When the pandemic hit, Keith Lomas moved to Mexico to work remotely without telling his employer. Lomas wanted a higher quality of life and lower cost of living than he had in California. I plan to work remotely abroad again because I value affordable living and cultural exploration. .
This told essay is based on a conversation with Keith Romes, a 40-year-old technology professional living in California. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
I didn’t go to college after graduating from high school. Instead, I started applying for jobs right away in 2005. I love technology, video games, and Star Wars, so I wanted to work in that world.
By doing group interviews and seeing what other people did, I became good at interviews and landed a job in quality assurance at LucasArts. I had a six-month contract to work on the video game Star Wars Battlefront II.
I landed more contract roles at companies like Electronic Arts, Friend Finder, and eventually Meta and TikTok. In my first few contract roles, I lived in California.
On a few recent engagements, I worked remotely from Mexico without telling anyone, and I got it done.
I went on my first overseas trip while working at Friend Finder.
My salary at Friend Finder was enough to take me on my first overseas trip to Tokyo, and that was the beginning of my love of travel.
I stayed with Friend Finder until 2008 and then had a great opportunity. That was my first full-time job in Apple’s App Store division. I worked at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.
Launching the App Store required a lot of work and was a crazy schedule. I worked 80 hours a week and reached burnout.
I realized that I didn’t want work to be my entire life. I stayed there for two years and then decided to take another short contract and give myself more breaks at work.
In 2010 I re-entered the world of contract work.
I signed a contract with Google to work at the Google Play Store, doing the same quality assurance work I did at Apple. I worked at Google for almost a year and left in 2011.
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I then worked for six months at a video game company called Kabam in San Francisco, before leaving to take on a series of contract roles at Meta, working on developer operations and testing chatbots.
I worked as an analyst for Facebook’s News Feed feature, but I quit because I didn’t have a good work-life balance and felt burnt out.
After Meta, I spent 6 months working at Twitter headquarters on a project-based contract in 2016. I then decided to take a personal sabbatical to rebuild the organization.
In 2018, I returned to Meta for another contract role.
I realized I wanted a better quality of life and lower bills than in California.
I was considering dental treatment in Mexico because I heard that the costs are lower and the quality of life is higher there. I decided to move to Mexico in 2020, but I needed to figure out the logistics.
When the pandemic started, we were told that remote work would be mandatory. That made the decision to go to Mexico much easier. I started that contract in California and didn’t tell my boss about my decision to move to Mexico.
I moved with just a few belongings, set up a living and workstation in Cancun, and started working for Meta remotely from Mexico. There were no time zone issues.
The cost of living is incredibly high compared to California, and for me it was the whole package. We enjoyed the beach access, great food, apartment amenities, and friendly people.
My new life was very affordable
I could easily live on less than $1,200 a month. We lived in an Airbnb for the first year, and the cost was one-third to one-fifth of the cost of living in California.
At first, I was worried that there would be issues working remotely from another country, but once I got there, I immediately connected to Meta’s system. I didn’t need to use a VPN to work remotely, just a regular WiFi connection.
While in Mexico, my pets and I experienced two hurricanes, and both times the Wi-Fi connection was very good and we never lost data. The brook was perfect for holding meetings.
I had no problems working remotely abroad, so I no longer have to worry about it
While still in Mexico, I took a second contract job as an app marketing manager for Avalara, an automated sales tax compliance software company for businesses. I used my family’s address in California to apply for the position and did not tell Abalara that I lived in Mexico.
I had to fly back to California to pick up my company laptop, then flew back to Mexico. I don’t know if they were firing me for working quietly from another country, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
I was attending conferences from my villa in Mexico and loving life. I also traveled to cities near Mexico City, such as Guadalajara, and took short vacations frequently.
I held both jobs until December 2021, when my contract at Meta was completed. After that, I continued to work only in my role in Avalara.
A new job brought me back to America
In March 2022, I left Avalara and began a new contract role at TikTok. In October of that year, TikTok ordered me back to the office, and I returned to California to rebuild.
I didn’t want to leave Mexico, but I needed money from my TikTok job. He stayed on TikTok until February 2023.
I currently have two remote roles focused on content review and AI content in California.
I want to move abroad again
I plan on returning to Mexico or exploring other countries like Colombia, Japan, and the Philippines.
My salary averages about $40,000 per 6 month contract. I plan to start a side hustle in addition to my contract position to make more money and have more flexibility.
I would like to leave the US again for a better quality of life. Cheaper universal health care and the opportunity to explore different cultures are important to me.
