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U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

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Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's saying exactly what it sounds like, that most of everything is at a very low level of quality. Historically, it was a response to the argument that science fiction was a genre that didn't deserve to have any attention paid to it, because look how awful some science fiction books were. Sturgeon's response was that most science fiction books were terrible for the same reason that most work in every other genre…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

Did you read your link?

> Sturgeon's law (or Sturgeon's revelation) is an adage stating "ninety percent of everything is crap."

> Sturgeon deemed Sturgeon's law to mean "nothing is always absolutely so" in the story "The Claustrophile" in a 1956 issue of Galaxy. The second adage, variously rendered as "ninety percent of everything is crud" or "ninety percent of everything is crap", was known as "Sturgeon's Revelation", formulated as such in his book review column for Venture in 1957. However, almost all modern uses of the term Sturgeon's law refer to the second, including the definition listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#272
post #109

The headline says "pillaging," which is a kind of stealing by force. But actually (as the less editorialized HN headline says) what the US companies are doing is hiring Latin America's tech talent, paying a fair price instead of the shitty prices Latin American companies are used to paying. Unsurprisingly these companies think of Latin American developers as their property, so they see it as "pillaging". Because I'm…

> The headline says "pillaging," which is a kind of stealing by force. But actually (as the less editorialized HN headline says) what the US companies are doing is hiring Latin America's tech talent, paying a fair price instead of the shitty prices Latin American companies are used to paying. Unsurprisingly these companies think of Latin American developers as their property, so they see it as "pillaging". Because I'…

The salary differences are smaller, in large part because the governments have taken very different policies over the last century. Latin American governments are, by and large, continuing with the policies that have been producing economic disasters throughout that century, though Argentina is among the worse cases.

Also, though, the US does have a history of actually pillaging Latin American countries. Like, with soldiers. By contrast, the last time the US invaded Europe there was a surprising lack of pillaging.

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#273

I’ve hired about 50 Latin American devs as contractors over the last six months or so and they’ve all been absolutely top notch — I will continue to aggressively hire more. Some anecdotal highlights: - great time zone overlap with US business hours - very very good English - very strong engineers who actually take ownership of the products we’re working on - leadership aspirations and drive - I’ve promoted a few folk…

Do they grind leetcode or are they so cheap you don’t care?

I hire through a contracting agency that prescreens for me. I do a short behavioral interview then hire. And I wouldn’t call them cheap, I pay many of them more than I’ve made in the US in the last 10 years

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#274
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crab-bucket mentality you talk about, at least in what the belief of business being bad respects, comes from the cultural influence of Catholicism, and it’s pervasive in all LA. I’d dare to say it can be found in Spain/Portugal as well.

I think it comes from the cultural influence of Spain, not Catholicism. I don't see it in Ireland or Switzerland, and not much in France, though they all have large Catholic populations. More generally, I think it comes from the cultural influence of feudalism. Catholicism teaches that wrath, covetousness, and envy are mortal sins, and strongly endorses property rights. Rallying people to confiscate their neighbor's…

You're probably right that it doesn't come from Catholicism, but it still can be based on it. I.e. be explained by it, used as a motivation for the said behaviour. Religions are quite malleable, Christianity (in general) is no different. Full of contradictions that open the possibilities of quite different interpretations by emphasizing one or the other of the contradicting pieces of informations.

So while what you say sounds right, at the same time Jesus talked a lot about social justice and how one should help the poor and also, famously how the rich man has less of a chance to get to the kingdom of god than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. (Which, AFAIK, he said to a rich men when he was reluctant to give away his wealth to the poor in a bet to live a life that leads him to the heaven.)

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#275
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it comes from the cultural influence of Spain, not Catholicism. I don't see it in Ireland or Switzerland, and not much in France, though they all have large Catholic populations. More generally, I think it comes from the cultural influence of feudalism. Catholicism teaches that wrath, covetousness, and envy are mortal sins, and strongly endorses property rights. Rallying people to confiscate their neighbor's…

Catholicism endorses a peculiar idea of social justice founded on commutative justice , viz. paying the pre-determined "just" or "fair" price as opposed to whatever most efficient price might be set by the market - far more strongly than it might endorse property rights. Property rights are really only acknowledged to the extent that they might tend to preserve a rigid, authoritarian social order. There is, by and la…

It's true that commutative justice is important to the Catholic conception of social justice, but I don't think the rest of your paragraph is generally true of Catholics.

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#276
post #24

How can I help my company recruit better in Latin America? Is an outside agency the only way?

You can try and directly approach people from LATAM. Find workers from great local tech companies and send them messages through LinkedIn

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#277
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Catholicism endorses a peculiar idea of social justice founded on commutative justice , viz. paying the pre-determined "just" or "fair" price as opposed to whatever most efficient price might be set by the market - far more strongly than it might endorse property rights. Property rights are really only acknowledged to the extent that they might tend to preserve a rigid, authoritarian social order. There is, by and la…

> Catholicism endorses a peculiar idea of social justice founded on commutative justice, viz. paying the pre-determined "just" or "fair" price as opposed to whatever most efficient price might be set by the market - far more strongly than it might endorse property rights. Property rights are really only acknowledged to the extent that they might tend to preserve a rigid, authoritarian social order. As a Catholic, thi…

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justp... says:

d. Justice

201. Justice is a value that accompanies the exercise of the corresponding cardinal moral virtue[441]. According to its most classic formulation, it “consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbour”[442]. From a subjective point of view, justice is translated into behaviour that is based on the will to recognize the other as a person, while, from an objective point of view, it constitutes the decisive criteria of morality in the intersubjective and social sphere[443].

The Church's social Magisterium constantly calls for the most classical forms of justice to be respected: commutative, distributive and legal justice[444]. Ever greater importance has been given to social justice[445], which represents a real development in general justice, the justice that regulates social relationships according to the criterion of observance of the law. Social justice, a requirement related to the social question which today is worldwide in scope, concerns the social, political and economic aspects and, above all, the structural dimension of problems and their respective solutions[446].

202. Justice is particularly important in the present-day context, where the individual value of the person, his dignity and his rights — despite proclaimed intentions — are seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to make exclusive use of criteria of utility and ownership. Justice too, on the basis of these criteria, is considered in a reductionist manner, whereas it acquires a fuller and more authentic meaning in Christian anthropology. Justice, in fact, is not merely a simple human convention, because what is “just” is not first determined by the law but by the profound identity of the human being[447].

203. The full truth about man makes it possible to move beyond a contractualistic vision of justice, which is a reductionist vision, and to open up also for justice the new horizon of solidarity and love. “By itself, justice is not enough. Indeed, it can even betray itself, unless it is open to that deeper power which is love”[448]. In fact, the Church's social doctrine places alongside the value of justice that of solidarity, in that it is the privileged way of peace. If peace is the fruit of justice, “today one could say, with the same exactness and the same power of biblical inspiration (cf. Is 32:17; Jas 3:18): Opus solidaritatis pax, peace as the fruit of solidarity”[449]. The goal of peace, in fact, “will certainly be achieved through the putting into effect of social and international justice, but also through the practice of the virtues which favour togetherness, and which teach us to live in unity, so as to build in unity, by giving and receiving, a new society and a better world”[450].

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#278
post #183

Id love to hire some Latin American developers for my team. Any pointers on how to find them? Do folks go through outsourcing firms or try to directly hire folks?

There are a few agencies nowadays that are providing these services. You can also find people on LinkedIn (search for people who are working in fast growing tech companies or have graduated from top colleges)

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#279

I’ve been hiring engineers from pretty much any country for the better part of a decade. It still blows my mind that companies are just figuring this out now. It’s not just contractors either. With tools like remote.com, you can hire FTEs almost anywhere. There is no labor shortage. There’s a shortage of adaptable companies. I’ve been preaching this for years, but the new way is here. It’s all about async, 100% remot…

But why do all these companies have to be in america? One often hears about companies hiring remotely, but hardly ever establishing remotely.

Well, I guess most of these have been in existence for a while. Also, as an American founder, why would you establish it anywhere but there? The idea is that you make money there (or make money globally, which is still easier starting from there) and hire remotely. Which is going to be cheaper. Or you get better talent for the same salary, which is another way to put it. So the company being from a developed market (could be Western Europe too) is an important part of the equation.

Re: U.S. companies are hiring Latin America’s tech talent

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can pay them as independent contractors. They have to sign a W-8 BEN and you can make payments via Wise. If you see that you are hiring a relatively large team from the same country, then at some point you can open a local subsidiary (cost center) and employ them via the local entity. The way to do this has been the same - most US companies became open to this after 2020.

The question was about Venezuela because of the sanctions. It’s not just any country that works with Wise Venezuela is banned on wise and many/most banking apps. https://wise.com/help/articles/2978049/which-countries-can-i...

Ah yes, sorry, didn't catch that.
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