
Ask HN: If you had to pick one of these Locations to hire remotely from? - hichamin
As a Non-U.S. Remote Company, which of those 3 countries you&#x27;ve seen most success with and you would recommend to hire from for our software openings and why (cons, pros)?<p>1. U.S. (Limited to Texas &amp; Boston)
2. Spain 
3. Argentina<p>Would really appreciate your help.
======
bluGill
What timezone are you in, what is your native language, and what is your
culture? In that order.

In my experience those are the biggest factors.

I find it hard to work with India because they are about 12 hours different
from me, thus we are never in the office at the same time unless someone makes
an effort to come in when they are normally sleeping. Working with Germany is
almost as bad, we only get a couple hours in the early morning (our time) when
we can catch them in the office.

When you share a native language communication is easier. (though be careful
every once in a while some expression takes a different meaning in different
countries). One of the best ways to get around this is set an office language
and only hire people who know it (this might mean making all your people learn
a different language)

I haven't worked with Argentina, and only minimally with Spain (meaning I
might be wrong), but my understanding of both countries is their culture
doesn't really understand time. In the US if someone says 9am they mean 9am
and 9:05 will make them mad. In Spain/Argentina 9am might stretch as late as
10:30am and nobody cares. When the two cultures meet there is friction because
of this. There are many other variations of problems where culture will cause
two people to think the other is an idiot. It is worth learning something
about the other culture.

Beyond that, my experience is you will find good and bad people in every
country. Even if you could state that one is better than the other, you can
find enough great people in the others as to not make a difference - if you
are willing to search hard enough.

What I have found most helpful is airplanes. Every few months someone flying
to visit the people on the other team is very helpful. When face to face you
realize the other person is smart, not an idiot who can barely program (it is
surprising how often this is assumed). Also when working next to the other
person you see things they are doing that they are doing "because nothing else
works" when there is a better way (or sometimes you know your tools team needs
to fix something for the remote team).

