Conversational English ability. Ability to meet deadlines. Communication skills, particularly with regards to regular progress updates and what is required fr

Conversational English ability. Ability to meet deadlines. Communication skills, particularly with regards to regular progress updates and what is required from the counterparty to meet deadlines. Whatever the inverse of being a flake is. Self-starter: the ability to drive the work forward without being explicitly directed on every step which needs to happen. (For example, a client who says "Make multi-factor authentication happen." does not want to have to explain to you how to use Twilio and, in many circumstances, doesn't even want to have to make the decision to use Twilio. They just want you to Figure That Out For Me. The successful remote consultant would be able to say "We have options for this. The most straightforward one is using cell phones. I recommend we do that and use Twilio for it -- low cost and we'll be up and running quickly. I estimate two days of work required for integration." "OK." two days pass "As promised, MFA now works in the system. See here. Any comments?") There exist many developers in the world who would be stumped about that instruction and reply "I need a spec for the multi-factor authentication screens." Often, their expectation for level of detail required in that spec would spell out every form element, database object, SQL query, and JSON POST required to make the feature happen. I'd recommend not being one of them. You get dramatically better work, clients, and bill rates. (For a further bump on all three dimensions, position yourself as the person who can tell a client that they need to have multi-factor authentication and how they're going to want to have you implement it.)