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In response to the rise of global hiring and the Great Resignation still going on, US-based companies frequently choose nearshore project development outsourcing. Countries located in the same time zone as a US company’s state or those with a convenient time zone overlap look most attractive for American business owners. Mexico is one of the destinations they consider frequently.
Being one of the leading countries in business process outsourcing (BPO) volumes globally, Mexico has everything companies look for when choosing an outsourcing destination. The country stands out with its wide talent pool, stable political and economical environment, favorable business climate, short traveling time from some US cities, and competitive cost to hire software developers. Still, these aren’t all the reasons why nearshore software development in Mexico is worth trying in 2023. Let’s discover them now.
Tech Industry in Mexico – Is This Destination Right For Your Project Outsourcing
Why do US companies choose Mexico for nearshoring?
Nearshoring software development to Latin America is already a well-trodden path for US companies. But among several LATAM destinations to choose from, such as Colombia, Argentina, or Chile, Mexico still remains the most promising for many businesses. Below are just some of the benefits that make this country stand out on the global software development outsourcing map.
- Wide talent pool. There are 225,000 software developers in Mexico, and this is the second-largest talent pool in Latin America. Mexican developers have 91% cloud development and 86% web development proficiency level according to Coursera Global Skills Report 2022 and 436 IPI (English Proficiency Index). That’s why here you can find people with strong and diverse skillets while facing a language barrier is pretty unlikely.
- Stable economy and growing ICT sector. Mexico is ranked 60 among 190 economies in the “ease of doing business” rating. It is also a politically stable country with a low business climate risk rate. Mexico’s IT outsourcing industry has been growing at an annual rate of 10%-15%. This country is also ranked 1st among US trade partners.
- Competitive cost to hire software developers in Mexico. The cost to hire a Junior software developer in this country is around $900 per month. A mid-level specialist earns nearly $2000, and a Senior engineer’s salary is $3000 per month on average. For comparison, the cost to hire programmers of the same qualification is two-three times higher in the USA.
- Convenient time zone overlap and short travel distance. Mexico’s time zone (UTC-5) conveniently overlaps with the time zones of Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, and Arkansas. It takes little more than 3 hours to get from Los Angeles (CA) to Mexico. That’s why hiring software engineers in this country means having no issues with long travel time but getting all the benefits of having your team nearby.
- Cultural alignment and proximity. Nearshore software development in Mexico is a great option for companies that want to keep their costs down while still maintaining cultural alignment between their remote developers and an in-house team, especially the ones located in the US. Mexican business values are very similar to American ones and Mexican developers are considered hard-working, dedicated, and responsible.
How to hire nearshore software developers in Mexico – tips and expert practices
Hiring nearshore software developers in Mexico is a great way to save time and money while still having qualified talent on board. But it’s not always seamless, especially if you don’t know where to start. Here are some tips and expert practices for hiring nearshore software developers that will help you build a successful project.
Plan and strategize
Before you start building a remote development team in Mexico, make sure you have a clear plan in place. Below are several necessary steps to take.
- Define your requirements. First thing first, you need to have an idea of what kind of software developer you’re looking for. This will help you narrow down your search and find someone who fits your project objectives better. So, define your requirements, specifying the technologies your developers should be skilled with, the background they should have, and their experience level.
- Plan your hiring budget and stick to it. It’s crucial to have a detailed budget for talent acquisition before starting a hiring campaign. This will help you find the middle ground between the market average, your desired cost per hire, and your potential candidates’ salary expectations. The size of the future team should be taken into account as well.
- Consider both local and global job boards. Local job boards are great for finding tech talent, so consider them if you need to hire developers from a particular Mexican city. Some of the Mexican local job boards are CompuTrabajo, OCCMundial, and Bumeran. Global job boards will give you access to a wider pool of applicants and such platforms usually feature candidates with more diverse skill sets compared to local ones.
Develop a solid communication strategy
After dealing with hiring strategy, proceed with developing a plan on how you’re going to reach out, attract, communicate, and nourish your potential hires. As for a simple yet effective idea, you can write an outreach message in two languages. As you know, Mexican developers have Spanish as their native language, so apart from English, it’s better to reach out to them in Spanish, too. As an option, write the first message in Spanish and later proceed to writing in English when there was no success.
In this way, you can show the candidates your respect for their culture and increase your chances of getting a response. This is also the approach our hiring experts follow when sourcing technical talent from a global market, which allows them to communicate with international candidates more efficiently.
How to Communicate With IT Candidates From Different Countries
Research Mexican culture
As mentioned, the Mexican business culture shares a lot of values close to the American one. Still, it has its specifics you have to research before nearshoring your software development to this country. For example, Mexican people respect hierarchy in every sphere. They are unlikely to argue with the decisions made by the executives or suggest an alternative approach at every development stage, so don’t expect your Junior developers to make very independent decisions too.
Mexicans also do business with those they trust, so establishing a personal connection is important when hiring software engineers in this country. They also respect religious holidays such as pre-Lenten Carnaval, Easter, and Christmas. Some of them are public holidays so Mexicans working for foreign companies expect to have days off on these and some other holidays.
8 Questions to a Mexican Tech Talent Recruiter You’ve Always Wanted to Ask (But Didn’t Dare)
Adjust your management style
You will also have to adjust your management style a little when hiring a development team in Mexico, paying special attention to the ways Mexicans treat timings and deadlines. For Mexicans, deadlines and matters connected with time are usually important, but also something they can treat more lightly when compared to their American colleagues. For instance, arriving for a meeting 15 to 20 minutes later than appointed is normal in this country. But it needs to be mentioned that software developers that have worked with US companies previously have already learned the rule of being on time and mostly stick to it.
As for setting the deadlines, you should also keep in mind that the date set for task completion will also be treated as an approximate target point. However, the possible delay will still be reasonable, and here is where Mexican developers can win – by taking a little more time to complete the task, they deliver add-on value.
Discover Mexican labor market trends
Last but not least, you have to keep the Mexican labor market trends in mind. This way, you will be able to adjust your hiring strategy accordingly, set realistic objectives and meet the expectations of local software developers. For instance, according to Mexico Business News Labor Marker Trends 2023 report, Mexican employees prioritize career development opportunities and wellness benefits. The pay scale is also very important for them. In 2023, 67% of the local workforce expects a salary rise, and software developers are among those to ask for higher pay first.
How to Attract Tech Talent: What Matters Most to Software Developers?
The Great Resignation trend is also relevant for the Mexican labor market. 60% of Mexican employees plan to change their job in the first quartile of 2023. Such global labor trends as tech talent shortage, tough competition for the best technical minds, and too slow or too costly hiring process are other ones you can’t ignore. In response to them and with the goal to help you hire top-tier Mexican developers, Bridge has developed a one-stop tech talent sourcing solution you are welcome to discover.
Hire Mexican developers with Bridge
At Bridge, we know that discovering new locations to build a remote development team may feel frustrating for business owners, especially if they don’t know the specifics of the local talent market and have no hiring expertise in-house. If this sounds familiar to you, we would like to introduce our sourcing-as-a-service which offers an innovative approach to tech-enabled hiring worldwide. With the help of our proprietary data engine, we can shortlist the top-notch technical candidates located in Mexico, filter them by the skills and competencies you need, and get in touch with the most relevant ones.
Additionally, our local recruiters speak the same language as candidates and understand their cultural background. They pre-screen and shortlist applicants manually, validate their interest, match their salary expectations with your budget, and add them to your hiring pipeline. The only task you have to do at this point is to interview the most appealing candidates and proceed with onboarding your new hires.
Build a full-cycle development team in Mexico five times faster and 60% cheaper with Bridge. Contact us now to get started!
