User Profile

[herman_g]

I spent 20 years working on niche systems with niche languages. Those skills brought me steady work with diverse clients including McDonalds, Lockheed Aerospace, stock exchanges, banks and even a trucking company. When I came to Europe from Canada most companies were in the process of sunsetting those...

[herman_g]

Ok fine. But despite not receiving SC clearance (not performed by an agency but by the bank themselves), my colleague did the same work as me, went to the same meetings had full access to the system as I did, etc. Makes the process to be a bit of a joke tbh. The clearance itself was just an approval...

[herman_g]

They were interviewing an Indian IT exec in one of the newspapers over there (in India) on Sunday. His reaction to the H1B fee was seomthing like "that's ok, we are doing quite well elsewhwere like Europe right now - in Italy, France and in the UK the market has been quite healthy"....

[herman_g]

Unfortunately Helen was a fairly large Texan lady - not quite my type and she had a rather large gun-carrying Texan husband. She was the easiest interviewer I ever met. And, her husband Dave was a big cigar smoker who never tried cuban cigars before. When my parents would come visit California from...

[herman_g]

No. Just pointing out the foolishness of cheering on a dead-end policy that would only result in an even bleaker market for those in the UK....

[herman_g]

The Trump administration is backpedalling already and it's still the weekend: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...rhaul-00574345

In the unlikely event Trump follows through, the Indians will flood the UK with bodies at half the rate. You lot will never work again.

[herman_g]

The activity I refer to was the government's response to an exposé on CBS' 60 minutes. It's audience share that night was > 65%. Bush jr. was then president and recently announced the country was in double dip recession. When Clinton came in next, he promised to stop it. Nothing happened. Trump...

[herman_g]

USA will change nothing in the H1B. I contracted in Silicon Valley in the early '90's. The Indian companies abused the system by bringing staff in on B1 Visas instead of H1 visas (the Indians were given B1's the first couple 2 year stints in America and later they were given H1 visas). One day a similar...

[herman_g]

I just noticed this response a year later and wow bud, you are a bit of a tight ass. It was the German cop that was saying the knucjkledusters were cool not me. They were souvenirs from Bangkok and I was taking them to my new house in greece to hang them on the wall. I did get my SC clearance after...

[herman_g]

Drove 2 hours from my place in Silicon Valley to Sacramento and met a nice PM at California State Lottery. She looked at my CV and asked me if I was able to start in the first or second week of September. I told her first week and she asked if she could buy me lunch at a nice Mexican place next to the...

[herman_g]

I get very few London based quiries these days but this just came in:

Urgent Treasury Business Analyst- Outside IR35 - Hybrid (London)
Emily Kenny<emily.kenny@kornferry.com>

Morning H,

I hope you are well and are looking forward to the weekend....

[herman_g]

I had gone to the bank recommended by my accountant as easy to open a business account and promptly was turned down. I had two month's invoice payments on hold and didn't really want to go much longer.

My accountant told me being on the voting register was critical. I was registered but...

[herman_g]

Quite possible the B-word has made Germany a more difficult destination.

I managed to get a contract in Frankfurt exactly 2 weeks after immigrating to the UK. My knowledge of German was limited to mispronounced "Danke Shane" which I knew from the song. I worked there for 6 1/2...

[herman_g]

Berlin has been the top IT startup destination in Europe since 2021. Lots of work there in predominately English environments....

[herman_g]

When my father died last year, my niece was designated executor and I was purchasing tickets to fly the 8000 km for the funeral. When I chatted with her she was all responsive. I needed to speak with her about some a specific detail and thought it was just easier to call.She never answered (despite...

[herman_g]

Not wanting to talk on the phone is a bit rude but that is pretty much par for the course with under-35's. They are so used to chatting on social media and you need to ask them it's ok to call them. If you just call them on whatsapp or whatever, they seem to think you've broken protocol and don't answer....

[herman_g]

My UK-based agent (my client is in the Netherlands) mentioned on Linkedin last week that business is the lowest he's seen in 40 years. In 2008, there was no usual new work in the UK at the start of the fiscal year but the phone started ringing mid-August and I had 3 offers in September....