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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?

#81

Post by osrec »

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #66
PerfectElement wrote: post #54

Working remotely and having more control over my schedule (they don't always come together) allowed me to work on my side project until it was making enough money to cover my living expenses. The only problem is that now, after running my own business for a few years, I cannot phantom the idea of going back to a regular job. In that sense, my career as an employee is over.

Same here. I was remote for some years then went freelance. Now, I can never imagine going back to a regular job. Being on my own time has allowed me to spend as much time as I like with my newborn son. Did it hurt my career prospecs? Most likely. Would I change anything I'd I could do it again? Absolutely not. For some people their work is their life, for me, family is everything.

Great stuff! I commend your attitude and wish more people adopted it. Do you have any side projects cooking away as well? I just ask, because there's a chance you may end up with a big win late in your career which evens out the finances against a regular day job.

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

#82

Post by bproven »

SerLava wrote: post #64
remote_gal wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Anyone have an opinion about 4 days remote, 1 day in office? (The whole company doing this)

Probably fine - you just want to remain visible. Honestly, I think every company should encourage at least a few days a week of WFH for stress, employee health, traffic reasons - especially in IT where there is often no reason not to. You still get your face time for collab. Society would be better off. I really wish companies were incentivized to do this - especially in the bay area.

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

#83

Post by wsc981 »

PerfectElement wrote: post #54

Working remotely and having more control over my schedule (they don't always come together) allowed me to work on my side project until it was making enough money to cover my living expenses. The only problem is that now, after running my own business for a few years, I cannot phantom the idea of going back to a regular job. In that sense, my career as an employee is over.

Starting next year, I plan on living in Thailand with girlfriend and daughter. From then on I plan to work remotely. We are currently building our house there and hopefully it will be finished around March. The house is pretty cheap and therefore will be paid for in full (no mortgage or loan).

While I work remotely I will try to make savings of at least 300.000 USD in the next few years. These savings will be, for the most part, be invested in index-funds. An average profit of 7% per year should be more than enough to cover our lives expenses. In reality we should be able to live while spending much less, so the index-funds should still increase in value year-on-year.

So in some way I hope to 'retire' before I reach my 40 years of age. So there will be little concern if I will stay employable. At the same time I hope that from then on I can focus on my own projects, just for fun and hopefully some profit.

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

#84

Post by Roritharr »

wsc981 wrote: post #83
PerfectElement wrote: post #54

Working remotely and having more control over my schedule (they don't always come together) allowed me to work on my side project until it was making enough money to cover my living expenses. The only problem is that now, after running my own business for a few years, I cannot phantom the idea of going back to a regular job. In that sense, my career as an employee is over.

Starting next year, I plan on living in Thailand with girlfriend and daughter. From then on I plan to work remotely. We are currently building our house there and hopefully it will be finished around March. The house is pretty cheap and therefore will be paid for in full (no mortgage or loan). While I work remotely I will try to make savings of at least 300.000 USD in the next few years. These savings will be, for th…

This sounds like bliss to me. How did you get the citizenship of Thailand?

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

#85

Post by wsc981 »

SerLava wrote: post #64
remote_gal wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Anyone have an opinion about 4 days remote, 1 day in office? (The whole company doing this)

In The Netherlands this is really quite common.

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

#86

Post by lsc »

escanda wrote: post #59
prepend wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? 5 years seems really long to me. A university is only 4 years. Changing companies every few years helps to expand networks and learn new skills.

Not really. Beware you can be easily replaced in your new company without any compensation. Risk is often not accounted for. If you're a twenty something it's ok, but imagine you're a parent of 3 and you have to switch jobs every two years: unbearable.

>Not really. Beware you can be easily replaced in your new company without any compensation. Risk is often not accounted for.

My perception is that the sort of people who stick around too long have a much harder time getting their next gig when their current job ends (as nearly all jobs do, sooner or later.)

Now, certainly, this has something to do with the fact that people who do badly in interviews tend to stick around longer once they do score a decent job, but I think it also has to do with the fact that interviewing and starting a new job is a skill, and improves with practice, like any other skill, and if you don't have any practice, and then suddenly have to interview in 'hard mode' [1] you are going to have a hard time.

I am one of those people who interviews better than their job performance would suggest, but even so, I personally would much rather swing for a better job while the economy is hot and get fired after a few months (and have to find a new job while unemployed in a hot economy) than ride a company all the way down during a downturn and then try to find a job while unemployed in a bad economy. Of course, that's not really a fair either/or; it's super hard to predict what companies will do well in the downturn while the economy is still doing well. I'm just saying that as long as the economy is hot, the consequences to losing your job tend to be small (unless you have a really serious problem with interviewing; I know some people that are actually really good programmers, but who are... disabled in that regard.) - when the economy is not hot, the consequences of losing your job are much greater.

[1]It's so much easier to get a better job while you have a job than it is to get a job after you've been laid off, both because the new employer will think less of you if you are currently unemployed and because you are dramatically more likely to get laid off when demand for your job role in the economy as a whole is reduced. Getting a programming job in 1999? super easy. getting a programming job in 2002? extremely difficult.

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

#87

Post by minor3rd »

avip wrote: post #55

The noticeable career effect for me was (and is) severe job opportunities pool shrinkage. I can't mentally go back to 9-5 @office - that translates to ~95% of jobs off the table.

I started working remote 80% of the time about 2 months ago and I'm getting to this point as well.

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

#88

Post by cyberferret »

PerfectElement wrote: post #54

Working remotely and having more control over my schedule (they don't always come together) allowed me to work on my side project until it was making enough money to cover my living expenses. The only problem is that now, after running my own business for a few years, I cannot phantom the idea of going back to a regular job. In that sense, my career as an employee is over.

After working for myself for > 30 years, and the last 10 remote - I think I am basically unemployable now. In the sense that, similar to yourself, I don't think I could ever work for someone again.

All the niggly details about office work in a big organisation now horrifies me. I had to assist a colleague with a government tender he was submitting last month, and even after one meeting with a government committee, I had to tell him I was out. Just spending a couple of hours in a meeting room with people that had no idea about anything going back and forth and playing politics and power broking almost had me running, screaming out of the room.

Its very similar to another scenario I am in. I haven't had television in our house for nearly 10 years, and every time I go to a friend's place and they have it on, I am astounded by the sheer volume and regularity of nonsense and ads being blared at you. When you are immersed in the situation day to day, it is easy to become numb to it and just accept it - but when you take an extended break from it and then come back, you really notice it.

And don't talk to me about commuting. I have friends that still regularly commute 2 hours each way every day for work. My commute is walking downstairs to my home office. I think of all that time people spend sitting in cars and public transport, and wonder about all the lost creative time they could be spending doing something with.

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

#89

Post by mariojv »

No, it hasn't harmed my career growth. My career hasn't been that long yet, though. Whether it harms yours depends on what you're optimizing for. It also depends on other career prospects where you want to live.

I've only worked for one company full-time after graduating and transferred to 100% remote after moving out of state for my spouse's work. In the span of time that I worked remotely, I became something equivalent to a maintainer ("core reviewer") on a decent-sized open source project, got promoted to a senior dev at a fairly large company, and helped launch an internal analytics service. I also have a network of former coworkers and open-source contributors that will help me find another remote job if I need one. My skill set is well-rounded, and I enjoy my job.

In terms of what I've given up, my salary is lower than what it would have been had I worked in a major hub like the SF Bay Area or Seattle. I probably pair program less than I would have otherwise. My soft skills have slightly weakened, but that may just be this profession. Outside of work, I've also had to work really hard to maintain a social life and stay mostly healthy. An extroverted spouse helps a lot. It's very easy to slip into not leaving the house or not exercising, and I've seen quite a few people develop both mental and physical health problems from the lifestyle. It's not for everyone.

However, costs of living where I am are much lower, so I feel very lucky. About 6 weeks time off next year is great, too. I've been fortunate enough to avoid the health problems I described earlier.

In any case, if you want to optimize for:

- Salary, regardless of cost of living - Larger professional network - Management track

then working in person in a tech hub is probably better.

If you prefer:

- Lots of freedom / setting your own schedule (mostly) - Extra time (0 commute, you can use that commute time to work more / improve your skills too) - Living wherever you want

then working remotely is pretty nice. Like other people mentioned, it's also very important to find a company that does remote well.

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

#90

Post by pretentiousPear »

Roritharr wrote: post #84
wsc981 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting next year, I plan on living in Thailand with girlfriend and daughter. From then on I plan to work remotely. We are currently building our house there and hopefully it will be finished around March. The house is pretty cheap and therefore will be paid for in full (no mortgage or loan). While I work remotely I will try to make savings of at least 300.000 USD in the next few years. These savings will be, for th…

This sounds like bliss to me. How did you get the citizenship of Thailand?

+1 it does sound great :)
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