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Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

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Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#71
post #65
post #53

I've been remote working for 12 years. My opinion as to a successful remote working relationship is as follows: - Trust. You need to build it on both sides. Your employer needs to trust you to deliver what they expect. You need to trust your employer to build their team to include you even though you're sometimes not so visible. - Space. Get yourself out of the home office and into a local coworking space. You'll tha…

What's the difference between being onsite and working 'remotely' at a coworking space?

How many interesting tech employers are based in Whistler?

For Whistler, substitute the tropical island, rural idyll, or cheap city you prefer.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#72
One easy thing I've found was to simply charge less. if you substract all your expenses - commute, office, lunch and coffee money, you can get away with charging a lot less. That way you can target a wider range of roles (roles that would pay too little for onsite work) and clients can justify your remote demands - they pay less than for onsite work.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#73
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I am currently working in one, where I'm the only remote guy. The already tried to replace me.

Yep - happened to me too. Was working in a team where everyone was working remotely. Then a few things went wrong and one of the directors blamed the "remoteness", set up an office, and gradually forced all the remote employees to either come to the office or get out.

Best people are always seeing the others as problems. ;)

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#74
As a "forever globbetrotting" remote worker, I wanted to share some thoughts about it with you.

First thing first: do NOT ask yourself what a company can do for you (remote ok or not), showcase yourself and what YOU can do for a company. Here is what I mean: I've been working two years in a company which is definitely not remote friendly. I wasn't even thinking about working remotely, but life is full of surprises. I'm now (remote) fullstack lead developer of that exact same company, having 2 offices with developers spread over the world. I participate meetings, answer my phone line as if I were with all of them. We all admit I'm way more productive at work, some (including my boss) saying I may be paying an Asian guy to be "answering every time they need me". It's not about convincing each historical company to be remote friendly, it's about these companies fit the market (as they always do to keep on making money) if they want to keep on hiring most talented professionals!

If you know your stuff, you are the lucky guy. Find the job YOU love, and find it where it is. Convince them you are the guy, be opened to spend one or two weeks with your team few times per year, wherever it is, and be clear that your teammates timezone is the one (yes, you may have to be online for a meeting at the middle of the night, but the week-end after while your colleagues will be somewhere fun not that far, you will be at Niagara Falls, visiting Dubai, or sailing a lagoon in the Indian Ocean). Then just do it, you will rock it, both of you being happy with it. And do not fear realizing you work better in an office with teammates.

Having to keep a budget while travelling, I would definitely NOT recommend to be freelancer without some recurring work from multiple well-known clients (who really pays). This is NOT something to treat lightly. No money: nothing good for you, and your family. Clients do NOT contact you just because you say you are good and your website is awesome (I've been running two companies for 10 years before, I promise I know my stuff). Consider it thoroughly with your wife, even if she makes enough money for the whole family. Many (but not all) freelancer testimonies are fakes or pure dreams, it's not rare digging around you will find them always staying in Asia because it's inexpensive and they do not make enough money to get elsewhere!

Last words, regarding freelancer stuff or nomadism, keep in mind this is getting huge nowadays, and becoming a business for a lot of people who just think about making money from you with fancy website you may need (or not). I'm pretty sure you will easily find links (if not some on this thread already). Just be conscious about what it really helps you to. Having "a community" to answer questions is free as you can see ;)

In a train from Aveiro to Porto, Portugal, I wish you fame and fortune for your career! But fortune may be enough ;)

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#75

I've been working for a 100% remote company for 4 years now, and I'd advise that you market yourself as someone that has done it before. Remote work is a skill set - the discipline to work a full day but not overwork, knowing the tools for communicating without seeing your coworkers more than a few times a year, and having built a space and culture in your home and family to be productive without letting the home lif…

Yes, having experience in something you get paid for is great for the person that pays you. But do you suggest lying for it? Looks a little like it. And I don't think that will work.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#77
post #53

I've been remote working for 12 years. My opinion as to a successful remote working relationship is as follows: - Trust. You need to build it on both sides. Your employer needs to trust you to deliver what they expect. You need to trust your employer to build their team to include you even though you're sometimes not so visible. - Space. Get yourself out of the home office and into a local coworking space. You'll tha…

Loved your advise. I've been working remotely for almost 2 years and will never go back to an office, but it's good to still have a relationship in a coworking space and weekly meetings with everyone.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#78
post #75

I've been working for a 100% remote company for 4 years now, and I'd advise that you market yourself as someone that has done it before. Remote work is a skill set - the discipline to work a full day but not overwork, knowing the tools for communicating without seeing your coworkers more than a few times a year, and having built a space and culture in your home and family to be productive without letting the home lif…

Yes, having experience in something you get paid for is great for the person that pays you. But do you suggest lying for it? Looks a little like it. And I don't think that will work.

wat. He said he has been doing it for a bit now, and is just looking for advice on how to keep doing it?

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#79

I have been working remotely for a few months now after spending many years in offices and I agree I am much more productive. You might want to check out https://www.toptal.com You might also like reading this book "Remote" written by BaseCamp founders. I read it last weekend and I think it's great.

My experience with Toptal wasn't great, I tried to join and got a programming puzzle for the first interview (actually an online coding test), which was barely tangential to actual programming experience. They also want you to complete an unpaid project, which I heard takes around 30 hours.

From my experience, they weren't puzzles. They were pretty straightforward to do if you are familiar with arrays and hashes/dictionaries and when to use which.

Re: Ask HN: How to make a career working remotely?

#80

One thing to look out for is remote-first companies, not just remote-ok companies. Zach Holman has a good post on this: https://zachholman.com/posts/remote-first/ If you're one of few people in the company working remotely (or worse: one of few in your team), you get cut off really easily. Remote practices won't be up to scratch (because most people aren't using them), meetings will happen in person and dialing you i…

Like many others I agree with this. My company is completely distributed (we prefer "distributed" over "remote" because we aren't remote from anything) and has employees in 50+ countries.

There was a pretty good book written a few years ago by a former employee of ours about how distributed work and culture go together: http://scottberkun.com/yearwithoutpants/

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