end of the summer, I wasn't even paid for the work I did (this was
supposed to come in a lump sum at the end summer). I could have tried to
harass them but concluded that it wasn't worth the effort as things could have
gotten really nasty.

The lump sum was pretty much peanuts anyway, and wouldn't make any difference
in the grand scheme of things.

My takeaway from the episode was the experience of building a lot of really
cool software, and because of the work I did over the summer, I've gotten
interview calls from Ebay, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, and the list goes
on.....

Life is too short to be stuck on things you have no control over. Take the
positives from the experience and move on.

~~~
zamzara52
Also H1B is a double edge sword. If coming via H1B is your only option, I
would stick with well established and profitable companies that won't just
change their minds on a whim.

With startups you take huge risk and expect huge rewards, and adding H1B to
that mix doesn't help matter.

------
jamii
The US (and probably the UK) are quite strict about not looking for jobs
whilst on a tourist visa. Both countries also make it really hard to get a
work visa.

Given your experience it sounds like your best chance is big data style jobs.
Off the top of my head try Mozilla Labs, DNAnexus, EpidemicIQ, Twitter.

Worth looking through here too: <http://startuply.com/#/machine%20learning/1>

------
tluyben2
So the UK is ok too? Or even going to Appsterdam (NL) or Berlin where startups
are thriving, less stressful and better healthcare/social benefits/pension
arrangements?

~~~
xtracto
Care to link to a Berlin startups page? I may be interested in pursuing
opportunities there.

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dirkdk
get over it, 99 % this is not personal. An H1B will cost the company between
15 and 20k, in legal fees and fees to government. Only big companies do this.

Look around you, maybe return on visa waiver for 3 months and apply. Enough
jobs, and yes probably you will wind up with a bigger company that a)has done
this before and b)is willing to pony up the money

Good luck, Silicon Valley or NY are awesome places to be and you will learn a
lot more about startups than in Europe

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achompas
What's your email? I'd like to contact you and chat (as someone seeking an
internship in NY); feel free to email me if you're not comfortable posting an
email.

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Rinum
When they promised that they would hire you, you should've gotten that in
writing (along with what happens if they don't hire you).

Welcome to America.

~~~
gojomo
Any company is unlikely to have offered such a written contract, with break-up
contingencies, except in rare situations (known superstar, heavily recruited,
known complications/opportunity costs of acceptance).

In the case of a traditional 'offer letter', the envisioned employment is
usually ongoing at-will employment. So that 'writing' doesn't create much
protection against changing-minds or changing business situations. Either
party can end the relationship at any time. ("Welcome to your first morning at
work! I regret to inform you we will no longer be needing your services. Good
bye.")

~~~
redcircle
I believe that the written offer letter helps you seek damages related to
relocation, losing health coverage, etc., due to the expectation of starting a
new job. At-will employment lets you fire people without consideration, but it
doesn't let you scam them into investing their time and money into the
business relationship.

~~~
Lewisham
This is true, but I think everyone would be aware that fighting a court case
as a recent grad will be far too expensive, and doing that from outside the
country adds even more on top.

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abbasmehdi
Try to look forward not back, call up a few start ups and see how fast you get
a job.

~~~
jarek
Yeah because a lot of start-ups are willing to navigate the clusterfuck that
is H-1B.

~~~
abbasmehdi
You might be right, but considering all his options I wouldn't give up without
a tough fight.

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maximusprime
Advice: Stay in the UK. It's better.

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igorgue
I love a The Strokes song that says "When they say promises they mean
promises..." ("Meet me in the bathroom").

Well, welcome to the US (I'm an immigrant too) the place where you can,
indeed, get fired when they want (even first day). I've got promises like that
too, trial periods that end suddenly, "Hey this is temporally, we gonna start
working normal hours in a month when we launch" (and get fired after we
launch, since the product was working).

You might think that there's no ethics in US businesses, but that's just the
way here works.

If I were you, I would call out that startup. Ever since I got fucked up by an
US company, you can expect 0 loyalty from me (something that you take for
granted overseas), I've had 4 jobs this year, and switched only because the
next one offered me more money... only if you are a co-founder of the startup
you should be attached to it. The company I work with today offerred me a good
salary and options and they treat me well, so I'm happy.

~~~
swalkergibson
I do not mean to be flippant, but why the sense of entitlement here? I can
understand the need for common decency, but the hiring market will sort that
out in due time.

What happened to the OP sucks, but this truthfully sounds like a dating story.
She's just not that into you.

------
pkaler
Stop pissing and moaning. ASAP. New York will eat you alive with that
attitude. This is not a setback; this is an opportunity.
<http://nytm.org/made/>

You've made it to Ellis Island. Now it's time for you to hustle.

~~~
castewart
Perfect link!

Take today/tonight to make a game plan. Identify companies on that list that
you like, map them, and go out and talk to them. If you're "in the area" it's
really easy to pickup a few coffee meetings and eventually one of them will
lead to something bigger.

When you meet with them be completely up front about your situation in the US,
but DO NOT dwell on why the last job offer failed. Talk about their
company/products/space- show that you've done your homework. That should lead
to discussions on your passions/experience and if you've researched them and
they have a position open, great! If not it's perfectly ok to ask them about
other companies looking for someone with your talents.

 _Edit_ Xtify is hiring in NYC and they're pretty awesome!
<http://www.xtify.com/jobs>

