Live data from Hacker News

6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

medium.com

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#11
post #8

I really like the article but I’m really not sure about: >> Chat works so well at communicating with the team that we’re all available 24/7/365 We’re fully remote at my job - no 2 people are in the same state in the whole, small, org. And I think we work well. But people sign off at 6:30 in their own timezone by and large - and while they’ll check slack as much as they’d check email, slack is not going to cut for 24…

That was given as a "Bad" thing- so if a company says "Oh yeah everyone's 24/7/365" then that's a red flag/ run away situation.

If you need to be have your team banging on the keyboard 24/7/365 then you have the wrong people or the wrong management.

We all keep forgetting John Henry ultimately lost the race :)

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't had success here either, generally I'll use a whiteboard or a piece of paper and show it to my web cam. If I have more time I'll throw something together in Illustrator. Would be nice to have something more collaborative.

So just googling around I found this and it seems to work pretty good. https://awwapp.com/b/u21itcedr/

So you're vouching for a product you haven't used?

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#13
post #8

I really like the article but I’m really not sure about: >> Chat works so well at communicating with the team that we’re all available 24/7/365 We’re fully remote at my job - no 2 people are in the same state in the whole, small, org. And I think we work well. But people sign off at 6:30 in their own timezone by and large - and while they’ll check slack as much as they’d check email, slack is not going to cut for 24…

Yeah sorry if my GOOD/BAD wasn't clear. But I was trying to convey that if that's the kind of response a company gives then you should take it as a warning. I've had companies say things like that in interviews when I asked them questions about remote communication and I think it means their management has not matured yet.

Looks like I got the wrong end of the stick on this one :-)

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah sorry if my GOOD/BAD wasn't clear. But I was trying to convey that if that's the kind of response a company gives then you should take it as a warning. I've had companies say things like that in interviews when I asked them questions about remote communication and I think it means their management has not matured yet.

Looks like I got the wrong end of the stick on this one :-)

haha, I'll take the blame, I probably should format it better.

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#15
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just googling around I found this and it seems to work pretty good. https://awwapp.com/b/u21itcedr/

So you're vouching for a product you haven't used?

Sorry that was clickbate to see if we could all get going in a drawing frenzy...seems to have worked lol We have some artists on here.

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just googling around I found this and it seems to work pretty good. https://awwapp.com/b/u21itcedr/

So you're vouching for a product you haven't used?

Hard to imagine anyone on the internet doing such a thing.

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#17
post #4

> If there’s drawing we have an app that we use where anyone can draw and anyone can see what’s being drawn. somebody had success with such draw apps? this is a missing piece for us

With close to a decade of remote work experience under my belt at companies that are more than 50% remote (GitHub) down to being the only remote guy, I have concluded that some things are best left in the physical world...

There is an actual whiteboard on my wall and a webcam on a stand. When I want to whiteboard something, I get up, switch camera angles, and literally draw it out. I have found this to be far more productive than any whiteboard apps out there.

For something more interactive, Google Draw isn't awful, but it's not a pen and paper.

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#18
post #4

> If there’s drawing we have an app that we use where anyone can draw and anyone can see what’s being drawn. somebody had success with such draw apps? this is a missing piece for us

With close to a decade of remote work experience under my belt at companies that are more than 50% remote (GitHub) down to being the only remote guy, I have concluded that some things are best left in the physical world... There is an actual whiteboard on my wall and a webcam on a stand. When I want to whiteboard something, I get up, switch camera angles, and literally draw it out. I have found this to be far more pr…

Thanks for commenting! That's true, I do have a whiteboard within arms reach in my home office. Sometimes I'll take a picture of it and send it along when talking about a problem.

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#19
There was a good comment about how I used the terms "perk" and "dream" that was made. (https://medium.com/@martinb3/i-think-you-ve-come-up-with-som...) I agree with this. I could be wrong but I think a lot of people view it that way. I had hoped that the article would bring the tone around to make it sound less like a "dream" or a "perk" and more like a work environment decision. Either way excellent point!

Re: 6 Things to ask when interviewing for a remote job

#20
I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on what it's like being remote when a team is partially remote - say, 30% are remote - vs when a team is fully remote.

I've never worked remote in either situation, but I'm kind of inclined to think that being remote on a fully remote team is much, much better. I would think that a partially remote team would have a hard time fully committing to using remote work flows and tools, and the remote workers would inevitably always be a little out of the loop. Of course, if you're cool with that, and are happy with something more like a consultant role then maybe that's fine. If you're looking for a bigger or more central role in the org, then you'll have a hard time being remote in a partially remote org. Does that perception seem accurate? Or do I have the wrong impression?

Post reply on HN