4 ms·

For those of us who employ developers remotely and ask for a sane number of hours per week (usually 40), does this mean there's an opportunity to hire great dev

For those of us who employ developers remotely and ask for a sane number of hours per week (usually 40), does this mean there's an opportunity to hire great developers from China who would like to have better work/life balance? Where would I start?

swuecho 8y ago
I think hacknews is good place. the barriar is english. chinese developer who visit hacknews pass the english requirement and usually are interested in software development.
- swelz 8y ago
  I agree. I work for a Chinese company in Shenzhen. There are a few software developers I cannot speak with face-to-face, but almost all are decent through text and patient enough when I need clarification. And if they are actually visiting sites like HackerNews, or contributing to StackOverflow they likely are more than proficient enough to work with. Just be sure to double check their comments and documentation to be sure it's readable. My coworkers have always appreciated when I've helped make their stuff more readable.
- zhouyxamp 8y ago
  I'm a Chinese developer. Yes, English is a high barrier for most Chinese developer to get in touch with developers out of China. I can read, write without any problem but talk is hard for me as I have no chance to talk to any English speaking people.
JimDabell 8y ago
Two things that seem like they might be impediments: - Traversing the Great Firewall is slow and unreliable. Having team members on either side of it wouldn't be great for collaboration. - I seem to remember reading about somebody complaining that sending money to Chinese citizens from abroad can be very difficult. I don't recall the details though.
- milesvp 8y ago
  Sending out money from china can be a real pain. The government requires a contract be on file. I’m dealing with this right now on the receiving end as US citizen. Apparently there are certain cases like paying US engineers which get rubber stamp approval, but there’s been some inconsistencies in payments that make me wonder if it’s partly due to invoices being higher than expected than the contract on file.
aloisdg 8y ago
A sane number of hours per week is far below 40. In France, we have a 35 hour work week. I am sure we can (and I think we must) go lower without losing much. Less hours for better hours.
- marsRoverDev 8y ago
  My experience of working for a massive company in france was we had a "35 hour" workweek, which cadres would regularly ignore. They were typically doing 8:30-7pm or 9pm-7pm.
  - Lenad 8y ago
    Same for me, moreover "cadres" tends to have a contract based on the number of days per year worked and not the hours per week

swuecho 8y ago

I think hacknews is good place. the barriar is english. chinese developer who visit hacknews pass the english requirement and usually are interested in software development.

swelz 8y ago
I agree. I work for a Chinese company in Shenzhen. There are a few software developers I cannot speak with face-to-face, but almost all are decent through text and patient enough when I need clarification. And if they are actually visiting sites like HackerNews, or contributing to StackOverflow they likely are more than proficient enough to work with. Just be sure to double check their comments and documentation to be sure it's readable. My coworkers have always appreciated when I've helped make their stuff more readable.
zhouyxamp 8y ago
I'm a Chinese developer. Yes, English is a high barrier for most Chinese developer to get in touch with developers out of China. I can read, write without any problem but talk is hard for me as I have no chance to talk to any English speaking people.

JimDabell 8y ago

Two things that seem like they might be impediments: - Traversing the Great Firewall is slow and unreliable. Having team members on either side of it wouldn't be great for collaboration. - I seem to remember reading about somebody complaining that sending money to Chinese citizens from abroad can be very difficult. I don't recall the details though.

milesvp 8y ago
Sending out money from china can be a real pain. The government requires a contract be on file. I’m dealing with this right now on the receiving end as US citizen. Apparently there are certain cases like paying US engineers which get rubber stamp approval, but there’s been some inconsistencies in payments that make me wonder if it’s partly due to invoices being higher than expected than the contract on file.

aloisdg 8y ago

A sane number of hours per week is far below 40. In France, we have a 35 hour work week. I am sure we can (and I think we must) go lower without losing much. Less hours for better hours.

marsRoverDev 8y ago
My experience of working for a massive company in france was we had a "35 hour" workweek, which cadres would regularly ignore. They were typically doing 8:30-7pm or 9pm-7pm.
- Lenad 8y ago
  Same for me, moreover "cadres" tends to have a contract based on the number of days per year worked and not the hours per week