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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?

#111

Post by pc86 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #90

I suspect it depends on where you live. I live in Massachusetts, but because I live too far away from Boston, I need to primarily work remote. (And, oh, I'd much rather be in the office 80-90% of the time.) Believe me, it's easier to get an in-person job than a remote job! Most positions that I see still want staff primarily in-house. Do you live in the Bay Area, or in a generally high cost of living area? I suspect…

I've seen this for Boston specifically, and a bit for New York, but I don't think it generalizes. I live in a MCOL area and 90%+ of the jobs I see are remote. Controlling for the ones outright lying and the ones that think remote means coming into a main office every MWF, let's call it 75% are actually remote. However, most of the jobs I've seen posted from Boston companies seem to require in-person for some reason. And a large number (30-40% or more) of NYC ones I've seen have this weird "remote until COVID is over" nonsense.

Maybe it's a northeastern thing? I saw it a bit in Philadelphia too but much smaller sample size there.

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

#113

Post by chrsig »

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…

This is the real crux. It's not that people who hate wfh want to be in the office, it's that people that hate wfh want me to be in the office.

It's not that one's superior to the other, it's that one wants to force itself on the other.

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

#114

Post by sokoloff »

jdavis703 wrote: post #77
WJW wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> vaxxed folks should feel safe going out

This might be over-estimating the numeracy and relative risk-judgment of people.

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

#115

Post by chrsig »

sdevonoes wrote: post #42

Don't get it. Even if remote is becoming more common, the vast majority of tech jobs out there are not 100% remote. Note: a lot of companies are advertising themselves as "100% remote while corona lasts" though.

> Note: a lot of companies are advertising themselves as "100% remote while corona lasts" though.

This is the thing that gets me...Haven't people in tech figured out how exponential growth works? Covid isn't going away, ever.

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

#116

Post by 65 »

Just want to say you are not alone. I too want to have a place to go. Whether it's a co-working space or an office for the company I work for, waking up and working in the same place every day is slowly driving me crazy.

The WFH people are probably the most vocal online (especially on Reddit as subreddits tend to create echo-chambers), so it feels as though _everyone_ wants to work from home, but ultimately I think/hope most people understand the social benefits of working in an office.

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

#117

Post by dragonwriter »

chrsig wrote: post #115
sdevonoes wrote: post #42

Don't get it. Even if remote is becoming more common, the vast majority of tech jobs out there are not 100% remote. Note: a lot of companies are advertising themselves as "100% remote while corona lasts" though.

> Note: a lot of companies are advertising themselves as "100% remote while corona lasts" though. This is the thing that gets me...Haven't people in tech figured out how exponential growth works? Covid isn't going away, ever.

> Haven't people in tech figured out how exponential growth works?

Mostly, it doesn't. Pretty much all initially-apparent exponential growth in things that aren't human-created abstractions is, at best, logistic if conditions are constant, and usually is just the net of a large number of Ransome events that averages to that growth curve, but features gambler’s ruin and collapse to zero eventually, or collapse to zero due to changing external conditions before it hits gambler’s ruin.

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

#118

Post by cmrdporcupine »

kjgkjhfkjf wrote: post #26

Apply to work at Google. They have never embraced WFH and probably never will.

At our site (Google Waterloo) we're nowhere close to a return to office. In fact with numbers skyrocketing here we just rolled back a bunch. Most people are still fully remote. I was working hybrid coming in 2-3 days a week but nobody was ever there to collaborate with. People on the whole seem to want to return to office but not with the way things are. Many people seem fine with remote.

I'm not. My motivation suffered. I need contact and engagement. And driving in 45 minutes to sit at a desk with nobody around didn't help. So I put in my notice and after 10 years at Google this week is my last and I'll be looking for a job where I can be more engaged again, which unfortunately also probably means compensation cut.

Even the BigCorps are stuck in a remote morass. But even worse because they're not fully committed to it.

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

#119

Post by throwaway2037 »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #27
fer wrote: 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.

Similar happened to me with Stripe, an out of left field "by the way we need you in the office for 3/4 days per week when we return". Goodbye and good luck.

To throw shade (probably will get some down votes here!), I would have nodded my head in agreement... but keep your samurai sword close at hand. When they start to push you to return to office can use all sorts of stalling tactics. At worst, make up some crazy situation where you "need" to WFH due to elder-care/illness-care/single-parent-child-care. As long as you are highly productive, it will be hard for them to fire you. If they are especially horrible and pressure-cooker-like, start looking for your next role. Plus, you'll have Stripe on your CV!

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

#120

Post by burlesona »

You’re not alone. My startup is specifically going against the trend and trying to hire in just two locations (Austin and SF), because our founding group feels the same as you. So far when we’ve been recruiting people we lead with “we have two offices and strongly prefer candidates work in one of them.” It either ends the conversation or is our #1 selling point.

I think over time the market will discover what percentage of people want remote and which percent want in-person, and then whatever that percentage is, the distribution of companies going remote or not will match.

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