How I Did It

Entrevistamos un ingeniero remoto de Buzzfeed

Gracias para estar un miembro de GringoJobs, la comunidad de profesionales de la tech de LatAm que quieren aprovechar de ese gran transición al trabajo remoto.

We are starting a new series, How I Did It. Vamos a hablar con varios programadores que trabajan remotamente para grandes empresas tech. Queremos analizar cómo hicieron, qué estrategias usaron, y cómo puedes hacer lo mismo. Today we have a special guest, Paco Albarran. Share it with a friend!

---

Conversamos en Espanol, pero yo lo transcribo en Inglés

Paco Albarran is an Engineer at Buzzfeed, the media startup based in NYC. He works remotely and is based in Morelia, Michoacan. He did live in New York for a few years. 

Here is his story of building his career with a US tech startup. 

Tell me a bit about your background

I was born and raised in Morelia Michoacan. I don’t have any family who live abroad or international connections. I learned to code when I was 16, my first language was Pascal. I really liked it. I think if I hadn’t become a programmer, I would have studied exact sciences. 

How did international work get on your radar? 

I went to the local university in Morelia, which happens to be one of the best universities in Mexico for tech. In the 5th or 6th semester I had a friend who was working remotely part time for a company in Miami. He was making a lot more than even experienced engineers in Mexico. Furthermore, I was always fascinated by working in the US tech scene and silicon valley. So that is when I decided to work with foreign companies. 

What did you do after you graduated?

Right after graduation, I worked in Java with a professor from my university. But I quickly switched to working with my friend to do some consulting work for US companies. I focused more on Django. I did that for about 1 year and became more and more involved with the Django framework and community. Then I went on a job board called Django jobs and applied to around 10 US tech companies. One of them ended up getting back to me.

Tell me about that first experience

The company was called Casahop, a house exchange website based in NYC. They gave me a trial period and paid me not very well, but it gave me the opportunity to prove myself. After the trial period, they kept me as a contract worker and I stayed in Mexico. I never went to the US. 

After a while, the Casahop business was not going very well, and they shut things down. However the CEO was connected to the CEO of Buzzfeed, the well known media company. He recommended me to the Buzzfeed team and they let me interview. I passed the interview and got hired. I stayed remote and contract based. 

So then you were an employee of Buzzfeed pretty much. Tell me about that experience. 

When I got to Buzzfeed, there were 40 people in the tech team, and they were not at all remote based. I was sort of a unique case. Nowadays they are more remote-friendly, but back then it was more presencial. They were migrating their legacy platform to Django, so I was very well suited to be valuable to them. I wanted to go to live in the US, not necessarily forever but I wanted an experience. So I asked if I could transfer over and they said yes. 

I did the TN visa and moved to NYC. 

How was your experience in New York

I loved it. It was a great city. I lived in Bushwick Brooklyn and worked in Manhattan. The only bad thing was the Mexican food! :)

So why did you move back to Mexico?

Buzzfeed ended up acquiring a company called Torando Labs. The team was based in Los Angeles and I ended up working with them. I stayed in NYC and worked remotely, often staying at home or working out of coffeeshops. So I was basically working remotely already. I went to LA but did not like it. So I asked if I could move back and they said yes. 

Are you being paid like an American?

Not quite. But I still make a lot more than what a Mexican engineer of my experience makes. So it's a good deal for me. 

What is some advice you would give to somebody who is just starting the process of working internationally?

Become an expert in something. Knowing Django inside and out really helped me find my first job. Have a niche. Once you do, you can also get better at more general things like architecture. 

Make it easy for the first company to hire you. My job at Casahop was on a trial basis first, and not paid well. However, it made it easy for them to say “yes” to a younger dev from a foreign country. Once I was in I could show them that I was a great engineer. 

Make sure the company has a remote friendly culture. Otherwise, you will often be considered a second class citizen. My time on-site at Buzzfeed in NYC helped me integrate the company better and gave me more career mobility. However, many companies are becoming remote friendly now, so you might not have to move to the US.

---

Entonces que son unos de los takeaways? El primero es de meter el pie por la puerta no importa si la primer oportunidad es pequeño, porque nunca vas a saber las conexiones que una empresa tendrá y como podrías aprovechar. It’s always better to be the potato peeler at Puyol than the Head Chef at Applebees. Related to that, don’t get caught in the Golden Handcuffs.

The other main takeaway is to focus on a niche. By approaching his job via a specialized job board like Django jobs, Paco was not perceived as “just another foreign developer” who wants to work in the US. Shifting the focus gave him the opportunity to present himself in a new light. What could you do to help you do this?

---

That’s all folks! Thanks for giving me your precious time and attention. Follow me @GeorgesJanin and @GringoJobs on Twitter. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Peace and Jobs,

Georges