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

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

#91

Post by vladvasiliu »

cosmodisk wrote: post #82
xwolfi wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but then you have to work with French people, which is a tradeoff I wouldnt do anymore, as a French myself :p

I was finding it quite ok to work with French,some were even fanatic about their work. What I liked most about them was that none of them drank cool-aid and could easily spot corporate BS.

> What I liked most about them was that none of them drank cool-aid and could easily spot corporate BS.

This may be true, but the issue I usually have is that they seem to not do anything about it. Not "rocking the boat" and "yessir" are quite common approaches here, to the point that a lot of people are under very high amounts of stress.

Disclaimer: I've never worked outside of France, so I don't know how people here actually compare to other places.

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

#92

Post by [deleted] »

severino wrote: post #74
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #50

> 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…

[deleted]

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

#94

Post by datavirtue »

bencollier49 wrote: post #66
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> COVID has generally proven to both employers and employees that productivity doesn't drop that much. I know this is the popular sentiment pushed by remote work fans, but in offline contexts I hear the polar opposite: Productivity struggles are ubiquitous during COVID WFH. Even the most pro-remote people are quick to admit that COVID WFH is not like normal WFH. Some places even had school closures which meant parent…

I completely agree with this. Certain phases of work and types of teams do alright remotely - typically a team with a lot of senior engineers in mid-project flow with few external dependencies. But a team with a significant number of juniors, faced with multiple blockers or external dependencies will underperform badly compared to in-person working. Whole days will go missing because of a lack of effective communicat…

"But a team with a significant number of juniors, faced with multiple blockers or external dependencies will underperform badly compared to in-person working."

So, like every corporation.

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

#96

Post by bryguy32403 »

severino wrote: post #74
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #50

> 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…

> the people who do prefer WFH are sensitive about any suggestions that it isn’t universally superior.

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

#98

Post by acwan93 »

I'll give you an anecdote for my company (we're a software firm with developers, support staff, and sales reps):

We offered hybrid and remote options to all of our employees once lockdowns ended. All of them (except for one) wanted to come back full-time, with some notable exceptions for hybrid. Some employees have kids so they went hybrid, but once schools reopened they all went back full-time in the office. The lone person was extremely freaked out about COVID and still wants to do full-remote, and he's now working hybrid where when he's in the office he's in an isolated room away from us.

All of them disliked the lack of communication while remote. We implemented Teams, had our daily/weekly standups over video chat, and talked a lot using remote tools. But that significantly slowed things down and it was hard to figure out what people were doing.

Remote does have a place, but I think hybrid is the way to go.

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

#99

Post by rfurmani »

You're definitely not the only one! We [1] have been in-person in San Francisco predominantly, at first due to visa sponsorship rules, but also due to the energy you get at a fast moving early stage startup, allowing us to scale super fast. We've had to constantly evaluate whether we are making the right decision, especially as we say no to really talented people who are remote, but some of our early engineers put their foot down and let us know that they chose us /because/ we were in person. And time and again we've seen that there's plenty of people like you who want to be around people and feel connected to everything happening, especially those who are looking at series A/B startups. Frankly, it also just seems that you need to be a lot more rigid, focusing on specs, structure, documentation, when remote-first and that is not as fun when hacking. We of course are flexible about work from home, or traveling to see family or be in other places, but last time I was with family I definitely noticed that working over zoom and slack was way more exhausting.

[1] https://parafin.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/buildparafin

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

#100

Post by agumonkey »

pawelwentpawel wrote: post #39
niemenmaa wrote: post #24

Before pandemic I started working remotely and soon noticed that, like OP, working alone doesn't suit me. I solved this by joining a co-working hub that offers offices to remote workers / entrepreneurs. My employer pays for the hub membership. I drive to our offices around once a month, but rest of the time I sit in a room with an accountant and gym owner. They are fun to chat and go to lunch with but they don't inte…

This is an excellent example of the difference between "working from home" and "working remotely". Those two terms unfortunately are used interchangeably as synonyms.

Maybe 'working anywhere' would be simpler than 'remote' to the average person.
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