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Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

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71–80 of 266 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#71
Problem with this is that you don't want to just work in an office, but also have other people from the company work with you at the office. It's different from people who prefer WFH because they don't care if the other guys also work remote or not.

Anyway, at this point of the pandemic, I'd still not feel comfortable having lunch with coworkers in a closed space. I just prefer to have lunch myself alone, or at home, than risking getting infected.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#72
For those saying there are many people working in office now (I've been remote for the last 2 years without an office to go into), are your offices requiring employees to wear masks in office? Are coworkers having lunch together?

There are definitely some things I miss about having the option to go into an office, but I think any enjoyment I may have derived from that in the past would be negated if myself and coworkers were masked at all times, and ate lunch separately.

I do think that's the responsible thing to do though. Unless working with a very small group of people, I imagine that would be the expectation for in-office workers now (especially with the Omicron variant spreading). Which makes me dislike the idea of working in-office even more.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#73
(shameless plug) I work at Yieldstreet. Our company is filled with people just like yourself. Our policy is 3 days a week from the office and 2 days remote, so obviously we tend to attract people who like working in an office - in person collaboration, grabbing lunch, etc.

We have engineering offices in NYC, Miami, Boston, Malta, and Brazil (Porto Alegre and Florianópolis). Many open engineering roles (recently raised a $150 million Series C) https://www.yieldstreet.com/careers/

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#74

> These days it's hard to find an in office job, and even when you do, it feels like that would be s red flag anyway, since WFH is seen as a perk by most, or realistically I worry I'm going to go in to the office and be the only one there. > Is it not as bad as I think? Are there places out there for weirdos like me? Preferring in-office work is actually very common. Take the news headlines and internet comments with…

> It’s just unpopular to say as much online these days because the people who do prefer WFH are sensitive about any suggestions that it isn’t universally superior.

Maybe it's because people WFH don't care at all if you want to spend 2 hours commuting, or that you don't mind getting covid by staying 8h a day in a closed office with tons of people. But people who doesn't want WFH, not only want to be in a office, they also want the other people in the company at the office too, because otherwise "I worry I'm going to go in to the office and be the only one there".

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#75

For those saying there are many people working in office now (I've been remote for the last 2 years without an office to go into), are your offices requiring employees to wear masks in office? Are coworkers having lunch together? There are definitely some things I miss about having the option to go into an office, but I think any enjoyment I may have derived from that in the past would be negated if myself and cowork…

Yes we’re required to wear masks, be fully vaccinated and we still have lunch together. This varies by company though.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#76

Aren't there numerous companies trying to force a return to the office? Filtering by "Remote" on LinkedIn wipes out a lot of positions.

This isn’t as effective as you’d think. There are a ton of positions listed as a physical location, like “Portland, OR.” But then the job title has “(remote)” added to it and there’s no mention of any on-site work.

I think companies are doing this to just show up in more searches.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#77
post #65
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people don't have enough friends outside of employment.

Surely OP, who is "very extraverted" in their own words, would not lack friends outside of employment. Even if they did, they could always go out and make new ones.

People have become much more insular since the pandemic. I live in the night life district. Nearly two years in, the neighborhood is still clearly far less lively than in 2019, despite the fact that at least the businesses that didn’t go bankrupt have all reopened at 100% capacity, and our neighborhood has a 95%+ vaccination rate (meaning vax mandates aren’t keeping people in, and vaxxed folks should feel safe going out).

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#78
post #12

Strangely enough, I can't find a remote job (EU). Since the pandemic started I had about 10 solid offers BUT they did bait-and-switch to 1-2 days a week on-site, and I just find a PITA to move my family to get crumbs of remoteness. The ones I'm sure are fully remote tend to only like candidates who are 100% match, as the pool for remote is much bigger.

The latter point makes some sense and is a benefit often pitched to employers considering going remote.

On the general search, “EU” might not be specific enough, as different countries in EU still have wildly differing employment policies, some of which are uncompetitive when an employer can easily choose to avoid them. The Netherlands and France are both “EU” but worlds apart in terms of employment policies.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#79
post #14

> Are those days just over? Depending on your job function and industry. For tech, yes, those days are over for at least for another 5 to 10 years, is my guess. COVID has generally proven to both employers and employees that productivity doesn't drop that much. It will also weed out bad people managers who need to "see" people physically who need to "get a feel" as a management metric. The only major factor that woul…

I'd say it also depends a lot on location and its prevalent culture. Over here in France, most French companies (as opposed to US companies operating here) have to be dragged kicking and screaming into WfH arrangements. Ever since the pandemic started picking back up steam this autumn, the government was "encouraging" companies to allow people to work from home, but there were no firm directives. Most companies figur…

I can confirm this testimony. Managers and directors are doing everything they can to keep people in the building, despite more than 10% of employees testing positive for covid last week.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a job in 2021 if I dislike remote?

#80
post #13

I'm in the same boat. I found that becoming a regular in a coffee shop and working from there kinda works for me. I take my breaks with the baristas, have chats with other regulars, and I have access to good coffee. Sure, it's not the same as having colleagues but there's still human contact and you meet interesting people from different industries. Alternatively, I was thinking of joining a co-working space but for…

How do you take meetings? I’d love to work from a cafe. But I just have too many calls or people asking for help on a 1:1 to be comfortable being “that obnoxious guy” on the phone all the time.
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