🌮 A recipe for remote success | Destination Guatemala OoO

Hey – Welcome Back!

If you like chocolate, cobblestone streets, volcanoes, motorbikes and great food – then you’re going to love this episode of Out of Office.

I’ve arrived in Antigua, Guatemala, a Central American country with a population of 18+ million people. It’s a place best known for its Mayan legacy, UNESCO World heritage site and vibrant food.

Translated Guatemala literally means, ‘land of many trees.’

This week on our On the Road tour I test my cooking skills with a local who’s been working remotely for more than seven years. I want to see if she’ll share her recipe for success with me over some authentic cuisine.

Let’s find out how remote work has changed her life -

The Ancient Capital: Antigua, Guatemala

Before meeting up with my guest, I had the chance to explore the heart of the city near the Santa Catalina Arch.

The city is surrounded by volcanos, dotted around the highlands. With the arch ahead of me and cobblestones lining the streets, it was quite something to see.

😛 The rest of Guatemala is cobblestone-free - in case you were wondering.

Antigua has been preserved, frozen in time since the 18^th century. This was a city known for its resilience. It was built on the ashes of the old capital that was destroyed after a volcanic eruption centuries ago.

So here I was, about to interview a local in one of the oldest looking cities I’d ever been in. A local, who in stark contrast, had mastered remote work - the most modern and innovative way to work today.

⏱️ Talk about the past meeting the future!

COVID-19 hurried the pace of remote work adoption in Guatemala, but it’s rare. Poor internet speeds make it a no-can-do in the more rural parts of the country.

Imagine being surrounded by tradition, having every reason to play it safe and get an office job – and you still choose to take a leap of faith and try remote work.

Now that’s resilience. 🤔 But what made her do it?

Let’s meet our trailblazer.

Ivina Acuña: Hungry for a Better Life

I met Ivina nearby and we headed off to the cooking class. On the way she told me that her family goes back generations in Guatemala. Her mother’s family moved here from Mexico, while her father’s family was native to the area.  

She has spent the last 7-8 years working remotely and is now a VP of Operations.

Ivina describes her job as processes, metrics and budgets. It was something she grew into, after being promoted twice in 5 years at the same remote company.  

Ivina’s Remote Work Reasons  

The best thing about remote work is that she can be with her family.

Because her schedule is flexible, she can manage the time she works, and plan her day around her kid’s school time.

This is life-changing for everyone in her family.

Ivina lives close to her kid’s school, so traffic isn’t an issue. This wouldn’t be possible if she had an office job.

Instead of waking up super early, and wasting time on a long commute or taking a bus ride to school – her kids have a better quality of life by being close to what matters.

💖 Time with her family is Ivina’s #1 reason why remote work is worth it

Here are second and third place:

💵 The money – there’s no denying the money is good

🎓 Learning new things everyday trains you to be great

The average salary in Guatemala City is about 4200 Quetzales or roughly $550 USD.

Working for an international company earning dollars, means that Ivina is earning way above the national average.

Remote Job Advice for Guatemalans

“It’s possible.”

When people ask if it’s better, she encourages them to try it and find out.

Ignore what other people are saying, and act.

🥘 A Cooking Lesson I’ll Never Forget

We arrived at Cuscun Cooking Workshop in Jocotenango village. What a location! A cooking school with a rooftop terrace that overlooks the Agua volcano.

Ivina and I were immediately put to work cooking classic Guatemalan dishes.

As we cooked, I asked her about local perceptions of her job as a remote worker for an international company.

“In the beginning, they were confused,” she told me, “Remote work isn’t that common.”

Her friends and family didn’t know how it worked, what she did, or even how she was paid. Many of her friends weren’t in the tech space, which further complicated things.

“You can manage your schedule,” she said, “but it’s different than doing whatever I want the whole day.”

Then the pandemic struck, and more people started to work remotely. They finally understood what Ivina had been doing.

“Some people like it, some others not much,” she said of remote work. They understand how she works now, why she enjoys it, and why the flexibility suits her.

“I have to be there for the kids, and I really enjoy it.”

Despite the challenges, confusion and mixed opinions, Ivina never wavered. She had found a way to work that fit in her life.

Ivina’s Recipe for Remote Success: Family Ties

Life would be completely different for Ivina if she didn’t have a remote career. I asked her some tough questions to find out what would change in her day-to-day life.

🎒 She would need a daycare and someone to be with the kids at night

🚌 She would have to pay for regular bus fare to and from school for them

🚷 They wouldn’t be able to do extracurricular activities after class

Remote work gives Ivina the flexibility to be with her family when they need her. She always knows where they are, that they’re learning and growing, and are taking advantage of the extra time they have every day.

It wouldn’t be that way if she had an office job.

😱 The Reality of Location-Based Work: Absence

Ivina left her previous position because of her newborn son. He was just two months old when her company had her working nights and weekends because they were building a new data center. It was necessary to prevent outages.

👶 She loved the work, and oversaw a big part of the build – but she never saw her newborn son. Even though she worked for one of the best companies in Guatemala, she was sad to leave him every day.

That’s when she decided to look for something from home. She found a Crossover ad, applied and the rest is ancient history.

That decision changed her life, and her family’s lives forever.

Since then, Ivina has worked tirelessly to improve and excel in her career. But she hasn’t had to sacrifice time with her family to do it – and it’s made her even more determined to succeed.

😋 As we rolled our Rellenitos together after filling them with chocolate and beans, I marveled at how far she’d come in such a short time. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was running the company in a few years! You can’t stop determination like that.

We sat on the rooftop terrace and ate the local food we’d cooked.

Delicious!

Old City: New Family Values

We’re used to food being about family, but work? Not so much.

Remote work really brings the two together, and through Ivina I could see someone who had found a better way to live for her family. As we said our goodbyes, it got me thinking about the other women I met in Guatemala.

I learned that many of them did the same thing as their grandmother did.

And while the idea of passing a family trade down the generations is beautiful, there are other ways to honor your family unit in an old city like Antigua.

Ivina’s remote career brought her family opportunities and a lifestyle that her abuelita could never have dreamed of. The lesson for me was simple.

If there’s a recipe for success in life, it starts with picking the right ingredients. And for Ivina, the missing ingredient was always remote work.

🥄 Oh, and her abuelita was a cook, by the way.

📣 Remote Workers: Tell Your Story on Out of Office!

Have you heard? I’m searching for the next group of remote workers to visit and interview in their home country.

Will it be you?

If you have an amazing remote work story to tell, and something unique for us to do together in your country, apply! I’ll reach out to everyone who does, and will choose the stories our community will value the most.

🌈 Next week – I slide through the weirdest restaurant I’ve ever been to with an amazing guest from El Salvador. Tune in next Thursday to meet her.

That’s it for this week – and remember – the future of work is Out of Office.

Andrew