7 ms·

I'm jealous. I have yearned for this type of work for years and I haven't been able to find it. I loathe the commute to an office. I don't want to pay the price

by millerm 13y ago

I'm jealous. I have yearned for this type of work for years and I haven't been able to find it. I loathe the commute to an office. I don't want to pay the price of living in a "tech city". I'm even tired of wasting money on clothes for an office as I am a 41 year old jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. Some people just don't have the discipline of not being constantly supervised and have that "must be at the office to be productive" thought pattern. I am not a 9 to 5 person (and most companies have changed it to "you must be a 8 to 5 person"). There is just too much time and money wasted by going to someone's office if you don't need to. I was the only iOS developer at my previous employer. I barely had to collaborate with the business as much as you might think. Most of our communication was done via email, wikis and bug tracking tools. I couldn't understand why I had to be there. It was basically just an obstacle I had to overcome very damn day. I'm currently searching for new work and so many positions are downtown (Atlanta, in my case). I just won't deal with 1 hour commutes. Gridlock is just a horrible place to waste one's life.

vailripper 13y ago
If I can plug my company - http://www.surgeforward.com/ http://www.surgeforward.com/ We're 100% remote, and work hard to keep things fun. I'd encourage you to apply.
- millerm 13y ago
  I'll check it out, thanks!
dangero 13y ago
I was in your shoes, and I know your pain. It's the awful pain of knowing that you live in a time where you could work from everywhere, and yet, YOU are the person who is still stuck in an office almost the entire daylight of your week and when you're not in the office, you're sitting in traffic. You're living a near industrial era life in a post tech world. You know in 100 years they will write in the history books about the tech generation that sat at desks in front of a screen typing 8+ hours a day with no windows. You feel you're literally watching your short life wither away while other people are sitting on the beach in Thailand with a Macbook Air under their umbrella. Let me explain how I personally got out of this situation: I became a software consultant. For sure, it's not something you can become overnight, because you need clients, but it's a good way to get out quickly versus the ivory tower of starting your own profitable product offering. Heck, 37 signals and Fog Creek started out as consulting firms.
- taude 13y ago
  I've working in consulting-type roles for a long time. The biggest problem for solo-operators (or even with a couple employees) is that most clients require you to be in their offices...
  - dangero 13y ago
    When recruiters call me about contracting work that's always true, but when I find my own I find I can set the terms.
- tieTYT 13y ago
  How do you get started as a consultant? It's easy to find articles that explain how to choose better clients and things like that, but how do you get started?
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    I did the same things. Loads of reading and asking to find that "golden path" or secret to make it click. "How do I consult?" Well, find a job somewhere, preferably a large corporation. Lots of people run their own consulting gigs on the side. Talk to them. I found out a few people, just around my cubicles, run a consultancy on the side with a few people hired. I started working part time for their consultancies as we're always in the office together, then once my contract at the company finished, I knew abut 5-10 people that consulted so I got a few gigs with them. Boom, now you're a consultant. Best way is in person. The easiest gigs I ever had was when I was nearly starving and needed money. I went out, went to every business I could find that could possibly use a website with a proper backend (so I can take more time and bill more, don't want to do just frontend work). I got about 20 gigs that day, only completed a few over the course of the next year. Two ways: talk to people you work with, or really go out there and STOP Googling and reading. There is no magic path, just do it. OR, find an existing consultancy and either try taking out employees to lunch and talking about it, or work for a consultancy for awhile and take notes on how everything operates. How clients are landed, billed, how talent is acquired, etc.
cgh 13y ago
If you are a "senior-level" programmer (ie you have a bunch of experience and have shipped products) one possibility is to make contact with a SV consulting company for subcontracting to larger enterprises. Such is the dearth of talent that big, boring companies can't find anybody and end up hiring a lot of H1Bs and contractors. Going with a contracting company rather than contracting yourself directly has several advantages, like you don't have to buy your own insurance (can be very expensive) or incorporate, if you don't want to. A caveat is that you'll almost certainly be working with Java rather than iOS, but not necessarily. Just get your name out there and talk to a few places. I know this approach works because it's what I did. I don't even live in the US (western Canada) and it's worked out fine. I have to fly down and hang with the client once a quarter and that's about it.
- millerm 13y ago
  Thanks for the info. I have been searching for the contract approach. I've been a Java developer since 2000. I have been an architect and lead. So, I am a senior developer. My latest job offer is also a senior position. "Architect" is not in my career path as I do not like that title. It brings about too much baggage and too little tech. So, I'll keep trying. I'd really like to move out to Fort Collins, Colorado to be with family out that way. But, they aren't a tech city and I need remote work to pull it off.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - tubbzor 13y ago
    > But, they aren't a tech city and I need remote work to pull it off. Hewlett Packard, Intel, AMD, Avago, National Semiconductor, LSI, and Wolf Robotics all have offices in Fort Collins. Fort Collins-Loveland was rated 2nd in the "Top 10 Metro Areas for High-Tech Startup Density" in the United States (with Boulder at #1). [0] We even have an incubator, Rocky Mountain Innosphere [1], if that tickles your fancy. In short, I don't think you'd have a problem here despite it not being a "tech city". [0] http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/young-high-tech-firms-outpace-private-sector-job-creation.aspx http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/young-high-tech-firms-outpa... [1] http://www.rmi2.org/ http://www.rmi2.org/
wil421 13y ago
I work in Atlanta for a multinational company with 20,000+ employees, almost daily I connect with people from the Midwest, West coast, India, and UK. We allow remote workers, have flex time (although 8-5 is considered the "norm"). Our dress code is relaxed (I prefer jeans + polo daily). I know that we are hiring because I am meeting new hires daily (along with new contractors). I just got hired in July. Let me know if you would like to know more I saw you were in Atlanta (we are not downtown).
- millerm 13y ago
  I live north of the city (Roswell). How does one communicate on hacker news? Is it poor form to throw out my email address?
  - lrm242 13y ago
    Put an email address in your profile description.
    - millerm 13y ago
      Cool, already there. Thanks!
      - thedufer 13y ago
        The email field in your account is not public information. You have to actually put it in the 'about' section. Your email is not there as of a few seconds ago.
      - millerm 13y ago
        Ahh, I wondered about that. Profile updated.
  - wil421 13y ago
    Sent you an email.
- millerm 13y ago
marquis 13y ago
My team is 100% remote working, some of us get to meet up during the year but not everyone has met in person yet. A couple of the team would do better if we had a group office but it's also good experience for us to figure out how to solve these kinds of problems as it's not an option for us to hire an office for just one person in every city, and the kind of work we do doesn't translate to co-working spaces. We make it work through solid communication, and I'm sure like us there are many opportunities for you to get a great remote position. Would the HN admin team consider adding a 3rd Who's Hiring entry, dedicated to remote positions?
ohjeez 13y ago
I've been working remotely for most of the last 20 years. It has its tradeoffs (nobody says, "What a pretty new sweater!") but I would not consider anything else. (How _do_ people get work done without a cat on their lap?) When it comes to looking for work, telecommute is a non-negotiable item for me. I am happy to visit the office, which to me means "go onsite for one week every quarter" (as in-person time _does_ matter, just not on a day to day basis). But if someone says they require me to work onsite, it's a reason to walk away, in the same way that a lot of other people say, "No way would I relocate." Plus, I see a refusal to permit telecommuting (for appropriate work, especially creative/innovation) as a sign of the company culture... and not in a good way. Do you really trust your employees so little that you have to have them under your watchful eye?
cfinke 13y ago
Join us at Automattic: http://automattic.com/work-with-us/ http://automattic.com/work-with-us/ We all work remotely -- all 200+ of us. You may have heard of a few of our products: WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, and likely the most relevant to you, the WordPress iOS app.
- btipling 13y ago
  Nice. We also work remotely, but our product is a tool to help engineers work remotely (Floobits YC13). I started this job less than two weeks ago and I am finding myself to be more productive, and overall happier working from home. I have less time and energy and money spent on commuting and more time with family and work and I love both.
  - niels 13y ago
    At my company we also work remote and we love Floobits.
    - btipling 13y ago
      Thanks! Let me know if you run into any issues or have any feedback! #floobits on freenode irc or info@floobits.com We reply right away, unless we are asleep. :)
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  Do you guys take Canadians?
  - andy_adams 13y ago
    I know for a fact there are some (good looking) Canadians working for Automattic.
    - cfinke 13y ago
      Confirmed; the Canadian contingent of Automattic is a good-looking bunch.
rpicard 13y ago
Here's a job board I found dedicated to remote positions. Maybe you'll find something that suits you here: https://www.wfh.io/jobs/ https://www.wfh.io/jobs/
- frakkingcylons 13y ago
  Thanks!
woodhull 13y ago
Join us -- we're a tiny but growing team in Brooklyn, Albany and Buenos Aires, building software for activism: http://www.controlshiftlabs.com/careers/ http://www.controlshiftlabs.com/careers/
yegg 13y ago
DuckDuckGo is also >50% remote and we're actually in the book I believe! https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring
- tommoor 13y ago
  Have you tried Sqwiggle yet? Would love for you to let us know your thoughts :)
albedo 13y ago
We just launched a talent agency for startup founders who aren't interested in full-time office positions, but are willing to take on contract work that can be done part-time and remotely. We got over 400 signups in the first 5 weeks. It sounds like this could be a good fit for you. Check it out at http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com
millerm 13y ago
Wow, so many responses! Thank you, everyone!
lifeisstillgood 13y ago
I took this journey from crappy commute and job to working for a boss 5000 miles away. http://www.mikadosoftware.com http://www.mikadosoftware.com has a few notes, and it was partly luck and quite a lot of determination - I was out for two nearly three months and two years on the cost of that break is still hurting. But it made a vast difference to my life - I went from a miserable commute eating three or four hours a day in a car, doing "management" work at a large company that did not get it to working in my own office twenty minutes walk from home hacking in open source code for Rice University in Texas. It's not some over night, all is perfect now story, I have not treated myself as a proper business, I have not done the right things - but the big stuff, that's in place and I hope to stay the right side of the tax collector and produce not awful code for paying clients - it's a good road I am on. Join me. seriously, just start putting the word out and be prepared for some pain to start with. jump :-)
lucasr 13y ago
A large part of Mozilla works from home. And I don't know of any team in the company that have everyone in a single location. In other words, we've very distributed. Have a look at: http://careers.mozilla.org http://careers.mozilla.org

by millerm 13y ago

vailripper 13y ago

If I can plug my company - http://www.surgeforward.com/ http://www.surgeforward.com/ We're 100% remote, and work hard to keep things fun. I'd encourage you to apply.

millerm 13y ago
I'll check it out, thanks!

dangero 13y ago

I was in your shoes, and I know your pain. It's the awful pain of knowing that you live in a time where you could work from everywhere, and yet, YOU are the person who is still stuck in an office almost the entire daylight of your week and when you're not in the office, you're sitting in traffic. You're living a near industrial era life in a post tech world. You know in 100 years they will write in the history books about the tech generation that sat at desks in front of a screen typing 8+ hours a day with no windows. You feel you're literally watching your short life wither away while other people are sitting on the beach in Thailand with a Macbook Air under their umbrella. Let me explain how I personally got out of this situation: I became a software consultant. For sure, it's not something you can become overnight, because you need clients, but it's a good way to get out quickly versus the ivory tower of starting your own profitable product offering. Heck, 37 signals and Fog Creek started out as consulting firms.

taude 13y ago
I've working in consulting-type roles for a long time. The biggest problem for solo-operators (or even with a couple employees) is that most clients require you to be in their offices...
- dangero 13y ago
  When recruiters call me about contracting work that's always true, but when I find my own I find I can set the terms.
tieTYT 13y ago
How do you get started as a consultant? It's easy to find articles that explain how to choose better clients and things like that, but how do you get started?
- rfnslyr 13y ago
  I did the same things. Loads of reading and asking to find that "golden path" or secret to make it click. "How do I consult?" Well, find a job somewhere, preferably a large corporation. Lots of people run their own consulting gigs on the side. Talk to them. I found out a few people, just around my cubicles, run a consultancy on the side with a few people hired. I started working part time for their consultancies as we're always in the office together, then once my contract at the company finished, I knew abut 5-10 people that consulted so I got a few gigs with them. Boom, now you're a consultant. Best way is in person. The easiest gigs I ever had was when I was nearly starving and needed money. I went out, went to every business I could find that could possibly use a website with a proper backend (so I can take more time and bill more, don't want to do just frontend work). I got about 20 gigs that day, only completed a few over the course of the next year. Two ways: talk to people you work with, or really go out there and STOP Googling and reading. There is no magic path, just do it. OR, find an existing consultancy and either try taking out employees to lunch and talking about it, or work for a consultancy for awhile and take notes on how everything operates. How clients are landed, billed, how talent is acquired, etc.

cgh 13y ago

If you are a "senior-level" programmer (ie you have a bunch of experience and have shipped products) one possibility is to make contact with a SV consulting company for subcontracting to larger enterprises. Such is the dearth of talent that big, boring companies can't find anybody and end up hiring a lot of H1Bs and contractors. Going with a contracting company rather than contracting yourself directly has several advantages, like you don't have to buy your own insurance (can be very expensive) or incorporate, if you don't want to. A caveat is that you'll almost certainly be working with Java rather than iOS, but not necessarily. Just get your name out there and talk to a few places. I know this approach works because it's what I did. I don't even live in the US (western Canada) and it's worked out fine. I have to fly down and hang with the client once a quarter and that's about it.

millerm 13y ago
Thanks for the info. I have been searching for the contract approach. I've been a Java developer since 2000. I have been an architect and lead. So, I am a senior developer. My latest job offer is also a senior position. "Architect" is not in my career path as I do not like that title. It brings about too much baggage and too little tech. So, I'll keep trying. I'd really like to move out to Fort Collins, Colorado to be with family out that way. But, they aren't a tech city and I need remote work to pull it off.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- tubbzor 13y ago
  > But, they aren't a tech city and I need remote work to pull it off. Hewlett Packard, Intel, AMD, Avago, National Semiconductor, LSI, and Wolf Robotics all have offices in Fort Collins. Fort Collins-Loveland was rated 2nd in the "Top 10 Metro Areas for High-Tech Startup Density" in the United States (with Boulder at #1). [0] We even have an incubator, Rocky Mountain Innosphere [1], if that tickles your fancy. In short, I don't think you'd have a problem here despite it not being a "tech city". [0] http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/young-high-tech-firms-outpace-private-sector-job-creation.aspx http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/young-high-tech-firms-outpa... [1] http://www.rmi2.org/ http://www.rmi2.org/

wil421 13y ago

I work in Atlanta for a multinational company with 20,000+ employees, almost daily I connect with people from the Midwest, West coast, India, and UK. We allow remote workers, have flex time (although 8-5 is considered the "norm"). Our dress code is relaxed (I prefer jeans + polo daily). I know that we are hiring because I am meeting new hires daily (along with new contractors). I just got hired in July. Let me know if you would like to know more I saw you were in Atlanta (we are not downtown).

millerm 13y ago
I live north of the city (Roswell). How does one communicate on hacker news? Is it poor form to throw out my email address?
- lrm242 13y ago
  Put an email address in your profile description.
  - millerm 13y ago
    Cool, already there. Thanks!
    - thedufer 13y ago
      The email field in your account is not public information. You have to actually put it in the 'about' section. Your email is not there as of a few seconds ago.
    - millerm 13y ago
      Ahh, I wondered about that. Profile updated.
- wil421 13y ago
  Sent you an email.
millerm 13y ago

marquis 13y ago

My team is 100% remote working, some of us get to meet up during the year but not everyone has met in person yet. A couple of the team would do better if we had a group office but it's also good experience for us to figure out how to solve these kinds of problems as it's not an option for us to hire an office for just one person in every city, and the kind of work we do doesn't translate to co-working spaces. We make it work through solid communication, and I'm sure like us there are many opportunities for you to get a great remote position. Would the HN admin team consider adding a 3rd Who's Hiring entry, dedicated to remote positions?

ohjeez 13y ago

I've been working remotely for most of the last 20 years. It has its tradeoffs (nobody says, "What a pretty new sweater!") but I would not consider anything else. (How _do_ people get work done without a cat on their lap?) When it comes to looking for work, telecommute is a non-negotiable item for me. I am happy to visit the office, which to me means "go onsite for one week every quarter" (as in-person time _does_ matter, just not on a day to day basis). But if someone says they require me to work onsite, it's a reason to walk away, in the same way that a lot of other people say, "No way would I relocate." Plus, I see a refusal to permit telecommuting (for appropriate work, especially creative/innovation) as a sign of the company culture... and not in a good way. Do you really trust your employees so little that you have to have them under your watchful eye?

cfinke 13y ago

Join us at Automattic: http://automattic.com/work-with-us/ http://automattic.com/work-with-us/ We all work remotely -- all 200+ of us. You may have heard of a few of our products: WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, and likely the most relevant to you, the WordPress iOS app.

btipling 13y ago
Nice. We also work remotely, but our product is a tool to help engineers work remotely (Floobits YC13). I started this job less than two weeks ago and I am finding myself to be more productive, and overall happier working from home. I have less time and energy and money spent on commuting and more time with family and work and I love both.
- niels 13y ago
  At my company we also work remote and we love Floobits.
  - btipling 13y ago
    Thanks! Let me know if you run into any issues or have any feedback! #floobits on freenode irc or info@floobits.com We reply right away, unless we are asleep. :)
rfnslyr 13y ago
Do you guys take Canadians?
- andy_adams 13y ago
  I know for a fact there are some (good looking) Canadians working for Automattic.
  - cfinke 13y ago
    Confirmed; the Canadian contingent of Automattic is a good-looking bunch.

rpicard 13y ago

Here's a job board I found dedicated to remote positions. Maybe you'll find something that suits you here: https://www.wfh.io/jobs/ https://www.wfh.io/jobs/

frakkingcylons 13y ago
Thanks!

woodhull 13y ago

Join us -- we're a tiny but growing team in Brooklyn, Albany and Buenos Aires, building software for activism: http://www.controlshiftlabs.com/careers/ http://www.controlshiftlabs.com/careers/

yegg 13y ago

DuckDuckGo is also >50% remote and we're actually in the book I believe! https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring https://dukgo.com/help/en_US/company/hiring

tommoor 13y ago
Have you tried Sqwiggle yet? Would love for you to let us know your thoughts :)

albedo 13y ago

We just launched a talent agency for startup founders who aren't interested in full-time office positions, but are willing to take on contract work that can be done part-time and remotely. We got over 400 signups in the first 5 weeks. It sounds like this could be a good fit for you. Check it out at http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com

millerm 13y ago

Wow, so many responses! Thank you, everyone!

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

I took this journey from crappy commute and job to working for a boss 5000 miles away. http://www.mikadosoftware.com http://www.mikadosoftware.com has a few notes, and it was partly luck and quite a lot of determination - I was out for two nearly three months and two years on the cost of that break is still hurting. But it made a vast difference to my life - I went from a miserable commute eating three or four hours a day in a car, doing "management" work at a large company that did not get it to working in my own office twenty minutes walk from home hacking in open source code for Rice University in Texas. It's not some over night, all is perfect now story, I have not treated myself as a proper business, I have not done the right things - but the big stuff, that's in place and I hope to stay the right side of the tax collector and produce not awful code for paying clients - it's a good road I am on. Join me. seriously, just start putting the word out and be prepared for some pain to start with. jump :-)

lucasr 13y ago

A large part of Mozilla works from home. And I don't know of any team in the company that have everyone in a single location. In other words, we've very distributed. Have a look at: http://careers.mozilla.org http://careers.mozilla.org