Getting Hired as a QA Engineer in Latin America: Genesis Morin’s Journey | Nearshore Cafe

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Brian: Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe podcast! I’m Brian Samson, your host and entrepreneur who’s been working in Latin America for a long time. Today, we’ve got something special. We haven’t quite dug into the perspective of the candidate going through the hiring process here in Latin America, working with the U.S. So, if you want to hear what it means to get interviewed, hired, paid, all that stuff, this is the episode for you. We’ll be talking to Genesis in just a second. I want to thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, P.L.U.G.G. T.E. Plug is the way to find great talent like Genesis all over Latin America. Genesis Morin, so great to have you on the show today.

Genesis: Thank you for having me! I love, love being here.

Brian: Genesis, let’s start out. What kind of work do you do, and where are you located?

Genesis: Well, I have been a QA for over eight plus years. I’m located in Monclova, Mexico. It’s a very small town, but I love it here.

Brian: So, for those that aren’t familiar with that town, myself included, where is that, like, relative to Mexico City? Or, you know, or just on the overall geography of Mexico?

Genesis: Well, it’s on the north side of Mexico. I will say it’s three hours or two and a half hours from the border, near to Eagle Pass, Texas.

Brian: Oh, sure, Del Rio. Yeah, it’s very near the border. Awesome. Now, have you been working with the U.S. on past projects? Was this the first time that you’d worked for a U.S. client?

Genesis: No, I’ve been working for U.S. clients, I think, six to seven years. Yeah, but I do have teams located in Mexico, but I think this is the first time that I’ve been solely on a team with U.S. teammates.

Brian: Okay, okay, great. So, what I think I’m interested in, and people from all over Latin America who maybe never even had a chance to work with the U.S. before on a project, I think we’re all curious about your experience. Especially with maybe this project to start, the one that you’re on. So, I guess it was just less than a year ago, like June, July, that you got a call. Tell us a little more about that, like the recruiter, the interview process. What did that all look like?

Genesis: Well, I was part of a shortage on QAs in my last project. So, I was very trying to get a job. LinkedIn, I was on all platforms trying to meet candidates for being hired. So, I think I got a message on LinkedIn, and we started the process there. It was a very clear process from the beginning, and for that, I’m very thankful because I was able to have the interviews, the assessments, having the talks with the client, which have been amazing. Until now, I love being in that project.

Brian: Yeah, yeah. And so, was the recruiter based in the U.S. or Latin America?

Genesis: I believe he is based in Latin America, yeah.

Brian: And was the outreach? Did you communicate in Spanish or English? How did that all work?

Genesis: I, well, since his last name was a little tricky, I didn’t want to, I wanted to play safe. He was communicating in English; I was communicating back in English. So, the conversation was in English until one day I said, “Do you speak Spanish?” He said, “Yeah, I do.” Yeah, but I didn’t want to assume because, yeah, yeah.

Brian: You did the call with the recruiter, and then how soon after did you talk to the client?

Genesis: I believe it was a week after our first communication because I did have a chat on LinkedIn, then we got on a call. And after that, I got an assessment from— no, I think, yeah, I got an assessment. And after that, five days later, which was, oh wow, okay, yeah. I got a call with the team. I believe it was the team lead. And after that, I got a call with management, but that was more about if they wanted to teach me about how the company works, you know, how friendly they were, and if I fit within what they could offer. And I did. Yeah, very, very open. And until now, I really enjoy talking to them.

Brian: That’s great. And what were some of the things that maybe you were considering? Because I’m sure, you know, there are all sorts of opportunities out there. There’s, you know, you can work with domestic companies in Mexico, you can work with certain U.S. companies — big ones, small ones, tech companies. Some pay in pesos, some pay in dollars, some have healthcare, some have all this stuff. So, you know, what were some of the things that were maybe important to you when you were contacted?

Genesis: To be honest, the work environment that the U.S. provides. I’ve been working with Mexican companies before, and Latin American companies, and sometimes I felt that they were kind of like micromanagement. On the U.S. teams, I do feel like you can raise your hand, ask questions, you don’t get judged. And in light of that, you can talk, you can make jokes. It feels more like a team, and that’s what I enjoy working in the U.S. If you get called out, but in a better way, like, “Why you can improve in this side?” So, I really enjoy working with U.S. teammates.

Brian: Yeah, so maybe you’re thinking it can even accelerate your career because you’re getting more feedback, you can improve?

Genesis: Yes, yes. And I feel that on the technology-wise, they do too. I mean, if you don’t know something, they could put a shadow on you, on someone. They can teach you, or, “You know what, let’s talk to someone that you can be working with that person one-on-one,” and the knowledge is shared. Yeah, yeah, with nothing.

Brian: And then, Genesis, how about the hardware situation? Like, did you use your own laptop? Was something shipped to you? How did that all work out?

Genesis: No, I got provided with the equipment, and that was fast too. I was supposed to start in a day, and I think two days before I started, I got my computer since I got the email that the laptop was coming. And it was brand new equipment; it got delivered by Amazon.

Brian: Oh, cool. Okay. Yeah, so for those in the U.S. that maybe are curious, yeah, Amazon works in Mexico just like the U.S.

Genesis: Yeah, I got provided with equipment, and it was a laptop, a mouse, headphones, and I believe that’s it. Yeah.

Brian: And how about some of the software that you’re using day in, like, are you on Slack or Jira? You know, what else? What else are you using?

Genesis: So, for communication, we use Teams. And we also have communication with our Latin America groups with Slack. And for management, we use Jira with the plugin on QTest. That’s where we upload all test cases, evidence, bug reports. PCPs are called a post-checkout for production. Yes, so everything is managed there. And on technology for testing, we use many, many. We use Swagger, Postman, MySQL, and UI testing, backend testing, yeah.

Brian: And are you working in like a Sprint, like a two-week Sprint structure, or how does that set up?

Genesis: We are, but sometimes they get delayed, to be honest. But that never happens in any team, right? But we do our own two-week sprint, and we’ll also have — it could be Wednesday or Monday — Monday, we get production support just to verify that everything’s working correctly.

Brian: Awesome. And then, let’s talk about just getting paid. So, I’m sure people have questions, especially if they’ve only worked for a domestic company in Mexico and they’ve gotten paid in pesos. How are you? Like, what was your process? And what’s different, what’s the same that you might think about for someone who’s never done this before?

Genesis: Well, since you get paid, we use a platform that’s provided by Plug, and it’s called Deel. It’s super cool. You get to enter all your details there. And also, we need to use a timesheet platform where we upload the hours that we worked. So, we need to be very careful on how many hours we upload there because, according to that report, that’s how much you get paid. I get paid monthly, and I use that platform. You put your Mexican account, or, you know, the information, and it gets directly deposited into our Mexican accounts. Since we are not based in Mexico, we need to pay our own, let’s say, health insurance, our own taxes, which, since I’ve been working this kind of way for a long time, I do have an accountant that’s really helpful, so I don’t have to worry about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian: Okay, okay, good. Sounds a lot like in the U.S., there are a lot of independent contractors that do the same thing. They have to take care of their taxes and their healthcare. But I think people tend to do it this way, at least in the U.S., because they can make a little bit more money this way. Was that a consideration for you?

Genesis: Well, since it’s been a while, to be honest, I really didn’t get that. But my husband works in a Mexican company, and it’s way easier for him, I will say, because he doesn’t have to worry about anything. Every paycheck, he gets the taxes, the reduction, and everything. But, as I mentioned, I have a great accountant that helps me with that. You do get to provide kind of like an invoice just for that purpose. But, yeah, we are pretty accommodated in that area.

Brian: And then generally speaking, so it’s the last day of the month, you’ve got your timesheet, your invoices. How long does it take to hit your account?

Genesis: Well, I don’t want to brag, but the guy that’s helping us right now, it’s been really fast. We get paid within the first two to three days.

Brian: Oh, wow. Okay, okay.

Genesis: So, it used to, yeah, I used to take longer, like five, seven days, but right now it’s easier, it’s way faster. So, thank you.

Brian: Awesome. And there are a lot of people who are maybe interested in dipping their toes into this world of working with the U.S. And these nearshore recruiting companies are becoming more popular. Just like the U.S. is learning about Mexico and the rest of Latin America, there’s Latin American talent that are like kind of peeking their head, “Oh, I think I might want to try this too.” Do you have any advice for them? Like, what is your top one or two pieces of advice for those that are doing it for the first time?

Genesis: Well, I will say, the language barrier. I can promise you, if you don’t know a word, the team will never— or Americans don’t tend to, U.S. citizens don’t tend to laugh that you say a word that’s not the correct pronunciation. I will say, give it a chance. It’s, I mean, you may be surprised. I really enjoy it. You know, the technology sometimes is different, the teams are amazing. I don’t know, I really enjoyed working here.

Brian: Yeah, that’s great. And just some fun questions. You mentioned your husband, what do you and your husband like to do on weekends?

Genesis: So, I have a Bachelor’s in Culinary Arts, so I bake all the time. Yeah, yeah. And we used to go to the beach very often. Now that we’re living here, we like to go to the park. We own two dogs. Yeah, it’s a French Bulldog and an English Bulldog, so they, yeah, they’re getting fat, so we need to take them on walks. They’re really pretty. But, yeah, we also have three kids.

Brian: Oh, wow.

Genesis: Yes, our hands are full. But we cook, we watch movies, we travel a lot too. So, being able to work in this team has also helped me because since it’s remote, I can work from wherever I can.

Brian: Yeah, love it, love it. Fantastic! Well, Genesis, thank you so much for being so generous with your time and sharing your perspective and experience of what it’s like being a technical resource in Latin America and working with the U.S.

Genesis: No, well, thank you for having me. It’s really nice being here.

Brian: Good. Well, again, let’s thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, Plug.co. Plug connects great talent like Genesis to growing U.S. companies. Thanks again for watching the Nearshore Cafe. Thank you, Genesis. Have a great day, everyone.

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