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Ask NH: Would you hire a person from overseas to work for your start-up?

3 points by ifesdjeen ↗ HN
It seems that the most of product development (not all of it, that's for certain), that involved ruby / python web development is going on in US, UK, and EU. The rest of Eurasia seems to be more involved in outsourcing / support or enterprise development. Rare Public web cases (comparing to the counties stated above).

Question is as simple as follows: would you agree to hire a person, who can speak your language (even though it's not native for him), for remote job? Or will it stop you, so you'd rather find someone closer to your area for that matter?

Thanks in advance

3 comments

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all
Absolutely, no question. Bad developers can be found anywhere. Any good company will tell you that good employees are worth traversing the world to find, wherever they are.
spooneybarger
As long as timezone issues don't crop up, I would have no problem hiring someone outside the US. I've done it before and it has worked out well.
exline
I've had mixed experiences with remote developers (across the us and offshore.) I think the biggest issue is the quality of the developer. I tend to like local developers only because I can meet face to face to get to know them. I think this helps build a stronger working relationship. If I had 2 candidates that were equal in skill level and cost, I would choose the local one. But if a overseas candidate was a better developer, then they would get the job.

I believe the difficult part will be making your presence known to companies looking to hire you. I prefer to hire developers through recommendations because you are less likely to end up hiring the wrong person.