- Lean Leverage by Go Carpathian
- Posts
- 5 Roles You Should Stop Hiring in the U.S.
5 Roles You Should Stop Hiring in the U.S.
The talent isn’t missing. You’re just looking in the wrong place.
Not interested in hearing from Lean Leverage or Go Carpathian?
Unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.
I will never get tired of saying this:
You need to hire people where the right skills and motivation already exist!
A while back, I was talking to a friend who runs a small tech company.
He needed to hire several C# developers (not an easy role to fill). It’s highly technical, very specific, and in the U.S., extremely expensive.
Like most small companies, he simply couldn’t justify U.S. dev rates.
Then he told me something that stopped me in my tracks.
In Nepal, high school students learn C# as part of their curriculum.
So he did what most founders don’t even consider:
He outsourced nearly 90% of his development work to Nepal.
And suddenly:
He had access to skilled, motivated developers
He could scale without burning cash
And he was paying a fraction of U.S. rates
The talent is out there.
You’re just searching in the wrong place.
Here are 5 roles you should seriously reconsider hiring in the U.S.
This one is the easiest win.
Most founders use EAs for:
inbox + calendar management
travel coordination
research
light ops + follow-ups
None of that requires a U.S. salary.
Typical compensation
Role | U.S. | |
VA / EA | $3200 - $4800 / month | $900 - $3000/ month |
What Colombian VAs & EAs bring
5–10+ years supporting founders & execs
Fluent English (with neutral accents)
Strong tools stack: Notion, Slack, GSuite, ClickUp
Proactive problem solvers with familiarity with US expectations
Timezone overlap for real-time collaboration
Savings: $28k per hire, per year.
U.S.-based ops roles have become some of the most overpriced positions in growing companies.
The reality:
Ops ≠ strategy
Ops = execution, systems, accountability
Typical compensation
Role | U.S. | |
Ops / PM | $5,200 - $10,000 / month | $1,700 - $4,500 / month |
Our Serbian Ops Managers aren’t just 70% cheaper…
They’ve led cross-functional teams remotely
Built SOPs from scratch
Have deep experience in ClickUp, Asana, Monday, Jira
Comfortable managing U.S. teams across time zones
The project managers we place bring structure to chaos. They create accountability, clarity, and momentum so you can focus on growth instead of micromanagement.
If your SDR role is:
outbound email
LinkedIn prospecting
qualification + booking
There is zero reason it needs to be U.S.-based.
Typical compensation
Role | U.S. | |
SDR | $4,200 - $6,500 / month | $1,000 - $3,000 / month |
What our elite South African SDRs bring
Proven outbound frameworks
CRM-native (HubSpot, Salesforce, GHL)
Strong written + spoken English
Comfortable selling into the U.S. and EU markets
Skeptical? Meet Nicholas, one of the top-performing SDRs from Cape Town (click here to meet Nic).
4. Copywriters
This one surprises people.
Yes, great copywriters exist outside the U.S.
And many of them write better conversion-focused copy than expensive “brand” writers.
Typical compensation
Role | U.S. | |
Copywriter | $6200 - $10600 / month | $850 - $4000 / month |
What our South African Copywriters bring to the table
Direct-response experience
Email, landing page, ad, and funnel copy
Revenue-backed samples and strong portfolios
Deep familiarity with U.S. audiences
Good copy takes great communication, native English, and a deep understanding of consumer psychology, and our South African Copywriters have all 3.
5. Media Buyers
This is where payroll waste really adds up.
Founders assume media buyers need to be local.
They don’t.
They need:
analytics
pattern recognition
discipline
accountability
Typical compensation
Role | U.S. | |
Media Buyer | $4,500 - $11,200 / month | $2,000 - $6,000 / month |
What Eastern European Media Buyers are achieving
$500k–$5M+ in managed monthly spend
Meta, Google, TikTok experience
Structured testing frameworks
Clear reporting tied to revenue
Our best media buyers are basically mini-CEOs for your account.
Hiring globally doesn’t mean cutting corners.
It means allocating payroll where it actually matters.
You should only pay U.S. rates when proximity matters.
For everything else?
Build globally. Operate smarter. Scale faster.
And the best part is that if you’re hiring for any of these roles, we can help you:
source pre-vetted candidates
validate skills and experience
and avoid expensive hiring mistakes
👉 Book a call with our recruitment specialists
👉 Or reply to this email with the role you’re hiring for
We’ll show you what great talent actually looks like.
Until next time,
![]() |

Nathan Fales
Nathan Fales is an award-winning entrepreneur and social impact leader who’s spent the last three years helping U.S. businesses build high-performing teams across the globe. His Lean Leverage recruitment model has helped dozens of entrepreneurs hire smarter, scale faster, and achieve stronger ROI through world-class talent.
