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Ask HN: Where to look for junior level remote positions?

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Ask HN: Where to look for junior level remote positions?

#1

Post by oblomovshchina »

Hey everyone. To the point: I want to become a good programmer.

This year I went to a bootcamp and spent the rest of 2018 writing full-stack apps for my personal use/development. I've been using Linux on the desktop since 2006, and I am comfortable using new technologies and languages whenever needed. I believe and have been told by people in the industry that I am qualified for a junior or level 2 position as a software engineer. Getting a job seems like the obvious next step to keep accumulating experience, but there are two obstacles:

* I can only work remote, for a variety of reasons, and * I am not a Western citizen, which I believe disqualifies me from working for companies in the EU or North America.

I am not interested in what the salary might be: what I am looking for is experience and tasks with which to fill my days and occupy my mind. With this in mind, how do you think should I go about finding a 'job' under these circumstances, if its even feasible? I considered opening up shop by myself and offering pro-bono services to local charities/NGOs, but I feel like it would be an inefficient learning environment. Is it feasible to find a full-time 'post' in an open source project? Or does open-source work asynchronously as opposed to having team dynamics?

I don't even know where to begin looking for the answers to my questions.

tldr: third-world citizen wants a remote job, doesn't know where to look, has no prior work experience but is unconcerned with the salary, how to approach this situation?

Thank you

Re: Ask HN: Where to look for junior level remote positions?

#3

Post by xchaotic »

I can only work remote, for a variety of reasons - what are they? With a visa or some other arrangements you could work non remotely first, which would equip you better to working remotely later in your career. I am 100% remote now, but I believe the first few years non remote taught me a few thing about corporate culture and politics which are hard to guess from far away. If you gel with company culture well, that really helps, remote work or not.

If you start remote first, I don't think you have a good chance of picking up those subtle, soft things

Re: Ask HN: Where to look for junior level remote positions?

#4

Post by paktek123 »

You have a few options:

- try contracting (online) , have a portfolio to show clients of projects you worked on, charge a low rate to undercut the market. Difficult part will be to sell yourself due to lack of experience.

- find a remote job, very difficult due to junior dev status. Not many firms will hire a remote junior dev when they can hire non remote ones. You can maybe sell yourself but they might be disappointed at lack if experience

- find a non remote job, not sure what tech scene is like where your based but sometimes you have to travel or move out of comfort zone to achieve your desired career and passion.

- try another career outside IT, remote business admins etc are now a thing or whatever floats your boat

- start your own start up, not easy, very risky and without experience it'll be difficult but maybe try solving problems in your local community or city and sell that.

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