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A few years ago I went to work in the Valley on a TN visa. You couldn't get that visa as a programmer (though programmers were what the US needed). Programmers, in fact, were explicitly off the list, and if you said you were going to write code it was cause for immediate rejection. Your job had to be "systems analyst". That was on the list. So I got a job offer as a "systems analyst".

I have a math degree not CS, and was expecting that to be a bit of an issue. It did indeed come up. The INS officer looked at me in that suspicious way that minor security officials have and asked, very slowly: "How does your degree in mathematics qualify you to be a systems analyst?"

I replied, very slowly, "The company wants me to use my mathematical background to analyse their system."

His response: "OK". That was the end of the interview.




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