The close relationship between North American companies and their Mexican counterparts goes beyond the labor force or exports of cheap factory labor or raw materials.

With a talented workforce for creative and technological areas, México is prepared to work through agile thinking with the technical skills to evolve beyond the assembly lines that have characterized developing countries.

The educational and cultural context in México, where young people seek to work as engineers and specialists in physics-mathematics, trains professionals with competitive expectations in salaries at the same quality as their counterparts anywhere in the world, specifically in information technology.

This is growing rapidly, and México is more than ready to continue exporting its national talent in engineering, specifically in information technology.

One reality is that there is a kind of Mexican Dream: earning in dollars and spending in Mexican pesos (the local currency). There are social reasons in which even fellow nationals who have lived abroad prefer to return to their country of origin but at the same time find it challenging to achieve their desired income in local jobs, as pointed out by academic papers.

In other words, in Mexico, a population is prepared and hungry for employment for large international companies. In addition, to get attractive salaries. Especially in science and technology, North American and European companies could find a vast talent pool to recruit on nearshore locations.

The possibilities are more attractive if we consider that the average salaries in Mexico for Engineers are up to 4.5 times lower than those in the United States (according to Glassdoor averages), yet still perform better than the national average and are more attractive to the best professionals on nearshore.

This is how a Nearshore solution is a win-win for Mexican talent and North American companies searching for software developers.

The rise of graduates in systems in Mexico

In Mexico, the bulk of government-sponsored high schools (which are the cheapest and the best opportunity for In Mexico, the bulk of government-sponsored high schools (which are the cheapest and the best opportunity for students for lower classes) are usually oriented to the physical-mathematical area. And this is the starting point from which several young people with ease for math and science- seek to professionalize for a better income.

A recent article from the business newspaper El Financiero, with data from the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO), indicates that university graduates in information technology and computer science are among the ten best paid, making them highly sought after. Therefore, there are a large number of graduates.

According to data from the most recent study by the Mexican statistical agency (INEGI), in Mexico,o there are almost a million people with studies in computer science and IT, consisting of 68% male and 32% female. The study says:

They work mainly in a subordinate and paid way (86%), followed by those who work on their own (10%) and those who are employers (3%); the rest are unpaid workers.

If we interpret the data somewhat, in Mexico, 10% of the specialists are freelancers, and 86% are already employees, making them susceptible to better working conditions from an international company.

As an aside, 43% have training in computer science and 57% in IT, while of the 976,000 people mentioned above, 78% are working. So there is another opportunity to attract specialists who are on a break for particular reasons from work.

Data from the most recent National Survey of Economic Occupation (also from INEGI) indicate that more than half of these professionals (56%) are under 35 years old, and the largest group is especially the youngest, recently graduated (20 – 24 years old). ). It is a significant talent pool ready to hire American or European companies.

The Mexican opportunity

As a curious fact, the average monthly salary for IT or Computer Science graduates in Mexico ranges between $13,000 and 15,000 pesos per month, according to the same IMCO, which would be equivalent to around USD 660 according to the type of currency change (peso – USD) from the end of 2021.

To compare this figure with its counterpart in the United States. Let’s have a look at Glassdoor, the web reference about employers and working conditions that is fed every day with voluntary data from thousands of users.

The average data from Glassdoor indicates that engineering professionals in Mexico -in a broad way- are in a similar salary range as reported by the IMCO, placing it at USD 53,000 a year.

Mexican talent becomes quite attractive in IT and Software for North American employers at a midpoint.

In Mexico, university studies in Computer Science have 4 to 5 years of duration. Professionals who have just graduated or are about to finish will be immense. If we consider that according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Education, there were more than 170,00 computer science graduates in 2018.

Cultural affinity and time

Unlike other areas with valuable hiring potential, such as India, in Mexico, tech hubs such as Aguascalientes are in similar time slots (one or two hours apart), which solves an essential part of the collaboration between international companies and the Mexican talent.

Also, the cultural affinity between Western nations removes friction when working.

The Ideal Partner in Nearshore Software Development

The talent available year after year and the experienced professionals searching for better salary opportunities make Mexico the ideal location for North American companies to find Nearshore solutions.

Digitalhype, a diverse and bicultural Mexican-American company, connects multinational companies with great national talent from the heart of the country: Aguascalientes.

It is located in the geographic center of Mexico. Digitalhype can attract professionals emanating from two large local universities with graduates of TI and CS. and easily find talent from all over the country.

Digitalhype solutions are ideal for growing startups looking to strengthen their ranks with top specialists in a culture of agility and flexibility.

They support you in recruiting and hiring talent. Digitalhype is a software company with experience in nearshore services such as the development process at its nearshore delivery center.

You can learn more on the Digitalhype website, the Nearshore solution for North American companies.