[alexthehurst]

> what happens when your senior engineers retire and there are no replacements prepared because it's more efficient to hire foreign senior engineers rather than onboarding and training a college grad

This assumes that the overseas engineers aren’t senior or reliable? I (in the US) work with a lot of talented and dedicated overseas folks who keep me on my toes. Some of them are founding or staff level engineers of our SF-based startup.

[88913527]

Most lived experiences with off-shore talent are due to labor costs. There are great offshore engineers but many work for companies who aren't hiring at the top end of the local market: they're hiring off-shore to save. You get what you pay for. And that leads to impressions, even if incorrect ones.

[bruce511]

"You get what you pay for" is fair, but its also worth pointing out that in some places "money goes further".

In my city, I can go out, eat at a steakhouse, 3 courses, with wine, 2 people, and the total bill is $30-$40 total, not each). Nice sit down restaurant, good food, linen napkins.

Consequently highly skilled, senior engineers can be paid < $100k and still live like a king. If the exact same person lived in the US, or worse in an expensive part of the US, you'd pay more, probably 5 times more.

Once you embrace remote work (WFH) you quickly discover this very real geographical swing in value-of-money.

Of course -most- remote workers are crap. Most local workers are crap too. The remote-hiring problem is as hard as the local-hiring problem, probably harder. But the cost-savings are immense, and the long-term PR is significant. (Yeah, we're laying off 10% of support, but their all foreigners - kinda skips over the point that they're -all- foreigners to begin with)

You get what you okay for, but that bag of silver you have turns into a bag of gold elsewhere.