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I think this article underestimates the difficulty of finding great talent in Latin America as a remote company. Everybody in Latin America wants to work remote
by jviotti 5y ago
I think this article underestimates the difficulty of finding great talent in Latin America as a remote company. Everybody in Latin America wants to work remotely at foreign companies, yet few actually do in practice.
I was born and raised in Argentina, but studied and worked abroad (UK) and never was in the Latin American market. As an Engineering Lead at a London-based startup, I interviewed tons of software engineers who were applying remotely from all over South America and Central America. However, we didn't hire more than a bunch of Latin American engineers compared to dozens of Europeans and North Americans. The skill gap was pretty noticeable.
I've observed similar things with friends/family in South America which are into engineering. They find it very hard to be qualified enough to get offers from remote companies/startups.
- soneca 5y agoI worked as a software developer in one company in Brazil and in three American companies. The skill gap was non-existent. I could see the same level of talent in both places.
- reese_john 5y agoWhat kind of companies in Brazil though? I feel like the level of brazilian engineers outside high growth tech companies is very low. Most of them will literally fail "Fizz-Buzz" style coding tests. Good devs are either making a very good salary in Brazil (30-50k USD) or 2-3X that working remotely for an American company
- kragen 5y agoMost American engineers (even specifically programmers) fail FizzBuzz-style coding tests, too, if you go by job interview candidates. That's why FizzBuzz exists.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- soneca 5y agoIf I got your comment right, I agree that Brazilian devs that are not good devs that are paid well are not good devs.
- Daishiman 5y agoIf you're a good engineer in Latin America you're not settling for less money than your first-world counterparts. Argentina and Brazil's engineering talent is _outstanding_, and these people are not settling for mediocre companies or mediocre salaries.
- jviotti 5y agoExactly. The key is being a great engineer, and there are great engineers everywhere. I guess my point is that at least anecdotally, average engineers in Latin America are notably beyond average engineers in Europe and North America.