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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?

#171

Post by cprayingmantis »

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…

If you or anyone else has the time I'd love to talk about what in your opinion makes a great co-working space. Looking into setting up one in the rural region I'm in.

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

#172

Post by chrsig »

rsynnott wrote: post #143
chrsig wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I think you’re taking that a bit too literally. “While COVID is a massive office-closing problem” might be closer to the mark. Before Omicron showed up, a lot of places were moving to re-open everything mode. Omicron will slow that, but probably not by much.

Conversely, I think others are taking it too loosely.

There’s going to be a continual stream of new variants, and vaccines will always lag behind them. Reopening everything will always accelerate this.

Gathering is always going to be a mortal risk for the rest of our lives. I just wish the world would accept that and adapt rather than resign to it and downplay it.

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

#173

Post by benrogers »

amrox wrote: post #54

Find a company whose product is primarily physical. I work at a robotics company and much of our staff never went remote. My team is primarily remote but I’m actually hiring an on-site person for IT.

Agreed. I am also at a robotics company (see profile) and most of our staff only had a brief time at home and have been working onsite for almost all of 2021. I joined half way through the pandemic and was surprised to find that I was very happy to return to the office.

Our challenge, as I'm sure you've guessed, is finding smart, motivated people like yourself who would prefer to be in the office. We are finding that many people, even those local to our market, would prefer to WFH.

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

#174

Post by tinyhouse »

drakonka wrote: post #15
keraf wrote: 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…

I'm curious: how much do you end up spending on coffee while at the coffee shop, and in how many hours? I find sitting in a coffee shop with a laptop comes with the expectation that you'll keep buying coffee, food, _something_ at regular intervals (which of course makes sense). The accepted intervals tend to vary between coffee shops. I was also thinking of working from coffee shops more at some point, but then I won…

That's why Starbucks is so popular for work and some locations redesigned their sitting area to fit remote workers better. At Starbucks no one cares how much money you spend vs how long you're sitting there. I like working from coffee shops but it's more for a change of scenery for a few hours when I don't have meetings. Besides the meeting issue, it's not the most comfortable setup.

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

#175

Post by cmrdporcupine »

ultrasounder wrote: post #131
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 suffe…

If he’ll bent on getting back to work checkout Excelitas I’m your neck of the woods. I am in conference call with them every week and they are in the office and so am I. Or why not come work for our company. Molecular diagnostics is hard, not adtech and we need all the xooglers that we can take. A guy just relocated from st.Louis.

Thanks. I'm not in a rush, have some savings. Might start my own thing, but even if I don't, I likely won't do anything until after ski season. Relocation is off the table.

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

#176

Post by alecbz »

hindsightbias wrote: post #142
jspash wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"COVID has generally proven to both employers and employees that productivity doesn't drop that much" Is that a personal observation of yours, or has this now become "fact"? The reason I ask is that I would like to find studies - not just surveys or anecdotal evidence - that attempt to quantify the quality and productivity of WFH since the recently pandemic changes. At work, we've had countless discussions about this…

It’s close to two years. If WFH increased productivity, the entire front page of HN should be blitzed with studies and metrics proving that. But all we have anecdata from a population highly biased to lean introvert.

Tangent: I guess this is maybe just the term "introvert" being overloaded, but I don't see the introversion => likes being alone connection. I'm absolutely an introvert in the sense of finding that social interaction requires energy, but the past two years have proved beyond a doubt that I'm absolutely miserable being alone for long periods of time.

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

#177

Post by keraf »

emteycz wrote: post #56
keraf wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say I usually spend around 7€ for an entire day. But there's a mix of common sense and also agreement with the barista. I will generally consume more or leave if the coffee shop gets really busy, or change my seat to the least used one (next to the noisy coffee machine). The baristas also think I'm good company, so that also plays in favour of me staying longer without consuming excessively. And from time to…

Also in Prague, which cafés do you like?

My regular one is Republica Coffee, but I also go a lot to the café in Kasarna Karlin (my favourite spot but a bit further from home). Occasionally, I also like to work from Mama Coffee, Miners and Super Tramp (in summer, the outside area is cool).

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

#178

Post by keraf »

jdavis703 wrote: post #80
keraf wrote: 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.

That's one of the downsides of coffee shops. Luckily I only have a daily standup that lasts 5 minutes. For the rare longer meetings where I need to talk a lot, I tend to arrange them so I can take them from home. If they are mid-day, I take them outside if it's warm enough.

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

#180

Post by Izkata »

jader201 wrote: post #151
terminalcommand wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is true. When I say people I'm working from home, they look with pitty. When I say, I'm working remotely, people's impression change. I don't know why this is like this, but it is true for me.

> When I say people I'm working from home, they look with pitty. That sounds odd. Pity is usually expressed when you're in an unfortunate position you had/have no control over. Most people (should) understand that most people work from home not out of force, but out of choice.

When work and home become one, it gives the impression you're always on call / aren't able to separate the two. Could be an issue the other people have, so they imagine you being the same.

I do remember when enforced work-from-home started almost two years ago, a lot of people didn't have a ready-made space like a home office and complained about exactly that problem.

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