Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

blog.whoishiring.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 237 posts

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#171

Post by yeukhon »

speeder wrote: post #128
spraak wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A way to get experience might be to suggest that you're hired as a consultant or contractor. It's easier for the company to do, but be careful that they still treat you fairly. I know a company in the UK that does this for its remote workers.

I don't lack experience. I lack JOB. Or REAL contract. I've been working since 2009, I have lots of projects done, plus a startup. But most of this, is not legal, usually I had jobs pretending to be contracts (ie: it was a day job, but paid as if I was a contractor, highly illegal in my country, because the government consider this a way to avoid following labour laws... and it is exactly that), low-paying contracts…

As the parent said, you should try jobs coming from recruiters on LinkedIn (that's where they hang out the most) US enterprise companies hire consultants through the recruiting agency. InfoSys, Tech Mahindra, DataArt, Altoros, Ness, HCL, a bunch more. They will hire you legally but usually take half of what they agree with the hiring company. Say the hiring company pays $80,000 on a contract you'd only see maybe $40,000 on your employment contract. They take cut of an undisclosed amount. These are legitimate vendors. Basically outsource. Browse LinkedIn.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#172

Post by MichaelGG »

jedberg wrote: post #160
MichaelGG wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I was thinking remote as in outside the US. I suppose handling benefits and payroll across state boundaries can get tricky.

Outside the US is actually easier in some respects if the person is willing to set up a company in their own country, but I suspect in many countries it is as complicated as setting one up here in the states, and I wouldn't have the expertise to help them. I suspect a job listing that says "remote anywhere in the world as long as you set up your own corporate entity with a foreign registration in the United States" w…

Well my point is that paying an individual outside of the US is fairly straightforward. They fill out a form guaranteeing the company they don't owe withholding (W8-BEN), or the company keeps 30%. At least that's what the lawyers/accountants I've dealt with have said. Probably harder if you're extending benefits and whatnot.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#173

Post by newjersey »

branchless wrote: post #134
hueving wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why is silicon valley more expensive to rent in? Because supply and demand. High salaries attract a lot of people to the bay and communities systematically refuse to build new housing to meet the demand so the price goes up. You can do whatever you want to the banks but that won't change the fundamental of 2X people trying to live in X houses.

No, many hot-spots have large rentier presence including people "owning" and renting out multiple residencies which causes huge supply pressure. Credit also typically increases ahead of wages which squeezes people further. This isn't supply of people vs supply of homes, this is supply of credit. If you neutralise this you will see prices fall and be paying less of your labour to banks. 2008 - the credit taps ran dry…

I don't know why it is outrageous to say the solution to high rent is to build more.

We shouldn't worry about "squeezing" people out. Ours is a HUGE nation. We have A LOT of natural resources and there is no reason why we can't let people build more (outside of protected areas, of course).

People who are "priced out" should move to places where rent costs less. I keep hearing about property owners having enough political clout to block further development, depressing supply. They placate existing residents with tiny portions of rent-controlled apartments.

I fail to see how "gentrification" is a problem at all in the bigger scheme of things.

I don't think people renting out more places is a problem. If landlords hold supply out of the market to prop up prices, we can discourage such actions with a more dynamic property tax that places a realistic tax burden on under occupied or unoccupied property.

All that being said, we definitely need to figure out some way to peoperly educate people about personal finance.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#174

Post by yompers888 »

ryandrake wrote: post #122
BadassFractal wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be the CEO that decides to pay your employees 2-3x market rate? I'd love to watch that experiment from the sidelines.

If employers are constantly complaining about a shortage, I would argue that their idea of the "market rate" is not correct. I want to buy a BMW M3, but I will only pay $5,000. I can't find any, therefore there is a shortage of BMWs??

To frame it another way, the work they want to do isn't worthwhile enough to justify paying the people who would be needed to do it.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#175

Post by ta_donk_gt »

wrong_variable wrote: post #48
ryandrake wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the tired old "Shortage of Engineers" meme is bound to come up in any discussion about tech hiring that ignores compensation. Saying there is a shortage of something in a market only makes sense given a price. Sure, there is probably a shortage of Bay Area engineers if you're paying $70K, but I bet there is no shortage if you're paying $400K.

I think its a lot more complex than that. If the cost of beef was increased 4x for whatever reason, then most people would just switch their preference for meat. There are ofcourse a lot of greedy companies. But a lot of the time the consumer demands a price point for software product, many startups cannot afford to pay 400K to developers. I think its not a reflection of how difficult it might be to create software b…

> many startups cannot afford to pay 400K to developers.

Then hire remote devs. Or move your startup to a more affordable location.

If you need to have developers work onsite, and you need to be in the Bay Area, then you need to pay accordingly.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#176

Post by doozy »

lohengramm wrote: post #169
doozy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the point, the point is $70k in Sao Paulo buys you a lower standard of living than $70k pretty much anywhere in the US but in a handful of cities. $70k in Sao Paulo doesn't go much further than $70k in New York (or Tokyo, London, Paris, Singapore...) Do I have to remind you how much a computer, a smartphone or a car costs in Brazil compared to the US? I doubt your claim of finding "good enough" developers…

I understood your point about comparing São Paulo to other cities. I just wanted to point out that, in absolute terms (not relative to other ṕlaces), $70k is a great salary for SP standards. About the $35k claim, let's make the math: currently USD 35k ~= BRL 115k. 115k/12 ~= 9.6k. That means USD 35k/year is roughly BRL 9.6k/month, which is the salary of a Senior Java guy here. Idk about 2000, but it seems like you we…

Fair enough, but the point stands. If I were given the choice of a $70k/year position in Sao Paulo or, let's say, Miami, FL. I would take the Miami location without hesitating for a second. $70k goes a lot further there than in South America. Literally everything is cheaper in Miami than in SP (or Bogota, where I am).

Most software developers, as most people, in South America simply cannot afford the standard of living of a first world country, even when they make a great salary for local standards. Most things don't cost any less just because the local population cannot afford it (and very often they cost more).

You're comparing local salaries with remote salaries. It's very different, 95% of local guys are unemployable remotely due to a combination of lack of language skills (huge factor), low skill level, shitty work ethics (another huge factor) and being stuck in dead-end technologies like Java.

When American companies look for remote developers they want people who speak excellent/perfect English, are in the same time zone, have (at least) above average skills and are willing to work like Americans do (Americans are workaholics, you'll be surprised at how damn lazy/unproductive most people are). I've been working remotely for 10+ years and I've been asked to find local talent several times, and finding it is hard. I've only vouched for one guy in all this time, and he quit after 6 months and moved to the US (and the pay was spectacular for local standards).

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#177

Post by danieltillett »

branchless wrote: post #167
danieltillett wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rents can only increase if the supply is limited compared to the demand. Anything that decreases supply why demand is high will only increase prices. The solution is to either increase supply or decrease demand for housing.

I guess they didn't get the memo on this in all the pre 2008 countries where supply was being added like crazy and so was credit and prices rose before a huge crash. It's very naive to think that this is simply any one factor, especially supply and demand alone. Why are economics conversations so limited?

The complication with the supply/demand story is speculation. What happened pre-2008 was demand was artificially boosted by speculators (i.e. a bubble). The true demand for housing didn’t change much, but the speculative demand for housing driven by rising prices and cheap money increased massively. The downside of all speculative bubbles is when they pop.

The best way to avoid speculative run ups in prices (and subsequent crashes) is effective taxation. Of course taxation of land is not popular with the rich and powerful as it can’t be avoid.

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#178

Post by spraak »

speeder wrote: post #128
spraak wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A way to get experience might be to suggest that you're hired as a consultant or contractor. It's easier for the company to do, but be careful that they still treat you fairly. I know a company in the UK that does this for its remote workers.

I don't lack experience. I lack JOB. Or REAL contract. I've been working since 2009, I have lots of projects done, plus a startup. But most of this, is not legal, usually I had jobs pretending to be contracts (ie: it was a day job, but paid as if I was a contractor, highly illegal in my country, because the government consider this a way to avoid following labour laws... and it is exactly that), low-paying contracts…

Sorry, I didn't mean experience in general, I meant remote experience. But if that's been your history so far, I'm sorry that it's been difficult for you :/

Re: Hacker News' “Who is Hiring?” thread, part 2, remote and locations

#180

Post by nedwin »

bogomipz wrote: post #163
TrickzOnU wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, i'd take a $70k salary while living in North Carolina. But the "shortage" being discussed here is for the Bay Area. I'm here, let me break down my costs: - $17k taxes - $3k health care premiums - $7k college loans - $36k rent - almost nothing left for savings, retirement, down payment, engagement ring, any means to get out of my situation

Can I ask what 36K in rent affords and roughly which part of the Bar Area?

$3k per month should get you a studio apartment in the Mission, SOMA, downtown etc.

If you're willing to share you can get for cheaper. If you want 1 bedroom you're going to struggle to find something for $3k.

Post reply on HN