Where to find full time staff offshore

Not looking for freelancers, but for permanent employees

[GordonS]

I am seriously interested in employing a programmer offshore. I have in the past successfully used freelance sites for small projects, but now I need full timers.

I am particularly interested in India, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine.

That means the whole process of inviting applications, getting CVs, negotiating contracts etc etc.

But where can you go to advertise such a vacancy, and hopefully ensure you waste as little time as possible? Has anybody done this? If so where did you post your vacancy and what was the outcome?

[andye]

Large offshore R & D firms can lend you their staff on a long-term basis. I.e. they employ the staff member but you manage them directly as if they were part of your own firm.

It's not something I've done though...

hth, a.

[motorhaven]

I advertised a job opening on script lance. Put in very specific instructions about the format of their email contacting you. This will weed out a lot of non-professionals and those who haven't mastered english.

If their email isn't exactly as specified delete it. My company ended up with 30 really good candidates, selected a Romanian and we're really happy with his work. He's been with us for 6 months and as trust builds we've relaxed a lot with him. For instance he now has access to more servers, can leave for errands, etc. just like a local salaried employee. He's now salaried, not hourly and after he's with us for 12 months will qualify for paid vacations.

Treat these folks as professionals who are part of your team and they'll appreciate it, going the extra mile when you need to. Too often offshore guys get treated like crap... and people wonder why they have no loyalty.

[anallawalla]

I used a recommendation from a WW member to hire a part-timer in India this year. I have previously worked (from AU) for US based companies so I know that time zones can be an issue. During the common work window, the parties at both ends need to be accessible to the other. I had the freedom to work my own hours, which meant I spoke to the US head office in the mornings and to the Russian branch office in the late evenings. This gave me much of the local work day to do the work and errands.

If you don't take care in selection, you may get someone with multiple full-time or part-time "jobs". Certain monitoring kinds of tasks can fit this model; others that create a lot of visible output make it hard for someone to hold more than one job at a time.

[axgrindr]

We have a full time webmaster in India that we have been working with for the last 5 months. I found him through a freelancer site, hired him for a couple of tasks and have been working with him ever since. We are very happy with his work.
For a while we had him on salary but I wasn't sure exactly how much work I was getting out of him each day. I considered asking for an email update everyday listing tasks completed but decided against it.
Now, instead of salary, I send him a list of tasks, at the bottom of the list is a dollar amount. When he completes the list I send him the money.
This method is working out for both of us. He can take time off when he wants and do a few all nighters when he needs the money. I, on the other hand, know exactly what I am getting for the money I am spending. He also does little emergency fixes for us here and there in between tasks.
We also have an (almost) full time flash designer in Bosnia that we are very happy with.
In regards to time zones in dealing with off shore employees my work day now starts at 3:00pm and ends around 11:00pm which is great for me.
Our employees check in every morning via yahoo IM with a "good morning, what are today's priorities".

[rfontaine]

This is why I would never recommend anyone in the United States to be become a programmer, or anything else that can be #*$!ed out to countries where they can live on $10 a day.

[axgrindr]

A valid point.

It's just my opinion but I don't think US designers have too much to worry about in the long run. Using offshore help may sound cheap and easy on the surface but I have spent a lot of money finding the right people. I've gone through many 1/2 done and abandonded projects and many headaches in communication and time zones. There is also a lot of work on my end to make sure every aspect of every task is spelled out clearly and in great detail with mock ups and graphics to explain some of the more complex database requests and design elements.

At times I think it might have been easier to go with a US design firm for our needs but now that I have found my offshore team I wouldn't give them up for the world.

[sgg24]

There is an interesting discussion about offshoring in "the world is flat", a recent bestselling book, by Thomas Friedman. It shows the advantages of offshoring outweigh the disadvantages. I'm inclined to agree with him. It's because of what economists call competitive advantage. Why should the countries where skills are cheaply available be disadvantaged because the cost of living is lower. Answer is - they shouldn't.

As for how to find them, well, I don't know. Maybe you can call some of the companies that are mentioned in the book. They're also featured on CNN.

I hope this helps you.

[Greg Gaskell]

Have you ever thought about the Philippines as it's the 3rd largerst english speaking country in the world and you can get many of your staff offshore.

I'm not sure it's ok to post companies in the forums or not.

[Corey Bryant]

What type of development are you looking for - ASP, PHP, etc?

-Corey

[etechsupport]

You would have few contact with some of the members here in this board those having good knowledge in programming, I hope they can help you to meet your specific requirement in reasonable cost if you try to contact them through PM.

[Bhoot]

Hi there,

You have mentioned India, Ukraine and other counteries..but not Pakistan? :)

I am saying this cuz I am from Pakistan and my company has been providing offshore services to clients in USA and Europe so I do have solid references to give you :)

Anyways, if you are still looking for some solid offshore team for your work, I am interested.

I would also like to mention here that I have over 18 years of computer related experience and I am running my company since 1998 so we do know what we are doing :)

I was wondering if you'd like to discuss further on the possibility?

Let me know

Mamoon Rashid

P.S. I registered on this forum only after looking at your post as I wanted to reply :)

[fischermx]

I am particularly interested in India, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine.

Add Bulgaria and you have the top 5 for outsourcing programming.

[fischermx]

What do you think about going to rentacoder, search coders by country and try to find their companies on Google, so you can contact them directly?

I'm trying to do this, but most of this guys, even when they say "we have 10 developers" don't have a website!