A conversation with Francisco Júnio de Lima Liberal and Arc’s Christine Orchard and David Roberts.
Francisco is a senior full-stack developer with a wide range of front-end & back-end experience. He has experience with popular technologies such as C#, TS/JS, PostgresSQL, data analysis skills, and API building.
Previously, he contributed to the development of a chatbot using Azure’s cognitive services to build and train the system. He currently lives in Brasilia, Brazil with his family and pets.
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How did you start working remotely as a developer?
Arc helped me find my first remote job outside of Brazil. Before that, I worked in Germany for a while, but as soon as I went back to my hometown in Brazil in 2018, I wasn’t able to find work with a global company.
I felt that I was not earning as much as I could be if I was able to work at an international company, given my skill level and experience.
Also, with concerns about Brazilian currency inflation and instability, I wanted to be able to find work that was more stable and put me in a better financial position to be able to take care of my mother, sister, and brother who all live with me.
Read More: How Arc Helped Civitas Scale Their Engineering Team With Global Talent
What does remote work mean to you?
Remote work changed my life. Overall, I have a much higher quality of life because I can spend more time with my family members and my beloved pets.
Living in big cities is expensive, so being able to choose where you want to live outside of these city centers is a real blessing (I live in Brasilia right now).
I also feel like I have more freedom since I no longer have to commute or face traffic jams (Not to mention the benefits for the environment with fewer cars on the road).
Tell us about the company and team you’re working with now?
I’m working full-time at Cobbler.io, an enterprise budgeting and financial software company that I was connected to through Arc. At first, I found it a bit hard to really know what the company was like just from what I read about them online.
But after getting the opportunity to interview with the team through Arc, I met with a bunch of nice people from the team during the process. Everyone was very helpful and knowledgeable. It is a wonderful place to be able to learn and grow. It’s truly the best team working with the most skilled engineers I’ve met during my career so far.
Read More: How to Create a Remote Work Culture That’s Supportive, Positive & Fun
So you were the first hire Cobbler made outside of the US — what do you think you did differently to stand out?
I think I was able to show my passion and willingness to learn and try new things. I researched the company to understand the product and mission in order to share my passion for what they are working on (in this case, financial and budgeting software).
Meeting with the team on video calls was also really important because the team could see that my communication skills and personality were a good fit for the team.
What are your top tips for other remote job seekers?
It’s really worth getting verified now to save you time in the long run.
When you’re looking for jobs, it can be really time consuming. I felt that it helps to have a filtering process through Arc for both sides — companies and developers.
I was also the first person that Cobbler hired outside of the U.S., and Arc made it easier for them to hire a global developer like me by helping handle the hiring process (in our case, Arc’s partner Deel helped with cross-border payments, which made things super easy for me).
Don’t fear the interviewers!
Arc’s technical interviewer during the initial verification process was really nice, a really great guy. If all interviews were like that, that would be amazing! It really stands out from other remote hiring platforms where I’ve had interviewers who I felt were cold and weren’t even listening to me when I was talking.
For other developers looking to find a job like me, it’s better to specialize rather than be a generalist.
Go for a specialization, such as C# for me. It’s also important to have knowledge in other technologies, and continue to adapt. Consider taking freelance jobs first to learn a new skill.
Besides knowing the language, you also need to know the technical language, see the new frameworks, and understand the new trends and up-and-coming languages.
Read More: 40+ Best Upwork Alternatives & Freelance Websites for Your Next Project
Predictions for what is going to happen now that people are going back to the office?
I realize that some people may need the human connection face to face and prefer working in an office. But I believe remote is a long-term trend and companies will have to adapt. Working from home is the evolution of knowledge work.
And when you consider what it’s like to work and live in expensive cities like the Bay Area, it is not sustainable in my view. I feel that companies who don’t adapt to hiring remotely won’t be able to find the best developers.
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