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Shoe-horning your remote self into a position that the company would prefer not to be remote seems like a big risk for stagnation.

by ssharp 5y ago

jakub_g 5y ago
IMO the shift to remote is not gonna be reverted (at least in companies above certain size; small startups may work differently); some companies know it under their skin, but didn't internalize it yet enough to be open about it in their job posts; probably they will very soon. A few observations: - Often there are already many remote people in the company, and the lack of "remote ok" on job posting might be simply due to: 1) overlook; 2) not wanting too many otherwise unsuitable applicants, perhaps; 3) they may have one job post for generic 'sw dev' position while they try to recruit 100 people to 50 teams; some teams behind this are more remote-ok, others are less - In my current company, quite a few folks have recently moved away from high cost of living HQ city to smaller city, staying as remote, and got mortgages etc. which means they won't move back. Definitely before joining, you need to ask questions and ideally find a team which is already 100% remote or close; being the only remote person in a team will suck.
NtGuy25 5y ago
I was recently looking for positions and it seems like most of these companies are hiring you as a filler until they get someone just as good. So you're 100 % right. Without sounding controversial. Most promotions and good things at a job come from people skills rather than technical. And if you can get into the "Good old boys" club or just make friends, then you usually succeed. WFH doesn't really have those options, so not only does the company not want you to WFH, you also arn't making connections and relationships. After hearing some horror stories from people who took the jump earlier in Covid, I decided against it, since it's exactly what you said. 100 % stagnation. Although, the only people I have heard doing well are our sysadmins/IT friends. They are very asynchronous and can easily work 3 jobs with no conflicts and are doing very well.
- jakub_g 5y ago
  It might depend on company size, individual team etc. Definitely important to find the team which is already remote - see my comment one level up.
tdumitrescu 5y ago
It feels like there's a vocal segment of HN users who would be totally fine with that. "Just give me a list of tasks that need doing and let me check in code. Why do managers always want to talk about career progression" etc etc. For people who want to stay in the "mid-level IC" groove in perpetuity, this kind of remote arrangement looks lovely. (I'm personally not interested in that and think it's not sustainable to do that longterm in most companies besides dysfunctional megacorps, but you could probably get away with a good number of years that way.)

Shoe-horning your remote self into a position that the company would prefer not to be remote seems like a big risk for stagnation.

by ssharp 5y ago

Shoe-horning your remote self into a position that the company would prefer not to be remote seems like a big risk for stagnation.

jakub_g 5y ago

IMO the shift to remote is not gonna be reverted (at least in companies above certain size; small startups may work differently); some companies know it under their skin, but didn't internalize it yet enough to be open about it in their job posts; probably they will very soon. A few observations: - Often there are already many remote people in the company, and the lack of "remote ok" on job posting might be simply due to: 1) overlook; 2) not wanting too many otherwise unsuitable applicants, perhaps; 3) they may have one job post for generic 'sw dev' position while they try to recruit 100 people to 50 teams; some teams behind this are more remote-ok, others are less - In my current company, quite a few folks have recently moved away from high cost of living HQ city to smaller city, staying as remote, and got mortgages etc. which means they won't move back. Definitely before joining, you need to ask questions and ideally find a team which is already 100% remote or close; being the only remote person in a team will suck.

NtGuy25 5y ago

I was recently looking for positions and it seems like most of these companies are hiring you as a filler until they get someone just as good. So you're 100 % right. Without sounding controversial. Most promotions and good things at a job come from people skills rather than technical. And if you can get into the "Good old boys" club or just make friends, then you usually succeed. WFH doesn't really have those options, so not only does the company not want you to WFH, you also arn't making connections and relationships. After hearing some horror stories from people who took the jump earlier in Covid, I decided against it, since it's exactly what you said. 100 % stagnation. Although, the only people I have heard doing well are our sysadmins/IT friends. They are very asynchronous and can easily work 3 jobs with no conflicts and are doing very well.

jakub_g 5y ago
It might depend on company size, individual team etc. Definitely important to find the team which is already remote - see my comment one level up.

tdumitrescu 5y ago

It feels like there's a vocal segment of HN users who would be totally fine with that. "Just give me a list of tasks that need doing and let me check in code. Why do managers always want to talk about career progression" etc etc. For people who want to stay in the "mid-level IC" groove in perpetuity, this kind of remote arrangement looks lovely. (I'm personally not interested in that and think it's not sustainable to do that longterm in most companies besides dysfunctional megacorps, but you could probably get away with a good number of years that way.)