Beyond Hiring: Gabriel Hernández’s Impact at Mismo

Mismo thrives on the strength of its exceptional team. We provide top-tier remote software development teams that seamlessly integrate with companies worldwide, driving exceptional results. Many organizations have partnered with Mismo to augment their development capabilities and achieve their technology goals.

At the heart of these successful teams are the talented individuals who make Mismo what it is. We’re committed to celebrating our remarkable employees and their invaluable contributions to our company culture. Our employee spotlights showcase the genuine relationships we’ve forged with team members and clients, highlighting their dedication and the positive impact they have on our collaborative environment.

Tell us a little about yourself: Hi! I really enjoy connecting with people and bringing positive energy. I consider myself a curious person, so I’m always eager to learn new things.

What initially attracted you to your job (what you currently do in the Ops Team) and how have you found inspiration in what you do? I would say it’s the opportunity to work closely with people and be part of something that’s constantly evolving. I appreciate that it isn’t just one repetitive task, but a dynamic environment where you need to think, adapt, and collaborate.
What truly keeps me inspired is the impact you can have on someone’s life. Sometimes you don’t fully realize it, but a job change can completely transform a person’s situation—their growth, confidence, and even their personal life.
What initially attracted me to recruitment was my background in psychology and my passion for helping people. I enjoyed supporting individuals with their mental health, and I saw recruitment as another way to make a positive impact by helping people find fulfilling opportunities while assisting companies in building strong teams. The opportunity to connect talented individuals with companies where they can thrive has been incredibly rewarding. Additionally, seeing the impact of my work on both candidates and organizations continues to inspire me to strive for excellence in what I do.

What innovation or achievement have you participated in that you consider to be a milestone in your professional career? One achievement I consider a major milestone in my career was improving how I approach finding and connecting with talent. Instead of simply following a traditional process, I began focusing on being more intentional with my outreach, gaining a deeper understanding of people, and building genuine connections.
I also had the opportunity to work on a recruitment project in Japan that marked a pivotal moment in my career. Immersing myself in a new culture not only expanded my professional horizons but also deepened my passion for this work. Exploring the intricacies of Japanese business practices sparked a strong interest in cross-cultural learning and reinforced my belief in the transformative power of understanding and respecting diverse perspectives. This experience enriched my role as a recruiter, highlighting the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability in building successful connections between candidates and companies from different backgrounds.

What made you choose Mismo? The people and the environment. From the beginning, it felt like a place where you can truly be yourself while collaborating and growing at the same time.
I also appreciate that it’s a fast-paced environment where you’re constantly learning and being challenged, while still feeling supported by the team. That balance has made a big difference for me. It doesn’t feel like just another job—it feels like a place where I can develop and genuinely enjoy the process.
I was drawn to Mismo because of its nurturing culture, strong emphasis on mental well-being, impressive clientele, and supportive work environment. Here, employees are not just valued but celebrated; collaboration is not only encouraged but deeply ingrained. The diversity of clients also brings stimulating challenges. It’s a place where personal and professional growth naturally come together, making every day a rewarding experience.

How would you describe the work environment at Mismo? A fast-paced environment where you’re constantly learning and being challenged, while still feeling supported by the team.
At Mismo, the work environment is exceptional. The supportive atmosphere encourages collaboration and personal growth. The HR team goes above and beyond to ensure employee well-being, while strong leadership provides clear guidance and fosters a positive culture. Being part of such a dynamic team also pushes you to grow and continuously strive for excellence, making it an ideal place to flourish both personally and professionally.

What learning and development opportunities have you had at Mismo and how have you utilized these opportunities to grow as a professional? I’ve had the opportunity to learn a great deal through hands-on experience and by working closely with different people across the team. Being in a fast-paced environment has pushed me to adapt quickly, improve my communication, and be more intentional in how I approach my work.
I’ve also learned to embrace feedback and day-to-day challenges as opportunities for growth, rather than obstacles.
At Mismo, I’ve been fortunate to benefit from coaching sessions with both my leader and colleagues, which have been instrumental in my professional development. These sessions have provided personalized guidance and feedback, helping me refine my skills, overcome challenges, and set achievable goals. Additionally, collaborating with colleagues through peer coaching has encouraged knowledge sharing and mutual support, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

What aspects of working at Mismo’s Ops Team make you proud and motivate you in your daily tasks? What makes me feel proud is being part of a team that truly supports one another and works toward a common goal. It’s clear that people genuinely care about doing things well and creating a positive environment. What motivates me day to day is knowing that even the small things I do contribute to something bigger—whether it’s helping things run more smoothly or supporting others. Being surrounded by driven and positive people also pushes me to keep improving and bring my best every day.
Our collaborative efforts, innovative mindset, and supportive leadership create an environment where every task becomes an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Knowing that our work directly contributes to the success of the organization fills me with pride and inspires me to give my best effort each day.

How do you believe the company and engineering can positively impact the world, people’s lives, and make a difference in their respective industries? By continuing to focus on people, both internally and externally. When you create opportunities, support growth, and connect the right people with the right paths, you’re not just impacting a business—you’re impacting lives.
As a recruitment company, Mismo has a unique opportunity to positively impact individuals’ lives while contributing to the success of companies. Through our work, we’re able to match talented individuals with opportunities that align with their skills, passions, and aspirations. By helping candidates find fulfilling roles, we empower them to pursue meaningful careers and achieve their professional goals, ultimately enhancing their quality of life.
At the same time, our role in helping companies build their teams allows us to support organizations in achieving their objectives and driving innovation. By sourcing top talent and facilitating successful hires, we contribute to the growth and success of businesses, helping them thrive in their respective industries.

What Mismo policies or practices have helped you improve your work-life balance? I appreciate special activities and team meetings on different occasions, as they help break the routine and create a more balanced and enjoyable environment. Along with that, there’s a general understanding that people have lives outside of work, which makes it easier to stay motivated and bring positive energy every day.
One of the standout policies at Mismo that greatly supports my work-life balance is the company’s approach to accommodating holidays and time zones relevant to my country whenever possible. This policy acknowledges the diverse backgrounds and needs of employees, allowing me to better align my work schedule with important local holidays and time zone differences.

What inspiring advice would you give to someone considering a career in Ops or looking to join a company like Mismo? Be open to learning and stay adaptable. Environments like this move fast, so having the right mindset and a willingness to grow makes a big difference.
Also, don’t underestimate the value of being genuine and building real connections with people. Skills are important, but your attitude, energy, and how you collaborate with others can truly set you apart.
Finally, trust the process. You won’t have everything figured out from the beginning, but if you stay consistent and open, you’ll find your way and create opportunities for yourself.
Joining a company like Mismo presents a unique opportunity for both personal and professional growth. It offers a dynamic environment where each day brings new challenges and opportunities to innovate. The strong emphasis on collaboration fosters a supportive culture where teamwork is valued, and you’ll have the chance to work alongside talented colleagues who are passionate about making a difference.

What tools or technologies do you use most frequently in your daily work at Mismo? I regularly use a variety of tools to stay organized, communicate effectively, and manage my daily tasks. I’ve also been incorporating AI tools into my work, particularly to improve efficiency, streamline certain processes, and refine how I approach different tasks.
For me, these tools are about enhancing the way I work rather than replacing it. I still prioritize being intentional and thoughtful in everything I do, but leveraging technology allows me to be more productive and deliver stronger results.

Employer Blog

How to Hire Great Engineers in the Age of LLMs

A practical playbook for modern engineering leaders

Not long ago, hiring an engineer was relatively predictable.

You gave candidates a take-home project.
You reviewed their repository.
You looked for clean architecture, thoughtful test coverage, and signs that they could work independently.

That process worked because writing production-quality code required time, repetition, and experience. The output itself was the signal.

Today, that signal is broken.

A well-prompted AI agent can complete what used to be a two-week take-home assignment in minutes. Boilerplate is instant. Scaffolding is automatic. Even complex integrations can be generated on demand.

So the hiring question has fundamentally changed.

It is no longer:

“Can this person write good code?”

It is now:

“Can this person think clearly, make good decisions, and deliver real outcomes in an AI-native environment?”

That shift is forcing every CTO, VP of Engineering, and founder to redesign how they evaluate talent.

The Big Shift: Code Output Is No Longer the Primary Signal

In the pre-LLM world, reviewing code told you almost everything you needed to know. The structure of a project reflected how someone thought. The way they handled edge cases showed their experience. Their test strategy revealed their maturity.

Now two candidates can submit nearly identical solutions.

One deeply understands the system they built.
The other simply accepted what an AI generated.

If you evaluate only the output, you cannot tell the difference.

That is why the strongest engineering organizations have moved their interviews away from static artifacts and toward dynamic observation. They are no longer trying to measure how fast someone types or how much syntax they remember. They are trying to understand how someone:

breaks down an ambiguous problem
collaborates with AI tools
validates correctness
makes trade-offs under time pressure
communicates their reasoning

In other words, the process has become more important than the product.

What High-Performing Hiring Processes Look Like Now

Live, progressive build sessions reveal real capability

One of the most effective modern interview formats is a short live session that begins with a deceptively simple task and gradually introduces real-world complexity.

At first, the problem is trivial. A strong candidate can solve it in one prompt.

But then new constraints appear:

performance requirements
data consistency issues
integration challenges
evolving product needs

This forces candidates to move beyond generation into engineering.

In this environment, you are not judging whether they “get to the final answer.” You are watching how they:

decide what to build first
use AI to accelerate without losing control
recover when something breaks
explain their own code

That is exactly what the job requires.

AI-integrated architecture interviews test real job readiness

Traditional system design interviews often test theoretical knowledge. Modern teams are replacing them with practical discussions that center on building features that actually use LLMs.

Instead of asking someone to “design a scalable chat app,” leading companies are asking:

“How would you design a document processing workflow that uses an LLM to extract structured data?”

This immediately reveals whether a candidate understands:

how LLMs behave in production
how to manage latency and cost
when to use structured outputs
how to evaluate reliability
how to design fallbacks

It also shows how they handle feedback. In real engineering environments, ideas are challenged constantly. The ability to defend, adapt, and refine a plan is far more valuable than reciting patterns.

AI interaction transcripts show how engineers actually think

One of the most interesting new evaluation tools is asking candidates to submit their AI session history along with their code.

This shifts the focus from:

“What did you build?”
to
“How did you build it?”

When you read a transcript, you can see:

whether they decompose problems into logical steps
how specific and intentional their prompts are
how quickly they detect incorrect output
whether they blindly accept or actively shape results

Two repositories can look identical.
Two thought processes rarely are.

This has become one of the highest-signal evaluation methods in AI-native teams.

Real work trials still work, but the success metrics have changed

Paid work trials remain the most reliable predictor of success because they simulate the real environment: your codebase, your communication style, your product constraints.

However, what you measure during that trial is different now.

You are not counting lines of code. You are observing:

how quickly someone produces production-quality pull requests
whether they follow your existing patterns without being told
the quality of the questions they ask
their ability to operate autonomously in an async team
how clearly they communicate progress and blockers

This is particularly important for distributed teams, where delivery speed and clarity matter more than interview performance.

The Skills That Matter Most in AI-Native Engineers

Fundamentals still determine who actually benefits from AI

There is a misconception that AI reduces the need for strong engineering foundations.

In reality, it magnifies the difference.

Strong engineers use AI to move faster because they know what “correct” looks like. They can detect subtle bugs, challenge inefficient solutions, and refactor generated code into something production-ready.

Weak engineers become dependent on AI without understanding what it produces. They generate more code, but deliver less value.

The simplest way to test this is to ask a candidate to walk through their own implementation line by line. If they truly understand it, their explanations will be precise and confident. If they do not, the gaps appear immediately.

Tooling fluency is the new productivity multiplier

Great engineers have always cared deeply about their tools. That has not changed. What has changed is how visible this is.

You can now observe:

how they structure prompts
how they iterate on outputs
how they combine multiple tools
how they validate results

The best candidates are intentional. They do not treat AI as magic. They treat it as a system they control.

This translates directly into day-to-day productivity.

Builder energy is the fastest screening filter

In a 30-minute conversation, one question eliminates the majority of candidates:

“What have you built recently using AI in a real environment?”

People who are excited about their craft will have an immediate, detailed answer. They will talk about trade-offs, failures, iterations, and learnings.

People who are not will speak in generalities.

In a market where resumes are increasingly similar, genuine builder behavior is one of the strongest differentiators.

Why You Should Not Ban AI in Interviews

Some organizations respond to this shift by trying to remove AI from the interview process.

This is a mistake.

That approach evaluates a world that no longer exists.

Your engineers will use AI every day on the job. The goal of the interview is not to test whether they can work without it. The goal is to test whether they can use it intelligently.

The future belongs to engineers who produce better outcomes because of AI, not in spite of it.

What This Means for Global Hiring and LATAM Teams

As AI reduces the importance of manual coding speed, the global talent pool becomes dramatically more competitive.

Time zone alignment, communication skills, ownership mentality, and delivery consistency now matter more than ever.

This is one of the reasons companies hiring in Latin America are seeing outsized results.

Engineers in the region are often:

deeply experienced in remote collaboration
comfortable working in async environments
focused on shipping real product rather than optimizing for interview performance

When your hiring process evaluates thinking, execution, and real-world delivery, these strengths become obvious.

A Modern AI-Native Hiring Framework

A hiring process that consistently produces high-quality outcomes typically includes:

A short builder screen that looks for real projects and depth of explanation.
A system design discussion centered on an actual LLM-powered feature.
A live build session where AI is allowed and the workflow is observed.
A paid work trial that measures real delivery inside your environment.

This structure aligns the interview with the job itself, which is the most reliable way to make strong hiring decisions.

Your Hiring Process Is Now Your Competitive Advantage

Every company has access to the same models.

Every engineer has access to the same tools.

The differentiator is no longer the technology.

It is your ability to identify and attract the people who use that technology best.

Organizations that redesign their hiring around thinking, tool fluency, and real delivery will consistently hire from the top tier of global talent.

Those that continue to evaluate for a pre-AI world will struggle, no matter how strong their brand is.

How Mismo Helps Companies Hire AI-Ready Engineers

At Mismo, we help companies hire engineers in Latin America who are already operating in this new reality.

They are not just strong coders. They are:

fluent in modern AI workflows
experienced in real-time collaboration with US teams
focused on shipping production outcomes

If you are rethinking your hiring strategy for the LLM era, we can help you design a process that identifies the right talent and integrates them quickly into your team.