Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#21

Post by ravinizme » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 7:31 AM UTC

ccajas wrote: post #18

ravinizme wrote: post #6

As a person leading a remote first company. I believe that it is first depends on the company and leadership culture. If they look at you as an "outside" help, they will less trust you with important roles and responsibilities. I have two suggestions: 1. From my experience even a week on site can make a huge difference. Is it a possibility for you to reach to the office? 2. Try to understand more about the bigger pic…

Hi, I work for a small-medium business and while the whole business isn't remote first, but the particular project I'm on is. Should I plan my Skype meetings more carefully, and rehearse some important things to say? Right now I'm a contractor and the first step that I want to achieve is becoming a full-time worker. They only have me on for 100 hours or so, no retainer. I'm still at the first third of those 100 hours…

I understand. IMHO, it's a different situation than a remote worker that want to lead and take more responsibilities.

It is more similar to an hourly worker that want to move to a full time role.

I think you should do two things:

1. Share with your direct contact that you see your future in the company and want to have a full time remote position with the company. Being clear/communicative is very important.

2. Give them more value in the first 100 hours than they paid for. It will show a higher margin on value for cost for you. Something that will be harder to check later on when you're a full time employee. Try to understand what did they want to gain from the bank of 100 hours, and over achieve it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#22

Post by dlphn___xyz » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 9:27 AM UTC

its impossible - remote workers are seen as outside contractors. you're hired to do a specific job/ task not run the business

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#23

Post by anon_lead_dev » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 11:14 AM UTC

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #15

thih9 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the guy who would work weekends Even in this context this doesn’t seem a good idea; it might as well lead to burnout or similar.

Another way to look at that you can choose to work weekends until you don't have to. I've certainly done that in the past. I don't know if I recommend it, as even if you don't burn out, it's not much of a life unless you love the work.

Yeah, I didn't say work hard on weekends, but rather, work smarter, take 2-3 hours to review things, advance things etc. Of course if you're the guy who can "save the demo" by working 18h straight on a weekend it helps too.

And of course, never work for free. Even those extra weekend hours, make sure you get paid for them. This is a huge part on getting and maintaining respect from your employer.

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#24

Post by sharma_pradeep » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 3:10 PM UTC

By writing and speaking

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#25

Post by CameronBarre » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

You have to take accountability for your own path. Choose to evolve your role, and if there is resistance, find someone to work with who you're more compatible with.

Re: Ask HN: How do you move up in professional status as a remote worker?

#26

Post by gremlinsinc » Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 4:31 AM UTC

This is my game plan. I freelance my rates have been edging up.. started at $30/hr now at $50. Hoping to get them to $90 by next year.

I'm in the same boat sort my game plan is:

1. Schedule bots to post on reddit in all the forhire subreddits w/ alternating message templates. This gets me new leads and sometimes people find me from stuff I posted a few months ago.

2. Write 2-3 blog posts per week on medium, w/ a blurb about who I am and how to hire me. These should be VERY technical and thorough. Some of these posts have made me a could hundred $$ just from media partner program so it's definitely not wasted time.

3. Write a book. This is something I'm wanting to do when I get the time, haven't yet. Something targeting your target market (for me that's just SaaS entrepreneurs, so I might do a book on building and scaling a SaaS business eventually.)

4. Keep your resume and public github active and maintained. The better your online presence the more likely you are to get hired.

5. Eventually word of mouth should be your #1 source of new gigs if freelancing, so build the warm market as you can.

I also feel stuck quite often, and I don't always meet my goals for self-marketing. But I have seen things grow a bit, and am hoping it continues. I think the key is just consistency.

Some other things be sure to post to all the HN who's hiring/looking-for-work/freelancer-seeking-freelancer.

If you want a remote gig there are plenty out there, and if you can land one with a big company like gitlab then name recognition could lift you up.

Also places like toptal can get you decent pay but I'm reluctant to go through their lengthy on-boarding so haven't tested them myself.