| "I'm a little surprised at the number of "no remote" in this thread. I've done some great work remotely, and with the right tools I think a team can "gel" and really work well together. Any comments?" In my experience, remote work is offered to specific individuals who are already known to the people making the offer - through a shared work history, impressive open source contributions, a recommendation by a trusted person, unique knowledge/skillsets etc. You don't generally see ads for these. People who put out generic ads looking for fairly generic skill sets etc, have plenty of choice locally and/or don't know anyone, remote or otherwise, who could fill that position. They are, in a sense just throwing an ad out there (or a post on HN), hoping to find someone who'll come into the office and work locally. Why go through the hassle of wading through the thousands of resumes you'll get from all over the world (and you will!), 99.99% of which are crap ? I get approached for remote work all the time. Partly this is because I have a somewhat uncommon skill set and partly because I know/have worked with a lot of ultra sharp people and they remember me when they need someone. Most of the time I have to turn them down because I am already on a project and so not free - which is a common situation. As with "normal" jobs, the people you want often have great jobs/projects already and have no intention of "moving". Fwiw, I know half a dozen or so people here in Bangalore who are working remotely for companies in the USA. In every case remote work was offered to them (no one ever sent in a CV) because they were known to be very good at what they do and had no intention of moving to San Fransisco (or wherever). Remote work can be a win-win but a distributed team has a very different feel than a collocated one and not many people want the hassle - and it is a hassle if you aren't willing to change your working style. Things seem to be changing though. A really strong dev can get (great) remote work with some effort these days. The very best, say Lars Bak, have never had any problems working from wherever they choose to. As with many things, demand and supply determines everything. Fwiw, my advice to folks seeking remote work is Be very good, and be known to be very good (iow focus on what you know and who you know) and you will never lack for work, remote or otherwise. |
I've been remote working full time for 6 years and I feel that its made me more productive and motivated than working in an office ever could.
Now that now that I've started to look to progress my career further this kind of perception makes it very difficult for me to make the next step.