| > you won't be able to carry your laptop around the city because there is no concept of "hot spots" As a white European, I wouldn't carry my laptop around many parts of Medellin full stop! I ended up going to Medellin for a bit to oversee some outsourcing back in 2012. We outsourced because one of the co-founders of the company had moved their and set up his own offshore team. To their credit: * The team in Medellin were smart and capable
* The quality of the product was no worse than any other offshore work we'd done elsewhere (conversely, it was no better either)
* I never felt particularly unsafe, although you needed to take standard precautions I agree with you that nobody speaks English, and my Spanish is appalling. I found that quite hard. That said, all of the team I was working with had excellent English skills: from what I can tell, most engineers did. The biggest problem I had was around the availability of current technology. I would imagine this has changed a lot since I was there in 2012, but smartphones were not hugely prevalent, and as you mention, internet speeds were somewhat slow. For me, it wasn't a real success, but only because the experience and the final product was no better than outsourcing elsewhere. I loved working with the team (I imagine they'll probably come here and read this, so hi guys!), and I was somewhat sad it wasn't as a resounding success as I'd have hoped. Like you, I definitely wouldn't have called Medellin a tech hub, although I would hope it's come a long way even in the two years since I was last there. |