Hi all,
I’m an American living in Brazil. I work in AI at a Brazilian firm on a Brazilian contract.
So here’s the thing: Before I accepted this current work contract it was a real struggle for me. I was thinking to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if I was earning in US Dollars down here, that would surely give me an advantage.” I tried applying for US jobs but there simply not a lot of firms that want to hire an employee living in Brazil. I tried following a bunch of digital nomads on Instagram and they keep talking about how easy it is to make passive income digital marketing or on PInterest, or some other site, I just can’t understand how I could get involved with something like that. I tried freelancing on Upwork in my area and couldn’t find many opportunities. I tried looking on remoteok and other digital nomad sites where programmers could get hired. There were barely any postings that went to AI. And most of them went to very senior front end developers with LOTS of years if experience. Finally I applied to local jobs down here and got an offer.
Which brings me to my question, how exactly do you guys make money as digital nomads? It seems like everyone but me has a get rich quick scheme going on or some digitial marketing thing and I just can’t get it. Are people lying and just getting some money on the side from their parents or something?
I am a digital nomad, work as a sales manager in a UK startup selling SaaS globally. I am 45 years old, with impeccable education (PhD) and career record. I worked as a software developer while studying, worked as a software developer in my field of study (Agriculture) mainly on data warehousing and analysis and changed to project management and sales roles after 35. I came here by really working hard. Sleeping in my office, one thankless job function after the other. Crunching weekends. Long deadly boring meetings. “I am accepting your vacation inquiry but take your work laptop with you and answer your emails” bosses. All this in bright and shiny and ohh so workforce friendly Europe. After you eat all this shit, you reach a level finding yourself in a job interview where you can really ask for things. Money is the usual bit and everybody needs it but what I asked for was never having to come to an office ever. So here I am, since five years I was at the headquarter offices maybe for a total of 20 days. I still spend 10+ hours in front of a computer a day. I am free to roam around the world as long as I am connected, yet I live in a shore village in Turkey at Mediterranean most of the time. This summer I went to swim maybe five times. It is not all shiny and sparkly but I wake up on a bed with a sea view. Now I have yet to see all those boys and girls on insta and linkedin giving advice on going nomad and remote working and acting like making crazy amounts of money while sipping their margheritas on a beach really making the kind of money I make. The ones I see around me are either faking it to sell their image in some way (courses, coaching, wire marketing, ponzi schemes) or they are somewhat rich from their families and don’t really need to hold a job anyway. There will be the one odd rockstar software guru that works 2 hours a day making millions but you are not that guy. Possibly never will be.