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

‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 155 posts

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#31

Post by fernandotakai »

mmaia wrote: post #4
TexanFeller wrote: post #2

This 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.

i consider myself a good developer. when i was working as contractor for us companies, my fees were on par with my US colleagues (low six digits USD).

but it was not worth it for me to keep doing it, so i moved to europe (which was also quite easy given my resume).

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#32

Post by fernandotakai »

bluedino wrote: post #15
ps_on_brazil wrote: post #5

This 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.

i can tell you that if you have a high enough salary, living in a big city like São Paulo can be as good (if not better) than living in a median US city like Seattle/SF -- specially given conversion rates of USDBRL and housing prices.

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#33

Post by huevosabio »

I can speak for Mexico. We have so much going for it.

1. A robust manufacturing economy (unlike the rest of LATAM) right on the border with the #1 consumer. 2. A culture that is easy to digest for Americans and Europeans alike. 3. People that are welcoming of foreigners, and used to them thanks to decades of tourism. 4. A relatively educated and increasingly educated population. 5. A very comprehensive free trade agreement with the US. 6. A geopolitical environment that is pushing for "Nearshoring" and "Friendshoring". 7. A visa system that allows foreigners to live up to 4 years without paying local taxes as long as they are emplyed elsewehre. 8. A robust tourism economy. 9. A hard working culture.

In the last 5-10 years, I've seen big changes in the presence of foreigners that are in Mexico to work. Digital nomads in CDMX or in Puerto Escondido, lots of Japanese execs living in Leon, lots of foreigners buying property in small towns, labor scarcity in the border towns leading to high salaries. Really it's Mexico's time to shine.

However, we also happen to have the worst admin to handle these tailwinds. AMLO has been slowly eroding institutions, backing off from free-trade, making dumb investments and canceling obvious infra projects, flirting with the cartels.

For manufacturing, AMLO's energy counter-reforms have made access to power the main bottleneck for setting up shop in Mexico, it's just to hard to get a permit from the power company. Safety has been spiraling out of control in the areas where the cartel's dominate, and instead of pushing for the state's monopoly of violence, he has repeatedly appeased them.

I wonder what a difference it would have made to have had a more competent man sit on the presidential chair during these times.

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#34

Post by mikeryan »

local_crmdgeon wrote: post #6
TexanFeller wrote: post #2

This 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.

Agreed. The skill isn't even an issue - you just hire them for the right roles. Having the same definition of "no" as Americans is huge. Indians have a really tough time saying something isn't going well, or that we shouldn't do a project, for cultural reasons. That's great! Culture is great. For work though, something closer to the culture of the outsourcer makes it a lot easier to deal with. Flights are also so muc…

Mexico is going to need to change their labor laws if they want a big piece of this pie.

I’ve had a nearshore team in Mexico for four years the people are great for all the reasons mentioned.

The gap, however is costs. We’re used to “at-will” employment in the states are used to a “Hire slow, fire fast” paradigm. In MX the cost to fire a full time employee is 3 months severance (regardless of seniority) plus 20 days for each year worked (labor calculations in MX are done in day rates), plus all accrued vacation and pro-rated Christmas bonus (a requisite MX bonus). Firing someone with 3-4 years tenure can cost 3-6 months of salary.

The labor “board” in MX is not a neutral arbiter. They represent the employee in the case of a labor claim.

You can skirt this a bit with contractors but that only works for a limited time (contract to hire is common and advisable)

Mexico has been a pain point for me. I’ve done everything aboveboard and legally but after having been down the rabbit hole a bit I feel there’s a lot of gray between what’s legal and what’s done in practice and I didn’t have anyone who could help me navigate those waters.

There’s big shops opening up in Guadalajara and some other areas and larger companies can weather these issues better then I could with a small team of about 10. But if you’re a smaller startup or services provider I’d be very wary of getting in too deep in Mexico at this point.

The one big loophole is to basically hire an agency in MX and pay a premium for devs but don’t take on any of the labor risk.

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#35

Post by danmaz74 »

ethbr0 wrote: post #27
danmaz74 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stayed in London for three years, then moved back to Italy because with the pandemic I had gone to the office only twice in 18 months, and because my wife and daughter didn't like London a lot; I was able to keep my job as a hands on team leader (Rails+React) with the same company I was working for. Now I'm looking for a new job, from Italy, and I'm finding that it's much more difficult to do that when you're alrea…

Is that a Brexit thing? Know there's been a lot of shuffle in regulations on the UK side, along with some as-yet-to-be-defined regulations, so I'd hazard it's UK companies hedging their risk by saying "We just don't want to deal with global-remote until we get regulatory clarity."

I'm not sure; that could be a reason for this. I've got a personal company so I can be paid B2B, which is very simple, but probably this could create some uncertainty and doubt, and could be a good reason not to take risks.

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#36

Post by foobarian »

huevosabio wrote: post #33

I can speak for Mexico. We have so much going for it. 1. A robust manufacturing economy (unlike the rest of LATAM) right on the border with the #1 consumer. 2. A culture that is easy to digest for Americans and Europeans alike. 3. People that are welcoming of foreigners, and used to them thanks to decades of tourism. 4. A relatively educated and increasingly educated population. 5. A very comprehensive free trade agr…

What is the situation with cartels? I like the idea of Mexico but tbf I'm terrified of even visiting for tourism because of the shooting/kidnapping stories. For example for the '24 eclipse I'm just sticking to Texas

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#38

Post by gloryjulio »

foobarian wrote: post #36
huevosabio wrote: post #33

I can speak for Mexico. We have so much going for it. 1. A robust manufacturing economy (unlike the rest of LATAM) right on the border with the #1 consumer. 2. A culture that is easy to digest for Americans and Europeans alike. 3. People that are welcoming of foreigners, and used to them thanks to decades of tourism. 4. A relatively educated and increasingly educated population. 5. A very comprehensive free trade agr…

What is the situation with cartels? I like the idea of Mexico but tbf I'm terrified of even visiting for tourism because of the shooting/kidnapping stories. For example for the '24 eclipse I'm just sticking to Texas

Interested in this too. Hope op replies

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#39

Post by commandlinefan »

nisegami wrote: post #7

I really hope this takes off, it would be a huge deal for my country and me personally.

As an American dev who speaks pretty good Spanish, I kind of hope so too. Maybe I'll get a couple of free trips down to south america ;)

Re: ‘Nearshoring’ Push Is Fueling Tech Job Demand in Latin America

#40

Post by MPlus88 »

TexanFeller wrote: post #2

This 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.

[dead]
Post reply on HN