For many tech professionals, winning the H-1B visa lottery and landing a job at Google represent two of the biggest career milestones. But for Gu Yichen, a Chinese software engineer, both achievements turned out to be far less secure than he had imagined.
In an as-told-to essay published by Business Insider, the 31-year-old, who now lives in California, reflected on how an abrupt layoff at Google reshaped his views on career stability, visas and the tech industry. Today, he is back at Amazon, where he continues to work on an H-1B visa.
Gu’s path to the US began long before his career in tech. He shared that he spent his sophomore year of high school as an exchange student in Washington state. Then, instead of taking China’s highly competitive college entrance exam, he decided to pursue higher education in the US. “I also hadn’t realized that it would eventually lead me to build a career in the US,” he told Business Insider.
Gu majored in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and interned at Amazon during college. Then, after graduating in 2017, he joined the company full-time while working on an Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa.
With a STEM degree, Gu said that he had three opportunities to enter the H-1B lottery. He shared that he was selected on his third attempt. “I had to return to China to get my visa, and because of COVID, I ended up working remotely for Amazon for a year,” he said.
Gu revealed that in 2022, he successfully applied for a job at Google. “Companies were hiring aggressively, interviews were relatively easy, and compensation packages were huge,” he recalled.
However, he said that his former Amazon manager warned him that the future looked uncertain and urged him to stay. However, Gu decided to take the risk anyway. “I felt that if I didn’t take the chance while I was young, I’d be less likely to do it later,” he said.
Google layoff
Gu recalled that at the time, Google’s HR team had assured new hires during orientation that layoffs were not expected. But the experimental project his team was supposed to work on was shelved as part of the cost-cutting measures.
“I had started work around Christmas, and the layoff notice came in January 2023. I didn’t do a single day of real work. My former manager was right,” he said.
Gu said that the layoff exposed the pressures of working on an H-1B visa. He shared that he had only a 60-day grace period to find another sponsoring employer or leave the country. “I reached out to friends at Google to see if their teams had vacancies, but I couldn’t find anything,” he recalled.
Instead of immediately searching for another role, Gu said that he returned to China. “I’m not the type who can rest for long. I was hoping that, as a Google alum, I’d be rehired. If a position became available within six months of leaving, I wouldn’t have to go through the interview process again,” he said.
Return to US
Eventually, Gu said that former colleagues at Amazon informed him about an opening on his previous team. He added that returning to Amazon also meant that he could continue using his existing H-1B petition instead of restarting the process with a new employer.
Now, based in California, Gu said that he has also applied for a US green card. “Once my I-140, a key approval in the process, is approved, I can renew my H-1B indefinitely. It will give me more freedom in both my personal life and my career,” he said.
“In the future, I might start my own business or take cooking lessons,” he added.
Looking back. Gu said that the experience changed how he views career success.
“The work environment in the US feels like a better fit for me. As long as you get the job done, nobody cares whether you work during the day or at night. There’s no drama,” he said.
“My experience at Google made me realize that while I prefer working on experimental projects, companies tend to prioritize essential teams and mature products over exploratory projects,” he added.
Gu revealed that his biggest takeaway, however, was that career outcomes often depend on factors beyond individual effort. “It taught me that landing your ideal job is often as much about timing as effort. I became more flexible once I realized how much was outside my control,” he concluded.
