Ask HN: What do we, Indian remote workers, have to do?

Hi,

I understand your pain. Things you could (not must) do:

- have many recommendations on your LinkedIn profile from previous startups CEO you worked for (a portfolio is great, but I also want proof that things went smootly)

- show me that you are a long term contributor to an open source project (I know that many startups are afraid that you are gonna close skype and never "show up" again, I think that could reassure them)

- show me that you have a reputation online (twitter/stackoverflow/HN) if you are an authority I will not be skeptical

- dont be (too) cheap. cheap = low quality

That's my PoV, and again it's things you could do not must do. You shouldnt need to prove anything more than a US remote worker (in a perfect world).

These are awesome recommendations. Get recommendations from anyone you've worked with, on LinkedIn.

People hate this word, but I will say it anyway, you need to have a brand of your own. Create a presence online (via Linkedin, Github, your own blog etc) with a distinct identity that projects your capabilities. Absent this, people will do the easy thing, which is, generalizing and stereotyping you as just another developer from India or whatever country you come from.

I have a much different suggestion that most. Connect with a local group that is already doing work for a start up or major company. Building relationships is far more valuable in my mind then anything else you can do. While having a killer portfolio is good, just like resumes often times porfolios are not as authentic as one would have you believe. Quality relationships that can give you referrals or references are by far the most valuable thing you can develop.

I worked for a large company here in the states that outsourced all of their development to India, we had about 100 full time developers on staff. That team no longer exists however whenever I need to outsource I go to the relationships I established from that team to either contract directly with them or get recommendations from them.

It might not be what you want in the short term, however it is a great way to make connections and reduce the barrier to entry for you.

In my mind the barrier to entry for most startups is time and to a certain extent money. I know I cannot afford to take flyers on developers who I don't have confidence will deliver for me on time and on budget and what is worse if someone fails to deliver not only am I late but I am also out anything I may have paid for the work.

I hope this advice assists you in some way.

Your problem is not unique to Indian software contractors.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of profiteering opportunists who will cut and paste code from programming sites and pass it of as their work. Some of the work I've seen wasn't even worth the low rate paid for it. So your key strategy is to rise above that swamp. Bidding for work on some outsourcing site is probably always going to be an uphill battle.

I think that you need to specialize, in an area that really interests you. You'd research the forums in that area and contribute to them. Find open source projects in your area. I would even go as far as to suggest doing a masters degree part-time in that same field. After a while, you start noticing the same people and companies popping up in multiple places. You build contacts with them. You build up a profile of the sorts of companies that do stuff in your area and then you actively seek out others like them.

Yes, as many others have said, you are a brand and that requires persistent marketing and selling activities. When you work for a company, then others fulfill that role. But it still needs to be done in order to succeed.

My opinions are known on occasion to be wrong, but ...

You've been given several items of good advice here, none of which is easy, all of which are (as far as I can see) right.

You need to create a "presence" on the web. You need a portfolio of work, writing and comments. You haven't submitted to HN often, but many, many of your submissions have got excellent upvotes. Your comments score less well, showing that you're not adding as much value through them, but that's not surprising.

Work on writing well.

But more importantly, contribute to projects.

Become known.

Then you're not simply a programmer from a country that supplies cheap programming. You're an individual, and you can take on specific tasks, not as an out-sourcer, but as a remote-working contractor.

SingAlong,

I have been working with remote workers from India for 20 years. I have not had a single experience compelling me to do so again, since 2000. The choice over the last decade hasn't been mine, but often the result of having to help US corporations solve performance and scalability issues, in conjunction with their on/off shore partners.

I could complain about how various companies from India and how US companies utilizing them have caused terrible harm (both to me and others directly) by a mix of negligent and non-professional behavior, but it has happened to a degree where the feelings have become generalized and deeply and sometimes even actively belligerent towards individuals.

You've received some excellent advice from bjonathan, but I'd also like to encourage you to provide a personalized blog. Include pictures or video about yourself.

Assume that half the resistance to working with you is going to be the dreaded "language barrier". If you can't provide directly transparent and creditable links to your work and references on LinkedIn, I suspect you'll have a very hard time obtaining meaningful work as an individual.

Keep in mind, however, that you're just out of school. You're going to need to do the same thing any other engineer will anywhere else in the world. Mature, gain work experience, demonstrate value, etc.

Off topic:

I've always thought that the top talent in India either:

a) left to a G8 type country

or

b) worked at an Indian start-up, that will in times to come, be better placed to understand hyper-scaling than those working soley in the US market.

So why not b? :-P

As a person who has twice tried to hire remote/foreign workers, it boils down to this (for me): when I'm looking at markets, how do I differentiate you from the rest?

I've had 2 mediocre/bad experiences, trying to piece out some component work for my startup. Both didn't go well. I thought I had picked the best of the available applications, but in the end, I was unable to distinguish them from each other, so I semi-randomly selected.

If you can figure out how to differentiate (both yourself, as well as a more general solution), I believe you will have solved a major problem in the industry.

Stereotyping the indian workers (from India. not the ones from overseas who have very different attitudes):

Love what you do. Enough that you have a portfolio of cool OSS shit I can check out. Enough that you read HN or your favorite Node/Django/Rails sites in your spare time.