Ask HN: Can new graduates get (good) remote work?

Long-time lurker here. I'm going to be graduating my Computer Science BSc in Summer 2017, and like the idea of getting involved in remote work.

There are several companies which actively hire remote workers, however are they less likely to take on new graduates who don't have prior experience in a larger workplace environment?

Also, for those who are working remotely, do you know if graduate developer salaries are reasonable (I'm UK-based, not in London)?

Thanks for any information! :)

To be honest you're going to have a tough time, competition is high and hiring juniors seems quite rare. (You may have more luck with larger remote companies but most remote companies tend towards the smaller side).

However here are some things you can do to maximise your chances (applicable to non remote work too).

1. Be effective and clear with communication, remote work requires you to over-communicate. Don't assume the person with whom you're talking to via email/slack has all the information that you do.

2. Being a grad you've got no real CV experience to fall back on, imperative that you have a github/bitbucket account with examples of the work you can do. At least one fully fledged project in the stack that you are targeting. For example if you're going to work with Rails then having a project where you use some common libraries, integrate OAuth or some sort of authentication,talk to external APIs with good test coverage and and documentation.

3. Almost as important as #2 is to blog with what you're learning, show any companies of the learning that you're doing and the potential that you have. We had an applicant once who included a link to all 50 Amazon reviews he'd written of different tech books, fantastic way to show passion and understanding.

4. Be realistic, being a grad and go straight into remote work will be tough. Have a plan B.

My advice would be to try and work in a larger company for a while, find the opportunity to work with experienced developers and see how it is, you may actually like being in an office! Remote work is not for everyone and while it seems to be perfect it has many drawbacks.

Best of luck!

Thank you for this insight. My GitHub has been largely left untouched as I haven't published many of my projects, I'll prioritise this. I like your recommendation on blogging too, definitely seems a good way to provide a log of what I'm getting up to.

I'm fortunate enough to have had a side-project turn into a successful business, however it's largely automated now and requires very little input, hence looking for a "proper job" upon graduating.

That said, it's been entirely working by myself, so I lack the experience of working within a larger company. Based upon some other comments here, it sounds as though I'll have a real tough time getting into remote work without some proven experience under my belt.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it :)

What's your motivation for wanting remote work? If you've already got an almost passive income then that should allow you to live in the location best for you and find a company close by in the UK/EU.