I think people underestimate how much people want to hire from their own country for cultural reasons as well as logistics/HR reasons.
‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
11–20 of 155 posts
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#12Hi, Lachlan de Crespigny co-founder of Revelo here (my cofounder is quoted in the article).
This is absolutely a trend and I really believe it is a massive benefit for the US and for Latin America - more innovation in the US and more good quality jobs in Latam. Once your team is remote, as long as the developers are technically strong, speak English, and work in your timezone, why do you care at all where the person is based? Do you even know where they are working out of?
Culturally Latam devs are pretty similar to US devs, they have proven their technical chops with a bunch of mega-success companies built by Latam devs, and there is less Latin senior executives in the US so it is not as competitive to hire as Asia.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#13Mexico missed the boat on this big time. Some schools, infrastructure, some training, and they could have had a huge piece of the call center and body shop work that India ended up with. The USA was already shipping factory jobs over there.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#14For anyone who has worked with a tech company based in Florida, this has been the norm for 15 years. It started with Buenos Aires/Argentina based devs in early 2000s and then clusters started popping up in Bogota, Mexico City, Santiago, and now in 2nd tier Latam cities too. In mid 2000s there was a big push in universities across LatAm to teach OSS tools. One of my friends had a team of 250 engineers in Guatemala lik…
I'm in South Florida. All big companies here have a big tech presence in LatAm, especially Argentina & Chile. The last company I worked for had maybe 5 developers tops locally, the rest were based in Argentina.
Funny enough my old landlord is not technical at all yet runs a near-shoring dev shop, primarily in Argentina....she charges a pittance in pure USD terms compared with local devs but somehow she's managed to make a very solid living for herself.
I also lived in DF (Mexico City) for a little while, the tech scene there is very strong. IIRC, YC has funded a handful of companies based there - I don't blame them as that city is growing, modernizing quickly, and is a fast, direct flight to any major tech hub in the US. Plus the cost of living is low, and the street food is genuinely incredible. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants to dip their toes into LatAm but doesn't want to fly all the way to Santiago, Sao Paolo or Buenos Aires.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#15This has been happening for quite a while now, I'm in Brazil and most of my career (11 out of 17 years) was built working for companies in the US and eventually Europe. I know many that followed the same path. One thing that I'm surprised is not happening more, and I'd love to hear your comments about the reasons, is the move of senior engineers from places with high cost of living to countries with much lower cost o…
You can have the same with that income in the USA assuming you don't live in Seattle or SF. You can live in Indiana or Texas. Brazil doesn't exactly have a great reputation.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#16I really hope this takes off, it would be a huge deal for my country and me personally.
From what I see, and what I'm experiencing, it is and has been taking off.
For the last few years I've been interacting with members from other teams in Latin America and it's been nothing short of a pleasure. Now in the process of building out my own team with engineers from Latin America. Their abilities, experience, communication and maybe most importantly, attitudes/personalities are fantastic.
The downside is competition is heating up. That's my downside, but probably an upside for you :)
Which country is yours btw? How is your related infrastructure/economy/etc for tech jobs? Broadband, WFH situation, etc? Doesn't seem to be a problem for my colleagues in Latin America.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#17This will get big pretty soon. It's been a trend for a while, my last few jobs we've had LATAM contractors. No time zone issues like with overseas and much less of a language and cultural barrier, like basically nonexistent compared to India. Average skill of LATAM devs is still low compared to the US, but they will learn and grow as more work moves there.
> Average skill of LATAM devs is still low compared to the US I'd say it is a sample bias of the developers working as contractors (average devs with good enough English). Top LATAM talent moves abroad or works as employees at international companies that pay way more than nearshores.
There is a lot of top Latam talent who want to stay in Latam because of family and culture issues, and also because earning in US$ while working remote from Latin America can provide a much higher quality of life than you would be able to get in the US.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#18This has been happening for quite a while now, I'm in Brazil and most of my career (11 out of 17 years) was built working for companies in the US and eventually Europe. I know many that followed the same path. One thing that I'm surprised is not happening more, and I'd love to hear your comments about the reasons, is the move of senior engineers from places with high cost of living to countries with much lower cost o…
I'm a senior engineer and I moved to Latam (on my own, not for work). Unless you are prepared to give up a lot I don't see why anyone would consider this.
What's the incentive? Unless you are looking for an adventure there is no reason to give up your stable standard of living. Also take into consideration that all of Latam, even Mexico and Chile which are the most developed countries are much more dangerous. Education of your kids is worse. Pollution is worse. Political stability isn't guaranteed. Healthcare isn't the best.
I'm also not too sure about the cost of living argument. I'm originally from Europe where both rent and food are more affordable than here (talking about supermarkets, not restaurants where staff is underpaid).
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#19Mexico missed the boat on this big time. Some schools, infrastructure, some training, and they could have had a huge piece of the call center and body shop work that India ended up with. The USA was already shipping factory jobs over there.
I'm not convinced the boat isn't coming, or hasn't already arrived back to port. Lots of great talent in Mexico, and I'm not referring to call center jobs. I'm talking about first class engineers.
Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America
#20This has been happening for quite a while now, I'm in Brazil and most of my career (11 out of 17 years) was built working for companies in the US and eventually Europe. I know many that followed the same path. One thing that I'm surprised is not happening more, and I'd love to hear your comments about the reasons, is the move of senior engineers from places with high cost of living to countries with much lower cost o…
You can have the same with that income in the USA assuming you don't live in Seattle or SF. You can live in Indiana or Texas. Brazil doesn't exactly have a great reputation.
Neither does Texas