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Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#61

Post by dragons »

hopeless wrote: post #23

I've worked as a (semi-)remote employee for the past 2.5 years for a HUGE multinational software company. Here's a braindump of experiences: - I work in Ireland and my colleagues are in the US. The time zone difference is generally handy because I can work in the mornings and they come online around 1:30pm. So my afternoons (or their mornings) are when meetings and scrum calls happen. I don't attend any meetings outs…

_I'm not sure if I'm a typical programmer: I dislike making phone calls and generally prefer to talk face-to-face with people. You get to pick up on subtle little clues_

I'm a programmer, and I agree. Phone calls are my least favorite medium of communication. I have the impression this is fairly common. I'm also quite comfortable with email or IM and prefer those over using the phone, as well.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#62

Post by gpambrozio »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #27
earl wrote: post #7

Working as a data scientist with a remote boss: communication was much more difficult. No telephony or software solution came close to standing on front of a shared whiteboard. Which sucks, because I really wish it did. Maybe what we need is actual The biggest win I've seen is with ops teams. I hope I'm not betraying any confidences, but a previous employer had an international ops team so as the americans were going…

There must be a share whiteboard app for iPad/Android?

I'm working remotely for about 6 months now and this is the main thing I'm missing... If we're having a skype conference I'm always sending skitch screenshots to the team to show something visually but a shared whiteboard would be the last tool missing in our arsenal.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#63

Post by hopeless »

hippich wrote: post #58
hopeless wrote: post #23

I've worked as a (semi-)remote employee for the past 2.5 years for a HUGE multinational software company. Here's a braindump of experiences: - I work in Ireland and my colleagues are in the US. The time zone difference is generally handy because I can work in the mornings and they come online around 1:30pm. So my afternoons (or their mornings) are when meetings and scrum calls happen. I don't attend any meetings outs…

If you are already comfortable with remote working, why not to become independent consultant, rake up your compensation 2-3 times and spend 1/2 - 1/3 time on client's project and other time on traveling/hobby/family and learning/researching? No matter where you live, once you get enough references and track of success - you will get this 2x - 3x rate easily.

That is exactly my intention, and for the reasons you mentioned (time flexibility, more money, more interesting work).

But, like most things, the biggest problem is starting... and convincing my wife that I'll able to fly once I step off the cliff.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#64

Post by smackfu »

For me, the main issues are timezones and phone costs. Timezones, because no one will respect your hours if they don't conform to US ones. Phone costs, because people still have hour long teleconferences and those minutes add up. Skype is ok if the quality is good... if not, no one is sympathetic and just says "can you find a better phone?"

The main general issues with telecommuting is that when someone says "I'm sure you've heard about Project X", you haven't.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#65

Post by jamesbkel »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #27
earl wrote: post #7

Working as a data scientist with a remote boss: communication was much more difficult. No telephony or software solution came close to standing on front of a shared whiteboard. Which sucks, because I really wish it did. Maybe what we need is actual The biggest win I've seen is with ops teams. I hope I'm not betraying any confidences, but a previous employer had an international ops team so as the americans were going…

There must be a share whiteboard app for iPad/Android?

Just this week I started looking into similar ideas. At the moment I've been experimenting with a Wacom tablet and screen capture software... I looked up the Khan Academy methodology and started there.

But if anyone has recommendations for and iPad app that offers a shared whiteboard experience please let me know. We already use Skype on iPad as our sort of virtual office so that would be perfect.

Or... make one! We'll buy it!

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#66

Post by ryanschmidt »

lshevtsov wrote: post #59

I'm a remote Ruby developer. Most of our team is on-site. My main problem is: online communication makes discussion much more complicated than face-to-face, so you don't contribute as much ideas when people brainstorm or otherwise solve creative problems. If you have a lot of ideas, that can be depressing. I visit the office several times a year, mostly to share thoughts and socialize.

I can relate. Our team is spread across the US but the 2 co-founders work out of an office together. It's tough being the 3rd man with lots of ideas and passion about the project because communication is hard when you don't see each other every day.

If I had my wish, we'd all be in one office or at least local to each other so we could meetup and chat more often.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#67

Post by hopeless »

Swizec wrote: post #2

I work remotely as a freelancer and my experience has been nothing but awesome. I'm from the CET timezone and the people I usually work with are either in PST or EST so there's a 6 to 8 hour time difference. Here are some of the benefits I've observed: - I'm a night owl, so I can directly communicate with the people paying me - even though I like long mornings, I still have at least 5 hours to work before employers w…

svn isn't too bad and often goes hand-in-hand with Java-based projects. My hierarchy goes something like git > jazz > svn > cvs > Clearcase.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#68

Post by dragons »

hippich wrote: post #58
hopeless wrote: post #23

I've worked as a (semi-)remote employee for the past 2.5 years for a HUGE multinational software company. Here's a braindump of experiences: - I work in Ireland and my colleagues are in the US. The time zone difference is generally handy because I can work in the mornings and they come online around 1:30pm. So my afternoons (or their mornings) are when meetings and scrum calls happen. I don't attend any meetings outs…

If you are already comfortable with remote working, why not to become independent consultant, rake up your compensation 2-3 times and spend 1/2 - 1/3 time on client's project and other time on traveling/hobby/family and learning/researching? No matter where you live, once you get enough references and track of success - you will get this 2x - 3x rate easily.

why not to become independent consultant ... once you get enough references and track of success ...

What are the steps one takes to get to this stage - to become an independent consultant?

From what I've heard, it doesn't sound easy. Companies (apparently) prefer dealing with large body shops, not individuals. To get work as an IC it seems like you need inside contacts? Or maybe you need special, in-demand skills?

My previous company doesn't hire contractors from inside the country, so those contacts are useless. I'm a good developer but not a rock star, and I don't have special skills (Java developer).

I'm asking because I'd really like to know. In truth, I want to develop a lifestyle business, doing part-time work building something I enjoy with plenty of time off for other things. But meantime it would be nice to get some income doing short-term jobs as an IC.

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#69

Post by anthuswilliams »

Swizec wrote: post #50
skrebbel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * (locally I've been smashed into teams still on svn ... on new projects)* Completely off topic, but: is this necessarily bad? Does the world stop when there's a centralized source control server? I'm in an environment too where people are sometimes reluctant to move to newer, better software (svn is an example, our bug tracker sucks too), simply because of the learning curve / overhead involved. I started out by b…

I find the use of SVN to be a good predictor for a place using the waterfall model and calling it "agile", not using TDD and so on. It's my "one wrong candy" clause if you will. (can't find the article right now, but some bands make one insane request for their backstage that can be instantly checked, when it isn't perfect, they know to check through the whole list of the stage setup and so on, otherwise people liter…

Wow. My "no black M&Ms" rule is a lot less discriminating than yours (btw, the band you're thinking of was van Halen). I don't care if clients use SVN, or CVS, or whatever they want. I just want the answer to the question "What do you use for source control?" to be something other than "Source control?"

Re: Ask HN: What's your experience with remote working? as employees/employers?

#70

Post by lucian2k »

I've been working remotely (on and off) for a total of about 6 years. I live in Eastern Europe and worked for UK/US companies. Most good and bad things are in here, some already mentioned. So here goes the good:

- differences in culture that allow you to communicate your ideas and gain trust faster than in a local company (such situations: adoption of agile methodologies are way behind in local companies still stuck with waterfall when compared to US ones); - better pay compared to local deals; - work with international teams connects you to the pulse of a market you would otherwise only "observe" from a distance and maybe think the people running those sites/businesses have an extra "something";

... and bad: - (depending on your location and legislation) all overseas employers I worked with are NOT willing to pay social insurances that are paid by a local employer (this having the right to medical services and retirement income) - the "what have you been working on" syndrom: for managers that have little or no tracking in place BUT do like to "be in touch" and micro manage; - no paid official events: I had a unfortunate event in my family, my father passed away, and had to take 5 days off - did not get paid for it. Local legislation specifies that the employer has to pay 5 working days in such events (also for weddings and child birth). This might variate depending on your local legislation;

Hooray!

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