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I am in a position where I could work remotely, and I would like to, but for one reason: career advancement. I am pretty early on in my career (about 5 years in

I am in a position where I could work remotely, and I would like to, but for one reason: career advancement. I am pretty early on in my career (about 5 years in), and I have basically two competing routes ahead of me A) be a highly technical dev who will be a high value "mercenary" type or B) move into a technical lead/CTO type role. I always thought that I wanted to do be A, but as I have gotten into product design, building up a team, mentoring, negotiating deals, etc. I have found that I really enjoy B. Being a lone wolf type dev is almost ideal in a remote setting (all of my clients are already off site anyway). Being a manager, technical lead, or anyone core to a business team, however, seems a lot more difficult to pull off. I used to love the idea of working as that story book hacker who can spin out code from a laptop in an RV traveling where ever the wind took me. I work with a guy who literally owns a laptop, a suitcase, and the clothes and toiletries to fill it. Every morning I talk to him he could be in German, Brazil, Japan, or where ever the hell he feels like going. That is awesome, and I highly respect anyone with the spine to live that way, but... At the same time, I want to be in the fight, shaping people instead of just machines. I want to be able to shake the hands of the people I work with, and look my competitors in the eye. For now anyway, I am sticking to the office and reaping the career rewards of being a central figure to my team. TLDR: work can be done from anywhere; leadership.. not as clear.

fhd2 13y ago
I'm a lead developer who works remotely, it does work. Most of my team is remoting, but I can imagine that it'd be tricky if all the other developers worked on-site. Since I remote, I do actually get around to some hands-on development, about half of my time currently. I suppose the key to becoming a lead is to join a company early on. If you pick one that's open for remote working, you can nurture that culture and hire people that are good at asynchronous working. That, in turn, puts a lot of talented people in your hiring pool that otherwise weren't there, it's a competitive advantage when it comes to hiring. We still offer relocating for everyone, some people prefer to work in an office and that's perfectly fine. At the end of the day, I just want my people to be happy and productive.

fhd2 13y ago

I'm a lead developer who works remotely, it does work. Most of my team is remoting, but I can imagine that it'd be tricky if all the other developers worked on-site. Since I remote, I do actually get around to some hands-on development, about half of my time currently. I suppose the key to becoming a lead is to join a company early on. If you pick one that's open for remote working, you can nurture that culture and hire people that are good at asynchronous working. That, in turn, puts a lot of talented people in your hiring pool that otherwise weren't there, it's a competitive advantage when it comes to hiring. We still offer relocating for everyone, some people prefer to work in an office and that's perfectly fine. At the end of the day, I just want my people to be happy and productive.