Living in Argentina, working for Venmo
How I did it #3
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Hoy hablamos con Juan Sanzone, un Porteño que trabaja remotamente para Venmo. Puedes conectarte con él por Twitter, Linkedin, y también tiene un podcast en Spotify. La charla fue en español pero lo escribi en ingles.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
My name is Juan. I’m from Buenos Aires, born and raised. I’m currently a Senior iOS Engineer at Venmo. I work remotely from Argentina.
What is your background and how did you get into programming?
I had no early exposure to technology. My family got a computer when I was in my early teens, but there was no Internet connection. Just DOS. I was lucky because in High School I had a teacher who saw that I had an interest in programming and he helped me. I had books on programming and I would build small programs, nothing special. My high school was focused on Economics which I hated. I finally got to do what I loved in university. I went to Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, a public university in Argentina.
How did your career start?
I actually started in a call center, doing helpdesk calls for people who couldn’t get their internet to work. There was no actual programming in that job, so I found another job working in Powerbuilder, a language from Sybase. I finally moved to web development at Telecom Argentina - I was working in ASP.NET.
How did you always keep moving up to more interesting jobs?
I tried to keep an eye out for programming languages that were emerging. At the time, PHP was becoming more popular, so I moved to a consulting firm and worked for an American company called MovieCity, an early streaming company. I got to work in PHP there and also at Globant where I worked on Disney Resorts. There again, I saw that Javascript was being used throughout the stack, and saw an opportunity. I did some JS at Globant, but moved again to a company called Fansworld (another streaming service) and got to work in JS.
At the time, mobile development and apps were emerging, and being an Apple Fanboy I decided that this would be another good career opportunity. I started by just freelancing and building apps in iOS, but then got an offer with OLX (the large media company) who needed iOS developers and had originally been built in PHP. So I could leverage my past experience. OLX was my real training in iOS. It was there that I really acquired a professional level in the language.
I had applied to MercadoLibre twice before, and had always been rejected. However, they needed someone with iOS experience and seniority - and so hired me at my third attempt.
MercadoLibre was a great experience. I got to work on QLR payments, mobile banking, and had a lot of ownership.
Why did you move to a US company remotely?
A few reasons. I wanted to work remotely, it was better for my work/life balance. I did not want to work as a manager, and the growth path at MercadoLibre was via management. I was not interested in more meetings and 1-1s! And I felt that working for a well respected US tech company would boost my career and help me improve my English.
I applied to some placed I was not so interested at first (🤫) so I could get some practice. Venmo was an obvious fit for me since I had a lot of experience in fintech.
How did you learn English?
English was always a huge challenge for me. I went to a non-bilingual high school in Argentina, with 4 hours of “Argentina level” English per week. I was not going to learn much there. Joining Globant helped me because the client was American and I had to speak. While at MercadoLibre (all Spanish speaking) I took some lessons with a teacher via Skype. I wouldn’t say my English is great, but it's passable. My main piece of advice is to practice.
How is the interview process different in the US vs LatAm?
I found that in Argentina at least, people sort of assumed you have a decent technical level if you are coming from a well known company. They don’t go as deep in the technical part of the interview. In the US, it's another story. No matter what company you are interviewing for, you’ll always go pretty deep in the technical portion of the interview. In reality, it's not a bad thing - it makes sure everyone is at a certain level. But you need to prepare yourself differently.
What tips would you have for somebody who is 10 years behind where you are?
Specialize. There are lots of languages out there, many more than when I started. You should find one language and become an expert in that. It doesn't really matter which one, and you can change later. But it's important to be identified as a specialist in something.
Find a mentor. It could be a friend, ex-colleague, a client, but the most important part is for them to have your back and point out things you should be doing. Read this, learn that. It's hard out there when you are starting, especially when you are an outsider in LatAm trying to make it with international companies.
Assume you will fail most interviews, and plan accordingly. Interviewing is so different from the actual job, so you need to practice. You will most likely fail at many technical interviews. Don’t let that demoralize you. I also recommend you practice at companies you don’t really like, so that you are well trained when it is time to interview at your favorite company.
Work in an agency. If your English level is not up to par, consider joining an agency. They usually are more accepting of a lower level, and you’ll get to work with US clients (usually) which will expose you to more learning opportunities. The salary is lower, but consider it an investment.
Be self-directed and curious. Do personal projects of all types. Do you want to be an iOS engineer? Put something up in the AppStore. Who cares if only a few people download it? I always had my eye out for new technologies, and so moved from ASP.NET to PHP to JS to iOS. You should do the same.
Make sure to check out Juan’s podcast, TechBros, on Spotify! Here is an episode I’m sure you’ll like.
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