Offshoring and Latin American Developers - David Hemmat


For this episode of Ruby Rogues we have Jason Sweat and Brian Hogan for our panel along with Charles Max Wood and a special guest, David Hemmat from BlueCoding.com. David and the Blue Coding team work to connect developer talent to businesses in need through a thorough process of vetting as well as a database collection of potential developers. Check out this episode to learn more!

How did you get started?

1:34

David talks about going to school in the Dominican Republic worked locally, but later found work with US companies. He also set up a friend with a US job and they realized that there may be a demand as someone to bridge the gap. Developers did not have the access or a way to reach opportunities aboard so he started BlueCoding.com.

About Blue Coding

2:32

BlueCoding.com has clients in the US and Canada. They focus on Latin America due to having close timezones in relation to the majority of companies that would be looking for developers. Also, Blue Coding helps in regard to bridging the cultural gap. Latin American work culture can be different that US or Canadian culture. David talks about how it’s much of a communication difference. Developers sometimes will agree to jobs they are unable to do and are timid to communicate and often just disappear. Despite this, many Latin American companies spawned from United States companies and will tend to have a similar working environment and culture as US companies.

The General Experience With Offshore Hiring

4:17

David and the panel chat about their offshore hiring experiences. David expresses that there is sometimes an issue of many developers taking on work, and then seemingly disappearing. Often times coming back with excuses or in some cases actually over committing to work and just failing to communicate properly from the start. In some cases, like with countries like Venezuela, has a less reliable environment for the developers with things like power outages.

“Not All Good Developers Are Good Freelancers.”

6:18

Freelancers tend to need a different skillset. Extra communication and need tools in place like time tracking and daily reports , etc. Companies that hire freelancers or offshore hiring in general need to have tools setup as well. David expresses that the best developers often are the ones that already have full time jobs. Blue Coding tries to help those developers find a better opportunity and has structured systems to create a workflow that works for both parties. David talks about having those tools in place for the developer including the time tracking and daily reports.

The Companies Tools.

8:33

Blue Coding will also check with the client companies to make sure they have tools as well to help both parties have a smooth workflow. Project management software for the developer to see what they should work on next.

Rates

9:04

Rates vary between $30 and $45 an hour. David tries to stay away from junior developers, looking for developers with 3–4 years working experience. Some companies pay $30 to $60. Latin American countries generally see a starting rate of $30 an hour. Asian countries can start as low as $10 an hour, but in rare cases. Some developers on the opposite side of things charge $100 an hour.

Getting Offshore Developers

10:47

Most people start with upwork.com or Freelancer.com or something like that. Lower overhead but very limited vetting. Buyout fees are very high as well on these sites. There are companies similar to Blue Coding that are staffing companies that exist. Also, direct networking. Networking directly is extremely efficient. If you have a bad work history, networking also comes into play. David talks about their biggest source for developers are other developers, reaching out to find good hires by networking through the community.

Dealing with ‘Boom and Bust.’

14:19

Freelancers tend to run into boom and bust cycles, loads of work followed by slow spells. David