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Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

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Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#41

Post by accraze »

moconnor wrote: post #18

I’ve worked remotely for 15 years, variously in a bustling major city with a startup scene and currently do so in a small seaside town a few minutes from the beach. Quality of life depends where in life you are. City is better for meeting people, seaside town for raising children. Remote work is generally good for work-life balance, nobody cares if I stay at home with a sick child or finish early for a school play, b…

Are you me? I also work in ML and am raising a child in a small seaside town. Your comments are very similar to my experience. I was told going remote and leaving the city was career suicide, but it's been quite the opposite. The amount of assumed travel (pre-covid) was a bummer and often happened at inconvenient times at multiple companies, but I still wouldn't trade it. I never talk about tech outside of work, which is nice, although a little lonely at times. In some ways I think my worldview has broadened by not living in a tech hub anymore. Work-life balance is super healthy, I don't spend as much time in front of screens anymore either. The pros totally outweigh the cons in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#42

Post by zaptheimpaler »

iainctduncan wrote: post #24

I've done it a bunch of times. The big thing to be aware of is that managing remote people requires better management skills, so you need a boss who cares about doing it right. I had two experiences go sideways, in both cases my manager got stressed and busy, and because I was their only remote report, they did a crappy job. Prior to them getting too busy to do a good job, it was fine. It really is a lot better if th…

Can you elaborate a bit more on the pitch as a a Canadian?

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#43

Post by ghaff »

cheriot wrote: post #35
iainctduncan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but has to be weighed against the fact that you may land a job that is a better fit for your skill set, which I would argue trumps everything. Remote allows you to find work where you're a star, IFF you're willing to hunt for it. This is more likely to matter if you already have other career skills though (i.e. mature applicants transitioning from other work)

For an early career engineer I'd argue finding the highest quality coworkers is the highest priority. Even if it's in a stack that's not one's first choice. So much of this profession is rules of thumb and best practices that we learn from our colleagues. Then for a mid-career engineer I think your statement becomes accurate.

I'm fully remote these days and have gotten more and more remote over the past 20 years. That said, it's hard for me to imagine being in that situation out of school even taking into account much different times and communication mechanisms.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#44

Post by JohnBooty »

I've worked remotely for almost four years now. I'm in a suburb of a large US city on the East coast, not really a tech city.

It's... fine? I guess?

I guess I never really thought about doing this job in a "non-tech" city, versus doing it in a "tech" city.

I'm not entirely sure what the difference would be in a "tech" city. If you're into the startup scene, or simply really enjoy local hacker stuff like local user groups, maker spaces, etc then doing a remote tech job in a non-descript suburb would surely suuuuuuuuuck. Those aren't big factors for me though. I have friends and family here, and I satisfy my urge to connect with the larger "tech community" online and thru my team at work.

As far as working from home in general, I love it. It's not for everybody. For most people I believe it's 1000% healthier than commuting if you have a full and healthy life outside of work and your job provides at least a modicum of community via daily video calls, etc. It's just a simple math equation: there are a fixed number of hours in a week. Since I switched to remote work, I spend less hours commuting and thus I have more time for sleep, other pursuits, exercise, friends, etc.

Not everybody feels the same about remote work and that's fine. You will quickly discover if it's for you!

Unexpected hurdles?

1. Feeling like you're "always at work". Enforce some kind of physical space for work time. If you don't have a separate office, it can even just be a particular chair at the dining room table that is reserved for "work time." 2. General lack of respect from friends and family assuming that "work from home" means. They think you aren't working, or you can just completely make your own schedule, leave work on a Tuesday afternoon to drive Aunt Sally to the dentist, etc. For folks who've never worked from home it can be hard for them to wrap their heads around it.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#45

Post by wsinks »

nonameiguess wrote: post #7
flyoverremote wrote: post #5

Pro: I make more than the mayor of our city and it's not a small city, nor is it a city in a doom loop of decline. Con: That's after convincing the first remote salary position that I had the right stuff nearly ten years back, and then enduring the neverending stress of making sure I delivered on every front so I could be established as a remote engineer and not be capped by the limited opportunity in this fly-over s…

I would have never even thought to check until reading this, but apparently I make more than both the mayor of Dallas and the governor of Texas? I'm surprised they aren't paid more than they are. I suppose people who go into politics tend to already be rich and this is just another reason why.

I can't believe that the Mayor of SF gets paid a $350k salary. I did not realize that.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#46

Post by GordonS »

I've worked remotely for several years; I've lost count, but at least ten. Before that, I was about 75% remote for 5 years or so.

I live in semi-rural Scotland, so about as far away from a tech centre as it gets :)

My experience has been entirely positive, but I should add that I'm an introvert.

No commuting has obvious benefits - more sleep and/or family time, and cost savings from transport. For some, those cost savings can be pretty substantial.

Being able to have breakfast and lunch with the family (I have 2 young kids) is also great. It also means I can help out here and there, such as watching the kids for a short period while my other half gets stuff done.

I'm the kind of person that prefers a quiet space to work in - and in an open office (which is invariably the norm) there is always at least one really loud person who paces back and forth while speaking loudly in conf calls! I have a home office that's just perfect, with a door and everything! If you're going to work from home, I think a dedicated workspace should be a priority, as long as you have physical space of course.

I don't have any regrets, and doubt I'd ever return to an office environment, unless it was 1 day in 10 or something like that.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#47

Post by nicobn »

I've been working remotely on/off for the past decade and vastly prefer it to commuting to an office. It has afforded me the opportunity to live in a corner of the world that I truly love: a quiet and remote 20+ acres property in rural Colorado.

In my experience, the key is to work for a company that is remote-first (or even remote-only), because it will be structured accordingly. I've never worked on a team that's partially remote - I can imagine that could cause friction and a certain degree of alienation.

I would also add that there is definitely an advantage to being on-premises and in a tech hub for an engineer that is at the beginning of their career: easier access to mentoring and learning opportunities, creating a professional network, meeting friends, etc.. It's a tradeoff.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#48

Post by blobbers »

Just my suspicion but I think the big thing is going to be what happens when you leave your remote job and try to find a new one.

At the moment, in Silicon Valley, that answer is pretty obvious. . . you can find another job. Outside of silicon valley it's going to be curious to see what happens when you quit your remote job at Google and try to find another one.

My suspicion is the RSU package is not going to be as generous. This is just my suspicion.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#49

Post by coldwaraaron »

I've been working remote for 7 years. Mostly in small towns in Texas, but a couple in a big city. It was fun and good for awhile. It got lonely and hard after year 5. I didn't do a good job of getting enough rest and time away from work, and got burned out. It took 3 months of part time to get back to normal.

Your team has a big impact on your well-being. If they encourage healthy work/life balance and you have a healthy routine, you'll be better off than if they encourage longer hours and more, more, more.

Very thankful with where I am now, though. I've spent this afternoon working on a patio at a little cafe in the downtown area of a small town. That's pretty amazing.

Re: Ask HN: Remote workers in a non-tech city, what's your experience?

#50

Post by fjabre »

I wouldn't trade my remote work for anything in the world. It's incredibly rewarding. The flexibility this allows for is unparalleled by any other single benefit a job can offer other than salary perhaps.

It's given me so much freedom and independence in life. Source: I'm what most people would consider an introvert and I've been working from home since 2006.

I currently reside in a sleepy mountain town in California and I couldn't be happier here.

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