April, come she will

My H1B petition has been filed. I must have been among the very first applicants and it feels damn good to know that the countdown to freedom has commenced. Due to the rapidness of the premium processing the preliminary results from the USCIS are expected in a couple of weeks. Although the Service may require additional documents I believe this month will bring a lot of invigorating news.

To my utter surprise, another truly stunning event easily stole the show. Today during an inconspicuous meeting with two top managers our staff of a few dozens was informed that the company had been bought by the biggest local outsourcing company. Our top managers are moving into VP-level positions, a managing partner will be the COO and about half of the board will be comprised of our founders. Quite a feat for a company 15 times smaller than its M&A counterpart. Apart from hypothetical potential benefits the acquisition carries some drawbacks.

To begin with, my CV will be tainted by work in a local company, the very misfortune I have successfully evaded since the time I was a junior engineer. Moreover, the other company is frequently scorned by experienced engineers for a less than favorable environment. The good news is that more interesting clients might be attracted by a more populated company. As I am already pretty scared by the detour from product-oriented development to outsourcing, which inherently is the stuff done by the folks at internal IT departments, it would not hurt to have among the clients companies with challenging needs in sophisticated business domains. I am getting bored of perspectives of working on a typical MIS. In my opinion, only an employment-based green card can justify this ordeal.