I'm asking the question about how to hire well in Latin America because of Red Hat's success in Latin America, as well as my own company's download rates and incoming leads from Latin America, but it could very well be generalized to, "How do you hire employees in areas where your company has no physical presence?"
I don't know. For months I've been meaning to hire a pre-sales engineer/consultant down in Brazil or Argentina, but I haven't the first clue as to how to find someone capable of working alone so far from the rest of the company's operations. If I wanted to do near-shore open-source development, I'd look at North-by-South, but I'm looking for full-time employees here.
In the US, Alfresco is widely distributed, but we all live in the same country. (Well, some of us live in Utah, some in Texas, and some in California, but theoretically they're the same country. :-)
We have people scattered throughout (Western) Europe, too. But this is different.
Anyone have a good experience hiring in a country far from most of your company's operations? Perhaps more particularly, anyone know if there are "gotchas" (tax laws, etc.) to hiring in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Argentina?
People have been changing places within the open-source ranks of late, and I figured I'd note a few that have recently come to my attention:
- Charlie Martin, once of Ximian (Novell) and then MuleSource, has landed at Red Hat as Western Regional Sales Manager. Well done, mi amigo!
- Erica Brescia was recently named CEO at Bitrock, an upgrade on her former role as vice president of Business Development. Yes, I did try to hire her once. And yes, she did reject me :-) ;
- Martin Musierowicz became vice president of Alliances at Alfresco, changing from his previous role as senior director, Business Development. He hasn't treated me with respect since...
- Lars Nordwall, former vice president of Worldwide Sales at SugarCRM, left a few months ago. He has yet to land his new digs but has been talking with some great companies (If you're not already talking with him, it's probably going to be too late - sorry!).
There are others, of course, but these are the few that jumped to mind (as well as one or two, including a great new hire at Acquia, that I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention yet). Great people, great industry. It's what makes open source so enjoyable.
CMSWatch describes the sad demise of a great company, Vignette. The company used to be one of the heavyweights in the web content management world, but has since dwindled in importance. My own company has welcomed its exodus of employees and customers.
It seems that the only way for proprietary companies to continue to thrive is to consolidate into mega corporations that are somewhat impervious to the pressures of SaaS and open source. For the more niche proprietary players like Vignette, there is no safety in remaining proprietary.
Here's a good description of the problem:
In any event, we think Vignette's troubles are probably larger than any temporary tumult in the banking industry (or even in the U.S. economy). Vignette's product release cycles are long. Its sales force seems unfocused. The company is under pricing pressure (something CFO Pat Kelly admitted in the earnings call). And as CEO Mike Aviles himself suggested, Vignette is not the bastion of innovation it once was.
To all my Vignette friends: The grass is greener in open source.
... Read moreI love Arsenal. If you read this blog (or have talked with me for more than five minutes about anything other than software), you know this. At the heart of Arsenal is its amazing coach, Arsene Wenger. I just read an interview with Arsene that jibes well with how I feel about hiring in open source, too:
I am not scared to spend big money but we make the superstars. We have a feel for the game and the way we want to play football is linked to development. I have not seen a number of what you might call 'world-class' players. Maybe world-class prices, but not world-class players.
"We make the superstars." While most clubs are spending outlandish sums on "proven" soccer stars, Arsenal tends to spend comparative pennies on 15-16-year olds with potential. It's how we roll.
It's also a good model for growing an open-source business.
... Read moreI really like the advice in this 37Signals' blog post about writing good 'Help Wanted' ads. As with open source, the general theme is to be transparent. No hiding behind superficial buzz words and such:
The kind of help wanted ad you write can help determine what kind of applicants you get. Write an honest, thoughtful, clear ad and you're more likely to hear from candidates with those qualities. Spout a lot of buzzwordy nonsense and you'll attract people fluent in bull[potty].
Amen.
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