Business Analyst Leads from Mexico with Fernando Soto | The Nearshore Cafe Podcast

Host: Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe podcast. This is season three, and in season three, we’ve touched on a lot of really great topics. Today, we’re going to meet Fernando Sto, a business analyst working from Mexico, supporting the U.S. Before we get into Fernando’s story and how it all works, we want to thank our sponsor, plugg Technologies. plugg.tech is a great way to connect talent from all over Latin America to growing U.S. companies. Fernando, so great to have you.

Fernando: Great, thanks. Thanks a lot.

Host: Fernando, for those that don’t know you, where are you dialing in from?

Fernando: I currently live in Guadalajara, Mexico, but I was born and raised in Tijuana. So you could say I’ve lived half my life in each city. Tijuana gave me my roots; Guadalajara has shaped my career, actually. So both have been instrumental in shaping who I am, both personally and professionally. What else can I say?

Host: Well, maybe let me ask. For those who’ve never been to Tijuana, it’s an interesting city because it’s a place I think a lot of Americans know as like a fun place you go, you party. But we don’t know many that live there. So, what should we know about Tijuana as a city to live? Culture, food, things like that.

Fernando: I recently went there and I love it. Some people say they don’t like it because I don’t know, they haven’t lived there. Other people have said, “Yeah, I love it there.” Anthony Bourdain, he was in San Diego, and I think we talked about this, though, he was in San Diego and they were interviewing him and they asked him, “Where can you find the best restaurants, best food?” He said, “Not here. Go south: Tijuana.” So, cuisine is excellent, even better than here in Guadalajara. And some dishes are much better over there.

Host: When you go back to visit, what’s like the number one thing you have to eat while you’re there?

Fernando: Chinese food.

Host: I love that answer. Tell us more about the Chinese food scene in Tijuana.

Fernando: I think there are many Chinese from a long time ago. They’re behind the scenes in the restaurants, you know. And it’s accidental—it’s, how do you say, accidental Chinese food, not real. Because if you go to China, it’s like a whole world of cuisine. But this is like they adapted the Chinese food for us, you know. And I know a place in Mexico also, I think it’s called China Girl, which is similar. But here in Guadalajara, I haven’t seen any other gift tanks that can match it. But they give you very small portions. Other than that, believe me, every single restaurant is very good. And I went there, I was like, “Yeah, I want to film.”

Host: Yeah, that’s so expensive. That’s fantastic. I love it. And then, what do you remember about growing up in Tijuana? Is it a big place for soccer, music, things like that?

Fernando: I’m not very good at sports. Because they actually tell me here in Guadalajara, “Hey, do you like soccer?” And I say, “No, I’m from the north.” And they say, “Oh, you like baseball.” I say, “Wrong again.” No, I used to run track and field. Okay, 100 meters, you know. And teachers, I don’t know what’s up. I told them 100 meters, that’s it, just sprint. Sprinter. And they gave me—yeah, I’m a sprinter. And I always won, I didn’t have to practice or train or anything. And they always gave me 400, 800 meters. So, I just, in one place, one time, I stopped in the middle of the track and I was winning. I was like 100 meters in, and then I couldn’t finish.

Host: My son’s going like this. The lactic acid builds up. So, were you always into it and computers?

Fernando: No, not really. No. I loved animals. So, this is a big twist. But in Tijuana, it was a small city at that time. There were not many universities that had veterinary or, I think I wanted to be a veterinarian, go figure. And I think the closest one was in Ensenada, was like a marine biologist or something like that. And I couldn’t go to the United States. I had a passport, but I couldn’t study there because I’m not a U.S. citizen. Plan B: what do I like second best? And I said, “Well, computers. Let’s start.” And I started going to classes. I was very young, I was like 16, probably. And I started liking it. So, that’s what I did. And then I went to university, and then I came here to Guadalajara to visit my sister. It was a round trip. And she was a single mother with a one-year-old, and somehow I just left everything and stayed with her. And that’s when I met my girlfriend, and she became my wife. And I stayed. They didn’t let me leave. I wasn’t taken back to my hometown. But Guadalajara, many people know this: women from here, they will not go, they will not leave this place.

Host: That’s funny. So, she won, you stayed. Well, I want to ask more about that, but tell us more about the university scene. The university where did you go to school? It was in Tijuana, right? And you actually didn’t finish. A little more about that.

Fernando: Yeah, it’s a funny story, because it was called Autonomous University of Baja California. And it was not a public university, but it was very tied to the industry there. So, I learned this way after I failed, halfway, that the university—I felt really stupid, and I said, “No, this engineering is not for me.” And I actually dropped and came to Guadalajara, continued studying, and finished engineering. This is the problem. Somehow, I said, “Somehow in the plane, I got my IQ grew.” Because in the university that I finished, I got straight A’s over there. I studied, studied, studied, and couldn’t make it. So, later I found out that there was a little corruption. The industries over there, maquiladoras, as they’re called, they said, “Hey, stop, we don’t want engineers anymore. So please, give them a hard time.” Well, that was the answer. Maybe from school, we were like 30, and only like five passed exams, like with one question or two questions. The minimum was seven, from zero to ten. We don’t have like A, B, C, D. And with a two-question exam, you either got a zero, a five, or a ten. So, the minimum was seven. So I was like, “Oh, thank you.” We had like one question exam, a problem, very difficult. Yeah, so it’s like zero, zero, zero. Everyone’s zero. It’s like, wow. So I felt stupid that time. So I talked with one of my friends who also went there, and he’s the one that told me, because he was in the student union or something, and he knew that one of the teachers blurted it out, like, “Hey, yeah, there are these companies.” And it’s not the case anymore. It was back then. But now that you have to pay for your university, they stopped. I don’t know, they stopped making things harder for students, so they can pass.

Host: Almost like an intent of bad intent. So, you’re a business analyst today, supporting a U.S. customer, and doing it from your home office in Guadalajara. Tell us about the last couple years and what led to this point today. Even the role itself is interesting, you’re kind of at the crux of business and technology and working with users. Yes, yes, yes. So, tell us more.

Fernando: I need to tell a little bit about the history there. My journey in tech started at Hewlett-Packard here in Guadalajara. There I spent around 16 years. And then, I started as a developer engineer. So, back in 2010, I was working as a developer when I asked to join a project as a business analyst. And my honest reaction was, “Cool, what the hell is that?” So, I didn’t know, and actually nobody knew back then. Right now, it’s a role like, oh, everywhere. At that time, the only real growth path most of us saw was becoming a project manager or a manager if you pull some strings there. As I started learning more about the BA role through hands-on experience and later certifications, I realized I really liked it. To me, a business analyst is the unsung hero of IT. It’s a low-key role, but the impact is huge. At HP, it helped me. I helped formalize a role internally and even created a dedicated career path for other BAs, many of whom had been doing the work for years without knowing the industry even recognized it as a distinct profession. I went on to get my CBAP certification, probably the first in Jalisco at the time, which is considered on par with the certification for project managers. So, I was even invited to speak at a PMI conference to talk about the BA role. Funny enough, after the talk, some folks from IBM—because remember that here in Guadalajara, we have all the tech companies here—came to me and said, “Hey, thank you! Now I finally understand what I do.” So, over the years, I’ve worked on global projects across the U.S., Latin America, Brazil, Europe, and Asia. I’ve worked under both waterfall and agile methodologies, and I truly believe in the model where PM, BA, QA, and Dev all operate together. We have that synergy regardless of the methodology, and it leads to strong outcomes and excellent projects that we deliver.

Host: So, very quickly on a memorable challenge, you once led a project with a team in Brazil. They didn’t speak Spanish or English. Oh, wow. Tell us, how did you navigate that?

Fernando: That’s funny. Yeah, and I didn’t speak Portuguese. So, Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but if they speak fast, it’s like any other language that you don’t understand. So, we spoke slowly, we typed in chat, and we made it work. So, it was slower, yes. But we got it done. That’s the reality of nearshore collaboration there.

Host: So, which language were you typing in the chat?

Fernando: Portuñol. We invented a language. Yeah, it was like a mix of Spanish and Portuguese, because English was out of the question. We didn’t speak English.

Host: Spanish and Portuguese. I like it, that’s great. How big was that team?

Fernando: I think it was about 15 people. And it was a tax project. Brazil taxes are part of the BRICS, and they’re difficult to understand. So, they had to explain to us many times. And I’m like, okay. So, they had good presentations. One, I want to—I’m going to say the truth, I was there 16 years. For me, I thought I was going to be there forever. I was going to retire there and everything. There’s this—I got laid off somehow. I was jumping between departments. There was a split in HP, because there were like 300,000 employees worldwide, right? They split into HP Enterprise and HP Inc. And I went to HP Inc. So, my team was divided in two, and my manager told me, “Hey, with everything you’ve done with the BA role and everything,” I thought I was going to be a manager or something. But nope. They said, “You’re going to go to HP,” and it was like an AR business architecture role that didn’t work out. And then I ended up where I didn’t want to, as a PM. I liked it, yeah, but I did the BA role in secret. So, all the requirements, I did it myself. Same project, I was doing probably all of those because I didn’t have that dynamic of PM/BA. I was in finance. Funny part there was that there was this manager who was a micromanager, and I honestly didn’t like that one. So, I tried to go through another team. I went to another team, and I landed on another one, another manager, the same way. And then that’s when, I was there a couple of years, and then I was laid off. And for me, it was tough. Sixteen years, I put my heart and soul into that company, and then I was laid off. They didn’t say it was me; they said, “This is happening all around.” And it was true. I recently learned that they’re also laying off people with 16 years or something.

Host: Yeah, I know. It’s a tough thing to go through. I’m curious from your perspective, Fernando, because you’ve worked across so many different borders. Is the role of the business analyst universally the same no matter what country you’re doing it from, or have you seen any nuances or flavors that are put on it?

Fernando: Yeah, this is recent, but before, usually the business analyst is a liaison between business and tech team. Because I don’t know if in projects, if you want disaster, you take the technical team, like developers, and put them in a room with the stakeholder who’s asking for the requirements. So, they’re like more business. The tech developer guy is going to start talking about data, databases, talking about spreadsheets, talking about very technical stuff. And business, they want everything high level. So, we are like in the middle, like a translator.

Host: Yeah, I can relate to that. Do you feel like it’s, well, I guess in your world, there’s maybe two translations, right? Like, maybe you’re doing Spanish to English, and then you’re also doing business requirements to the technical requirements?

Fernando: Yeah, well, actually, the way that I learned English, I learned it at a very young age. And I think I don’t think in Spanish like other ESL. I still think my mother language is Spanish, but they’ve told me that I have good pronunciation, or I don’t know. And then sometimes they’ve told me, “Hey, I can detect your accent.” Okay, yeah, thank you. Didn’t ask you.

Host: So, that’s funny. Well, I want to ask you, as someone who’s been in this world for a long time, in the technical world, what are some best practices? We’ve got people listening that are maybe nearshore curious. They’re thinking about putting a team of Fernandos in Mexico, and maybe they’re in the States. What are some best practices or advice or guidance that you give these people to kind of set up their nearshore operation, their nearshore technical teams for success?

Fernando: Well, let me see. What I can say is we have very good talent in Mexico. There are a lot of universities here, and they teach for global, not like, “Oh, you know, this company, local companies asking us for, like what happened to us and to me in my university that local companies are asking the university, ‘Do this, do that.'” Here, no, it doesn’t happen here in Guadalajara or other big cities here in Mexico, like Monterrey, Mexico City, Querétaro. The universities are aware of that global, you know, of global companies that need talent. And now, this new trend, I think since the pandemic, they realize that we can actually work from home. And it’s some of the—I love it. I’ve been since the pandemic, they told us, “Go home, it’s going to be a week.” And I’m still here since then. Two companies, two different companies. So, I got fired in my home. And then I started a new company. I started in this new company, they actually saved my life, actually. So, I’m really grateful to them, and they really appreciate it. And I’ve been telling my wife and my friends, “This is how I’ve been doing.” I did the same effort, the same kind of job, same effort where I was, but it was not appreciated. So, it was not me. Because you doubt when they fire you, you feel like—

Host: Yeah, you get a little insecure and wonder.

Fernando: Exactly, exactly. Now I do the same, and I’ve been working the same as I always have, and they really appreciate it. And the culture is great.

Host: So, maybe a couple of the takeaways that I’m getting is that Mexico really teaches to a global technology world. And best practices in Chicago or San Francisco or London or wherever, the same things they’re teaching in Mexico. So, there’s really not a whole lot of like adaptive, “I need to change my style or framework or methodology.” These guys are going to be able to plugg right in. And then maybe the other thing that I’m hearing is that there are the same things that humans need everywhere, that employees need everywhere. They need acknowledgment, recognition, appreciation. It’s no special thing we would just do for Mexicans in the IT world; it’s the same things we would do for anybody.

Fernando: Yep, yep, that’s it. You got it. And the—I don’t know if it’s across all companies, but this company that hired me, their culture, they have like a growth mindset culture, which is awesome. They’ve never treated me any different. I’m a contractor now, I’m not an employee. And I was the first one that they hired. And they told me, “Hey, guess what? You’re going to be our guinea pig.” Actually, the agency told me that. “You’re going to be a guinea pig, and if that works for you, we’ll hire more. We’re going to clone you.” Okay, it worked. I think I did things well. And they asked me to hire other BAs from Mexico. And we had a bad experience with one of them, and it’s something that happens. Working from home is a big perk for me, and some people don’t really take that for granted. We had this guy who was replaced for me. He was like, “You know, for me, you’re done. I’m done with you.” Because it was his attitude. And actually, the company gave him another chance. Oh my God, I was like, “Wow.” It’s like, “He doesn’t deserve it.” And he blew it. So, just imagine, for me, it was done. For me, I said, “I don’t want to work with him anymore.” But it’s not always the case. We hired someone else, and we’re doing great. There are three people from Mexico. We have, actually, one of them lives like five minutes from here. Recently I went to a barbecue, he invited me home, and we got together. So, it’s good.

Host: Good. Nothing like an asado to bring everybody together.

Fernando: Yeah, carnes asadas. And in work, I’m like leading that. Because when I entered, I was alone. And my manager, he was very, very busy because managers were also doing BA work, like requirements management, writing tickets in Jira, design in Figma, all that, talking to the, making presentations to the client. And I was like, boom. When I was in HP, managers, they just managed. They didn’t do like work, like what we did. And I tell these guys, “Take advantage. You’re being trained in your language,” because I’m training them in Spanish. And all the time, for me, I don’t know what happened, but am I smarter? I don’t know. But they have me. Maybe they have me. And it’s like they’re asking me, “Hey, this, hey, that, hey, hey, every.” And I didn’t have that. And I’m like, “What? You guys have me. I didn’t have myself when I came in this work.” So, that’s good for that.

Host: That’s great. Well, let me throw one more piece out there before we go. A lot is going on in the tech world: AI. So, maybe in like a quick, kind of rapid fire, how is AI impacting the role of the business analyst today, and then what do you maybe see coming up in the next couple years?

Fernando: Actually, AI is for everyone. Because people think that AI is like cheating. But I see it as hiring a very good assistant. Of course, this assistant has a complete framework of computers. But the AI, and I just discovered it because I used it, but not as you used to. So, I took this course, and I was like, “Wow, we can reduce time of what we do actually with AI.” And companies are not catching up, actually. That’s what I’m saying. My niece, she’s working in this company with, I think it’s a realtor, and they have this AI. They have ChatGPT. But as a community, I didn’t know that you can use it. And so, they upload all the documents of the company. But whenever—because it’s just doing things faster—whatever an AI robot can do, a human can do, a robot can do it faster. That’s all. Because instead of you going into the SharePoint of the company and looking at all, reading all documents, AI does it like this. It’s just the same way. AI, if I see it this way: 20 years ago, if you didn’t know English or use a computer, you were illiterate, somehow digitally illiterate. Today, if you don’t go into AI—and I don’t mean just asking how’s the weather or just programming it, because you can program, do whatever you want, believe me—just go into, take a course. There are free courses everywhere for AI. Go there, because if you don’t do it, you’re going to be left behind in technology. So, yeah, that’s my—

Host: That’s great advice. Great, great advice. Well, Fernando, this has been a lot of fun. I knew it would be. I knew you’d have a lot of great stuff to say. You’re listening to the Nearshore Cafe podcast, sponsored by plugg Technologies. plugg.tech, a great way to connect talent from all over Latin America with U.S. companies and great talent like Fernando in Latin America. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Fernando: Thank you, everyone. Thanks for joining us at the Nearshore Cafe podcast.