How to actually get a remote job as an intermediate developer?

Work for a company that has several offices that are geographically spread out. This is a good indicator that the company has already developed the necessary prereqs (good code collaboration tools, everything is a videoconference by default, annual all-company occasions, travel policies that make cross-team sessions easy) to accommodate remote work. Once you know they have the pieces in place, remote work is a really easy sell. Sell it to your manager/director, not HR.

I would not want to work remotely for a company that hasn't gotten used to distributed workers yet.

I don't know a generic solution, I just can say what I did:

1. I quit my office job.

Worked there for about 7 years. I saved some money and got unemployment benefits (60% of my previous salary) so I had 1 year to do nothing.

2. I did some OSS stuff

OSS teams are almost all remote and they love contributors. So it's not hard to find some and ... well contribute?

It's an easy way to get into a remote team.

I didn't do it for long, because I don't like maintenance dev stuff, which working on Firefox stuff basically is if you a contributor for Mozilla, haha.

3. Do some remote studying

I started a master in computer science at a remote university here in Germany. They had two mandatory programming projects I had to do with a remote team of other students.

We did much coordination via slack, hangouts etc.

This was also a good way to get into the remote workflow.

4. Post your CV online and wait

I saved money for 2 years, so after one year of OSS and remote projects, I posted my CV on some recruiting sites (Angellist, Stackoverflow, etc.) and waited.

Took 3 months till I started my first remote job. Talked to 5-6 companies. Some never called back, some took 2 months to tell me they want/don't want me.

5. Worked remote for 2 years

I worked remote for 2 years in a startup that was about 300km away from me. Went there every 2 months for a day or two. They were rather picky with their remote employees and always tried to persuade me into working in-office. One day they they lost a investor and had to let a few people go, since I was the only remote guy left, I guess they simply wanted to get rid of me, haha. So I got fired.

6. Started freelancing

With >2 years of remote experience and >10 years of general developer experience, I started freelancing.

Got 2 projects. One I found by pure luck online in some project small directory and one in the company where my girlfriend works. Both don't care how and where I work.

In my case I freelanced/contracted for 2 years before applying for a full remote gig. Those contract gigs gave me a diverse set of skills to show off on my resume. It did help immensely that prior to those 2 years freelancing I worked for 3 years as a intermediate dev for a company that in the last 6 months of my time there went into remote friendly. I took that opportunity to travel to Europe for 2 months which got me in the front page of one of our national newspapers. That factoid that I include in my resume catches a lot of attention and engenders a lot of trust. I've been working remotely for 6 months now a this new gig and it's been great. :)

Well, only if you apply to jobs and at least make the admins think you try to get something new.

Right. That network cable goes all the way to Bangladesh. Average programmer hourly wage in Bangladesh:

https://www.google.com/search?q=average+programmer+hourly+wa...

I clicked on the second link:

http://www.salaryexplorer.com/hourly-wage.php?loc=18&loctype...

   Maximum: 698 BDT / hr
   Average: 326 BDT / hr
   Median: 279 BDT / hr
   Minimum: 58 BDT / hr

In dollars that is:

   Maximum: $8.6 / hr
   Average: $4.0 / hr
   Median: $3.4 / hr
   Minimum: $0.72 / hr

I bet you're looking for more than them. But when they go remote, aren't you competing with them?

I would say it is easier to become remote if you are already working with a company that knows you. As for establishing such a relationship, I kind of agree with codingdave's advice in this thread.