Overseas clients: a work in progress
I started my journey as a professional software developer not too long ago, after a yet-to-be-finished degree in computer science (which thankfully isn’t the topic for today ;)), when I decided that I should be diving into the industry if I wasn’t to pursue anything research related (something I briefly considered during my college years).
This decision was somewhat helped by the fact that Snappler was offering a summer training camp of sorts on Ruby on Rails, which was a language and a framework I loved (and still do, of course), so I jumped right in.
During my interviews with the team, I basically boasted about my ability to speak English and they just… took my word for it! As soon as I started at the company and ever since (close to a year and a half), I was offered every chance to work with overseas clients, mainly from the US, basically because they trust me and my communication skills with potential clients.
To this day I have worked for two clients from the US, currently having full-time dedication to a company called Metova headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee with offices spanning all the way to Guadalajara.
Down to brass tacks
How would I describe the experience? By having the language barrier out of the way, it’s pretty much the same as any other project. One would think the culture would be an issue, but the fact that we pretty much share the same values both being “western” countries, along with the fact that we already absorb much of the “American” culture without being aware of it, it pretty much becomes transparent.
I’d say the thing that impacts me the most is the fact that, working for a bigger company, there are a lot of processes in place that one needs to integrate. Some examples being the development process itself, what’s expected of you as a professional developer, in terms of your workflow and how you communicate to both your coworkers and, in some instances, the client; along with the tools used to support development, like the efficient use of JIRA, weekly reports to clients, deploying to different environments using Jenkins, updating documentation when you transition out of a project, just to name a few. All of this might or might not be tied to the culture in tech companies across the United States, so again, not necessarily different to what you might experience working for a local company.
Nail biting begins
Some other things to note: yes, sometimes I fear people might not understand what I’m saying. The idea of expressing ideas to natives in my non-native language seems crazy at times, but I also feel they’re used to the idea of everyone else in the world speaking English as a second language, so it’s not as awkward as it can definitely be!
Also, somewhat related to this, is the fact that at some point or another you might have a call with the CEO, CTO or any of the other big C’s, which can be intimidating at first until you remember they’re people like the rest of us! ;)
Why do I care? How is this useful?
Something else I’d like to add, perhaps more on a personal level, it’s that this can be framed in the context of bringing something else to the table other than your skills as a developer, this being your proficiency in a different language. This offers the possibility of both advancing my career and exposing Snappler to a new set of clients, which will allow for a more competitive status in the tech world, which in turn obviously benefits me and my coworkers.
The idea of having another skill other than what’s required for your daily job of course applies to any field of work, which is something I recommend exploring for yourself. Maybe there’s something you have as a hobby that could also apply and be useful to your job! Plus, you’ll have an edge over other candidates for a job post or a promotion!
