Any of you guys work Remote?

[Snorse]

Yep. I run a supplement/protein company from my MacBook. I won't post it here – I'm new and it'll seem like I'm spamming.

But, long story short, we have two factories that make our stuff, a part-time customer-services girl (who works remote/from home, we run tickets and phone through Zendesk), a fulfilment company that we outsource to – in an EU country with 6% VAT on supplements and a website built on an awesome e-commerce platform.

I look after the brand, advertising, all product development and some procurement (packaging etc.) – and answer any questions from customers relating to training or nutrition. My business partner (also works remote) looks after accounts, web-development from a coding standpoint.

We do ok, and I can pretty much go anywhere with Wifi and do my job. I've always valued freedom, and there's been periods in my life where I've forgone money to have it. These days, I'm happy to say I have just enough of both!

If you're the kind of guy who can't hack office or job site politics, and hates being 'managed', you HAVE to go remote... otherwise you'll be a mess of stress and cortisol, and live with regrets. Life is way to short – excuse the cliche.

Rick

 

[xxMarco]

I can speak to the data storage bit. If you are currently a sysadmin, I would actually say that you are well positioned(with a bit of training), to jump into the data storage field. Quite a few of my colleagues made the leap this or as Windows or Linux admins and it is seen as a traditional progression.

Thanks man, I really appreciate this write up. I'll check this out. It seems like a lot of work but I'm currently at a stand still career wise and I'll try anything to advance my current situation.

 

[General Mayhem]

I work about 3 days per week remote. I have only been with the company 2 months though so I think at the end of the summer I may try to transition to full remote.

Working from home makes corporate work suck so much less. I love it. Need to build a better setup though. Better chair and more monitors.

GM and others - how do you convince an employer to let you work remotely?

I hate the office space. Socializing with coworkers is a waste, and there are always people dropping by with useless tasks or information.

I like having an office room, though. Somewhere you can leave all your shit, have your work laptop set up, multiple monitors, etc. All of this could be tax deductible.

I never had to convince anybody. My corporation and to a larger extent my manager are extremely supportive of working remote.

Nobody on my team wants to be in the office. We don't hate each other we just realize that we don't need to be in the office for the work we do. My manager hires based on people she thinks she can trust working from home. I thought it would suck having a female boss but I got lucky. She doesn't give a fuck as long as my work gets done.

I wish I had a better answer for you RB. Maybe you just have to screen for corporations who have a strong remote working culture? I'm sure if you look on glass door you can get an idea.

Also, go on your corporation's internal website and see if you can look up a telecommuting policy. Next time you have a one on one with your boss bring it up and express your desire to do some remote work. I think it depends a lot on your office culture though. If nobody else on your team is working remote you will have a mountain to climb.

The only downside is that I don't know how I would ever go back to working 5 days a week in an office. It just seems completely fucking retarded.

I might have an opportunity to move into a higher paying job but if it requires me to go to the office 5 days a week I'm not sure I would take it. The ability to work remote is worth a lot.

 

[NewMeta]

"how do you convince an employer to let you work remotely? "

I started my job working in the office all 5 days of the week, I now work remotely in Poland lol. I did it gradually, over time I started working at home when I was tired or wanted to sleep in, then I started working at the office half days, then I switched shifts to the night shift and leveraged it in a way so I could always work at home. I then asked if I could move to a different city and work out of there, and then finally if I could work from a whole different country lol. This was a slow process of 3 years btw.

 

[jake1720]

There are quite a few work from home sales type positions once you get the experience.

 

[boobs]

I work 100% remotely as a web developer. I took a coding bootcamp, and went from pretty much knowing nothing to getting a job. Generally, getting a remote programming position doesnt happen right out the gate, but it may be something worth looking into.

 

[kongzi]

What bootcamp did you take? What language do you primarily use? How long did it take for you to get that remote role? I thought companies expect developers to at least have some experience before they let them work remotely

 

[TonySandos]

Can everyone who declared themselves as working at home 4 days a week or more list their professional title? It would be enlightening to add that.

 

[Knysna Loerie]

I work 100% remotely as a web developer. I took a coding bootcamp, and went from pretty much knowing nothing to getting a job. Generally, getting a remote programming position doesnt happen right out the gate, but it may be something worth looking into.

Very nice.

What path did you take after your bootcamp to go remote? What's typical?

Realistically, how quickly *could* you go remote?

Thanks!

 

[MY DETROIT PLAYAS]

I'm currently transitioning into full time remote work.

Currently I do at least one day a week, for me I find it helps to break up the monotony and I can concentrate better work in the solace of my own home.

Totally agree with Stalin's points of the benefits of this arrangement. Living in a cold weather state where the elements can harsh for 4-5 months out of the year, it works out to less wear and tear on your vehicle.

I'm at a smaller niche firm and there is a 2:1 woman to men ratio in the office. Whenever that is the case there is bound to be a lot of groupthink, cliquishness, and unnecessary gossip thrown about.

I'm glad to be escaping that scene.

 

[boobs]

What bootcamp did you take? What language do you primarily use? How long did it take for you to get that remote role? I thought companies expect developers to at least have some experience before they let them work remotely

I took Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco in Q4 of 2014. The curriculum was Ruby, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript, but we were very strongly encouraged to spend the many hours we spent after classes to explore different languages/frameworks on our own.

Afterwards, I won't lie, I had a hard time finding a job. It took me 4 or 5 months to finally get hired, and I was a contract worker, not a full time employee. I got paid hourly. No qualms about it. Made enough money to live comfortably, and the freedom of time and location was invaluable. Generally, you're right. Companies only allow experienced workers remote positions. I guess I got pretty lucky. I had about 6 phone/skype interviews and really clicked with the CEO. I had experience in the industry our app was targeted at, and just had a lot in common with the other employees. I was desperate to get a job at the time, so I offered to do some work for free, and I think that showed I could work outside the office, and do quality work.

I work 100% remotely as a web developer. I took a coding bootcamp, and went from pretty much knowing nothing to getting a job. Generally, getting a remote programming position doesnt happen right out the gate, but it may be something worth looking into.

Very nice.

What path did you take after your bootcamp to go remote? What's typical?

Realistically, how quickly *could* you go remote?

Thanks!

My classmates, generally, found some high 5 figure, possibly 6 figure jobs at startups in SF or Silicon Valley. They seemed to not mind the 9am-9pm grind, and planned to be a programmer for their entire lives. I was in the extreme minority of my classmates, in that I just wanted the skills as a way to leverage making passive income.

Realistically, finding a remote position, fresh out of bootcamp, with no experience is closer to 0% than it is to 1% unless you're a killer in job hunting and interviewing. It took most of my classmates a few months to find a job that wasn't even remote. And some of my old classmates looking for a second job are having a hard time finding jobs, remote or not.

At the end of the day, for entry level, I think the marketing skills of being able to position yourself well is more valuable than the actual coding skills to get a job in this field (if not all fields).

 

[kongzi]

I took Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco in Q4 of 2014. The curriculum was Ruby, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript, but we were very strongly encouraged to spend the many hours we spent after classes to explore different languages/frameworks on our own.

Afterwards, I won't lie, I had a hard time finding a job. It took me 4 or 5 months to finally get hired, and I was a contract worker, not a full time employee. I got paid hourly. No qualms about it. Made enough money to live comfortably, and the freedom of time and location was invaluable. Generally, you're right. Companies only allow experienced workers remote positions. I guess I got pretty lucky. I had about 6 phone/skype interviews and really clicked with the CEO. I had experience in the industry our app was targeted at, and just had a lot in common with the other employees. I was desperate to get a job at the time, so I offered to do some work for free, and I think that showed I could work outside the office, and do quality work.

how long do you think it takes to become good enough to land freelance gigs? And enough of them so one can support himself with just freelancing without having to work at a company?

My classmates, generally, found some high 5 figure, possibly 6 figure jobs at startups in SF or Silicon Valley. They seemed to not mind the 9am-9pm grind, and planned to be a programmer for their entire lives. I was in the extreme minority of my classmates, in that I just wanted the skills as a way to leverage making passive income.

So do you recommend that Dev bootcamp? Or am I better off learning on my own?

Were your classmates only able to find jobs in SF/SV? Or was that just their preference? SF/SV is the last place I'd want to work because of the god awful ratios

 

[boobs]

I took Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco in Q4 of 2014. The curriculum was Ruby, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript, but we were very strongly encouraged to spend the many hours we spent after classes to explore different languages/frameworks on our own.

Afterwards, I won't lie, I had a hard time finding a job. It took me 4 or 5 months to finally get hired, and I was a contract worker, not a full time employee. I got paid hourly. No qualms about it. Made enough money to live comfortably, and the freedom of time and location was invaluable. Generally, you're right. Companies only allow experienced workers remote positions. I guess I got pretty lucky. I had about 6 phone/skype interviews and really clicked with the CEO. I had experience in the industry our app was targeted at, and just had a lot in common with the other employees. I was desperate to get a job at the time, so I offered to do some work for free, and I think that showed I could work outside the office, and do quality work.

how long do you think it takes to become good enough to land freelance gigs? And enough of them so one can support himself with just freelancing without having to work at a company?

My classmates, generally, found some high 5 figure, possibly 6 figure jobs at startups in SF or Silicon Valley. They seemed to not mind the 9am-9pm grind, and planned to be a programmer for their entire lives. I was in the extreme minority of my classmates, in that I just wanted the skills as a way to leverage making passive income.

So do you recommend that Dev bootcamp? Or am I better off learning on my own?

Were your classmates only able to find jobs in SF/SV? Or was that just their preference? SF/SV is the last place I'd want to work because of the god awful ratios

For building websites, you can definitely find freelance gigs without much experience. It's not that hard to do, and a lot of clients wont know your work is shit. Again, it's all marketing yourself and being good at sales. Obviously much harder to do without experience, but it's doable.

I would recommend a bootcamp if you know programming is something you definitely want to do and you can afford the tuition + 6 months living expenses. Otherwise, I'd recommend learning on your own, and working on projects that you can show in a portfolio.

I think it's easier to find jobs outside the bay area. Less competition and lower salary.

 

[kongzi]

I see. I'll seriously consider a bootcamp. Though I'm unsure whether to go with a machine learning one or a Web dev one. I have a background in machine learning but I'm drawn towards Web dev because I want to work remotely, or even better, as a freelancer

Easier to find jobs outside the bay area? I've applied to jobs throughout the country but ice actually gotten the most callbacks from companies in the bay area. But I prefer not to work here because of the costs, the competition and the horrendous ratios

 

[8ball]

Didn't want to start a new thread so i'll just post my questions here and hope it can lead to a helpful discussion on tips when you are working remote.

So i recently negotiated myself to a remote position. I wasn't happy about some changes in the company that affected what department i would be placed in as well as who i would report to. I decided to look for other work so i immediately took a vacation and eventually got another offer, my company then decided to up my salary and award me remote work to keep me around. I agreed.

While not having to do that bumper to bumper drive back and forth to work is great, there are definitely some negatives. I now find myself partially blind when it comes to office politics, generally business strategy and other important developments.

I can't just buy a box of donuts for the office and its hard to read people's intentions when you can't see them.

What are some things that i can do to combat this?

 

[whatday]

Didn't want to start a new thread so i'll just post my questions here and hope it can lead to a helpful discussion on tips when you are working remote.

So i recently negotiated myself to a remote position. I wasn't happy about some changes in the company that affected what department i would be placed in as well as who i would report to. I decided to look for other work so i immediately took a vacation and eventually got another offer, my company then decided to up my salary and award me remote work to keep me around. I agreed.

While not having to do that bumper to bumper drive back and forth to work is great, there are definitely some negatives. I now find myself partially blind when it comes to office politics, generally business strategy and other important developments.

I can't just buy a box of donuts for the office and its hard to read people's intentions when you can't see them.

What are some things that i can do to combat this?

You could stop caring and live your own life.

The sun will still rise the next day.

 

[DeusLuxMeaEst]

8ball,

Are you fully remote as in you're too far to commute to the office? Is it possible to visit at least once a week? That would be the easiest solution.

Regarding being blind to many happenings. In my experience a lot of this has to do with the company culture. I work in an industry where 'networking' (BSing) and 'knowing people' is really important. In the past few years I've become a good politician navigating these waters. I personally hate office politics, but you either play the game or it plays you. Luckily, because of game and lots of studying I've made it out well so far.

Are you on good terms with your direct supervisor? And also his boss? I assume you're on weekly meeting calls where you can get some updates.

What about senior level people? Are they open to meeting with you at certain intervals? (Say every two months)

Do you have any 'friendships' (I hesitate to use that word) with some coworkers who you trust and can fill you in? Preferably someone who isn't remote, but you've developed a good relationship with over time.

Just some suggestions. I'm not remote myself, but the successful ones I've known who have gotten promotions and had good reputations used a combination of the strategies above.

 

[8ball]

@spaniard88

Unfortunately this isn't the kind of job that relies on just delivery(ex. pure technical job), relationships and how you present yourself matter just as much.


@neo
I am fully remote, but i do live in the same city and may come in however i really don't wanna make a habit of coming in because than they will get used to it and always ask if i am in the office to schedule meetings. The whole point of this was to use my flexibility to launch my side business in the summer. However i don't think its a bad idea if i come in maybe once or twice a month.

I am on excellent terms with my direct supervisor, also a friend. There are multiple calls a week and many more are scheduled on the fly.

They have hired someone who has the same skillset as me, a non-remote individual. I will try and use those in-office days to take this person out lunch, feel em out and assert my presence.

 

[Peregrine]

Have you considered that you might be let go soon?

You weren't happy so you got another offer, which they responded to with a raise and allowing you to work remote. Then they hire someone with your skill set who's not remote. Sounds like a classic "counter-offer so we have enough time to replace the person".

If you're personal friends with your direct manager, ask him in person if that's the plan.

 

[8ball]

Have you considered that you might be let go soon?

Yes i have considered this. They were planning on hiring this person before i took my 'vacation'. Given the current state of the company and type of work its going to take a long time before i become replaceable. We were both supposed to be under the same department, part of my negotiation was for me to be placed under my current supervisor who is also my friend. It would be tough for them to replace me given the current org chart, if they plan on doing it, i will see it a mile away.

In the meantime i'll consider every external opportunity.