Aishwarya Srinivasan

AI@Fireworks AI | Global Speaker(100+ talks)| EB1-A Recipient| 570k+ Followers| AI Engineer| GenAI/LLM Inference| LinkedIn Top Voice| Author-What's Your Worth?| Startup AI Advisor| Angel Investor| Ex-Google,Microsoft,IBM

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝘁 💌 partnerships@illuminate-ai.org

I write about:
- AI engineering
- Applied machine learning
- Generative AI Applications
- LLM/ LLMOPs (Training, post-training, inferencing)
- Fundamentals of Data science/ ML/ AI
- ML roles interview tips
- Learning roadmaps (beginner to advanced)
- Importance of personal branding for career growth

**All the posts reflect my own views and do not represent my employer.**

AI Advisor || Responsible AI Advocate || LinkedIn Top Voice - Data & AI  || Top 10 AI Influencer || EB1-A Receipt


Bio: 
Aishwarya currently leads the Developer Relations - Growth at Fireworks AI. She was previously at Microsoft for Startups as a Senior AI Advisor to help Y Combinator startups build machine learning solutions, leveraging core Microsoft/ OpenAI products. Prior to this, Aishwarya was working as a Data Scientist in Google Cloud and before that an AI & ML Innovation Leader at IBM Data & AI, where she was working cross-functionally with the product team, data science team and sales to research AI use-cases for clients by conducting discovery workshops and building assets to showcase the business value of the technology. She holds a post-graduate in Data Science from Columbia University. 

Aishwarya has been awarded Trailblazer of the Year by Women in AI in 2022 and Women of Influence by Business Journal in 2022. She was awarded EB1A - extraordinary ability visa for her contributions in the AI field.

She is an advocate for open-source technologies, and was an open source Developer Advocate for Deepchecks and Lightning AI, and a contributor to Scikit Learn. 


She holds a Patent Award (2018) for developing a Reinforcement Learning model for Machine Trading.

She has over 500,000+ follower base on LinkedIn and actively organizes events and conferences to inspire budding data scientists. She has been spotlighted as a LinkedIn Top Voice 2020 for Data Science and AI, which features Top 10 Machine Learning influencers across the world. 

She is an ardent reader and has contributed to the scholastic community. To spread her knowledge in the space of data science, and to inspire budding Data Scientists, she actively writes blogs related to machine learning on LinkedIn and Instagram: www.instagram.com/the.datascience.gal

Besides being a data junkie, she is a fitness fanatic who is into martial arts (Krav Maga) and yoga.

Senior AI Advisor

As an AI engineer, LLM Twin is an important architecture to understand.

An LLM Twin refers to a system where a language model is designed to represent the knowledge, writing patterns, and decision logic of a specific person, team, or organization. The goal is consistency and reliability, not novelty.

At its core, an LLM Twin is built around how information flows. Think of it as 4 steps:

1️⃣ First, content is collected from real sources: blogs, internal documents, posts, code repositories, or knowledge bases. This data reflects how the person or organization actually thinks and communicates.

2️⃣ Next, the data is structured for two purposes.
One path prepares instruction-style examples that help the model learn how to respond.
Another path prepares retrieval data so the system can pull relevant context at inference time. This ensures responses stay grounded in real material.

3️⃣ Then comes training and evaluation. Models are fine-tuned where appropriate, tested against clear criteria, and versioned before deployment. This step looks very similar to traditional ML workflows, just adapted for language models.

4️⃣ Finally, at inference time, user requests are combined with retrieved context and passed through the deployed model. Monitoring is critical here: quality, latency, and cost all need to be observed continuously.

Where is this used in practice?

✦ Personal or creator assistants that help scale writing and communication
✦ Company-wide assistants that maintain a consistent product or brand voice
✦ Internal tools that answer questions based on code, docs, or prior decisions
✦ Support systems that reflect how experienced engineers respond to issues

Why should AI Engineers understand this?
This architecture reflects how GenAI systems are actually built and maintained. It forces you to think beyond prompts and focus on data quality, retrieval design, evaluation, and long-term system behavior.

My 2 cents 🤌
This is a GREAT topic to build a portfolio project around!! 

Credit: LLM Engineer’s Handbook by Paul Iusztin  and Maxime Labonne. I really like how this book breaks down AI engineering clearly and goes deep into different GenAI system architectures without hand-waving.

Over the past few months, Arvind and I've delivered seven deep technical workshops across agentic AI, RAG, context engineering, AI evals, MCP, vibe coding, and more.

One theme kept coming up: you want something more structured. Not just standalone sessions, but a clear end-to-end roadmap from A to Z.

So that’s what we’re building.

A structured, comprehensive course for:
- Hands-on builders: software, AI, and ML engineers
- AI product managers
- Tech leaders and CXOs looking to upskill meaningfully

Before we finalize it, I’d love your input. I’ve created a short survey to understand where you are, what you want to learn, and your career goals.

It takes under 10 minutes.

As a thank you, you’ll receive an additional 10% discount when we launch the course soon 🫶

Survey: https://lnkd.in/gQYeBCRP

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Here’s my honest pattern with almost every AI tool I try.

I end up using a lot of tools, usually early access. After repeating this cycle enough times, I realized my reactions are almost predictable.

👉First hour
There’s real excitement.
I’m clicking around, testing odd prompts, trying things that used to fail. No strategy yet, just my curiosity and momentum.

👉Next few hours
I start comparing.
Where would this actually fit in my work?
What would I stop using if I kept this?
Is this clearly better, or just new?

👉Later that day
I experiment without guidance.
I skip the docs and examples on purpose. I try incomplete ideas, messy workflows, prompts I would never put in a demo. This tells me more than any tutorial ever could.

👉Day two
Then I look at the examples the team shared.
They usually work smoothly. They’re polished. They show the tool at its best, which is exactly what they’re meant to do.

👉After a few days
This is where the real understanding kicks in.
I start tweaking those examples. Changing assumptions. Using it in ways that feel realistic, not ideal. That’s when the boundaries show up. Not frustration. Just clarity.

Here’s the takeaway I’ve learned the hard way:
If you haven’t noticed limitations yet, you probably haven’t pushed the tool very far.

And honestly, if I use something consistently for three days and still can’t find a meaningful flaw, that’s rare. That earns real respect.
I haven’t experienced that yet.

Curious how others see this.
Are there tools you’ve used deeply where the limits still haven’t shown up?

Just a couple of weeks ago, Arvind and I hosted an in-person AI meetup with The Hub Bengaluru.

Over 300 people showed up in person.

Every single one of them was either already working in AI or actively trying to break into the space. The energy in the room was unreal. It genuinely felt like a room full of builders, practitioners, and people who are curious enough to go deep.

During the event, we rolled out a small challenge. We asked attendees to share a recap of what they learned, and we said we would pick one winner.

Really excited to share that Suraj V is that lucky winner 🎉
Suraj gets free access to all the The Gen Academy workshops we have hosted so far.

Huge congratulations, Suraj V!! 

Building The Gen Academy has always come from a very real observation that Arvind and I see every single day in our work. The adoption of generative AI and LLMs is moving incredibly fast, but the depth of AI engineering skills needed to build reliable systems is not keeping up.

There is a very real skill gap in AI engineering right now! There are so many curious souls who want to become AI engineers- but they aren't able to get those opportunities; and there are so many companies out there who  want to hire, but aren't finding the right talent. 

Our mission is to bridge that skill-gap!

As people who are deeply involved in this space, we felt a responsibility to help bridge that gap. Not just for people who are already experienced, but also for entry-level folks who want to build strong foundations the right way.

That is why our workshops are intentionally designed to be both intuitive and practical. We focus on theory that actually helps you reason about systems, and we pair that with hands-on demos where you build real things using modern toolkits and frameworks.

So far, we have hosted 6 workshops, and the response has been incredibly encouraging. We have trained 1500+ people already ❤️ 

Our next workshop is coming up on February 15th, and it will be focused on AI evaluations (link in comments)

Do follow The Gen Academy to stay updated on all our upcoming workshops.

Six months ago, Arvind and I started The Gen Academy with one simple goal- to create workshops that are deeply-technical, practical, cuts through the ton of noise out there, and that provides people clarity on building productive-grade AI systems.

So far we have trained 2100+ people. We’ve hosted 7 workshops, and consistently we’ve had 300–400 builders join us live.

The audience has been incredible.
- Software engineers moving into AI.
- AI engineers building LLM systems in production.
- Product leads thinking about reliability and evaluation.
- Directors and VPs from top tech and Fortune 500 companies who want to truly understand what’s under the hood.
- Even people from non-tech background who wanted to strengthen their technical fundamentals 

Recently, we hosted a workshop on AI Evaluations.

And this one felt especially important.

Because evaluating non-deterministic generative systems is fundamentally different from traditional ML evaluation.

We covered:

✦ How to evaluate non-deterministic generative AI systems
✦ How to think about benchmarks and what they actually tell you
✦ How to design your own evaluation dataset
✦ How to choose the right metrics for qualitative and system-level evaluation
✦ How to combine human evals, code-based evals, and LLM-as-a-judge
✦ A hands-on walkthrough so this isn’t just theory

If you’re building LLM applications, RAG pipelines, or agentic systems, evaluation is not optional. It is the difference between a demo and a reliable product.

If you missed the live session, we’ve shared the recording here: https://lnkd.in/gzMdbfWH

We’ll continue building these workshops for engineers who want to go beyond experimentation and into production.

More coming soon, so do follow us & The Gen Academy to get updates on our next workshops.

5 days to go! 
Arvind and I are super excited to be hosting an AI evals hands-on workshop on February 15.

It’s a 90-minute session where we’ll cover the fundamentals of AI evaluations and then actually do it together. You’ll walk away having built and reasoned through real evals yourself. 

If you’re aspiring to be an AI engineer or planning to upskill for AI roles in 2026, understanding how to evaluate LLM applications is critical.

Building an LLM app is often the easy part. Knowing whether it truly works in production is where most teams struggle.

LLM evaluation is not just about correctness anymore. You are judging usefulness, safety, faithfulness to sources, consistency across runs, cost, latency, and real user outcomes across prompts, RAG pipelines, tools, and agentic workflows.

Because this is hard, many teams fall back to vibe-evals. If a few outputs look good, they ship. That approach breaks quickly when models change, prompts regress, retrieval fails, or user behavior shifts. Without evals, problems surface only after users complain.

Why learning evals matters:
✦ Evals turn LLM development from guesswork into engineering
✦ They help catch regressions as models, prompts, or tools evolve
✦ They are essential for scaling RAG systems and agentic workflows
✦ In 2026, strong teams use hybrid evals combining automated metrics, LLM-as-a-judge, and targeted human review

Evals are no longer optional. They are a core AI skill.

In this workshop, Arvind and I will walk through how AI evals are done in real systems, with hands-on exercises so you build intuition.

This is designed for AI engineers and tech leads building systems, and even business leaders who want intuition for what “good” really means in production. Even if you are a beginner, don't worry, we will give you the foundations for you to understand everything comprehensively, and enough resources that you can review at your own pace.

If you want to level up your AI skills for 2026, register here:
https://lnkd.in/dQSR7yhU

Evaluation Resources

Fine-tuning is going to be one of the biggest focus areas for AI engineering teams this year.

We’re past the stage where calling an API is enough. The teams creating real leverage are the ones adapting models to their own data, workflows, and edge cases. Out-of-the-box models are powerful, but they are generic. Fine-tuning is where enterprises unlock meaningful efficiency gains and build real differentiation.

If you want to upskill in AI engineering, this is a topic you cannot skip.
Arvind and I are hosting a deep, hands-on workshop on Fine-Tuning LLMs.

In 90 minutes, you’ll learn:
✦ When fine-tuning makes sense and when it does not
✦ How SFT, RLHF, and DPO fit into real-world pipelines
✦ An end-to-end, code-based demo from raw data to a specialized model
✦ How to evaluate true performance improvements and avoid production pitfalls

This session is designed for software engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists, and it is equally valuable for product managers, solutions architects, tech leads, and executives working closely with model ecosystems.

If you want to move from using LLMs to actually optimizing them, this workshop will give you a practical framework to do it: https://lnkd.in/g-5gHrsY

In 2026, AI isn’t judged by a wow factor anymore.
It’s judged by whether it actually improves your workflows.

One of the most common questions I get from founders and teams I advise is how to automate go-to-market and sales properly. Real GTM automation needs deep ICP research, clear definitions, personalized messaging, and credible sources. This isn’t a one-prompt problem.

Normally, building a solid GTM or sales report would take me several hours, even with existing AI tools helping with research.

I recently got early access to Airtable’s new Superagent, and what impressed me was the approach. It didn’t treat my request as a single task. It broke it into ~16 steps, ran multiple agents in parallel, did deep research per subtask, cited sources, and stitched everything together into one structured output called a Super Report.

I used it to build a technical, informational report on AI for GTM/Sales in minutes. No fluff. No hallucinations. Just deeply researched content I could actually use with business leaders.

If your work involves building reports, decks, or MVP websites that need accuracy and depth, this feels less like “AI that makes things pretty” and more like AI that does real work.

Do check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gDkfSSG2

PS: You can get 2 months free for @Superagent, using code: AISH2FREE

#SuperagentPartner, #ad, #SuperagentbyAirtable

Result-oriented technical program manager and senior scrum master with experience in leading large and small agile teams to deliver and build complex enterprise systems. I help the teams to do their best work and know when to “drive” versus “coach”. I take initiatives to identify and resolve issues that can improve overall efficiency and effectiveness of complex programs. I have built and scaled multiple products and teams by implementing high throughput processes and managing entire SDLC for various parts of the company. 

I oversee end-to-end program execution across teams / groups, including risk management, communication, issue/conflict resolution and dependency management. I collaborate with responsible partners (onshore teams and offshore teams) to proactively identify, communicate, manage and mitigate program risks. I organize and lead cadence-based stakeholders / leadership meetings, tracking actions, ensuring timely communication of program status, schedule, risks, and blockers. I drive process improvements and leverage metrics to improve transparency, overall team performance and efficiency around key cross-org programs.

I partner with cross-functional teams to deliver business value in a timely manner while maintaining a high level of quality and transparency. I work with customer facing teams and product management to support product enhancement requests and voice of the customer initiatives. 

I have led programs by achieving alignment on program scope, release planning, as well as aligning one or more teams on vision, business goals, creating program structure, and securing cross-functional alignment. I partner with cross-functional teammates to drive workgroup alignment meetings to address tactical release issues, dependencies, team status, production issues, metrics review, milestones, etc. (cross functional - Product Owners, Scrum Masters, TechOps, Functional Managers, Release Management).

My areas of expertise include:
- Program Management - End to End
- Project Management (Agile, Scrums, Kanban)
- JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket, Slack, Trello
- Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Pritesh Jagani

I just broke up with California, after 11 years together. And this time, we are not getting back.

Yes, a few weeks ago, I said goodbye to California forever, sold my house, packed up my entire last 11 years of life in boxes, and drove over 3,000 miles to the East Coast of the USA.

12 years ago, I came to Chico as a kid from a lower middle income family in Mumbai. Kandivali, local trains, late-night vada pav, a city that never slept.

In America, I landed in this quiet and peaceful town where

- shops shut by 8 pm
- the nearest Indian grocery store is an hour away
- the airport is two hours away
- a direct flight home starts with a three hour drive to San Francisco

First week, I hated it.
By week two, I started to breathe differently.

I fell in love with the trees, the small town where everyone knows everyone, the slow evenings, and the church community that felt like extended family.

I did my master's at Chico State, got my first full-time job, fell in love, got married, bought a home in 2017, and honestly thought, “Maybe this is it. Maybe I will retire here.”

Then life started shifting.
Slowly, the cracks between Chico and me started to appear.

Every year, there was a fire somewhere close.
Every summer came with the same question: Will we be safe?

As I created more content, my travel picked up like crazy.
Twenty to thirty flights a year, each wrapped in four to six hours of driving.

It was exciting, but it was also exhausting.
And somewhere in the middle of all that movement, I started to feel stuck.

Chico gave me everything: my degree, my first job, my marriage, my house…
But it could not give me what I now needed.

Slowly, the weight on my body and mind started to show.
I was travelling the world, but living in one room.

That is when Caitlyn and I had one of the most honest conversations of our lives.

She had grown up in Chico all her life and always dreamt of a bigger city, more cultures, more people.

She looked me in the eye and said, “I want you to thrive. I want us to thrive. Let us not stay small just because it is familiar.”

The hardest part to walk away from was our church community.
Friends who felt like family.
People I could call anytime.

Leaving them hurt.
But staying only out of fear of change hurt more.

So we took the call.

Close the chapter with gratitude.
Keep the memories.
Pack the lessons.

Move toward a life where
- I can rebuild my health
- we can find a community that matches this new season
- and I can grow without driving hours for every connection

Chico will always be the city that made me.
The East Coast is where I find out who I can become next.

Sr. Product Manager | I help international students to Study Abroad (USA), land their dream job, and navigate their immigration journey

Dear job seekers and international students, if you've been impacted by layoffs or are looking for your next full-time job, here’s a list of 55 Startups & Companies that have openings in their teams.

Btw, I run a community of 5100+ jobseekers, my Job Hunting Accelerator, where I regularly share a lot of battle-tested and advice I see working out in real time with international students and jobseekers. 

We've got modules for networking, job hunting strategy, and have tons of guest sessions as well. No pressure to join, if you feel you want more support in your journey, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

[1] ZBD - https://lnkd.in/eTgQ__mn
[2] Twentyfour Industries - https://lnkd.in/eXKUWE5A
[3] Tulip Interfaces - https://tulip.co/careers/
[4] Torq - https://lnkd.in/ewHP_Kzc
[5] Tive - https://lnkd.in/ezQ7N6mH
[6] The General Intelligence Company of New York - https://lnkd.in/eKNwM77z
[7] Taya - https://lnkd.in/e23pUrSt
[8] Squads - https://lnkd.in/eVgb4xEp
[9] SkyFi - https://lnkd.in/ep3rwWt5
[10] Sinpex - https://lnkd.in/eqB2SSru
[11] Suno - https://lnkd.in/ePsZ8FaH
[12] Saviynt - https://lnkd.in/eAJGP2RY
[13] RISA - https://lnkd.in/e-z5uP3k
[14] Ridley - https://lnkd.in/eJ-VJYQP
[15] Rehearsals - https://lnkd.in/eJCmGcmV
[16] Radiant - https://lnkd.in/eaHbHkdV
[17] Rain - https://lnkd.in/ejN7-ycV
[18] Quadric.io - https://lnkd.in/en6874yK
[19] Protege - https://lnkd.in/eAVX9QG4
[20] Omni Instrument - https://lnkd.in/eNwFduKi
[21] one • fıve - https://lnkd.in/emfxq5_W
[22] Nirvana Insurance - https://lnkd.in/eUsmTM5Z
[23] mara - https://mara.inc/career
[24] Mia Labs - https://lnkd.in/eRaEK3k4
[25] MainFunc - https://lnkd.in/eYe-bF73
[26] Luma AI - https://lnkd.in/enr2ivr3
[27] LinearB - https://linearb.io/careers
[28] Kintow - https://lnkd.in/eWeZkk3G
[29] Kanu AI - https://lnkd.in/ejD2K8D3
[30] K2 Space Corporation - https://lnkd.in/eRpXPRAj
[31] IO River - https://lnkd.in/edPmsvxF
[32] Interos Inc - https://lnkd.in/e67K5dAT
[33] Imprint - https://lnkd.in/eMGPycz4
[34] Higgsfield AI - https://lnkd.in/eCZ5pY95
[35] Harmonic - https://lnkd.in/eC3J9vUC
[36] HammerheadAI, Inc. - https://lnkd.in/g5tzYY4i
[37] Hadrian - https://lnkd.in/eiA4Qaeb
[38] GovDash - https://lnkd.in/ecYs6C7K
[39] Flywheel.io - https://lnkd.in/euGtEtYc
[40] Flip - https://lnkd.in/eRVcuCtr

Continued ↓

Everyone's posting "Texas banned H-1Bs," and I'm here to tell you: if you work for a private company in Texas, absolutely nothing changed for you.

My DMs exploded after the news:
- I work in Austin, am I screwed?
- Does this affect my H-1B transfer?
- Should I move states?"

Let me clear this up.

Btw, Every Wednesday, I chat with an immigration lawyer from Manifest Law on my YT live. I'll be having another livestream this Wednesday as well, do join :)

➤ What Governor Abbott Actually Did

He paused H-1B sponsorships for:
- State agencies (government jobs)
- Public universities (UT Austin, Texas A&M, etc.)

If you work for a private employer in Texas, your H-1B process is completely unaffected.

➤ Who This Actually Impacts
Let's say you're a researcher at UT Austin on STEM OPT and they were planning to sponsor your H-1B this March. That's now paused for one year (until May 2027).

Or you work for a Texas state agency and were counting on H-1B sponsorship. Also paused.

But if you're a software engineer at a private company in Austin? Your H-1B transfer, extension, or new filing proceeds exactly as it would have last week.

➤ Can Other States Do This?

Yes, technically. Governors have authority over state-funded entities. They can tell public universities and state agencies what to do with their hiring and visa sponsorship.

But they cannot tell private companies how to run their businesses. So could Florida do something similar for state universities? Possibly.

Could Florida ban all H-1Bs across the entire state for private employers? No. That's not within a governor's power.

➤ What You Should Actually Worry About

If you work for a Texas public university:

1. This pause might not end in one year. Governor Abbott wants agencies to "defend" why they need H-1B workers. The pause could extend.

2. Start exploring alternatives now:
  - Can you find a private employer willing to sponsor?
  - Can you build your own pathway (O-1, EB-1A)?
  - Do you have time on OPT to ride this out?
3. If your extension is already filed and pending, you should be fine. The pause is for new filings.

➤ The Bigger Picture
Texas has the highest number of H-1B sponsoring entities in the country. This news made waves because of that stat.

But the actual number of people affected by this pause? It's a fraction of what the headlines suggested.

If you're at a state university, take this seriously and have a backup plan.
If you're at a private company, breathe. You're fine.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This post is for educational purposes only and is based on my public conversation with an immigration lawyer. Your case may be very different. Always speak with a qualified immigration professional who can review your specific situation.

P.S: If you’re an international student or a jobseeker in the USA, every week I send 2 newsletters on job hunting & immigration to over 35,000+ readers. Join them here:https://lnkd.in/eFxuSc38

One thing I wish I could tell every incoming international student in 2026 before you spend $100,000 on your MS in the USA and are left with nothing but debt.

An incoming student in India got admits from six universities: Tufts, NC State, Texas A&M, Johns Hopkins, USC, and Northeastern.

On our livestream, we told him: Do not consider USC. Do not consider Northeastern. And this is exactly why... 

(Context: This post is based on my Conversation from the livestream on my YT Channel, you can check it out as well)

Two of those admits have brand recognition. USC in Los Angeles. Northeastern in Boston. 

Both will cost you upwards of $100,000. 
Both sound impressive when you tell your relatives.

Neither will give you what you actually need.

If finances are not a constraint, Johns Hopkins.
If finances matter even a little, Texas A&M.

Johns Hopkins: Top engineering management outcomes. Strong DMV network. High price, but justified.

Texas A&M: Half the cost. Same ROI. Strong Texas connections. Competitive cohort.

Why Not USC?
- Tuition: $48,000+ per year
- LA living: $2,000-3,000/month
- Bay Area prices without Bay Area outcomes
- Better MEM programs exist for less

Why Not Northeastern?
- Cohort: 1,000+ students in some programs
- You're a number, not a name
- TA/RA opportunities? Nearly impossible
- Boston rent doesn't justify the outcomes

The Others:
Tufts: Strong ROI. If you got $30K-40K scholarship, it's in serious play.
NC State: Decent for construction/industrial focus. Not top tier but solid.

What You Should Actually Do:

1. Look at the money. Even a $20,000 gap between Hopkins and Texas A&M? Pick Texas A&M.

2. Ignore the "sounds good to parents" factor. When you're $80,000 in debt with no job, prestige doesn't pay loans.

3. Check cohort size. Smaller = professors know you = better TA positions = better recommendations.

4. Think domain. Healthcare → Hopkins. Manufacturing → Texas A&M. General PM → pick affordable to you.

Bottom Line: Texas A&M at $60,000 total > USC at $150,000 total for the same outcome.

P.S. I send a weekly newsletter on immigration and job-hunting. Join 35,000+ readers: https://lnkd.in/eFxuSc38

Disclaimer: I'm not an admissions counselor nor have I anything against any university . This is based on our team's experience at Gradvine with thousands of students. Please do your own research before you make a decision.

Dear job seekers and international students, if you've been impacted by layoffs or are looking for your next full-time job, here’s a list of 75 Startups & Companies that have openings in their teams.

I totally understand that job-hunting in 2026 is extremely tiring, long, and painful. The pressure, anxiety, and stress of getting ghosted & rejected add up quickly, not to mention it now takes 500-1000 applications for 1 offer.

That's why if this market is draining you and you want structured help on resume, outreach ,and strategy, you can explore my Job Hunting Accelerator: 5,100+ people are already using it to land offers. 

Link: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

Link to career pages in the comments: 
1) DealHub(dot)io
2) Unconventional AI
3) Clarifai
4) Mesh
5) Kodex
6) Tandem
7) Snout
8) AirGarage
9) Modal
10) Datarails
11) osapiens
12) Stream
13) Ethernovia
14) Pomelo
15) Wasabi Technologies
16) Eve
17) Profound
18) Nash
19) Sunflower
20) Material Security
21) Freeform
22) Summize
23) WitnessAI
24) Credit Key
25) Duetti
26) Vantage
27) Propy Inc.
28) Superstate
29) Peec AI
30) Voldex
31) Aikido Security
32) CHAMP
33) LiveKit
34) RobCo
35) Paper
36) Morpho
37) OpenRouter
38) Orbital
39) Cerebras
40) Bayesian Health
41) Pomelo Care
42) Northwood
43) Jetson
44) Resend
45) TENEX.AI
46) PlanetScale
47) Pearl Health
48) Cubby
49) Runway
50) Swap
51) Crusoe
52) SpruceID
53) Orderful
54) Railway
55) Palmstreet
56) Ivo
57) Runware
58) Novita AI
59) Emergent
60) Orbem
61) Juicebox
62) Kaedim
63) Bold
64) Zus Health
65) Hydrosat
66) Udio
67) Socket
68) Counsel Health
69) Cyclic Materials
70) Higgsfield AI
71) Truemed
72) Sokin
73) Factify
74) Maven
75) Crux

Great Job Hunting Strategy for International Students:

Btw, I run a community of 5100+ jobseekers, my Job Hunting Accelerator, where I regularly share a lot of battle-tested advice I see working out in real time with international students and jobseekers. 

We've got modules for networking, job hunting strategy, and have tons of guest sessions as well. No pressure to join, if you feel you want more support in your journey, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

1. Build a sharp resume. Don’t make it fancy or crowded. One page that shows skills, projects, and outcomes the way a recruiter reads.

2. Learn how to pitch yourself in 30 seconds. Clear role, clear stack, clear strengths.

3. Apply with structure. Track every role, follow up every week, and refine based on data. Random applications create random results.

4. Build a portfolio, follow this flow. Real problems  ➡︎ clean documentation  ➡︎ measurable impact. Tutorial apps don’t survive recruiter screens.

5. Understand the market. Which companies sponsor? Which roles prefer fresh grads? Which hiring cycles matter? Blind effort wastes time.

6. Master behavioral interviews. Every answer should show clarity, ownership, and results. Underestimating these is a big blunder many make. 

7. Build a network before you need it. Alumni, seniors, campus clubs, professors. Warm intros cut rejection rates by half.

8. Know your visa timeline because your life depends on it. CPT, OPT, STEM OPT. Apply early, not when your clock is about to expire.

9. Practice technical rounds under stress. Timed OAs, mock interviews, and pattern recognition. Skill matters, but composure decides the outcome.

10. Keep your momentum when others get offers before you. 

This is the goal.
You may not have all of these yet.

But move in this direction.

The difference between someone who gets a job in the US and someone who gets pushed out is not talent alone.

It is discipline.
It is clarity.
It is a systems approach to the job search.

Build that.

This international student came to the US in 2024, in one of the toughest markets for jobseekers.

Within her first year at Purdue University Master of Engineering Management Program (MEM), she had already interviewed with and landed offers from companies like Tesla, Walmart and Zipline.

This is Venonshya Sunder’s story.

At first, she
– Applied to anything that looked even slightly relevant
– Put her resume together only after arriving on campus
– Uploaded it to portal after portal and hoped something would click

Very quickly, she saw that “spray and pray” was not a good strategy here. Things started to change when she rebuilt her approach from the inside out.

➤ 5–10 targeted applications a day, tracked and reviewed, even on heavy class days
➤ She rewrote her resume to sound like what she actually did & added more ownership, outcomes, and impact in numbers
➤ She stopped forcing bad fits.  Asked, “Is this role really aligned with my skills and direction, or am I just desperate to apply?” Cut out roles that were clearly mismatched instead of chasing everything

On top of that, she also leaned hard on her people.
– Reached out to seniors and alumni for honest feedback on her profile
– Used LinkedIn to connect with TPMs and engineers, not to beg for referrals but to understand what these roles actually look like
– Built a circle of classmates and roommates who shared openings, pushed each other to apply, and did not operate from scarcity

The result. Within months, she was converting offers. So far she has worked at Walmart, Tesla and is currently at Zipline.

A big part of this also ties back to where she chose to study.

She picked Purdue’s MEM because
– It sits at the intersection of engineering and management, which is exactly where she wanted to be
– The coursework let her stay technical while building leadership and business skills
– The ecosystem (career team, alumni, professional development funds, industry events) made it easier to get a foot in the door

Venonshya’s journey is a reminder that
– You can arrive in a “bad” market and still create momentum if your effort is focused
– Your past engineering work becomes powerful once you frame it as ownership and collaboration
– Internships and offers are rarely luck alone; they come from skills, timing, and the courage to keep going even when everyone around you is stressed and scared

Watch Venonshya’s full podcast → https://lnkd.in/exgu9f83

Explore Purdue MEM Program → https://lnkd.in/g634EM_R

Dear job seekers and international students, if you've been impacted by layoffs or are looking for your next full-time job, here’s a list of 45 Companies & Startups that have openings in their teams.

I totally understand that job-hunting in 2026 is extremely tiring, long, and painful. The pressure, anxiety, and stress of getting ghosted & rejected add up quickly, not to mention it now takes 500-1000 applications for 1 offer.

That's why if this market is draining you and you want structured help on resume, outreach, and strategy, you can explore my Job Hunting Accelerator: 5,100+ people are already using it to land offers. 

Link: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

Link to career pages in the comments: 
45) Zapier
44) Zocks
43) Webflow
42) Twilio
41) Stripe
40) Sourcegraph
39) Shopify
38) Remote
37) Reco
36) Plug
35) Phia
34) Orchard
33) Parahelp
32) Outtake
31) Linear
30) LaunchDarkly
29) Kraken
28) Kindred
27) Honeycomb
26) GitLab
25) Gather AI
24) Forerunner
23) Fiddler AI
22) Dropbox
21) DuckDuckGo
20) Didero
19) Daytona
18) Concourse
17) Coinbase
16) Close
15) Calendly
14) Buffer
13) Big Health
12) Automattic
11) Anterior
10) 1Password
9) Tenna
8) Taiv
7) Talos
6) Sapiom
5) Matia
4) Lotus Health AI
3) Loop AI
2) Duna
1) Complyance

Dear job seekers and international students, if you've been impacted by layoffs or are looking for your next full-time job, here’s a list of 45 Startups & Companies that have openings in their teams.

Btw, I run a community of 5100+ jobseekers, my Job Hunting Accelerator, where I regularly share a lot of battle-tested advice I see working out in real time with international students and jobseekers. 

We've got modules for networking, job hunting strategy, and have tons of guest sessions as well. No pressure to join, if you feel you want more support in your journey, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

[1] truthsystems - https://lnkd.in/emkSUJYD
[2] Prosper AI - https://lnkd.in/eyfQCDw7
[3] AIR Platforms - https://lnkd.in/e9b_Ueux
[4] The General Intelligence Company of New York - https://lnkd.in/ePQ2iZTN
[5] SubImage - https://lnkd.in/e9unbbdv
[6] Asymmetric Security - https://lnkd.in/exJcdy3q
[7] Casium - https://lnkd.in/eJ7XBBq3
[8] Fifth Door - https://lnkd.in/gu65yHY3
[9] HammerheadAI - https://lnkd.in/ehg7ii-W
[10] Adam - https://adam.new/careers
[11] Known - https://lnkd.in/ebAmC6i7
[12] Causal Labs - https://lnkd.in/ei4PuVbR
[13] Endra - https://lnkd.in/e8Q7UAcA
[14] Dryft - https://dryft.ai/careers
[15] Flint AI - https://lnkd.in/ebuSc6YN
[16] Dialogue AI - https://lnkd.in/ecH29DtW
[17] Lucidean - https://lnkd.in/e8nFyVvB
[18] Noise - https://lnkd.in/ec9C2aCT
[19] SpaceComputer - https://lnkd.in/e_ksByac
[20] Netic - https://lnkd.in/eBZ4Czaf
[21] Unlimited Industries - https://lnkd.in/gJkkm-_z
[22] Vybe - https://lnkd.in/e_7X-kkh
[23] OmenAI - https://lnkd.in/eZxZxcES
[24] Autonomous Technologies Group - https://atg.science/
[25] Flai - https://lnkd.in/e9dYHN6g
[26] Button Labs - https://lnkd.in/etyr5fY5
[27] Oxide Computer - https://lnkd.in/edVuUVuR
[28] Defense Unicorns - https://lnkd.in/engYrjce
[29] Baseten - https://lnkd.in/eYgTvzc4
[30] Decagon - https://decagon.ai/careers
[31] Clear Street - https://lnkd.in/eE8VCEuA
[32] JetZero - https://lnkd.in/eGMhGZRw
[33] Noveon Magnetics - https://noveon.co/careers
[34] Highnote - https://lnkd.in/eVnD_SbP
[35] Skild AI - https://lnkd.in/erJJACCj
[36] Mytra - https://mytra.ai/careers
[37] Varda Space Industries - https://lnkd.in/eTS2wfQD
[38] Arena - https://lnkd.in/eH7WNZtK
[39] Onebrief - https://lnkd.in/ebtmCYhV
[40] Standard Nuclear - https://lnkd.in/e3viYEtp
[41] Zipline - https://lnkd.in/ekRsuZ4B

Being a job seeker in this market is basically a long series of painful events.

It is feeling guilty when you rest.
It is feeling guilty when you grind.
It is surviving more than it is living.
It is losing track of weekends and time.
It is hope that keeps getting postponed.
It is wanting to quit and still showing up.
It is watching your savings quietly disappear.
It is reworking your resume for the 50th time.
It is waking up with hope and sleeping with doubt.
It is getting interview calls and still not feeling safe.
It is smiling on calls while anxiety sits in your chest.
It is preparing hard for interviews that never convert.
It is checking your email before you brush your teeth.
It is forcing confidence while your hands are shaking.
It is being strong for everyone and weak only in private.
It is telling yourself “one more try” when you feel empty.
It is celebrating small wins that no one else understands.
It is pretending to be okay when relatives ask for updates.
It is putting your life on pause for a decision you do not control.
It is questioning your skills on good days and your worth on bad ones.
It is seeing “We regret to inform you” more times than your own name.
It is seeing other people get offers and wondering what you are missing.

Some battles are not meant to be fought loudly.
They are meant to be outlasted.

For everyone still in the waiting phase
Feeling tired does not mean you are weak.
It’s a phase of life, it will pass and you will come out stronger.

I am rooting for you :)

--
P.S: If you’re an international student or a jobseeker in the USA, every week I send 2 newsletters on job hunting & immigration to over 35,000+ readers. Join them here:https://lnkd.in/eFxuSc38

An immigration lawyer told me to use ChatGPT to double-check H-1B job codes. I thought she was joking. She wasn't. Here's how one prompt can reveal if your lawyer picked the wrong SOC code (and cost you lottery entries).

Context: Every Wednesday, I sit down with an immigration lawyer from Manifest Law on my YouTube channel. This is based on our conversation. I'll be having another livestream this Wednesday as well, do join :)

➤ The Problem

Your H-1B lottery odds don't just depend on your salary. They depend on a 6-digit code called your SOC code (Standard Occupational Classification).

This code determines:

- What the prevailing wage is for your role
- What wage level you fall into (1, 2, 3, or 4)
- How many lottery entries you get

Most immigration lawyers see "software" or "coding" in your job description and automatically pick: Software Developer (SOC 15-1252).

They don't ask questions.

They don't consider alternatives.

They move on.

➤ Why This Matters

Same engineer. Same $95,000 salary. Same location.

Lawyer A picks: Software Developer → Level 1 → 1 lottery entry

Lawyer B picks: Database Administrator → Level 3 → 3 lottery entries

The only thing that changed? The SOC code.

➤ What the Lawyer Told Me

Nicole said: "Not everyone who touches code is a Software Developer."

If you manage databases → Database Administrator (different code)

If you work with SAP systems → Computer Systems Analyst (different code)

If you handle hardware integration → Computer Hardware Engineer (different code)

Each code has its own prevailing wage scale. Each one could put you in a higher wage level for the same salary.

➤ The ChatGPT Check

She literally said on the call: "ChatGPT uses 2018 SOC code data. Ask it to suggest 2-3 codes for your role."

Here's the prompt: "I'm a [your job title]. My responsibilities include [paste 3-5 key duties]. Suggest 2-3 SOC codes that might fit this role."

Then take those codes to flcdatacenter.com and check the wage levels for your county.

It's a starting point to question your lawyer's default choice.

➤ What You Should Do Before March

1. Ask your immigration lawyer: "What SOC code are you using for my H-1B registration?"

2. Ask: "Did you consider any other SOC codes for my role?"

3. Give them your detailed job description. Make it technical. Make it specific.

4. If they haven't explained why they picked that code, push back.

The March lottery is wage-level based now.

One code change could double or triple your entries.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This is for educational purposes only based on my conversation with an immigration lawyer. Before making decisions about your H-1B, speak with a qualified immigration professional.

P.S: I send out a weekly newsletter where I talk about immigration, job-hunting, and resources. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gce2ipwc

Don’t take a student loan in India to study abroad without knowing this. This one decision can save you thousands of dollars over the next 10 to 15 years.

12 years ago, when I did a rough calculation of how much it would cost to study in the U.S.A., only one word came to mind: Impossible.

When I went from bank to bank, it only made that feeling worse.

I had
- No collateral
- No jewellery or property to show
- No cosigner who could sign the loan for me

On paper, I was just another kid with a dream and zero assets. So most banks treated me like that. Fast forward to today, and things have changed for the better.

I have worked with MPOWER Financing for 4+ years and done multiple workshops with them. I have seen students who would have given up on their admission actually make it to the U.S. because of how MPOWER works.

If you are considering education loans, here is why I consider them among the best options for the U.S. and Canada.

1. Fixed interest rate from day one. The rate you sign up for is the rate you finish with.
2. No collateral, no cosigner, no proof of income. They look at your admit, your potential, your program and your future earning capacity. This is a game-changer for students who do not want to put family property or parents’ retirement on the line.
3. Free sanction letter you can use for visa, and I-20. Once your loan is approved, you get a sanction letter that works as proof of funds. You can use it for your I-20 and visa interview.
4. Origination fee built into the loan. There is a 5 per cent origination fee, but you do not pay it from your pocket upfront. It is deducted from the loan amount after disbursement.
5. You start building your U.S. credit score. The loan is in U.S. dollars, in your name, with a U.S. lender. Once you land and start making the small interest payments after classes begin, you are already building a credit history.

Over the last decade, MPOWER has sanctioned loans for more than 1,50,000 students.

If you are planning to study in the U.S. or Canada, do not blindly sign any loan, including MPOWER. Compare everything.

- Read the fine print.
- Understand fixed vs floating.
- Think about your future income in dollars, not just interest rates in rupees.

Also know that if you do not have collateral or a cosigner, your story does not have to end there. You can check your eligibility in less than 60 seconds with MPOWER here: https://lnkd.in/dg8wVfD6

As an international student in the US, you will often feel like you are behind in life. You might be 24, 29, or 32.

Some friends already have H1Bs.
Some are buying cars and houses.
Some are getting promoted while you are still trying to clear your first job search or visa step.

It was simple back home.
Score well in exams, and everyone knows you are doing fine.

Here, it feels like there is a new scoreboard every week.

LinkedIn, Instagram, and WhatsApp groups. Always someone posting a bigger salary, a better company, a faster visa, a nicer apartment.

Slowly, two things happen. You feel smaller, and you start seeing people as competition instead of community.

That is where many people go wrong. 

They stop sharing job links.
They hide how they got referrals.
They gatekeep lawyers, tax tips, and visa updates.
They start resenting the friend who got lucky in the lottery or landed a big offer.

But…

Jealousy will not change your status.
Gatekeeping will not bring you one extra interview.
Bitterness will not pay your rent or build your credit score.

But your actions will always say everything about you.
Their actions will always say everything about them.

So choose your side carefully.

Choose to:

– Share information about visa rules and deadlines when you learn something useful
– Help your friends review their resumes before big applications
– Tell people which tax tools, credit card tips and budgeting tricks are actually working for you
– Celebrate their wins even when your own life feels slow
– Build deep relationships instead of sitting alone with Google and anxiety

Because staying in the US is not just about one job offer or one lottery result.

It is about:

– Knowing your immigration timelines and planning early
– Building a basic personal finance system so you are not one paycheck away from panic
– Having friends who would show up if your visa, health, or job went wrong
– Becoming the kind of person others want to refer to, vouch for, and live with

Kindness is not weakness.
In this country, it is a long-term strategy.

I still hang out with my ex-boss from my Chico days. We play poker, we chat, we hang out, and it’s been over 10 years, one of the best relationships I’ve cultivated in life. 

Think big. 
Don’t let jealousy narrow your vision.

The March 2026 Visa Bulletin just dropped. This is one of the biggest forward movements we’ve seen in years in the USA.

If you’re in EB1 or EB2, especially from India or the rest of the world, this could be your moment. I’ll explain in simple terms.

What is the Visa Bulletin and “priority date”?
Think of the green card process like a long queue.

➤  Your priority date = the day you officially entered the queue
(usually the PERM filing date or I-140 filing date).

➤ Every month, the Visa Bulletin says:
“We are now serving people who got in line on or before this date.”

Btw, every Wednesday, I host an immigration Q&A with lawyers from Manifest Law on my YouTube channel. We talk about the news like this every week, so make sure you tune in weekly. 

Also, If you're thinking of applying for O-1, EB-1, and other talent-based visas, grab a 30-min free consultation & see if you qualify: https://lnkd.in/gbb3aTpa

If the date in the bulletin is after your priority date, you are “current”.
If it is before your priority date, you are still waiting.

The bulletin has two charts:
- Filing Dates (Dates for Filing) – who can submit I-485.
- Final Action Dates – for whose I-485 can be approved.

1) EB1 movement

EB1 is for priority workers – managers, researchers, people with very strong profiles.

Filing Dates
➤ India and China jumped forward about 4 months.
➤ Mexico, Philippines, Rest of World stay current.

Final Action Dates
➤ India and China moved forward about 1 month.
➤ Mexico, Philippines, Rest of World stay current.

Translation: EB1 India and China are still backlogged, but they are moving, not frozen.

2) EB2 movement

EB2 is for advanced degree professionals and people with exceptional ability. This is where the big action is.

Filing Dates
➤ India jumped forward around 11 months.
➤ China did not move.
➤ Mexico, Philippines, Rest of World became current after a large jump.

Final Action Dates
➤ India moved forward about 2 months.
➤ China stayed the same.
➤ Mexico, Philippines, Rest of World moved forward roughly 6 months to 15 Oct 2024.

Translation:
Many EB2 applicants outside India and China are now at the front of the line. EB2 India is still backlogged, but the dates are clearly moving forward.

3) Why this bulletin matters?

We still have one open question: USCIS will announce whether March filings can use Filing Dates or must use Final Action Dates. That update decides how many people can actually submit I-485 in March.

Even without that decision, the signal is clear: EB1 is moving slowly but steadily.
EB2 just had an unusually strong forward jump, especially for India Filing Dates and for the rest of world.

25 remote job boards I'd use to land a $150K+ remote role fast. (Most people are still clueless about them) 

All of the links to the websites are in the comments. 

Btw, if you’re an international student or a jobseeker in the USA, every week I send 2 newsletters on job hunting & immigration to over 35,000+ readers. Join them here:https://lnkd.in/eFxuSc38 

MAINSTREAM & HIGH-QUALITY REMOTE JOB BOARDS 
Best for: curated, reliable remote listings across multiple industries

[1] FlexJobs
[2] WeWorkRemotely
[3] Otta
[4] RemoteOK
[5] Remotive
[6] Jobspresso
[7] Dynamite Jobs
[8] Working Nomads

GLOBAL & VISA-FREE REMOTE JOB PLATFORMS 
Best for: candidates looking for global roles without relocation or visa barriers

[9] Himalayas
[10] RemoteSource
[11] No Visa Jobs
[12] World Teams
[13] Remote Rebellion

REMOTE-FOCUSED WORK COMMUNITIES & NICHE BOARDS 
Best for: remote-only companies, startup jobs, and specialized remote careers

[14] Y Combinator Jobs
[15] Flexa
[16] Remote(dot)co
[17] DailyRemote
[18] remote(dot)io
[19] RemoteHub
[20] Remoters(dot)me

FLEXIBLE, ASYNC, AND STARTUP-FRIENDLY REMOTE SITES 
Best for: async work, flexible schedules, and early-stage companies

[21] JustRemote
[22] SkipTheDrive
[23] Growmotely
[24] Remotewx
[25] Pangian

The U.S. has quietly lost nearly half of its international students.

Outside of COVID, this is the largest enrollment crash we’ve ever seen.

• Overall drop: 40–50%
• China: down 12%
• India: down 44%
• These two countries once made up almost half of all international students

Why is this happening?

– Harder student visa approvals
– Lack of appointment availability
– Travel restrictions
– Growing immigration uncertainty

And here’s what many people miss:

Over 80% of international students are in STEM.
They fund universities through higher tuition.
They contribute to research in AI, medicine, engineering, and emerging technologies.

If these students choose Ireland, Germany, Canada, or Australia instead,
The U.S. doesn’t just lose tuition revenue.

It risks losing long-term innovation leadership.

Is America unintentionally pushing away the very talent that drives its economy?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve talked to 100s of international students in the last 6 years while travelling to 50+ Universities in the USA. I’ve met people who landed offers worth $100k+ even with 0 relevant experience in the domain.

Here is how you can create one too:

1. Tailor every single application

Most students send one resume to 50 roles and then wonder why nothing moves.
The ones who land real offers treat every application like a mini project.

- They read the JD properly
- Pick 2 to 3 skills that are repeated
- Rewrite bullets to show those skills in action

Examples

- For a PM role, they highlight collaboration, ownership, leadership
- For a data role, they push SQL, dashboards, experiments, insights
- For a backend role, they bring up APIs, scale, reliability

Takeaway

- Highlight 2 to 3 key skills from the JD
- Rewrite bullets under your experience to point to those skills
- Remove side jobs or projects that do not support the story

Template
"Aligned [project or experience] with [specific role] by focusing on [key skill or impact]."

2. Metrics speak louder than words

A good resume does not just say what you did. It shows what changed because you did it.

Examples

- "Led a team of 4 to design a prototype that reduced manual data entry by 20 percent."
- "Analyzed 5 years of data and found patterns that improved process efficiency by 15 percent."
- "Automated a report that saved 10 hours per week for the team."

Takeaway

- Start with an action verb: designed, implemented, led, automated
- Add a clear result: increased efficiency, reduced time, improved accuracy
- End with a number: percent, hours saved, money saved, users impacted

Template
"[Action verb] [task or initiative] that resulted in [specific impact] by [metric]."

3. The resume structure matters

You do not need a fancy template. You need something that is easy to scan.

Key tips

- Put experience above education, even as a student, if you have internships or solid projects
- Keep a clean skills section where tools like SQL, Python, Tableau, Figma, Jira are easy to find
- Use bullets instead of paragraphs and start every line with an action verb

A recruiter should understand who you are and what you bring in under 10 seconds.
Your structure decides whether they get that chance or not.

4. Start early, iterate often

Strong resumes are not written the night before applications open.

The people who do well

- Draft their resume months before they start applying
- Ask seniors, alumni, and mentors to review it
- Update it as they finish each project or internship

They treat the resume like a living document, not a one-time assignment.

Takeaway

- Create a first draft early
- Get feedback from people who already have the roles you want
- Keep refining it based on actual JDs and interview results

"I lost my H-1B job in January 2024. I'm still in the US. My I-94 says I'm good until February 2026. Should I switch to B-2 or just go back?"

This question came up on our Wednesday livestream and the answer just broke me. ( Context: I have a livestream with an immigration lawyer from Manifest Law on my channel )

The immigration lawyer's response: "You've been overstaying since March 2024. If you leave the country now, you might be inadmissible for 10 years."

Let me explain how this happens, because I think a lot of people might find themselves in this situation unintentionally. 

➤ The Timeline of the person who asked the question:
- January 2024: Lost H-1B job
- March 2024: 60-day grace period ends
- January 2025: Still in US, no job, no status change filed
- February 2026: I-94 expiration date

They looked at their I-94 and thought: "I'm legal until February 2026."

They're not.
Your H-1B status requires you to work for your sponsor.

When you lose your job, you get 60 days to:
- Transfer to a new H-1B employer, OR
- Change status (F-1, H-4, B-2), OR
- Leave the country

If you do nothing? Your status ends after 60 days.
Not when your I-94 expires. After 60 days.
After that, every day you stay = unlawful presence.

➤ The 10-Year Ban

US immigration law is brutal:

180 days of overstaying = 3-year entry ban
1 year of overstaying = 10-year entry ban
This person lost their job in January 2024.

By March 2024, grace period ended.
By January 2025, they'd overstayed for nearly a year.

If they leave now, they trigger the 10-year ban.
Your I-94 shows how long you can stay based on your visa stamp. But that's only valid if you're maintaining status.

H-1B status = actively employed.
No job = no status = I-94 date means nothing.

This isn't like F-1 where you have "duration of status" protection.

H-1B doesn't work that way. I hope you're staying safe and educating yourself, please do not make this mistake. 

--
P.S: I send out a weekly newsletter on immigration, job-hunting, and resources. Join 35,000+ readers for free: https://lnkd.in/evyieG-h

--

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. This is for educational purposes only. If you've lost your H-1B job or think you might be out of status, talk to a qualified immigration lawyer immediately.

Last week, inside my job-hunting community, I reviewed 17 resumes & 15 had the exact problem that was holding them back. 

It is the same thing I’ve seen in 100s of resumes as a Hiring Manager when I used to hire for my team, this included designers, engineers, and other roles. 

People usually describe responsibility.
Not impact.

And recruiters do not scan for responsibility.
They scan for proof.

First, the ATS scans for keywords.
Then a human scans for numbers.
Then they decide if you can create impact.

Btw, if you’re a jobseeker, I totally understand that job-hunting in 2026 is extremely tiring and painful. The pressure, anxiety, and stress of getting ghosted & rejected add up quickly, not to mention it now takes 500-1000 applications for 1 offer.

That's why if this market is draining you and you want structured help on resume, outreach, and strategy, you can explore my Job Hunting Accelerator: 5,100+ people are already using it to land offers. 

Link: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

Here are 5 types of proof almost every job can show.

1. Revenue generated

You do not need to work in sales to show revenue. If something you did helped people spend more, renew more, expand more, or not churn, there is money attached to it.

Think: additional revenue, uplift in conversion, ARPU, LTV, upsell, cross sell.

2. User growth

Companies care about users who show up, activate, and stay.

If your work:
- brought more qualified users in
- helped them reach first value faster
- made them stick for longer

then you have growth impact.

Think: signups, MAU, DAU, activation rate, retention, adoption and engagement.

3. Cost savings

In this market, saving money is as powerful as making it.

Maybe you:
- reduced cloud bills or tool spend
- cut manual work so a team could do more with the same headcount
- removed an old feature or vendor that was burning money

Think: reduced spend, fewer tickets, fewer errors, less manual effort, smaller teams doing the same work.

4. Time reduction

Time is money and speed is a competitive edge.
Anything that makes work faster for customers or for teams is real impact:

- faster pages and APIs
- faster reports
- faster deployments
- faster decision cycles

Think: before vs after timelines, hours saved per week, release frequency.

5. Team size and scope

Scope shows what level of responsibility you can handle.
Signals like these matter a lot:

- how many people you worked with or led
- how many services, regions, or products you owned
- how many users or dollars your work touched

Scope tells a hiring manager if you are ready for bigger bets.

If you want the full framework for resumes, networking, referrals, and interviews, it is inside my Job Hunting Accelerator. 

Link: https://lnkd.in/gt5YBAbr

But even if you do nothing else this week:
- Add numbers
- Reorder bullets
- And make every line answer one question:
What changed because of me?

If you were affected by layoffs recently or someone you know has been caught up in the recent wave, here are 74 companies that are hiring remotely in the USA. 

Just today, 4000 people were affected by layoffs at Block & I’ve been seeing the news on my feed all day. These are qualified people who were shocked, disappointed & surprised. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. 

Please talk about this, protect your mental health, hold no shame, and take your time to process it. I wish you the very best and hope these curated job posts from my feed today help. 

[1]  WorkOS
- What they do: API for enterprise-ready features (SSO, SCIM).
-  workos.com/careers

[2]  Webflow
- What they do: Visual web design and development platform.
-  lnkd.in/deHnsDyi

[3]  Vercel
- What they do: Frontend cloud platform for developers.
-  lnkd.in/gswCPPWj

[4]  Vanta
- What they do: Automated security and compliance framework.
-  jobs.ashbyhq.com/vanta

[5]  Twilio
- What they do: Customer engagement platform (communications APIs).
-  lnkd.in/gGrkx2Fx

[6]  Temporal
- What they do: Open-source durable execution platform.
-  lnkd.in/gfYfbj88

[7]  Teleport
- What they do: Secure access for infrastructure.
-  lnkd.in/gbUhEVSS

[8]  Supabase
- What they do: Open-source Firebase alternative.
-  supabase.com/careers

[9]  Stedi
- What they do: EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) modernization.
-  jobs.ashbyhq.com/stedi

[10]  Spring Health
- What they do: AI-powered precision mental healthcare.
- What's cool: Remote-friendly culture, $1k professional development reimbursement, Focus Fridays.
-  https://lnkd.in/eEenmtYr

[11]  Socket
- What they do: Proactive supply chain security for open-source.
-  jobs.ashbyhq.com/socket

[12]  Rad AI
- What they do: AI for radiology reporting.
-  lnkd.in/gCqHgNmj

[13]  Pinecone
- What they do: Vector database for machine learning.
-  jobs.ashbyhq.com/pinecone

[14]  Openrouter
- What they do: Unified interface for AI models.
-  lnkd.in/ggfcVEmH

[15]  1Password
- What they do: Password manager and digital vault.
-  jobs.ashbyhq.com/1password

[16]  Outreach
- What they do: Sales execution platform.
- Featured Role: Senior Analytics Engineer (Remote, US) - $130k-$155k
-  lnkd.in/dqzUfqJ5

[17]  NMI
- What they do: Integrated payment solutions.
- Featured Role: Partner Marketing Manager (US, UK) - $80k-$105k
-  lnkd.in/daM9TyZE

[18]  Motus
- What they do: Connected vehicle data and reimbursement solutions.
- Featured Role: Customer Success Manager (Remote, US) - $75k-$85k
-  lnkd.in/dFn2E4Eq

[19]  Modus Create
- What they do: Digital transformation consulting.
- Featured Role: Senior Director, Data Engineering & ML (US) - $200k-$240k
-  lnkd.in/d7BwAn5D

[20]  Metronome
- What they do: Usage-based billing infrastructure.
-  lnkd.in/gw54jRpd

Complete list here: https://lnkd.in/esmv87xY

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The Battle

Aishwarya Srinivasan

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Aishwarya Srinivasan's LinkedIn Performance

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