Meet our Freelancers: Luiz, Software Developer, Brazil

At Scalable Path, we’ve been working with Latin American developers for over a decade, helping them secure positions with companies in the U.S. and around the world. 

We didn’t set out to establish such a large network here; rather, it grew organically, and over time we realized there were many benefits of working with LatAm talent. The overlap in time zones makes it easy for U.S. companies to work with talent in this region. There are also a lot of cultural similarities. We’ve always found it easy to build authentic, effective relationships with LatAm developers. 

Our U.S. clients benefit from and are excited about working with Scalable Path developers. And we’ve been fortunate to observe inspiring, uplifting personal stories from the developers we work with. For many, working with a U.S. company can be literally life changing. Differences in cost of living and exchange rate means that U.S. companies can pay higher wages than local ones. As well, remote work provides developers with flexibility, improving their work-life balance. They have more freedom to work the hours that make sense for their lifestyle, and have additional freedom in selecting where they live. What’s more, gaining international employment helps developers build their profile and resume, appealing to other companies within the global job market and helping them to build a secure, reliable career path. 

In this series, we want to share the stories of developers from our talent network. In it, we interview developers working with clients from around the world, highlight some of the projects they’ve worked on, and share their insights for other developers looking to break into the U.S. software development market. 

Watch our featured freelancer, Luiz here:

Luiz, we’re excited to feature you in our first-ever Developer Spotlight! Can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and how you came to find software development?

I’ve lived my whole life in Rio de Janeiro. My family and I like to joke because I’ve moved around so much in this city. With my mother, I moved 12 times. Then, when I moved out at 18, I moved a couple more times. I love this city, though. 

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs. I had this image of leaving Rio, going to the middle of the desert to be alone and dig up dinosaur bones. But that changed when I learned about software development. 

My aunt was always giving me magazines to read. One day, when I was eight or so, she gave me a magazine about design. And I saw that a JavaScript designer was making what seemed like lots of money. I don’t remember how much; all I remember thinking was that I was poor, I liked computers, and that JavaScript made a lot of money. I didn’t know how much money paleontologists made, but from that point on my dream changed.