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Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

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Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#21

Post by astura »

remote_gal wrote: post #20
remote_gal wrote: post #19

Working remotely pretty much destroyed my career for two reasons: (1) my networking opportunities plummeted to zero and (2) I was fired for reasons I believe could have been avoided if I had worked in an office and had stronger relationships with more co-workers. My remote job was at a fully distributed company with good compensation. I worked there for about five years, receiving only positive reviews. Groups in the…

The last thing I'll add since edits don't seem to be working ... My advice to you is that unless you are at the end of your career, or value working from home over your career prospects for family or health reasons, avoid working 100% remotely, even in fully distributed companies. The ideal is a situation where you work in an office, but have a flexible schedule where you can work from home 1-2 days a week, or 1-2 mo…

New users can't edit posts after they get up votes.

I presume it's to prevent a throw away account editing an insightful comment into spam.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#22

Post by mattbgates »

In my time as a remote worker, long story short, working 6 AM to 2 AM for the media. About a year and a half later, they basically told everyone: "Move and come into the office or get laid off." They claimed it would be better for communication, but still kept 2 offices, one in the middle of the country, and one more of the Western part of the country.

About 100 or so people were laid off. Me and one other person moved across the country and now work in an office. Hasn't done anything to better our communication. However, I can't complain.

I went from being a remote work with no health benefits, no vacation time, no 401k. It certainly had its advantages: I could go out and travel to different places, and as long as I had an Internet connection by 6 PM - 2 AM EST, everything was great.

As for moving into the office: they paid for my relocation, added 401k, health benefits, other benefits, paid vacation time, salary negotiation, and at least I only live about 5 minutes from my job.

So... I was upset to no longer work from home, but on the bright side: I got moved to a place where I could actually afford to buy a house. Got to experience driving across the country. Can't say it harmed my career at all, but on the other side of the bright side: I have a house that I don't get to be in for 8-9 hours a day.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#23

Post by ravenstine »

remote_gal wrote: post #19

Working remotely pretty much destroyed my career for two reasons: (1) my networking opportunities plummeted to zero and (2) I was fired for reasons I believe could have been avoided if I had worked in an office and had stronger relationships with more co-workers. My remote job was at a fully distributed company with good compensation. I worked there for about five years, receiving only positive reviews. Groups in the…

It's both fortunate and unfortunate that forming relationships with people has more impact on job security than actual performance. That's been my experience, anyway. It works on at least two tiers; people in charge of companies are inclined to hire people they like(we're all tribalistic human apes), and even if they end up not liking you they will hesitate to fire you if that choice will be unpopular with the rest of your team.

I know that analysis seems Machiavellian to some extent, but it's the honest truth. Society is never going to be a true meritocracy unless it's run by robots(and even then probably not), but I wouldn't want it to be like that anyway. As humans, we should be allowed to have other redeeming qualities work for us as long as we are forced to work for a living.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#24

Post by sudonim »

It's important to look at the company you're joining and how they are organized. Are they truly committed to building a distributed company? Where are the centers of gravity in the team? Have other people who are remote been promoted to management roles?

For our company of 30 people (I'm CEO), we're committed to being remote-first (we still have 5 people colocated at the HQ). However, the HQ is not our center of gravity. We've hired and promoted people who are not in or near HQ. They are Directors and VPs and the lead fully distributed teams. My goal is for us to provide more opportunity, give you more interesting work to do, and help you advance your career relative to other opportunities you might find where you are.

There's no way it's the same as being colocated in the bay area, but overall we think we can provide a more fulfilling life both inside and outside of work.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#26

Post by user5994461 »

remote_gal wrote: post #19

Working remotely pretty much destroyed my career for two reasons: (1) my networking opportunities plummeted to zero and (2) I was fired for reasons I believe could have been avoided if I had worked in an office and had stronger relationships with more co-workers. My remote job was at a fully distributed company with good compensation. I worked there for about five years, receiving only positive reviews. Groups in the…

No job and no project is forever. 5 years is a lot, many times the average.

If it can make you feel better, an in office situation would probably have gone the same. Companies and team changes slowly over time, people move on.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#27

Post by dclaw »

I'm 10.5 years in, and I think what really killed my career growth opportunities is the cost/benefit analysis of going back into an office. Far too many jobs still require you to be present to warm a seat. And depending on location, my estimates are $10-15k+ in costs alone for transportation and food (lunch), and that doesn't even take into account potential childcare and other costs. The first credible job offer I've received in several years only wanted to up my pay by about that amount, and my existing employer nearly matched it, upping the bar even further.

This is of course on top of the social deficiencies of working from home, and lack of networking opportunities that it presents. It gets lonely sitting at home all day, even if there is family around. That's not the same as having like-minded coworkers to speak to.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#28

Post by scarface74 »

I worked remotely as a contractor years ago. It didn't last long. I blame myself completely and looking back, I lacked the maturity and emotional intelligence to do so successfully.

The second time I worked remotely a few years later, I officially worked at a satellite office but my team was located about two hours away. I did great with my own team but couldn't break through the politics and old boys club - not really old boys but they all hung out and had unofficial meetings and all of my ideas had to go through officials channels.

This time around, I usually work remotely 2 or 3 days a week. I'm the tech lead for my department but I also need to get some coding done. I over communicate with higher ups just so they know what I'm working on. With the level of autonomy I have it's easy to silo myself and bring code and ideas from down high if I am not disciplined.

I also notice anytime I'm not there for awhile, like when I went on vacation for a week, a bunch of contracting consultants started pushing their ideas around and were derailing our architecture based on their "theories". I have to be in the office to make sure I keep things on track.

In the positions I usually go for now, face time is important. It's a balancing act between getting things done and building relationships.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#29

Post by mnm1 »

idbehold wrote: post #10
_sdegutis wrote: post #5

Absolutely it has for me. For 5 years I worked on a video store website as the sole developer, every few months having the two founders drop by to look over my code and tell me how terrible it was. Living in a remote suburb of the city, I didn't have the ability to go to meet-ups or build a network (outside of LinkedIn, which doesn't really count). So now I'm out of a job for the past 9 months, and don't have a netwo…

This is my fear if I ever decided to work remotely. It's not the initial job, it's what my job prospects would be if that first job ever fell through.

That's why I moved just outside of a major city. While I plan to work remotely for the rest of my life--and optimized for that--I'm still close enough to a city with plenty of on-site opportunities and meetups should the need arise. To me, settling down far from a city, even with a remote job, simply doesn't make any sense. There's no way I'm going to be working at the same place for the next thirty years, and while remote is optional, there should be other opportunities in the area in case remote doesn't work out.

Re: Ask HN: Has working remotely harmed your career growth?

#30

Post by alkonaut »

dclaw wrote: post #27

I'm 10.5 years in, and I think what really killed my career growth opportunities is the cost/benefit analysis of going back into an office. Far too many jobs still require you to be present to warm a seat. And depending on location, my estimates are $10-15k+ in costs alone for transportation and food (lunch), and that doesn't even take into account potential childcare and other costs. The first credible job offer I'v…

Exactly the same for me. I’m a bit stagnated but well compensated - the problem is that the step from working at home and averaging maybe 7h/day with no commute to being “the new guy” who is expected to be at the office 8h plus commuting 1-2h...

It’s both a blessing and a curse. I want to switch jobs but can’t imagine actually being away from home 10h per day again.

I’m going to look for something semi-remote, but it seems hard to find.

Edit: I should add I started the remote period when I had kids, and it means I can drop them off at 8 and pick them up at 4 and get a full days work done with zero time wasted in commute, and all evenings together with family. So while my job satisfaction isn’t the best, my overall satisfaction is good. Will rethink when kids are old enough to go to/from school by themselves.

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