Offshore Ranking #2
South China Sea explorations begin
Firstly, my thoughts here are personal experience and not a generalized opinion.
Phew, next it’s:
The Philippines
My favorite. Ticked all the boxes. Resourceful, giving and technically gifted. Always a cheerful go-getter attitude. Willing to try new things and constantly seeking improvement.
Time zone
We met with them at 5PM PST, 9AM Manila time. This meant they couldn’t join the wider group standup, or any meetings aside from that quick meeting. The majority of communication was asynchronous.
Good
The service based culture of the Philippines means that they are mostly willing to help outside of their expected duties. I received tremendous guidance from a particularly skilled developer.
Friendly, upbeat nature. A pleasure to interact with daily. Can-do attitude always willing to push their performance limits.
Not-good
The president announced holidays with as little as a few days notice. There were much more than in the US. Eighteen’s the official number. In reality it’s more like twenty-five.
Because of the asynchronous communication we needed to be diligent to close every open loop throughout the day and visa-versa. This was a difficult habit to get into. It didn’t benefit me directly and there were no reminders. Eventually I started knocking everything out immediately after coming online.
Even though they were working overnight, their willingness to troubleshoot production issues that arose was lacking. An issue with most contractors.
Final thoughts
Great experience. Would highly recommend to someone who is comfortable working asynchronously and into early evening hours to maximize face time.
Rating: 4.5/5
P.S. If you employ over fifty people in PH(you’re incorporated there). You need a nurse on staff.
Next it’s….India