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by itake 484 days ago
I've hired people part and full time in developing countries (Malaysia, India, and Vietnam).

Westerners will be very skeptical of your skills, so its very important to have a strong portfolio.

Random advice:

- Talented people tend to select other talented people to work with. So if your portfolio is ugly, because the designer was bad, then that will reflect poorly on you.

- Focus on Frontend skills (web and mobile). I think western clients prefer building backend locally, but are more comfortable outsource the frontend.

- Have a day job and be busy. I have had much better luck hiring talented devs that already have jobs than devs that are unemployed.

- If there is a mobile app in your portfolio, check the mobile app ratings in the client's app store before sharing it. Multiple people shared with me a 2-star finance app, because the very few American users gave it bad reviews due to the poor support for foreign passports or phone numbers. Its a bad look.

- Cold out reach to dev shops or other western freelancers. If you're a freelancer or dev shop, when it rains, it pours. Be on their short list when they are drowning in work, but no time to interview/hire, etc.

- Don't be too cheap. That's a red flag that you don't understand the industry or are low-skill and desperate for work. I'd ask at least $15/hr, even in lower cost countries.