All-Remote Founder Liam Martin Thinks Wages Of Software Developers Will Go Down Due To New Remote Working Mode
What used to be a prerogative for developers, content creators and consultants is now an opportunity in pretty much every sector. Remote work is a new way of doing things. It is now changing how the global workspace operates. With the world’s biggest digital players like Facebook, Google, and Twitter leading the wave, the trend is showing no signs of slowing down, and more companies and sectors will follow. During RemoteCon by How to Web, the conference dedicated to this new work mode, we had the chance to talk to someone who’s been starting remote businesses for over a decade and gain some insights into how this new normality will change the bigger picture – economy, job market, etc.
Liam Martin is the co-founder and CMO of TimeDoctor.com and Staff.com. After graduating with a masters in Sociology from McGill University, Liam opened a small tutoring company that grew to over 100 employees and looked to solve a problem with remote employees not reporting accurate work data, which turned into Staff.com. He consults on outsourcing and process design and is passionate about how to gain insights into the inner workings of how people work. Here’s what he expects to see once geography starts playing a more minor role.
Developers’ salaries will go down in San Francisco and grow in SEE
“I actually believe that the salaries of developers will go down in the next two years. The reason will be the geographical location that historically has been connected to the high priced developer jobs, which are now open to anyone. We hired a developer who was among the top 5 finalists at a Facebook hackathon 6 years ago. He had an offer from Facebook for $500K a year and from Google for $350K, but they decided to work with us for $65K because we allowed the person to stay in Bangladesh, where he was from, instead of relocating him,” shares his experience Liam. According to him 53% of the developers in San Francisco are immigrants, who are brought to San Francisco because of the old school beliefs of the companies that have hired them and thought they need to see them to make sure they are working. All these assumptions have now been wiped clean.
This, however, will also change the game for companies that have relied on this and used “remote” as their USP towards talent, admits Liam Martin. As a result of this restructuring of the job market, the founder believes, that the wages of developers in the recognized tech hubs like New York, Silicon Valley, or London will decrease, while the standards and wages in developing countries, SEE region including, will grow.
Remote opens up opportunities for many different professionals in SEE
After the vaccine, we are going to see a huge increase in the amount of digital nomadism and people who work from their computer while traveling, or just not having to relocate to get the desired job, Liam thinks. “About six months after COVID-19, the companies will start doing assessments of productivity of the workers in comparison to their small control. They are going to discover that there’s no difference whether a person is hired in Romania or somewhere else around the globe. They are going to rethink their geographically locked up HR processes and find out that there are amazing people in countries like Romania where you can hire just the right people if you have the right HR process. I think we’ll see much more equal job opportunities, which I’m very passionate about,” he concludes.
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