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"I'm a reliable remote worker but I know that's going to put people off, how to alleviate concerns here?" Show, Dont' Tell. Write. Start a Blog. I recently hi
by codegeek 7y ago
"I'm a reliable remote worker but I know that's going to put people off, how to alleviate concerns here?"
Show, Dont' Tell.
Write. Start a Blog. I recently hired someone remote and one of the reasons was their blog (among other reasons). I could go through their posts and see how they think, their perspectives on stuff and skills in writing about it. The best way to market yourself is to distinguish yourself from others as much as possible. I am always amazed to find people who are freelancers/consultants but don't have a good online presence. Yes it is hard and yes it takes time. But that is the point.
So don't print business cards. Well ok print them but that should not be your priority. I run a business and I failed to print business cards so far (too lazy). But I still meet plenty of people online and in person. Start writing about whatever you know. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to a scientific paper. Just write.
You mentioned sysadmin, cloud stuff, migration etc. Do you know how critical this stuff is for any business ? If you kick ass on this stuff, you already are ahead. But Show, don't tell. And no, there is no easy way. No one cares how good you are because no one knows.
EDIT: I forgot to add that I also recently hired another short term consultant for a gig. This will make them a few thousand bucks and I found them online through their website/blog AND they wrote an e-book on the subject. Easy win for that consultant since I emailed him saying "take my money".
- ghaff 7y ago>So don't print business cards. Well ok print them but that should not be your priority. I run a business and I failed to print business cards so far (too lazy). Yeah, I have them but don't really use them. The even more meta advice is that you need to do a lot of marketing--whatever particular form it takes. I'm biased towards writing things myself but writing, speaking, meetups, podcast, etc.
- esquire_900 7y agoFunny thing that the title of the post on the HN frontpage above this one is titled "‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Almost Ruined Me as a Writer"
- StreamBright 7y agoLucky this person is not a writer. :)
- zer0sand0nes 7y agoI want to write -- I love writing -- but what to write about? Every time I want to write - I write about something that is pissing me off or something that is coming out angrily. My writing is ok and entertaining...but sure as hell does not show any "logical" thinking. If I were to write about software...I would probably write about ideas, random ideas that catch my mind. Any pointers?
- jackschultz 7y agoI have a programming blog, which I do cause of interest in writing and showing, but also being able to show potential employers about skills. For me, it's projects that came from random ideas in my mind. Like I have a golf background and wrote something up about scraping to get golf stats, and then analyzing the strokes gained. I also wrote something about how close Noodles and Qdoba seem to be to each other, compared to Noodles and Chipotle. I recently wrote about how to optimize an NBA DFS lineup which was a complex knapsack problem. All super interesting to me. The key in all cases is to have actual code to show and actual results. I bet if you take your random ideas and push forward to start writing you'll have something come up you'd be able to write about. I've found that ideas shift over time when investigating. What are some examples of the random ideas you've had?
- zer0sand0nes 7y agoMostly related to cutting edge technologies & products. I am not really passionate about "programming" per say, but I do enjoy coming up with unique & useful problems and designing solutions for them. I am not necessarily interested in the coding part. I am a full time software engineer, but I would rather not be. Would me talking about products, random new solutions & random new startup ideas get me anywhere? Without actually doing the coding for them?
- jackschultz 7y agoI'd say it's definitely worth it to write about products and solutions because it shows who you are and what you like to talk and think about. That's the case for me, where I write what I like, and if people or employers find that interesting too, then having writing is a great place to begin a conversation. Another note on this is don't feel bad if you don't think your writing is very good. I look back on my posts from 4 years ago and it's pretty clear that I wasn't very good at writing clearly, and also my programming skills really weren't that great. I learned by doing.
- jessriedel 7y ago> "I'm a reliable remote worker but I know that's going to put people off, how to alleviate concerns here?" > Show, Dont' Tell. Isn't he just saying that he doesn't tend to slack off when he's working remote, like some people do? How is writing a blog going to show anyone you work just as hard remotely as in the office?
- theelous3 7y agoIf in your spare time, you show that you are still trying to solve problems, or at least give them thought serious enough to warrant writing about, you're probably quite engaged in your field - which is a good thing. Do you want the guy who doesn't do anything extra, or the guy who gets his jollies from analysing and optimising apis for some protocol, or whatever?
- lonelappde 7y agoI want someone who focuses on getting work done and doesn't get their jollies from brand marketing. Code beats blog posts. Side projects are great when you can't find a rewarding day job. Why would I hire a consultant who doesn't find gigs that tax their expertise?
- theelous3 7y agoRemember this the next time you are learning something from a tech blog.
- codegeek 7y agoThe title of his post is about becoming a Consultant. Being Remote is just another additional layer but the main issue is finding clients as a consultant. At least that is what I took from his post.