Time zone. For whatever reason, and not for lack of looking, there aren't really development ecosystems like India/Pakistan/Estonia/Slovakia/... in south and central america.
I’m a developer located in Latin America, I’ve worked for several clients and I know tons of companies that outsource work from here. What do you think is missing? I sincerely would like to know the perception from the other side.
Sorry for the delay. I would say it's a variety of things.
One, a lot of what makes India and Pakistan work, or Slovakia, are that there are class natives who can navigate the vetting process. This is huge and there are tons of Indians or Chinese in the valley who can fill this role but who are themselves demonstrated top-tier talent, not just people selling outsourced teams of unknown quality.
Second, English. English is simply an absolute requirement and one of the things that absolutely kills non-US teams is a lack of English skills. Chinese teams have a lot of problems here and it gets even worse elsewhere. Eastern European teams (Poland, Estonia, Solvakia, ...) tend to have competent technical leads (not salesguys) with solid english skills even if the average is zero. I deal with a ton of people who have marginal English skills, but there's a very steep ramp between Bangalore, Chennai, ... and then other options.
Third, and importantly, the populations are large enough that they can provide outsourced work at scale - I'm not talking huge numbers, I'm talking managing a team size of 30-40 people even with departures, etc.
Fourth, there's an honest question of demonstrated competence (or demonstrated good-enough mediocrity, more often than not).
Fifth, there's work culture. I know Indian, Chinese, and eastern european work culture. I know what to expect and there's basically been a selection process at work selecting outsourcing destinations based on what actually works.
I'm probably starting something in a few months. I'd much rather outsource to a common time zone with Pacific or at least eastern time. I wish I could find a way.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. It’s insightful to get to know the perspective from the other side.
If it helps, I can recommend you to take a look at https://nearsoft.com/ it’s a Mexican company, I personally know very talented people working there. They have high standards during interviews, they seem to really care about who they hire (disclaimer, I don’t work there).
Also, even though Costa Rica is a small country they have an interesting growing IT industry, if you haven’t already, you should check it out. I’ve met several great Costa Rican developers.
