10 ms·

Ask HN: What stacks dominate in remote jobs?

193 points by throw31337 10y ago

I work as a dev in UK for 6 years now, mostly JVM (Scala, Java), SQL, Javascript, some Python and Rust. I am now very interested in starting working remotely, so I'm curious what stacks are popular in remote jobs? What should I concentrate my attention towards from purely realistic and practical perspective? Obviously if I could choose I'd prefer something like Scala/Big Data or Rust/Real time, but something tells me Ruby/Rails and Python/Django or something with Javascript will be way more popular?

FuNe 10y ago
You can see the current trends by looking at job listings. E.g. http://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&allowsremote=true http://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&allowsremote=true Another good source of info is: https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job I think it has more to do with the company itself and less with the tech stack though. There are companies that get remote working (not necessarily new or startups) and others that they don't.
- V-2 10y ago
  > Another good source of info is: https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job Real HQ - Maker of Agent Pronto, software designed to help make home buying and selling a better experience. We've been remote since the start, now 50+ spread across the globe On https://realhq.com/jobs/ https://realhq.com/jobs/ though: Work Remotely We’re looking for people who live in the United States. Another company doesn't state that explicitly under http://www.surgeforward.com/careers/ http://www.surgeforward.com/careers/ - but they feature a map of stick figure "employees" spread over the US on that site, a clear indication they're in the same camp For many companies "remote work" is synonymous with "remote work for US residents", and it's a totally different category from global point of view. I'd like to see some source that dinstinguishes between the two
pimterry 10y ago
From what I've seen, Rails and Node tend to be the big contenders, with quite a few people starting to move things to Go now. That's just anecdotal though, hard to get much concrete numbers on this sort of thing. https://remoteok.io https://remoteok.io aggregates remote jobs, and has lots of them tagged by language, which might be a route to try and get more substantial answers to this. Let me know if you/anybody has a go at this actually, I might have a go myself next week, if nobody else has in the meantime.
alpeb 10y ago
I work with Scala remotely, and we're hiring! (send me a PM).
- throw31337 10y ago
  You don't have your contact info on your profile.
anc84 10y ago
Is this question some cynic attempt to see what keywords are going to be upvoted? What does "remote" even mean here? A ukranian remotely working for a US company? A brit remotely working for a chinese one? Why would there be a difference in stack just because someone is not working in-office but from somewhere else? The stack much rather depends on the field of work, the technology involved and maybe the location of the parent company (at which you might also be able to work non-remotely). ;)
- throw31337 10y ago
  No, this is a very legitimate question. I am an Eastern European and having spent 7 years in UK (and last two in London) I realized that all I do here is bleed huge amounts of money for rent. I want to get a remote job and move back to my homeland. This is all about maximizing my chances of getting such a job, because I understand that remote is rather competitive market with developers from developing countries knocking down salaries, etc. Just trying to be realistic.
  - V-2 10y ago
    As long as you're already in London, I suppose the best way would be to start working for a company on-site and then make an arrangement to continue the collaboration remotely (assuming they do remote at all). It's always better if someone gets to know you face to face first.
    - mountaineer22 10y ago
      I agree with this. Establish a face-to-face relationship and then begin working offsite. I assume you can find a London employer with similar values (rent is ridiculous - let's hire remote devs, so we don't have to lease so much office space).
  - wott 10y ago
    > developers from developing countries knocking down salaries That's not "remote" where the salary has to comply with the company country rules; that's subcontracting, freelancing...
upbeatlinux 10y ago
I don't think you should look at it from the standpoint of what's popular as it really depends. Instead take a look at the company, team experience, road map, learning opportunities, size and stage of company, etc. If you enjoy learning and exploring parts of the stack in some depth ensure that vision matches up with the role and it's responsibilities.
wprapido 10y ago
PHP + JS here
gregjor 10y ago
I don't think this is a meaningful question. No stacks "dominate" in remote jobs just as no stacks dominate in on-site jobs. Most remote jobs are just working from home or somewhere else for the same companies that have people on-site. If you want to work remotely what you should focus on is honing the business value you can offer, because that's what companies pay for. No company, whether they hire remote or not, ever needs 2,000 more lines of Ruby or Javascript in the next month. What they need are people who can solve business problems. If you can do that, where you happen to do it from becomes irrelevant. I have been freelancing remotely for almost ten years. I concentrate on fixing business problems. The "stack" rarely matters. Technologies come and go, and over-specialized programmers go with them.
- ateevchopra 10y ago
  Technologies come and go, and over-specialized programmers go with them. True !
- anondon 10y ago
  > Technologies come and go, and over-specialized programmers go with them. Not really, programmers adapt to the changing tech landscape. Technologies/languages keep changing, but programmers can always switch to more relevant languages if required, and that's what happens.
  - gregjor 10y ago
    Note that I wrote "over-specialized programmers." Yes, we adapt. I've adapted for 35 years. I've also seen programmers left with few options when the landscape changes.
- throw31337 10y ago
  Maybe I didn't express myself clearly enough - this is all about the practicality of starting remoting. I agree with your point of solving business problems - that is obvious and I am a quite a generalist (with certain preferences) when it comes to tech. I am just trying to be realistic here - I don't find it easy to find a job on site and my guess is finding a remote one is way more difficult with all the devs around the world from developing countries knocking down salaries. I thought most companies tend to hire with focus on certain experience?
atemerev 10y ago
From my experience (working 100% remotely for some years), I'd say that the sweet point lies in relatively "exotic" stacks, like Scala, Erlang, maybe even Rust. It's not that there are more remote jobs in Scala than in Javascript. However, people who hire Scala developers seem to accept that when you need a top Scala team, you have to bring people from all over the world, i.e. they are fully committed to building a great fully remote team, not bringing remote developers as an afterthought (in general, you wouldn't want to take a role of remote engineer in a mostly non-remote team, especially if you are one of the first ones). And Python/Javascript developers are dime a dozen (maybe not, they are still expensive, but much more numerous, and usually there isn't a problem to hire locally).
- evgen 10y ago
  I would definitely agree that you best option is to pick a stack that is popular enough to have a bit of traction but one where knowledgeable practitioners are rare enough that a company would consider finding someone who knows that stack compensate for the perceived downsides of a remote worker. I would probably replace Erlang with Elixir/Phoenix on that list, you are likely to find more open positions and the latter will imply web work that is more amenable to a remote coder.
- facorreia 10y ago
  That reflects my own experience. I work remotely and our company uses Scala. We have several fully-remote engineers.
- lj3 10y ago
  What about legacy systems that were once popular but aren't anymore, like PHP? I know there's a lot of wordpress development demand out there and fewer and fewer skilled devs who are willing to learn and/or work with PHP.
  - atemerev 10y ago
    PHP is still too mainstream these days. However, if you are an experienced Perl programmer, you'll have better luck. But _starting_ with Perl or PHP is probably not the best course of action; this is a path for already experienced developers.
dep_b 10y ago
Doing Apple and Microsoft mainly (but basically anything when it's required, like a PHP or Python API for an app or JS for a website), I'd say doing iOS work is the main part of it in terms of offers. iOS projects are or can be pretty small yet they require a great deal of expertise to execute correctly. I worked on many projects solo or in distributed teams. Microsoft work is a bit harder to find (or doesn't get delivered on my doorstep as often) but more often when you do land it you're going to be The Only Guy That Knows How The System Works after a while since ASP.Net and WinForms / WPF / etc applications are more often slowly evolving highly specific and mission critical applications, so once you land them you're in a better position than with those many one off iOS applications. I guess Java and .Net are more or less interchangeable in that regard.
dev_iq 10y ago
I have worked as a PHP full stack developer several times remotely. LAMP/WAMP stack is mostly in demand for most of the startups based in India. The next in demand is Ruby on Rails, I believe. RoR is basically preferred by small startups who want their product up and running quickly. I've built products with RoR and it's really fast development. The only drawback is that it is heavy on your pocket, so to speak. One thing that you should definitely have in your kitty is JavaScript. OO JS is gold. Next in line, AngularJS and ReactJS.
- lj3 10y ago
  > One thing that you should definitely have in your kitty is JavaScript. OO JS is gold. Next in line, AngularJS and ReactJS. Is it, though? There are so many JS developers out there that a company would have little trouble hiring one locally. How would you stand out as being worth the money and the communications overhead?
  - sotojuan 10y ago
    By being great and preferably experienced. Finding a solid JavaScript developer who's also a great programmer in general is hard.
    - lj3 10y ago
      And how do you expect a potential employer to identify such people? It's not an easy or trivial thing to determine who is a good dev and who is a bad dev.
      - dev_iq 10y ago
        Show samples of your previous work. Maintain an active Github account.
        lj3 10y ago
        That's not going to set you apart from the legions of JS devs they can hire locally who also have samples of their previous work and maintain an active github account.
noelwelsh 10y ago
We do a lot of remote work with Scala. I think we know each other, but if we don't my work email is noel at underscore dot io.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rizn 10y ago
I'm also from E.Europe and I was in similar position. Was contracting as php dev in UK/London, then moved back to my home country. As someone suggested, the best thing is trying not to be 100% programmer, but also have a little bit of business acumen and trying to get to know companies/people in London while you're there. This way I managed to do some remote work (same rate as on-site). Some companies are willing to pay you well as long as they know you personally and have experience what you can do.
xando 10y ago
I’m not too sure if the question is meaningful. But since I’m running https://whoishiring.io https://whoishiring.io and scrapping all major sources with jobs for developers, I have a lot of data related. I can put some numbers here. Top 10 from all sources (that I'm looking at) since August 2015. Javascript 27.69% SQL 22.41% Ruby 17.71% Python 17.60% AWS 13.85% Ruby On Rails 13.83% AngularJS 11.47% Java 10.89% PHP 10.57% React 10.46% (top 100 https://gist.githubusercontent.com/xando/1853d5e48f94abe2f13351f60377ac1c/raw/7407d378a00fa82d455065900fb9486220d04745/remote_stack.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/xando/1853d5e48f94abe2f13...) Top 10 from “Hacker News Who is Hiring” since 2011 Javascript 24.17% Python 22.38% SQL 18.63% Ruby 18.13% Ruby On Rails 17.00% AWS 12.38% AngularJS 10.82% Java 10.13% PostgreSQL 9.72% React 9.53% (top 100 https://gist.githubusercontent.com/xando/d1daca52b797e725175be29fcb8eecd5/raw/0470129110e0d0b54aa6ebb4dd43e831ef429c17/hn_remote_stack.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/xando/d1daca52b797e725175...) edit: where 100% equals all jobs tagged as remote.
- Buetol 10y ago
  It would be useful to compare the proportions difference between non-remote and remote instead of the absolute popularity. Example: Since SQL dominates most job offers already, it's gonna dominate also remote jobs offers. What you want is to look at technologies that are more predominant in remote than non-remote.
  - xando 10y ago
    Actually a lot of people ask me about different angles for the data. For this reason I'm trying to build a stats / trends page. So feedback / requirements welcome.
    - Buetol 10y ago
      I think it would be better to just let people download the raw data (like the database dump). Then people can do their analysis on top (like, I could produce the stats I just told you about)
pieterhg 10y ago
I make Remote OK, which aggregates most job boards for remote jobs. I have data for the last 2 years of jobs. I quickly made this page for you to see what stacks/tags are most popular: https://remoteok.io/stats.php https://remoteok.io/stats.php Top stacks: Ruby 1,759 jobs (9%) Node JS 953 jobs (5%) PHP 779 jobs (4%) Meteor JS 645 jobs (3%) Python 552 jobs (3%) Java 525 jobs (3%) C++ 374 jobs (2%) Linux 313 jobs (2%) C 268 jobs (1%) Rails 266 jobs (1%) Scala 242 jobs (1%) Wordpress 226 jobs (1%) Jquery 212 jobs (1%) Mongodb 136 jobs (1%) .NET 119 jobs (1%) Drupal 115 jobs (1%) Photoshop 100 jobs (1%) Top tags: Dev 8,919 jobs (46%) Senior 2,619 jobs (13%) Exec 2,045 jobs (10%) Ruby 1,759 jobs (9%) Marketing 1,469 jobs (8%) Full Stack 1,293 jobs (7%) Mobile 1,036 jobs (5%) UI 881 jobs (5%) Sys Admin 789 jobs (4%) Backend 722 jobs (4%) Devops 674 jobs (3%) Admin 641 jobs (3%) Python 552 jobs (3%) Full Time 546 jobs (3%) CSS 513 jobs (3%) Medical 437 jobs (2%) PM 426 jobs (2%) C++ 374 jobs (2%) Cloud 370 jobs (2%) Ops 346 jobs (2%) I think these are fairly similar to non-remote positions but I'm not sure. It's predominantly dev/tech jobs any way.
- shime 10y ago
  Thanks for the stats. It seems logical that Ruby is on top since Basecamp guys are probably the most influential evangelists of remote work out there. I'm pretty sure these are not similar for non-remote positions, though.
- khoury 10y ago
  Hey, check your trends page, might be a bug? https://remoteok.io/trends https://remoteok.io/trends
  - pieterhg 10y ago
    Yep it's kinda broken, will fix now :)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- Nowyouknow 10y ago
chrishn 10y ago
I'd say Ruby/Rails and JavaScript (Angular, React, Node) dominate the remote market. Just check weworkremotely.
tmat 10y ago
we're starting to get quite a bit of both elixir and react in green jobs. lost of rails in existing apps.
anaolykarpov 10y ago
I work remotely for a US company from Romania. I do web development in Perl. And some jQuery for the frontend, but 90% backend dev using Perl.
christophilus 10y ago
We're running Rails + React at Ruzuku. How's that for alliteration?
nwhatt 10y ago
Outside of the software stack I'd imagine you'll struggle if your devops stack is on-prem. Look for jobs that use cloud-based source management, cloud-based CI, and are hosted in the cloud. I wrote a general blog about working from home with some other things I use. https://www.redoxengine.com/blog/working-remotely-at-redox https://www.redoxengine.com/blog/working-remotely-at-redox
scalesolved 10y ago
From my personal experience you are best off with Javascript and then either Node/Python or Ruby as the backend, loads of jobs advertise for these. Much easier to find front end work than backend remotely I think. I work remotely using Java 8 (the good type :D)
ChemicalWarfare 10y ago
Well so let's say you're an "enterprise developer" with Java/Scala for the backend and some JS skills. From the looks of it you also into the big data stuff... Are you really willing to switch to (for example) PHP or Ruby on Rails just to be able to work remote? I'd say start looking for a remote job which requires your skill set. If you start seeing a need for some new tech in your "portfolio" based on what you're seeing out there - won't hurt to take a look at it, maybe do a "weekend POC" type project push it to github and add that tech to your resume :)
allsystemsgo 10y ago
I'm an iOS engineer and remote work is pretty hard to come by. :(
foreverdev 10y ago
It looks like I'm working with statistically 'wrong' stack for a wannabe remote dev
- throw31337 10y ago
  I get the same feeling. What's yours?
  - foreverdev 10y ago
    .net, javascript, sql :) web dev on MS stack
    - GFischer 10y ago
      I'm also a mostly Microsoft stack developer, and I looked at remote jobs, and there are very little with this stack. It's popular with enterprises, which are very much remote-adverse. I didn't find a solution, although I'm doing a side project in React - now I need to learn either Node or Ruby I guess (my backend is .NET based). Node has Visual Studio and Azure support, so it would be the least painful I guess.
sprybear 10y ago
Been seeing a number of JS / Angular related stuff as of late.
IndianAstronaut 10y ago
Surprised I am not seeing C# here. One of my remote gigs was the Microsoft stack.
- GFischer 10y ago
  I didn't see many when I searched. Where did you find it? Word of mouth or a website? Thank you :)

gregjor 10y ago
Low-end competition on places like UpWork is mostly piecework, doing small and very specific jobs at sometimes extremely low rates. I don't compete in that market and I don't advise it. If you want to freelance remotely I advise lining up clients before you start traveling or living abroad, because it's harder to do that remotely. Unless you like churning your customers or doing piecework, you need to aim for long-term relationships. I focus on small- and medium-size companies that don't have in-house IT/programming staff, they are used to outsourcing already. They often have a backlog of work and a history of bad experience with freelancers, so if you gain their trust and show an interest in their business (not just what tech they happen to use) you can find plenty of work. If you want to find a startup that's hiring remote staff there are online job boards specifically for that. The business problems I address in my freelancing is taking over legacy applications (usually web sites, and often not very old or even finished) where the original developers have left. This happens a lot -- small businesses are terrible at putting together requirements and specs, terrible at hiring, and don't usually attract the kind of people who want to get hired at Google and Snapchat. I only need a handful of clients to keep myself flush. My blog (see my profile) has some more specific articles you may find helpful.
- shime 10y ago
  Couldn't agree more about the UpWork, though I've managed to mostly get long-term contracts there. The rate was far from competitive, but it's nice when you're just getting started or still on college. I avoid it now though, most of the jobs posted there nowadays are just trash. Wouldn't recommend anyone experienced to waste time there.
- FT_intern 10y ago
  do you end up rewriting the entire legacy applications? How do you balance doing a good job with time efficiency?
  - gregjor 10y ago
    Rewriting is rarely a good business decision. Companies have already invested time and money and changed their internal processes. I maintain and fix what they have. If they decide to replace it I am usually the first developer they offer the job to.
- sasha0 10y ago
  How do you find small businesses with these technical issues? Using networking?
  - gregjor 10y ago
    About half word of mouth and referrals. I work through an agency now and get customers through them. Once in a while I get a lead/customer from articles on my blog. Every business has a backlog of bugs and enhancements they don't have resources for, so it's not so much a matter of finding them as it is persuading them you can help. Listening and understanding their business problems is the key.