11 ms·

How I Find Six Figure Remote Software Developer Jobs

106 points by cmorgan8506 9y ago

henryw 9y ago
Hired.com seems like another option. I've gotten some pretty good remote only responses (even though I wasn't looking for remote).
ben1040 9y ago
Remote job #3 so far for me, and networking in various ways greased the wheels for it significantly. 1) went to a local tech meetup, spoke a few times and attended regularly. The organizer for the meetup worked remotely for the company, they referred me in. 2) I wound up on a slack group for people using my particular tech stack. Had a crummy day on the job and asked in their hiring channel if anyone was hiring remote. Someone reached out to me and took my resume, and it led to an offer in fairly short order. This job encouraged conference/meetup attendance and speaking. I spoke at a couple conferences as well at a meetup or two in my company's HQ. Which led me to: 3) Sent my resume to people I knew at the company, whom I'd met from meetups and conferences, as well as interacted with on that Slack. The interview was, as a result, super chill. The vibe really was "from a technical perspective you're a known quantity to us, we want the rest of the team to talk to you and make sure you're not a jerk."
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
purpleidea 9y ago
You spelled "goals" wrong on your "about" page. It's not "gloals".
- cmorgan8506 9y ago
  Thank you for catching that. New goal, learn to catch typos.
taurath 9y ago
I've found that in general you're either looking at a 30% paycut from "mid-level" companies in large cities (IE a 150k salary no stock/RSUs locally would be around $110k remote, with lots of "offers" of lower than that and a tiny amount of equity), AND you have probably 200% more competition. Its pretty competitive unless you're pretty specialized on a domain or new technology.
- CalRobert 9y ago
  Of course, it means you don't have to live in a large city. For a lot of people the reduced cost of living more than makes up the 30% paycut. If you're already at the top marginal tax rate, saving 20-30 grand a year can be equivalent to earning 40-45 grand a year, and it's not crazy to think living outside the city could save that much.
  - philipkglass 9y ago
    I bought my house at 27 years of age and my mortgage is ~$1000 per month. That was by working remotely, mostly for Bay Area companies but also others, from a low-cost town in Washington state. I'm sure that it's easier to find new and better jobs when you have a physical presence near a major software hub. The extra difficulty in job-hunting has not outweighed the benefits of affordable housing so far. Living off savings between jobs is easier when you spend under $2000/month on necessities.
    - CalRobert 9y ago
      I'm investigating similar options at the moment, but having a spouse who isn't remote complicates things a bit. Even so the idea that changing cities (countries, even) wouldn't necessarily mean changing jobs is a relief.
- eip 9y ago
  Unless that $150K included tons of RSUs you would still be better off taking the lower pay and not paying the Bay tax. If you are not looking in the Bay then you will probably still come out ahead by not spending 2 hours a day commuting. $75/hr * 2 hours/day * 262 workdays/year = $39K/yr lost commuting. Not including the actual costs of commuting (car, gas, tires, parking, sanity). So outside the Bay it works out about the same assuming you don't generate any additional revenue in the two hours you would have spent commuting.
sciurus 9y ago
The site is down, so here's a cached version http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Ffullbit.ca%2Fhow-i-find-six-figure-remote-software-developer-jobs%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...
ujal 9y ago
A curated list of awesome remote jobs and resources - https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job
sanderjd 9y ago
I've always been intrigued by the idea of remote / contract work, but I've always concluded that it requires way too much of the kind of work I hate doing the most (self-marketing). For a normal job, I only have to go through the soul-sucking process of marketing and proving myself once over a relatively short period of time, before spending years doing the kind of work I do enjoy (actual work). I've always wondered whether folks who do contract work like this actually enjoy the self-marketing it takes, or whether the benefits just outweigh this downside for them. If I could pay someone to do the marketing side for me, it would be a much more attractive option.
- cmorgan8506 9y ago
  Honestly, I don't do any self marketing in that respect. I treat it exactly like a normal job. I do almost exclusively contract work, but it's usually full-time hours and contracts typically last 1-2 years.
  - sanderjd 9y ago
    I guess I was referring to the content of the article, which is all about how the author markets theirself. Is your experience different?
    - cmorgan8506 9y ago
      It's my article =P But I don't market myself in the traditional sense. I just apply to contracts that seem like a good fit. The same as a full-time developer.
- dhbradshaw 9y ago
  In my experience, it's not really different in that regard. You start working with a group and provide value and then you work with them indefinitely unless someone else reaches out with a significantly better offer. I suppose that you're marketing to whoever you're working with, but that marketing takes the form of working systems, quick iteration, and good communication. And really, you want to provide all of these whether remote or not.
hbcondo714 9y ago
> Huge job boards like indeed.com are a little old-school and don’t typically have a lot of remote postings For me, remote jobs are displayed on Indeed by specifying "Remote" in the Where field of the web page or l query string parameter: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=.net&l=Remote https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=.net&l=Remote
courtneypowell 9y ago
WeWorkRemotely.com, RemoteOK.io, Stack Overflow remote filter
mnm1 9y ago
I find it highly useful to get right to the point in discussions with potential employers and discuss salary right away. I've been burned a few times by companies that simply weren't willing to pay enough. Even if what I want is fairly higher than what's on offer, for a really good position I might consider it.
- burfog 9y ago
  It seems a stretch to say you were burned. The company has no idea how much you are worth (to them, not an abstract company) until they interview you. The offer you got is not necessarily the same as the offer that somebody else might get; perhaps your offer was much lower because you seemed like a poor fit.
  - mnm1 9y ago
    I wasted my time on a coding project for them, so burned is indeed correct, though it was my own fault. I actually never got an offer. They just told me what they thought would be the maximum as they really liked the project. Also, I learned never to do that again.
    - cmorgan8506 9y ago
      This last round of contract hunting for me was similar. Every single organization wanted an 8+ hour project to prove my skills but half the salaries ended up being <80k. So I started having to state base contract rates up front.
      - pards 9y ago
        Have you ever tried quoting for interview projects? "I've reviewed the spec for the take-home assignment and I estimate it at about 8 hours which is $1,200 plus tax." It'd be an interesting experiment at the very least.
        cmorgan8506 9y ago
volgo 9y ago
The key to finding a great salary as a remote employee is not to start out being remote first. Find a medium sized company that doesn't mind people working remotely, and then work your ass off for them. Then after a while ask to work remotely on a trial period. When approved, work even harder and be 30% more productive than everyone else Once they see that you're doing well working remotely, there's a higher chance of letting you do that permanently Currently working remote (domiciled in S. Dakota but working overseas) collecting a $300k+ California salary.
- mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
  Way to go!
mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
If you like crypto, make something cool and post in r cryptocirrency and let people know you are available for work. I haven’t seen any devs do this but I did this as a designer and landed several large crypto projects. The designs I showcased were for community tools and I enjoyed throwing them together for practice.
mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
Also if you freelance I often look to partner with devs on side projects. Come join freelancehangout

106 points by cmorgan8506 9y ago

Hired.com seems like another option. I've gotten some pretty good remote only responses (even though I wasn't looking for remote).

ben1040 9y ago

Remote job #3 so far for me, and networking in various ways greased the wheels for it significantly. 1) went to a local tech meetup, spoke a few times and attended regularly. The organizer for the meetup worked remotely for the company, they referred me in. 2) I wound up on a slack group for people using my particular tech stack. Had a crummy day on the job and asked in their hiring channel if anyone was hiring remote. Someone reached out to me and took my resume, and it led to an offer in fairly short order. This job encouraged conference/meetup attendance and speaking. I spoke at a couple conferences as well at a meetup or two in my company's HQ. Which led me to: 3) Sent my resume to people I knew at the company, whom I'd met from meetups and conferences, as well as interacted with on that Slack. The interview was, as a result, super chill. The vibe really was "from a technical perspective you're a known quantity to us, we want the rest of the team to talk to you and make sure you're not a jerk."

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

purpleidea 9y ago

You spelled "goals" wrong on your "about" page. It's not "gloals".

cmorgan8506 9y ago
Thank you for catching that. New goal, learn to catch typos.

taurath 9y ago

I've found that in general you're either looking at a 30% paycut from "mid-level" companies in large cities (IE a 150k salary no stock/RSUs locally would be around $110k remote, with lots of "offers" of lower than that and a tiny amount of equity), AND you have probably 200% more competition. Its pretty competitive unless you're pretty specialized on a domain or new technology.

CalRobert 9y ago
Of course, it means you don't have to live in a large city. For a lot of people the reduced cost of living more than makes up the 30% paycut. If you're already at the top marginal tax rate, saving 20-30 grand a year can be equivalent to earning 40-45 grand a year, and it's not crazy to think living outside the city could save that much.
- philipkglass 9y ago
  I bought my house at 27 years of age and my mortgage is ~$1000 per month. That was by working remotely, mostly for Bay Area companies but also others, from a low-cost town in Washington state. I'm sure that it's easier to find new and better jobs when you have a physical presence near a major software hub. The extra difficulty in job-hunting has not outweighed the benefits of affordable housing so far. Living off savings between jobs is easier when you spend under $2000/month on necessities.
  - CalRobert 9y ago
    I'm investigating similar options at the moment, but having a spouse who isn't remote complicates things a bit. Even so the idea that changing cities (countries, even) wouldn't necessarily mean changing jobs is a relief.
eip 9y ago
Unless that $150K included tons of RSUs you would still be better off taking the lower pay and not paying the Bay tax. If you are not looking in the Bay then you will probably still come out ahead by not spending 2 hours a day commuting. $75/hr * 2 hours/day * 262 workdays/year = $39K/yr lost commuting. Not including the actual costs of commuting (car, gas, tires, parking, sanity). So outside the Bay it works out about the same assuming you don't generate any additional revenue in the two hours you would have spent commuting.

sciurus 9y ago

The site is down, so here's a cached version http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Ffullbit.ca%2Fhow-i-find-six-figure-remote-software-developer-jobs%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...

ujal 9y ago

A curated list of awesome remote jobs and resources - https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job

sanderjd 9y ago

I've always been intrigued by the idea of remote / contract work, but I've always concluded that it requires way too much of the kind of work I hate doing the most (self-marketing). For a normal job, I only have to go through the soul-sucking process of marketing and proving myself once over a relatively short period of time, before spending years doing the kind of work I do enjoy (actual work). I've always wondered whether folks who do contract work like this actually enjoy the self-marketing it takes, or whether the benefits just outweigh this downside for them. If I could pay someone to do the marketing side for me, it would be a much more attractive option.

cmorgan8506 9y ago
Honestly, I don't do any self marketing in that respect. I treat it exactly like a normal job. I do almost exclusively contract work, but it's usually full-time hours and contracts typically last 1-2 years.
- sanderjd 9y ago
  I guess I was referring to the content of the article, which is all about how the author markets theirself. Is your experience different?
  - cmorgan8506 9y ago
    It's my article =P But I don't market myself in the traditional sense. I just apply to contracts that seem like a good fit. The same as a full-time developer.
dhbradshaw 9y ago
In my experience, it's not really different in that regard. You start working with a group and provide value and then you work with them indefinitely unless someone else reaches out with a significantly better offer. I suppose that you're marketing to whoever you're working with, but that marketing takes the form of working systems, quick iteration, and good communication. And really, you want to provide all of these whether remote or not.

hbcondo714 9y ago

> Huge job boards like indeed.com are a little old-school and don’t typically have a lot of remote postings For me, remote jobs are displayed on Indeed by specifying "Remote" in the Where field of the web page or l query string parameter: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=.net&l=Remote https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=.net&l=Remote

courtneypowell 9y ago

WeWorkRemotely.com, RemoteOK.io, Stack Overflow remote filter

mnm1 9y ago

I find it highly useful to get right to the point in discussions with potential employers and discuss salary right away. I've been burned a few times by companies that simply weren't willing to pay enough. Even if what I want is fairly higher than what's on offer, for a really good position I might consider it.

burfog 9y ago
It seems a stretch to say you were burned. The company has no idea how much you are worth (to them, not an abstract company) until they interview you. The offer you got is not necessarily the same as the offer that somebody else might get; perhaps your offer was much lower because you seemed like a poor fit.
- mnm1 9y ago
  I wasted my time on a coding project for them, so burned is indeed correct, though it was my own fault. I actually never got an offer. They just told me what they thought would be the maximum as they really liked the project. Also, I learned never to do that again.
  - cmorgan8506 9y ago
    This last round of contract hunting for me was similar. Every single organization wanted an 8+ hour project to prove my skills but half the salaries ended up being <80k. So I started having to state base contract rates up front.
    - pards 9y ago
      Have you ever tried quoting for interview projects? "I've reviewed the spec for the take-home assignment and I estimate it at about 8 hours which is $1,200 plus tax." It'd be an interesting experiment at the very least.
      - cmorgan8506 9y ago

volgo 9y ago

The key to finding a great salary as a remote employee is not to start out being remote first. Find a medium sized company that doesn't mind people working remotely, and then work your ass off for them. Then after a while ask to work remotely on a trial period. When approved, work even harder and be 30% more productive than everyone else Once they see that you're doing well working remotely, there's a higher chance of letting you do that permanently Currently working remote (domiciled in S. Dakota but working overseas) collecting a $300k+ California salary.

mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
Way to go!

mrhappyunhappy 9y ago

If you like crypto, make something cool and post in r cryptocirrency and let people know you are available for work. I haven’t seen any devs do this but I did this as a designer and landed several large crypto projects. The designs I showcased were for community tools and I enjoyed throwing them together for practice.

mrhappyunhappy 9y ago

Also if you freelance I often look to partner with devs on side projects. Come join freelancehangout