
Are US companies afraid of hiring contractors from Eastern Europe? - robsun
Hi,<p>Are US companies afraid of hiring contractors from Eastern Europe?<p>I&#x27;m a dev from Poland with 8 years of commercial experience. I worked for US companies, visited the US a couple of times. I am a skilled developer and I rarely see my CV is rejected by recruiters - I had an opportunity to work on some cool stuff that draws people attention.<p>I noticed companies that are looking for remote devs are not interested in inviting me for an interview. I assumed the problem is my CV, experience or skills I possess. A few days ago I spoke with a less experienced friend from Germany I worked with and he said he has no problems at all with getting into the first interview.<p>I started to wonder, maybe it is not me but the place where I live?
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alexmingoia
I don’t know the answer to your question, but my advice would be to seek out
US companies that already hire from Eastern Europe. I know Sentry has a team
in Romania for example.

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docflabby
At the moment remote jobs are very competitive, you're likely running up
against local competition within the US especially given all the layoffs
there...

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giantg2
My company has hired eastern European contractors for at least one system.
They are on-site. Our remote contractors are all in India.

A lot of times companies sign contracts to be exclusive with one remote shop.
For example, my company can only source remote engineers from one company in
India. We still have the option to bring in on-site contractors from other
companies.

It's my understanding that the cost of labor is cheaper in India than in
Europe, which is why companies like mine opt for resources there. After all,
the reason they outsource is to reduce cost, so they will go with the cheapest
option that can meet their needs.

As long as you aren't looking for remote work, you should e fine. If you are
looking for remote work, you would have better results going through a local
contracting shop. Security is a big thing with most companies, so they would
rather contract with one shop than with many individuals.

This is all from the perspective of my US based company. Others may be
different.

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CraigJPerry
I can only share my perspective but eastern europeans are viewed highly
favourably in my circles (hiring manager for who knows how many roles over the
past 15 years in fintech / banking).

There’s an enviable reputation for hard work, high quality and beneficial
labour cost discounts vs other european countries.

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MAMAMassakali
Same goes for Indian developers. Always faced rejection for full remote as
well as visa sponsored positions. Maybe Indian tech service companies have
made our reputation so bad that even good developers get neglected.

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robinnift
Good point. Well, its high time we Indians collaborate and create product
companies. I am open for ideas and collaboration.

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MAMAMassakali
Sure, lets get in touch.

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kasey_junk
I’ve worked on many projects with contractors from Eastern Europe, probably
the majority of the non-US contracting firms I’ve worked with over my career.

I will say that recently the trend seems to be South American firms. They have
the advantage of being in similar timezones.

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LockAndLol
Just out of curiosity, (assuming you live in Europe) are you looking in Europe
as well? If you're not getting responses from European companies then there's
something else that's going on.

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robsun
No problems with European openings.

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codegeek
Funny that I just created a post just yesterday asking about developers from
Poland and Ukraine. What are you requirements ? I am happy to connect. Contact
info. in profile.

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zkirill
How do you advertise yourself or how can companies find you? I'm asking
because I found Eastern Europe to be surprisingly underrepresented on the
hiring websites that I use.

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robsun
Well I don't advertise myself at all. I am searching for companies that are
hiring remote employees and they don't have requirement to be located in US.
I'm using remoteok.io, jobs posted on hackernews, some combination of googling
and friends' recommendtions.

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brudgers
Any job you see posted on the internet is seen by many many other people
around the world. It probably attracts thousands of resumes. This means most
of the 'hiring' process is finding ways to reject resumes quickly to make the
numbers manageable. Suppose there are 1000 applicants and 100 of them meet the
requirements. Ten of them get phone screens. Three get an on-site. One gets
hired. 1000 applicants is optimistic. It is probably several times.
Particularly for a job listed at an aggregator. If it's easy for you to see a
job, it is easy for thousands of other people.

