'Desi' Consultancy
IT Consulting Companies owned by Indians have no software development project of their own. They just RENT their H1B/OPT workers to other larger firms like TCS and make a profit of 20%-50% from each H1B/OPT worker's salary. These companies use H1B as a tool for exploitation and enslavement.
After I received my MSc degree in 2011, I was looking for a full-time job. I tried for two months. 80% of the employers did not want to hire me, an international student/graduate, for whom they had to sponsor H1B. Moreover, as I was in my OPT, I was not in the luxury to stay unemployed for more than 30 days. I had to be either working or at least volunteering with some sort of 'Practical Training'. However, eventually I found an easy solution.
I found a 'Desi' IT Consulting Company - Softnice Inc - that agreed to train me as well as find a job for me. Softnice Inc also promised me to sponsor my H1B and Green Card. Moreover, the company arranged my accommodation and also paid for my grocery. It was such a sweet deal. The on-boarding process was also very simple. I just had to sign a contract saying I must pay $10,000 - the cost of the training - if I ever decide to leave their company. It was such a great offer for me at that time as I was not earning a single dollar. Honestly, I didn't have any idea what I got myself into.
Softnice Inc was simply a staffing agency. All their employees were either F-1 students or H1B workers. That company was listed as 541-Professional, Scientific and Technical Services category in NAICS. Ironically, the company did not have any activity that could be classified as Scientific and Technical. Let alone highly sophisticated scientific projects, that company did not even have any client or project of their own. It didn't even know on which project it's consultants were working on. Innovation? Absurd. Softnice Inc worked as a subcontractor that only supplied SKILLED (or FAKE?) workers to particularly those larger IT Implementation Partner firms (ie TCS, Infosys) those have actual projects.
The ‘Guest House’
I was contacting with an agent of the company who claimed to be living somewhere in Houston, TX. As I decided to move in to the company’s free accommodation, I asked for the direction or address of their ‘Guest House’. After a 2-minute call with that gentleman, I figured out that he was not in Houston. He was not even in the USA. He was calling from somewhere in India. I was in absolute shock. I certainly had bad experiences with the night-shift call center agents from India. I never expected that this gentleman too was just like those off-shore call center agents.
I decided to move into a two-bedroom apartment in a cheap Houston neighborhood. There were three other desi guys who were also getting training is some ‘Technology’. They were also in OPT. Amit was the youngest. He was only 24. He did his BSc in Biochemistry and was getting trained in VMWare – a highly sophisticated virtualization technology. Sameer was also in the same training class with Amit. Sameer finished his MSc in Microbiology. I was wondering why and how in this earth these two guys from a completely non-IT background would get trained, get a job and manage to survive in the field of IT? I simply thought that the trainer must have been a magician with some magical power. Only the third guy, Naga , was an actual Computer Science graduate.
The Training
Finally, they started to TRAIN(?) me. One beautiful morning, I received an email with a ‘GoToMeeting’ link. I was excited to start the training. After the first training session, I found it so comforting because all other trainees were ‘Desi’ people like me. Even the trainer was an Indian guy. He was training us from India through that GoToMeeting software. Everything came to an end after only 12 classes. On the 13th class, another C-level executive of the company from India called and told me that they’ll prepare my ‘Resume’ and would start marketing from the next day. I was kind of dumb-found thinking how somebody who barely knows my name will prepare MY resume. Moreover, how would they MARKET me?
Fake Resume and H1B Approval
Softnice Inc promised me to pay $35/hours only if I could secure a contract. I didn't have any relevant work experience. So, what they did was they prepared a completely FAKE resume with 7+ years of experience.
Proxy Interview
TBD
Fake Reference
TBD
Job Support from India
TBD
[email protected]
I found a 'Desi' IT Consulting Company - Softnice Inc - that agreed to train me as well as find a job for me. Softnice Inc also promised me to sponsor my H1B and Green Card. Moreover, the company arranged my accommodation and also paid for my grocery. It was such a sweet deal. The on-boarding process was also very simple. I just had to sign a contract saying I must pay $10,000 - the cost of the training - if I ever decide to leave their company. It was such a great offer for me at that time as I was not earning a single dollar. Honestly, I didn't have any idea what I got myself into.
Softnice Inc was simply a staffing agency. All their employees were either F-1 students or H1B workers. That company was listed as 541-Professional, Scientific and Technical Services category in NAICS. Ironically, the company did not have any activity that could be classified as Scientific and Technical. Let alone highly sophisticated scientific projects, that company did not even have any client or project of their own. It didn't even know on which project it's consultants were working on. Innovation? Absurd. Softnice Inc worked as a subcontractor that only supplied SKILLED (or FAKE?) workers to particularly those larger IT Implementation Partner firms (ie TCS, Infosys) those have actual projects.
The ‘Guest House’
I was contacting with an agent of the company who claimed to be living somewhere in Houston, TX. As I decided to move in to the company’s free accommodation, I asked for the direction or address of their ‘Guest House’. After a 2-minute call with that gentleman, I figured out that he was not in Houston. He was not even in the USA. He was calling from somewhere in India. I was in absolute shock. I certainly had bad experiences with the night-shift call center agents from India. I never expected that this gentleman too was just like those off-shore call center agents.
I decided to move into a two-bedroom apartment in a cheap Houston neighborhood. There were three other desi guys who were also getting training is some ‘Technology’. They were also in OPT. Amit was the youngest. He was only 24. He did his BSc in Biochemistry and was getting trained in VMWare – a highly sophisticated virtualization technology. Sameer was also in the same training class with Amit. Sameer finished his MSc in Microbiology. I was wondering why and how in this earth these two guys from a completely non-IT background would get trained, get a job and manage to survive in the field of IT? I simply thought that the trainer must have been a magician with some magical power. Only the third guy, Naga , was an actual Computer Science graduate.
The Training
Finally, they started to TRAIN(?) me. One beautiful morning, I received an email with a ‘GoToMeeting’ link. I was excited to start the training. After the first training session, I found it so comforting because all other trainees were ‘Desi’ people like me. Even the trainer was an Indian guy. He was training us from India through that GoToMeeting software. Everything came to an end after only 12 classes. On the 13th class, another C-level executive of the company from India called and told me that they’ll prepare my ‘Resume’ and would start marketing from the next day. I was kind of dumb-found thinking how somebody who barely knows my name will prepare MY resume. Moreover, how would they MARKET me?
Fake Resume and H1B Approval
Softnice Inc promised me to pay $35/hours only if I could secure a contract. I didn't have any relevant work experience. So, what they did was they prepared a completely FAKE resume with 7+ years of experience.
Proxy Interview
TBD
Fake Reference
TBD
Job Support from India
TBD
[email protected]