3 ms·

> non-top-tier, non-US city Up your relevant demonstrable skills enough to work remotely for a company in a big US city. Alternatively, immigrate either to US

by raquo 8y ago

> non-top-tier, non-US city Up your relevant demonstrable skills enough to work remotely for a company in a big US city. Alternatively, immigrate either to US or to a country from where it's easier to work for US (hello Canada). Maybe move to a bigger city in your country and work for its Google or Microsoft office if there is one and if it pays well. An average nondescript town is not a good place to be a software developer. Low wages, uninteresting, unchallenging work (hello agency work, drupal websites, 15 year old enterprise java codebases), working in an IT dept that is a cost center rather than revenue driver, etc. We can't possibly know what exactly it's like where you are (better ask on a local forum) but that's what it's like more often than not. It might certainly be better than other careers locally, but it's worse than you can have if you're willing to make the effort.

frfl 8y ago
I am in Canada, but is there still not an issue with taxes and other things that makes a lot of companies not consider Canadian remote workers? Dont you have to work out a consultant/contract type deal with US remote companies? What companies do you know that do hire remote workers from Canada, let alone remote junior developers :P
- raquo 8y ago
  Junior remote is hard, which is why I'm saying get the skills first. This is not just a one year journey, you should be planning your path for the next 5-10 years. Optimize for skills and learning first, then go for maximizing income (as much as you can afford this delay). Always keep interestingness and quality of life up high in priorities. Get a local internship / job first either in your town or in a bigger town like Vancouver / Montreal / Toronto. Learn the trade, best practices, best technologies, get an open source presence, etc. All of this will require a genuine interest in the field and hard work on your own time. You will of course also progress your skills on the job, but relying solely on that you will grow much slower, and will be strictly capped by the quality of your workplace dev culture. You can start your growth before even getting a job btw. In Canada, lots of companies hire juniors, both big and small. Look at your peers and know how to stand out. Did you build a simple app, put it on github and host in somewhere? Congrats, you have demonstrated more skills than 90% of your peers, and you haven't even interviewed yet. Google your way into finding these companies – see angel.co, many lists of companies hiring remotely, local job fairs, etc. As for cross border contracting – yes, working for US you will most likely be a contractor unless the company is big enough to have a Canadian office. Better that they don't, then they will be less likely to offer you a Canadian salary. Being a long term contractor is not really a problem as long as you have the skills you advertised. Taxes are easy for contractors. There are legal things you need to know, and you will know after you do proper research on this, but there are no showstoppers there. If you want to take the most from this career, you don't let some paperwork or the illusion of job security get in the way. You work hard to become the best developer you can be, and allow the highest bidder that you're interested in working for pay you for your work. --- This might sound very... effortless and maybe pompous and out of reach but it's entirely doable. Knowing who you want to be, being interested in your work, and spending a lot of effort on becoming a better developer year after year is really all it takes. It's a long path but thousands of people have walked it.
  - frfl 8y ago
    Thanks for the detailed write up, raquo. I truly appreciate it.
jasonkester 8y ago
Well said. This, and its excellent followup below should be read and taken on board by junior devs, since it doesn't seem to be common knowledge. It's like there's this Big Pot of Gold sitting there up for grabs in the Bay Area. But whenever anybody mentions it, all these people come out of the woodwork to explain how that Pot of Gold is only in the Bay Area. Out here in Scott's Bluff Nebraska they only have this little bucket of rocks. And that's all perfectly true. But our commenter then goes on to explain how we should all forget about that Pot of Gold and instead focus on how to get a few of those rocks, because that's all any of us are ever going to get. No. That's not the takeaway you should have. If there's a Big Pot of Gold someplace waiting to be taken, your job should be to find a way to get some of that gold. Yes, it won't happen immediately. You'll need to work on it. Maybe it'll take 5 years. Maybe 10. Maybe you'll need to actually go to the Bay Area for a few years at some point. But know that if you really want it, it absolutely is possible to achieve. Google alone hires 10,000 engineers every year. Not all of them were born in Palo Alto and graduated top 1% from Stanford. There are dozens if not hundreds of companies who are hiring remote devs at Bay Area compensation packages. Just because you're a no-experience kid in Nebraska today doesn't mean you need to still be one 10 years from now. Please. For your own sake. Get going.

by raquo 8y ago

frfl 8y ago

I am in Canada, but is there still not an issue with taxes and other things that makes a lot of companies not consider Canadian remote workers? Dont you have to work out a consultant/contract type deal with US remote companies? What companies do you know that do hire remote workers from Canada, let alone remote junior developers :P

raquo 8y ago
Junior remote is hard, which is why I'm saying get the skills first. This is not just a one year journey, you should be planning your path for the next 5-10 years. Optimize for skills and learning first, then go for maximizing income (as much as you can afford this delay). Always keep interestingness and quality of life up high in priorities. Get a local internship / job first either in your town or in a bigger town like Vancouver / Montreal / Toronto. Learn the trade, best practices, best technologies, get an open source presence, etc. All of this will require a genuine interest in the field and hard work on your own time. You will of course also progress your skills on the job, but relying solely on that you will grow much slower, and will be strictly capped by the quality of your workplace dev culture. You can start your growth before even getting a job btw. In Canada, lots of companies hire juniors, both big and small. Look at your peers and know how to stand out. Did you build a simple app, put it on github and host in somewhere? Congrats, you have demonstrated more skills than 90% of your peers, and you haven't even interviewed yet. Google your way into finding these companies – see angel.co, many lists of companies hiring remotely, local job fairs, etc. As for cross border contracting – yes, working for US you will most likely be a contractor unless the company is big enough to have a Canadian office. Better that they don't, then they will be less likely to offer you a Canadian salary. Being a long term contractor is not really a problem as long as you have the skills you advertised. Taxes are easy for contractors. There are legal things you need to know, and you will know after you do proper research on this, but there are no showstoppers there. If you want to take the most from this career, you don't let some paperwork or the illusion of job security get in the way. You work hard to become the best developer you can be, and allow the highest bidder that you're interested in working for pay you for your work. --- This might sound very... effortless and maybe pompous and out of reach but it's entirely doable. Knowing who you want to be, being interested in your work, and spending a lot of effort on becoming a better developer year after year is really all it takes. It's a long path but thousands of people have walked it.
- frfl 8y ago
  Thanks for the detailed write up, raquo. I truly appreciate it.

jasonkester 8y ago

Well said. This, and its excellent followup below should be read and taken on board by junior devs, since it doesn't seem to be common knowledge. It's like there's this Big Pot of Gold sitting there up for grabs in the Bay Area. But whenever anybody mentions it, all these people come out of the woodwork to explain how that Pot of Gold is only in the Bay Area. Out here in Scott's Bluff Nebraska they only have this little bucket of rocks. And that's all perfectly true. But our commenter then goes on to explain how we should all forget about that Pot of Gold and instead focus on how to get a few of those rocks, because that's all any of us are ever going to get. No. That's not the takeaway you should have. If there's a Big Pot of Gold someplace waiting to be taken, your job should be to find a way to get some of that gold. Yes, it won't happen immediately. You'll need to work on it. Maybe it'll take 5 years. Maybe 10. Maybe you'll need to actually go to the Bay Area for a few years at some point. But know that if you really want it, it absolutely is possible to achieve. Google alone hires 10,000 engineers every year. Not all of them were born in Palo Alto and graduated top 1% from Stanford. There are dozens if not hundreds of companies who are hiring remote devs at Bay Area compensation packages. Just because you're a no-experience kid in Nebraska today doesn't mean you need to still be one 10 years from now. Please. For your own sake. Get going.