I happened to be in Russia when the Who's Hiring thread showed up. I have family there, so I was entertaining the thought of possibly moving there, or maybe staying for a year or two.
However, I noticed most of the remote locations were "US-only", and even the ones in other countries were usually local to that country -- "germany only", etc.
I was wondering how many of the "US-only" ones would accept me, since I am a US Citizen, just not living in the US. Or is there some kind of tax reason they have to be US-only?
I am from Brazil, since I graduated around 2009, I never got a 100% legal job, and never got a well paying job or contract.
I keep hearing that I should move, or should work remote, I always reply: "How?"
Because most countries only allow you to move into them if you get invited or is already wealthy.
Most remote jobs I see, no matter where I look (I don't look only on HN) are US-only, or local only.
Most jobs that accept foreigners, have written on them: "Must already have H1B or Greencard"
So what I am supposed to do?
People criticize me when I complain that my yearly income has been on average about 10.000 USD, and I have to expend 2000 USD to build an "average" computer (or 4000 USD if I do it with only 100% legal parts with all taxes paid), saying that I am "stupid" for not working remote or relocating. But I am yet to see someone offer me a solution.
Even people that could hire me directly, sometimes say to me: "Oh, I loved your work, I am sure you will find work! Of course, I can't hire you, because it is against my company policy."
Pretty much this. I keep hearing how if I were in the US I'd be earning $80k minimum easy, but it's the getting there that's the hard part. As it stands, I'm barely making market salary here in New Delhi because yay startups.
A way to get experience might be to suggest that you're hired as a consultant or contractor. It's easier for the company to do, but be careful that they still treat you fairly. I know a company in the UK that does this for its remote workers.
I don't lack experience. I lack JOB. Or REAL contract.
I've been working since 2009, I have lots of projects done, plus a startup.
But most of this, is not legal, usually I had jobs pretending to be contracts (ie: it was a day job, but paid as if I was a contractor, highly illegal in my country, because the government consider this a way to avoid following labour laws... and it is exactly that), low-paying contracts that don't follow all laws correctly either, stuff paid off the books, and so on.
But I found noone, in any country, willing to hire me 100% legally with fair pay, either as employee or contractor. (I did got some offers for legal work, but the pay was always less than my student loans, and later the loans I made to pay student loans, so not worth it at all).
As the parent said, you should try jobs coming from recruiters on LinkedIn (that's where they hang out the most) US enterprise companies hire consultants through the recruiting agency. InfoSys, Tech Mahindra, DataArt, Altoros, Ness, HCL, a bunch more. They will hire you legally but usually take half of what they agree with the hiring company. Say the hiring company pays $80,000 on a contract you'd only see maybe $40,000 on your employment contract. They take cut of an undisclosed amount. These are legitimate vendors. Basically outsource. Browse LinkedIn.
Sorry, I didn't mean experience in general, I meant remote experience. But if that's been your history so far, I'm sorry that it's been difficult for you :/
It's legal. It's a huge pain in the ass to hire someone whose physical address is outside the US if your company is based in the US. Heck, it's a huge pain in the ass just to hire someone outside of a state you aren't already operating in.
Just ask the person to form a company and hire that company? I've never heard of anyone having any difficulty with this. And even if you're paying an individual you just need to get their W8-BEN or withhold 30%; it's not that difficult.
Forming a company isn't all that easy. Also, now that person has to pay their own SS and Medicare tax, or if they form a C corp, they have to file incorporation papers and tax returns and filing fees and...
Also, if I pay a person through their company like a contractor for too long, the IRS comes down on me because they assume I'm trying to skirt tax laws (and rightly so, because that's basically what you're suggesting).
It's fine if you do side gig's 1099. But if I have someone doing full time work for me where I set the wage, that's not a contractor anymore according to the IRS and they get really suspicious when your "contractor" has worked for you and only you for many years.
The levels I've heard from bigger companies I have worked for is 30%--they didn't want to provide more than 30% of my income via 1099 contracts because more than that would raise "he's not a contractor" warning signs.
On the other hand, I worked for a smaller company as a 1099 contractor and was billing up to 67% of my yearly income to them.
In both cases I set the rate and determined my time off.
Outside the US is actually easier in some respects if the person is willing to set up a company in their own country, but I suspect in many countries it is as complicated as setting one up here in the states, and I wouldn't have the expertise to help them.
I suspect a job listing that says "remote anywhere in the world as long as you set up your own corporate entity with a foreign registration in the United States" wouldn't work very well. :)
> if the person is willing to set up a company in their own country
I can't speak for other countries, but in Australia this is far simpler than most people realise.
There's a range of companies that will do all that for you. They set up and operate the company, they do payroll & taxes, they handle insurance.
When I worked remotely for a US company, I was technically a contract employee of an Australian company that existed purely to handle the contact work. I paid them something like $1-$2 per hour (that I worked) to handle all of that, including indemnity insurance, etc.
The only hard part was that the people that handled it weren't set up to easily handle foreign currency, and I was being paid in (and invoicing in) USD.
Other than that it was easy - in fact it was even better than when I contracted to Australian companies because I didn't need to charge sales tax, so more money went in to my pocket.
Well my point is that paying an individual outside of the US is fairly straightforward. They fill out a form guaranteeing the company they don't owe withholding (W8-BEN), or the company keeps 30%. At least that's what the lawyers/accountants I've dealt with have said. Probably harder if you're extending benefits and whatnot.
I think a combination of simpler tax/administration and timezones.
Working with a distributed team across the world's time zones (f.ex. Bay Area and much of Europe are 9 hours apart) is an entirely different game from working with a distributed team in roughly the same time zone. The latter allows you to organise as a digital version of a colocated office, eg you can you standups, easily plan meetings without negotiating against half the team's evening plans.
The first makes most sense if you manage to be mostly meeting-less. That's more challenging in my book, but maybe also more rewarding - and not only for hiring reasons (after all, meetings easily become a waste of time).
I'm in the US and find that even within the country many of those jobs are listed as "remote" but then I will hear something like "we're not looking for people in your area". Do they understand what remote means?
However, I noticed most of the remote locations were "US-only", and even the ones in other countries were usually local to that country -- "germany only", etc.
I was wondering how many of the "US-only" ones would accept me, since I am a US Citizen, just not living in the US. Or is there some kind of tax reason they have to be US-only?