Tejas Vijh moved to the US in 2022 to grow his career in venture capital. Tejas Vijh 2025-04-03T00:00:02Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Tejas Vijh navigated visa challenges to secure a venture capital role in the US.Visa sponsorship is rare in venture capital, and many international students stick to Big Tech.He feels more secure about his job at a small firm than his peers at Big Tech companies.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tejas Vijh, an employee at a venture capital firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment and visa history.After I completed my bachelor's in computer science in India, a series of internships and connections led me to a role at a very early-stage venture capital firm. I loved the job and the research it involved.Seven months into working at the firm, I wanted the exposure of living and working abroad. I got into a business analytics master's program at Columbia University and moved to New York City in 2022.Right off the bat, I figured out that venture was not a typical career path for international students, including MBA and business majors, for one main reason: visa sponsorship issues. I interned at two places in the summer, and both said they wouldn't be able to sponsor my long-term visa, even though they liked my performance.When I started researching the job market after graduation, I could not find a single person in the industry who was an immigrant, which was really demotivating. But I was convinced that I wanted to work in healthcare or climate tech and decided to keep going.As a Science-Technology-Engineering-Math graduate, I am allowed a three-year work permit called the Optional Practical Training visa. It's seen as a pathway to securing an H-1B a visa for highly skilled foreign workers.500 cold emailsUsingMany firms replied to me even though they weren't hiring, and I met people for coffee and built connections.I started getting some interviews by my 200th email.By my 500th email, I had two offers one from a larger firm that told me they could not sponsor my H-1B but that I could join them for my three years of OPT, and another from my current firm, where our managing partner took time to understand my visa requirements and the support I would need from them. I told him how I'm loyal and I will stay where I go. My firm has three partners, and I'm the only employee.The advantages of a small companyI did not get my H-1B visa last year, but my visa was selected as part of this year's lottery last week. My firm has also been supportive and has helped me explore alternative routes like the O-1 visa or the EV-1, which are visas for extraordinary talents in the event my H-1B did not come through.Some of the recent changes around H-1B also give me a lot of hope, since they are focused on making the process fairer. The US immigration authorities have reported fewer entries into the lottery this year compared to 2024. Elon Musk, who is working with President Donald Trump's administration, has also publicly supported the H-1B program.I'm grateful I decided to join a small company over a Big Tech company, where a lot of my classmates from my master's and family members work. Large companies are traditionally seen as more stable and a safer bet for visa holders, but as layoffs sweep the tech industry, this mindset is changing. I have family members who are always on edge about when they may lose their jobs and be forced to quickly pack up and leave the US because their stay depends on their employment.I believe my partners will honestly give me a heads-up if we need to cut employees. The firm is also heavily involved in helping me find alternative visas, whichRecommended video

Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine were among the Republicans who voted for a resolution that would block Trump's tariffs on Canada. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images 2025-04-02T23:43:36Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? The Senate voted to block Trump's Canada tariffs right after his "Liberation Day" tariff event.It's a largely symbolic vote, and Trump's tariff power won't be restricted.Still, it's an embarrassment that Trump tried to avoid.Just hours after President Donald Trump unveiled a host of new tariffs, the GOP-controlled Senate voted to block a major part of his trade agenda.The Senate passed a resolution to terminate the national emergency that Trump declared on February 1 that enables him to enact tariffs on Canada. The bill is not expected to be taken up by the House, so Trump's ability to impose tariffs on Canada won't be affected.Still, it's an unwelcome symbolic rebuke of the president's trade agenda, coming on what he had dubbed "Liberation Day."It was a 51-48 vote, with every Democratic senator voting for the bill, along with four Republicans:Sen. Susan Collins of MaineSen. Mitch McConnell of KentuckySen. Lisa Murkowski of AlaskaSen. Rand Paul of KentuckyRepublican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas was not present for the vote.Paul, a libertarian Republican who's consistently spoken up in support of free trade, even co-sponsored the resolution, which was introduced by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia."Tariffs on Canada will threaten us with a recession," Paul told reporters on Wednesday. "I mean, it's a terrible, terrible idea."Collins, who faces a competitive reelection fight in 2026, cited her state's reliance on trade with Canada in a floor speech earlier on Wednesday."The Maine economy is integrated with Canada, our most important trading partner," Collins said. "The tariffs on Canada would be detrimental to many Maine families and our local economies."While Murkowski isn't up for reelection next year, her state is also reliant on trade with Canada, and she hasn't been shy about criticizing Trump and his administration. McConnell, the former Senate GOP leader, has also been critical of Trump's tariff plans.Earlier on Wednesday, Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on imports from all foreign countries, plus higher reciprocal tariffs on a long list of other countries and a 25% tariff on foreign auto imports.Trump did not announce new tariffs on Mexico or Canada, and the White House said that there will continue to be no tariff on goods that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.At a press conference on Tuesday, Kaine and other Democratic senators said that tariffs on Canada specifically didn't make sense, given the country's longtime alliance with the United States."The President has justified the imposition of these tariffs on, in my view, a made-up emergency," Kaine said. "The fentanyl emergency is from Mexico and China. It's not from Canada."In an early morning Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said that he hoped that the GOP senators who planned to vote for the anti-tariff resolution would "get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change.""They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels," Trump wrote. "The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans."That argument may have won over some Republicans who are otherwise suspicious of tariffs, such as Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin."I'm not going to support their attempt to damage Trump," Johnson told reporters.When asked about Trump's argument, Paul was undeterred."I would argue that tariffs, particularly that leads to a recession, are devastating politically," Paul said.Recommended video

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Machikado Project in Asahi-cho / Plan 21Save this picture! Akira UedaHousesKagamigahara city, JapanArchitects: Plan21AreaArea of this architecture projectArea:1395 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Akira UedaMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. A single house alone cannot create a rich living environment. The Machikado Project is a project that aims to create a good living environment by designing a group of houses. This article introduces the "Machikado" project consisting of six houses in Asahi-cho, Kagamigahara City, Japan. The roads there become gardens, and the gardens of each house are connected to each other, making the whole area look like a park.Save this picture!Today, Japanese houses are built separately on each site, like isolated islands, and as a result, I think we have lost the wisdom and ingenuity to live in a shared environment. We wanted to restore the community landscape and the structure that supports it, as in the old villages.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!We were fortunate to come across a plot of land measuring 1,395 square meters, and the landowner was also sympathetic to the idea of Machikado, so we were able to start the project on the condition that the landowner's house be built in one corner. Including the landowner's house, there are a total of six houses, with each house having a plot area of about 230 m.Save this picture!Save this picture!There are many problems with designing a group of houses. First of all, all houses are required to have a road frontage of at least 2m, so houses cannot be scattered freely on a large site. However, there was resistance to drawing a public road into the site.Save this picture!Save this picture!So, the following solution was considered. In other words, the road width required for the four houses at the back, excluding the two houses on the roadside, is 2m each, for a total of 8m. This 8m of access road was bundled together and made into a large shared garden as a common space. In addition, there were old chestnut trees and mandarin orange trees growing on the land. So, we decided to plant more fruit trees and turn the common space into an "edible garden."Save this picture!Save this picture!When you experience designing "street corners," you realize that your previous experience designing detached houses is not very useful. Rather, the hint lies in the "construction" of townhouses and farmhouses of the past. When you look at old floor plans of fishing villages and rural settlements, you can see that the framework and orientation of the house are more important than the individual plans. There, the structure (skeleton) comes first, and individual lifestyles (plans) are discovered later. I think our predecessors decided that it would be more advantageous for houses to be built next to each other while sharing the environment. Following their example, we also thought of "standardizing the skeleton rather than the plan."Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The six houses are made up of three types of skeletons: 3.5 x 4.5 bays, 3.5 x 4 bays with a "detached building," and 4.5 bays on a corner. All six houses have single-pitch roofs, and the direction of the roofs varies from east to west, north to south. As a result, the roofs of the six houses form a wave-like silhouette, creating a continuous village landscape.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officePlan21OfficeMaterialWoodMaterials and TagsPublished on April 02, 2025Cite: "Machikado Project in Asahi-cho / Plan 21" 02 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028619/machikado-project-in-asahi-cho-plan-21&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Nature, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08793-7Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.

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This is my first 3d project, I used blender and maya for the models and unreal engine for the metahuman and substance painter for the textures. It took me more than a month to complete this. Honestly I don't have an previous knowledge about 3d workflow so it became really hard to create those objects. I don't know about good topology or uv unwraping so the textures messed up when I used texture paint but the substance painters auto uv unwraping saved me from the unwraping part. All the flowers are from YouTube tutorials and I used some of the nodes from donut tutorial (I've completed only half and doing the remaining now). So I wanted to have some feedback on the render and any suggestions about what to do next. Thankyou. You can view the final video here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DH3A7QqPzGm/?igsh=MTFueTl4Z2diNG84bw== submitted by /u/kriahnahari9 [link] [comments]

.@FoliageArtistFR shared his oak tree workflow, which allows him to create a natural balance between bark and leaves using SpeedTree, Maya, Substance 3D Designer, and Unreal Engine.Learn more: https://80.lv/articles/how-to-create-realistic-3d-oak-tree/

Akshat Rastogi shared the process of making the Painters Wooden Box project in Maya, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, and Unreal Engine, explaining the detailed sculpting and texturing and offering tips for creating an authentic prop with a strong narrative.Read here: https://80.lv/articles/how-to-model-texture-a-photorealistic-wooden-box-with-natural-wear-and-tear/