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Seems cool. How much coaching do you have for US companies to better understand the team's local culture issues? For example, I worked with teams in Brazil in

Seems cool. How much coaching do you have for US companies to better understand the team's local culture issues? For example, I worked with teams in Brazil in the past and while they were smart, kind, etc they were slow in every sense of the word. They didn't have the US culture of respond quickly, unblock people, get shit done, etc. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact working slower may be a benefit, but the US company needs to understand this as they establish the relationship. Your pricing makes sense, but I would like to understand some kind of ballpark numbers based on role title. Can you share that?

jacsamira 4y ago
We work very closely with our devs and US partners. We have intermediaries to help with these cultural blockers. We believe it's never a technical bar that are misses, but a cultural one. We've designed our entire support system around this to help both our US companies and our LATAM devs. And our support system aren't 20 year old CS reps with no knowledge of anything, our support system are seasoned Engineering Managers with former experience working on US teams and local to our LATAM offices.
jacsamira 4y ago
Pricing-wise, I'd say our all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US, but our fees are inclusive of benefits, tech, offices, etc... and the US salary is not.
- runako 4y ago
  Thanks for this. Could you expand on this a bit, given "developer salary" in e.g. the Bay Area/NYC means wildly different things from (say) Houston or Pittsburgh? Were you indexing against Bay salaries or US median/average?
  - jacsamira 4y ago
    Austin, TX :) Thanks for pointing that out
- scantron4 4y ago
  Its frustrating that over and over you say "comparable to" rather than a number.
  - FrankLicea 4y ago
    I understand the frustration and I'll try to explain a bit more. Candidate salaries tend to vary based on country, experience, skillset, etc. People on the platform set their personal salary requirements and it's up to companies to provide a compelling offer. Astro itself doesn't have a fixed rate card or salary bands. Our concern is that we could unintentionally anchor or band someone's salary. That said, we do see trends in the market and we're happy to provide guidance on what's considered above or below market. Someone earlier recommended we setup something like a AWS cost estimator, i think that's a great idea, so long as we can figure out a way to do it without undercutting people on the platform.
wefarrell 4y ago
Brazilians tend to take two hour lunches without work interruptions. Outside of that time, the ones I have worked with have been fast and responsive. Had I not known that I too probably would have thought they were slow and unresponsive. I figured that out by actually going down there and working with them for a week. As far as the "unlbock people, get shit done, etc..." I think that's the case with a lot of outsourced work in general and I don't think it has anything to do with Brazilian culture. Outsourced labor are used to being treated like cogs in a machine so they are less likely to take the initiative or speak up when they see something that doesn't make sense.
- CodeBeater 4y ago
  I wholeheartedly second this. I have an unique lens on this issue as I'm in a unique spot. Despite being Brazilian myself, for most of my career I worked and managed US based developers, and just very very recently shifted to working directly with Brazilians. I saw no major difference in responsiveness and "get shit done" (aka initiative) between those two cohorts. The only thing that took me by surprise is that Brazilians DO NOT take well to getting busy outside of working hours. If you text someone during their lunch break, expect to hear a complaint along with your response.
  - skeletal88 4y ago
    Why should someone be happy to deal with work stuff outside of work hours? It seems to be a thing in the US, but not in Europe or other places.
    - CodeBeater 4y ago
      I agree with you, nobody should. But what took me by surprise was that they get angry even about their headspaces. For instance, sending someone a text and saying "don't worry about this until you're back from your break" will yield little to no effect, as they value being completely disconnected from work during any hours they're not being paid for. Which I think is perfectly reasonable.

jacsamira 4y ago

We work very closely with our devs and US partners. We have intermediaries to help with these cultural blockers. We believe it's never a technical bar that are misses, but a cultural one. We've designed our entire support system around this to help both our US companies and our LATAM devs. And our support system aren't 20 year old CS reps with no knowledge of anything, our support system are seasoned Engineering Managers with former experience working on US teams and local to our LATAM offices.

jacsamira 4y ago

Pricing-wise, I'd say our all-in fees on a per dev basis are comparable to a developer's salary here in the US, but our fees are inclusive of benefits, tech, offices, etc... and the US salary is not.

runako 4y ago
Thanks for this. Could you expand on this a bit, given "developer salary" in e.g. the Bay Area/NYC means wildly different things from (say) Houston or Pittsburgh? Were you indexing against Bay salaries or US median/average?
- jacsamira 4y ago
  Austin, TX :) Thanks for pointing that out
scantron4 4y ago
Its frustrating that over and over you say "comparable to" rather than a number.
- FrankLicea 4y ago
  I understand the frustration and I'll try to explain a bit more. Candidate salaries tend to vary based on country, experience, skillset, etc. People on the platform set their personal salary requirements and it's up to companies to provide a compelling offer. Astro itself doesn't have a fixed rate card or salary bands. Our concern is that we could unintentionally anchor or band someone's salary. That said, we do see trends in the market and we're happy to provide guidance on what's considered above or below market. Someone earlier recommended we setup something like a AWS cost estimator, i think that's a great idea, so long as we can figure out a way to do it without undercutting people on the platform.

wefarrell 4y ago

Brazilians tend to take two hour lunches without work interruptions. Outside of that time, the ones I have worked with have been fast and responsive. Had I not known that I too probably would have thought they were slow and unresponsive. I figured that out by actually going down there and working with them for a week. As far as the "unlbock people, get shit done, etc..." I think that's the case with a lot of outsourced work in general and I don't think it has anything to do with Brazilian culture. Outsourced labor are used to being treated like cogs in a machine so they are less likely to take the initiative or speak up when they see something that doesn't make sense.

CodeBeater 4y ago
I wholeheartedly second this. I have an unique lens on this issue as I'm in a unique spot. Despite being Brazilian myself, for most of my career I worked and managed US based developers, and just very very recently shifted to working directly with Brazilians. I saw no major difference in responsiveness and "get shit done" (aka initiative) between those two cohorts. The only thing that took me by surprise is that Brazilians DO NOT take well to getting busy outside of working hours. If you text someone during their lunch break, expect to hear a complaint along with your response.
- skeletal88 4y ago
  Why should someone be happy to deal with work stuff outside of work hours? It seems to be a thing in the US, but not in Europe or other places.
  - CodeBeater 4y ago
    I agree with you, nobody should. But what took me by surprise was that they get angry even about their headspaces. For instance, sending someone a text and saying "don't worry about this until you're back from your break" will yield little to no effect, as they value being completely disconnected from work during any hours they're not being paid for. Which I think is perfectly reasonable.