What's it like to work as a "remote employee"?

[Uri Goldstein]

Hi,

I'm seriously thinking about starting to work as a remote employee in the role of software developer. I'm seeing interesting opportunities for remote work facing US and even European companies.

Has anyone had the opportunity to work as a remote employee in a similar situation? I'm very curious about the pros and cons if you're willing to share.


Thanks,
Uri

[Itamar Syn-Hershko]

I have, for quite a few companies (mostly on short and long term contracts).

The experience will vary, and will really depend on both your abilities (as a developer, and as a human being) and the company's culture and tools used. Working for companies using Slack / HipChat + Zoom / Skype + GitHub / BitBucket correctly, with good and efficient syncing culture (not many meetings but also no heads-down coders) can be great fun and allow for lots more productivity from your end.

I can definitely tell you though you should read Remote by 37signals : http://37signals.com/remote/

--

Itamar Syn-Hershko

http://code972.com | @synhershko

Freelance Developer & Consultant

Lucene.NET committer and PMC member

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "altnetisrael" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to altnetisrael...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to altnet...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/altnetisrael.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Uri Goldstein]

Itamar, thanks so much for this input - Both inspiring and helpful. I'm off to read the sample chapters in the book and maybe buy it.

If anyone else can share insights I'd be much obliged.

[Oren Eini (Ayende Rahien)]

Be aware of _how_ you are employed.

If you are a contractor, you need to take care of taxes, social security, etc yourself.

And you'll have to get an accountant, etc.

If you are an employee, be aware of when you can leave, how you can leave, etc.

Hibernating Rhinos Ltd  

Oren Eini l CEO l Mobile: + 972-52-548-6969

Office: +972-4-622-7811 l Fax: +972-153-4-622-7811

 

[Uri Goldstein]

Thanks Oren. I understand it's possible for a US company to hire me as an employee (not necessarily a contractor)?

[Oren Eini (Ayende Rahien)]

It is possible, yes, but you need to be aware of how you are employed, who pays social security, health tax, etc.

Also be aware that you don't have tax liability on the states (don't think so, but need to check).

[Yonatan Goldenberg]

Also highly depends whether you plan to be 100% employee for long term or engage per-project. The overhead of pre-sales and onboarding to new projects is an issue. Should you plan for the former option, choosing the right customer/team is the key factor, I would avoid being the first remote employee (you'll have to deal with cultural changes as well).

[Yaniv Harpaz]

hey...

I worked part time (50%) for six months with a startup company.

I had to come to their office once every couple of weeks and the rest of the time from home.

Both sides knew it is going to be for a few months and it worked great for everybody.

My conclusion from that experience is that it is very comfortable for the short term - no rush hour traffic, it's very comfortable to use my home computer (especially with at least two monitors). Flexible hours, most of the communication was through the MSN Messenger (RIP).

On the disadvantage side - I think it gets in the way of the personal development, no matter how experienced you are. When you interact constantly and physically with technology people, you grow. When you are alone, it's harder (possible, but harder) - mainly because you won't be aware of the things you missed. I also think that being part of the company is important (especially if it's a nice company).

Yaniv

[Lior Friedman]

Hi,

 

I've been doing some coding for a US based start-up (part time).

Some info about the context – the start-up has past some funding seeds, they are heavily using outsourcing mainly from India.

The CTO/ development manager is a friend of mine which relocated to there to manage the technical side.

 

Things I found out so far:

1)      Having a personal connection there makes things much easier

2)      While working at home means a lot of flexibility in time, I find myself working a lot during evenings and late night – to be able to actually talk to them

3)      Working at home, and having a family live here at the same time. Takes a lot of getting used to and since work time is sometime focused at 16:00 – 19:00 there are collisions (which also pushes work towards late night)

4)      Having Indians programmers in the mix makes for some interesting times.

5)      Having most of the people outsourced makes it easier (I’m not the only one working remote)

6)      Working remote (and part time) limits the amount of influence I’ve got over things which I like to have influence on (product decisions, team choosing,….)

7)      I really like the time I’m working alone – but that’s probably due to the fact that my other (main) job is somewhat very heavy on human interactions (to say the least)

8)      Working on this allowed me (finally ) to actually start learning some new technical stuff I always wanted to (again my other job is kind of untypical for a programmer)

9)      I still like to code J

 

I'm still learning things all the time on this context of work. And im sure some of the stuff is really specific for this context.

However I can definitely say its been different.

 

(BTW – once you make your decision, contact me off the list. Maybe I can help a little)

 

Lior

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "altnetisrael" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to altnetisrael...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to altnet...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/altnetisrael.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Lior Friedman

Agile Consultant - AUT/TDD Expert | Mobile: 972.52.833.3660 | Email: li...@practical-agile.com  

Blog - http://imistaken.blogspot.com

P.S. Follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn. See you there…

[Uri Goldstein]

Itamar, Oren, Yonatan, Yaniv and Lior,

I can't thank you enough for replying and sharing your experience. I'm still considering this as a leading option for the next chapter of my career.

Might any of you know where one might look for opportunities for remote work facing foreign companies? I've only found StackOverflow Careers so far.

Thanks,

Uri

On Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 11:38:15 AM UTC+2, Uri Goldstein wrote:

[Ken Egozi]

Buffer and Github are welcoming to remote workers.

Ken Egozi.
http://kenegozi.com/
http://www.skype.com/

--

[Uri Goldstein]

Thanks again Ken!

I can add that not only are github hiring for themselves, they also have a job board with quite a few remote positions open: https://jobs.github.com/positions?description=&location=remote


Cheers,
Uri