I'm from a country you've probably never heard of, and I work in companies from the US, how?

This title sounds super clickbait, right? 😂

Hello there, my name is Nico, I'm a software engineer from Paraguay, and since 2021 I've been working fully remote for companies in LATAM, Europe and US.

Yeah, great for me, right? But why am I writing this? Well, in case you are from a country like mine and you want to start doing this, I just wanted to give you some quick advice on how to make it happen.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is all based on my own experience, I don't think there is a magic formula for this, just read this kind of stuff and maybe you can come to your own conclusion.

Learn English

First thing first, super duper important. If you're a developer and you don't know English, please make this your number one priority, no React, no Rust, no nothing, first thing, English.

A little of experience

I would say that you need at least a few years of experience before applying to international companies (maybe not, it's just my perception).

Why is that? There is a big market for junior developers, and I think companies will take their chances with someone from their own country/city for this type of positions (just a theory).

Prepare a good resume

Don't do anything fancy with colors and weird fonts or anything like that, something simple and readable. Why? Well, two main reasons, there are platforms that read and analyze your resume before getting to a real person, and if this algorithm cannot read your resume, it is probably not getting to a real person.

And if it came to a real person, imagine that this person already read 100 resume before yours, so you need to give her your information in the cleanest way possible.

Learn algorithms

Not all interview processes use this method, but either way, it is a good idea to start practicing basic algorithms. There are a ton of sites that can help you with this, my personal favorite is LeetCode.

This is not only good for interviews, it can help you improve your skills as a developer, so it may be a good idea.

Know the basics.

In most interviews, you will be asked about the basics. In my case it was javascript, so everyone asked about asyncronous operations, event loops, ecma6, scopes, etc.

In most interviews you will be asked about the basics.

In my case, it was javascript, so everyone asked about async operations, event loops, ecma6, scopes, etc.

Take the time to learn the basics of the tech stack you have. If you want a job as a React developer, learn Javascript. If you want a job doing Laravel, learn PHP.

Like the point before, this is not only for interviews, it can help you improve your knowledge and skills as a programmer.

Apply for every job you can.

Yeah, that sounds too easy, right? But yes, there's no secret here. You're going to send your resume to 100 people, and 99 of them will reject you, but trust me, at least one will be interested in meeting you, and that's your moment to shine.

Yeah, that sounds too obvious, right? But yes, there's no mystery here. You're going to send your resume to 100 people, and 99 of them will reject you, but trust me, at least one will be interested in meeting you, and that's your moment to shine.

It's a really hard road and you'll probably have to deal with a lot of frustration, but I assure you, it's worth it.

Thanks for reading this and I really hope that any of this advice can help you, working remotely changed my life and I hope can do that for you too :)