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[–] rwbj 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

You need to compare the rates for California (where many of these companies are based) to comparable rates to understand what's going on.

  • Salaries for Ubisoft San Francisco from this page. Doesn't look too bad: $60k to $112k for a non-senior software engineer, averaging out at around $80k. That would be a pretty fair salary in most parts of the country. San Francisco is not most parts of the country.

  • Salaries for non-senior software engineers in San Francisco, on average. $80k to $141k with an average salary of $111k.


And H1-Bs are supposed to be the best and brightest coming to fill roles that are impossible to fill domestically, which would generally imply high salaries. And on a related note this is why you'll see 'entry level engineer' jobs requiring years of experience and knowledge of industry specific professional technologies. 'Oh no, we can't fill it domestically, guess we need to import a worker! Heh heh!!' And it's not only the salary, but also the control. Imported workers generally are aiming for citizenship, and if they lose their job they can end up losing years of work geared towards that. With that relationship, companies can comfortably make completely arbitrary demands of these workers knowing that they can't ever say no.

Ubisoft audio engineer job listing requirements:

  • experience with an industry specific piece of software
  • strong understanding of middleware used in industry
  • previous experience on AAA game titles

They're putting requirements out there that would be more indicative of a senior audio engineer, but they will offer entry level wages. They'll fill the role if they can, but aren't particularly concerned about it since they can just import a foreign worker with all the benefits that entails for them. Now let's look at SpaceX. SpaceX has a endless supply of top notch people wanting to work for them, but what's different is that they legally cannot hire foreign workers due to national regulations relating to 'arms', which rockets qualify as.

SpaceX GNC engineering job requirements:

  • BS in an engineering discipline
  • experience with orbital mechanics, classical dynamics, modeling and simulation
  • experience with the software languages C++ and Python.

GNC engineers are guidance, navigation, and control - the guys that write the code that brings a rocket from hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour to landing on a rocking barge that's moving around in the middle of the ocean. And all those requirements are met by nothing more than a basic aerospace engineering degree. That's a company that genuinely wants people applying and will be imminently filling that role, domestically.

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[–] RevanProdigalKnight 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

And on a related note this is why you'll see 'entry level engineer' jobs requiring years of experience and knowledge of industry specific professional technologies.

This. This is the problem with the vast majority of software companies - H.R. departments in particular for finding that "loophole" in the law and exploiting it.

[...] but what's different is that they legally cannot hire foreign workers due to national regulations relating to 'arms', which rockets qualify as.

There are several other industries which have contracts that require "Hire American", such as DOD contracts and much of healthcare, thanks to PHI restrictions, but the healthcare industry is in a bubble right now, and most jobs around DOD contracts, etc. are either highly specialized in their own right (e.g.: signal analysis) or are in market locations that are particularly saturated with software engineers already.

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[–] 12041689? ago 

Healthcare programming still happens with H1B and offshore employees. It isn't the code that falls under restrictions, it is the data. As long as they have no access to live data they can do whatever they want. Companies keep small staff of citizens for production support and allow contractors to handle code and test items.