I will be completing my Bachelors Degree in Computer Science in June (in Mex) and I am currently working and doing social service as a Software Developer.
I thought that maybe it would be interesting for you to know how is it to be a Dev/Student in Latam, so here I am.
I used to do web development in my work but now I am doing a lot of Image Processing stuff. In the social service (for the University) I am doing Machine Learning in my University's Hospital.
Top comments (19)
Hey! I'm a fellow Mexican/American software engineer. I'm originally from California, now based out of New York City. It'd be awesome to connect, I always tell my parents about the lack of hispanic representation in tech. Good to see others out there as well.
Yes! We need more Latin American Software Engineers.
I would be happy to connect, I would love to have your perspective of being a Dev in the US, specially in NY (Never been there, but planning to visit the city for vacations after graduation). One of my mid term goals is to work abroad for some time (I would like to be in Silicon Valley) to play in the big leagues of tech.
Do you have Twitter account?
Yeah, Silicon Valley has so many opportunities, I'm sure you'd have no trouble finding something out there. I do have a twitter account as well. My handle is @lildvlpr !
Do you find/think/feel there is a barrier for Spanish speaking people trying to learn programming since a lot of it is in English?
I've been really working on my Spanish with the goal of being able to re-write my documentation in both languages. In my mind, it seems like that would be helpful, but I don't know if that's true or not.
The lang is a barrier in third world countries where the education is poor compared to technological countries. If you want to learn English in Peru, for example, you have to pay (a good amount $). So, you ended up learning by yourself (be a self taught is a need).
There are so many English material out there. 1/3 of latam developers can read and understand an English document, but, what happens with all these people that don't?
Spanish is not a strange language; in fact, it's the second most spoken -natively- language of the world, ahead of English. So, why not write Spanish content too? One example of this is the creation of the Spanish StackOverflow community.
I bet for my native language and I want to see more Spanish content for our community. We need to help to grow it. It's our must!
Yes and No.
Language is definitely a barrier, learning programming without knowing how to speak English is a difficult task because the majority of online resources are in English.
Is it possible to learn programming without English? Yes it is, in fact, I have a classmate that literally hates English, he just can't learn it, it is not his thing. He, as me, is in last semester of CS, studying from books and sites written in Spanish. It was more difficult for him, but he made it.
Here in Mexico, we recognize that learning English is a very important task to 'survive' because when you know a language besides Spanish, your CV gets a boost. I am in the north of Mexico (a very industrialized part of the country), so, at least here everyone takes too serious the fact of learning English, German or even Chinese. Central part of Mx is not like this, but people still tries to learn English.
So you can learn programming 100% in Spanish but you are losing a lot of great content in English, content that can make you a better programmer.
I feel like a lot of the English speakers don't have the same interest as we to learn the language of the other side. It is so nice to read that you are working in your Spanish just to translate your documentation, I am sure that a lot of persons will appreciate that!
I'm a third generation American. My grandma's first language was Spanish and I don't think she learned English until she was in her late teens. She always seemed to fill like she was somewhat limited in life because of that fact, so I've always had an interest in trying to learn the language and see if I could apply that knowledge to helping with something I know a lot about.
I've been glad to see a couple native Spanish speakers pop up on here in the last few days. Maybe one of these days you can slog through my broken translations. :)
I am glad to hear that we are welcomed here. Maybe I should consider to write some posts here in Spanish, it would be interesting!
And yes, of course, I would be glad and happy to help with the translations:)
Hey Carlos, I'm Mexican too, if you want to connect please do so, perhaps we can help each other.
My question is, How do you think the fund cut on innovation in MX is going to affect the software industry? (I want an insider opinion, its been a while since I left MX).
I think that the Software Industry will be growing slower as expected but It will be still growing.
Unfortunately Obrador's government is not focused in tech, but this statement is not true for state governments. Guadalajara is growing very fast in tech, it is called "The Mexican Silicon Valley", there are rumors of Google putting dev offices there. Monterrey (Where I am from) is investing a lot of money in IoT and Industry 4.0.
Maybe the federal government is not helping a lot but I think that there is a good amount of state support and private investment for México to keep growing in a decent way.
I'm so happy to read this.
Hi, brother, I'm from Mexico, too; I will graduate in a year from now :)
Here in Sonora there are a lot of opportunities for every developer to grow but if you're focus on databases or data science, well there are less oportunities, how is everything in your city/state?
Saludos :)
Escribiré en Español porque ya me dijiste que eres mexicano y vives en México jaja
Mucho gusto, soy de Monterrey, Nuevo León! Pues, laboralmente se podría decir que está super bien. Hay empresas de Software muy grandes como Epicor, Softtech y Accenture (Y empresas tradicionales que ocupan departamento de TI como FEMSA, Cervecería, Vitro, Ternium, etc.) y si hay mucha demanda laboral para programadores.
La verdad es que puedes encontrar de todo aquí aunque yo creo que en el aspecto de investigación y desarrollo de nueva tecnología si estamos un poco atrasados ya que a diferencia de por ejemplo Guadalajara, aquí no hay empresas como Oracle, Intel, etc.
Espero poder visitar Sonora pronto, por ahí me cuentan que nos compiten muy bien en la carne asada. Saludos!:)
hahahahahaha nunca he probado la carne asada de tu lugar pero apuesto que no es mejor que la nuestra.
Estamos igual en Sonora, entonces, aquí no hay empresas de investigación ni nada similar, aquí solo hay empresas que hacen outsourcing e industrias que ocupan dpto. de ti.
Otra cosa D: qué tantas oportunidades crees que existan para un desarrollador 100% movil? Java o Kotlin, Swift o Objetive-C en méxico?
Yo creo que hay menos plazas de trabajo que en programación web, pero como quiera hay buena oportunidad.
De hecho donde me acabo de cambiar a trabajar estaré trabajando con Xamarin, así que como te digo, creo que si hay oportunidad solo está en buscarle bien. (No entré ahí queriendo desarrollar móvil pero se dio solita la situación lol)
Do you think culture plays into how programming and problem solving is perceived?
My mother is from Oaxaca, and she does not value my programming expertise too much and would rather I go into a more traditional service field like medicine or social work. I'm curious if you've had a similar experience?
I had the same experience with my family not wanting me to study CS. I am from Monterrey, here its the best place to study medicine or electrical engineering. México is a country where Software Industry is just starting to go mainstream, very few people is studying this.
Because México is a country where is 'difficult' to survive a lot of the times, parents just want to see their children to go for the "safe" play, maybe that is one of the reasons why you mother does not like the idea of programming.
And YES! culture definitely plays a big part in how problem solving is perceived. Just ask your mother about "Mexicanadas" here in México we have a big culture in fixing things in a fast, simple and cheap way (sometimes it can be a mediocre solution tho)
Which are the best learning tools for Programming. I'll be grateful for your assistance mate. Am in first year doing computer science.
Congrats in entering to CS, bro! So, for programming I would recommend...
Programming learning resources:
1 - Take advantage of your professors! School helps a lot if you take right advantage of it.
2 - Books. With programming you have to be a self learner even tho you are in a formal University. O'Reilly books are awesome!
3 - Search courses in sites like Udacity/Coursera/edX they have awesome resources!
Tools I use in a daily basis:
If you have an specific need just let me know:)