
Ask HN: Looking to branch out into remote work, how to start - hamstercat
As the title suggest, I’m trying to learn more about remote work to find better opportunities than what is available to me locally. Where should I start? Any tips about where to look for work, how to make my resume attractive, what to look out for, etc. I’m not in a hurry to change, I want to learn what I can before and make an informed decision. I’m interested in a full-time job preferably as an employee.<p>I don’t know if it helps, but I’m a full-stack developer with 8 years of experience, located in Canada. Up-to-date with the latest web frameworks (React&#x2F;Angular&#x2F;Node.js&#x2F;TypeScript) and have mostly worked with C# before that on enterprise software, with a bit of React Native on personal projects. Have worked in both back-end and web front-end projects depending on the need of my employer. My GitHub profile is pretty bleak, but I have personal projects that are public.<p>Also, will I need a work visa if I’m to be employed by a US company, even if I work from Canada? Do US companies typically hire you as a contractor or can you be employed as an employee? I’m asking because contractors usually have no benefits here, including holidays&#x2F;vacation&#x2F;sick days, insurance, company-paid parental leave and all other perks so it has a huge impact on effective salary.
======
crabasa
As someone who has spent the last 6 years working remotely, the #1 thing you
can do to get started is to build a website that makes it clear to prospective
employers not just what your skills are, but what your interests are and what
you're like to work with.

Finding remote jobs isn't really the problem. The challenge is landing the
job, and often it's less about your programming skills and more about fit.
Here are a few examples of websites that I think do a good job of presenting a
more complete picture of a developer:

\- [https://ryanhayes.net/](https://ryanhayes.net/)

\- [https://github.com/dkundel/about-me](https://github.com/dkundel/about-me)

\- [https://www.fizbuz.com/u/yechielk](https://www.fizbuz.com/u/yechielk)

------
alosarv
There are various remote programming job sites such as:

[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/)
[http://remotus.com/](http://remotus.com/)
[https://www.flexjobs.com/jobs/telecommuting-programmer-
jobs](https://www.flexjobs.com/jobs/telecommuting-programmer-jobs)
[https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/remote-developer-
jobs](https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/remote-developer-jobs)
[https://www.10xmanagement.com/](https://www.10xmanagement.com/)

There's also a "Who's hiring" thread here every month that has plenty of
remote job posts.

~~~
akuji1993
Also check out [https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/)

------
hluska
> I’m asking because contractors usually have no benefits here, including
> holidays/vacation/sick days, insurance, company-paid parental leave and all
> other perks so it has a huge impact on effective salary.

I'm Canadian and have worked as a contractor. The absolute best advice I can
give you is that, if this statement is true, it is because you severely fucked
up.

When you're a contractor, those benefits come from you. It means extra
administrative work on your end and, depending on your income levels, it might
make sense to incorporate, which means significantly more administrative work.
But, that's why contractors generally charge at least 2-3x the normal salary a
company would pay them.

~~~
0110011
2-3x?

I've been having this conversation with coworkers a lot lately. In San Diego,
a senior sw guy can expect to pull $120-160k(there are outliers... I have a
friend making $240k, but it's unsustainable) as an employee with benefits. As
an independent contractor, you can make around $75-120 / hour. As a SW
consulting company you can get $120-180 / hour. These are all rough numbers
based on talking with people.

I don't know why there is a disparity between what ICs and consulting
companies make but it seems to exist.

The amount you charge also depends on many factors (difficulty, on-site vs
remote, total hours per week, ability of company to pay, etc).

~~~
hluska
Just when things start to look up, you're reminded what a colossal pile of
shit you live in...

Where I'm from, a senior sw person is lucky to crack six figures in Canadian
dollars. The thought of getting paid $160k a year is akin to dreaming I'll get
signed to a major league contract. Typically, developers either become
something else where code is their secret weapon, or they top out at below six
figures.

There are benefits, working conditions are amazing and so I'm confident that
for these people, the total package is worth into the six figure range.

However, the same people who will top out at around $95k a year here (that's
roughly $45 an hour) can bill (as you said) in the $75 - $120 an hour. Add in
a favourable US - Canadian exchange rate and yeah, you're looking at 2-3
times...

That's not profit and particularly if you have a family, it's expensive to get
the same kinds of benefits. But the raw figures speak for themselves.

I hate reminding myself what a stark difference a border makes. And, don't
even tell me the average daytime temperature in San Diego in January...

~~~
CalRobert
Though fwiw I left the US. Terrible work culture and san diego, or my apt in
south park at least, was boiling hot 8 months of the year.

------
linsomniac
As someone who has run a company that did remote work: Make sure you have a
good story for how you are going to excel in a remote work environment. We all
have stories of employees who faced constant interruptions from their spouse
or kiddos. One thing I've told my kiddos when working from home is "Unless
you're bleeding, I'm not here."

Make sure that you have the ability and drive to complete it. One person I
know just really isn't compatible with remote work, they keep getting and
losing remote work jobs because they just don't take it seriously. Near as I
can tell, they will just blow off work, dick around on their phone and social
media, etc.

On the other hand, I have a co-worker who seems to spend all day at work
reading reddit and watching youtube, in the office, so working on-site isn't a
solution here.

But, in short, have a compelling story you can tell prospective employers
about how you work, how you have an office set up at home, and how you
actually treat it like work. If they don't ask outright, they will probably be
looking for signs anyway.

~~~
jpindar
I live alone, so I don't have family/roommate distractions when working
remotely. But how would I indicate this to potential employers or clients
without it seeming weird? Put it in social media profiles or something, or
wait to bring it up at an interview?

~~~
linsomniac
Could just be "I have a distraction-free remote work environment". Probably
don't need to say "I live alone. So, so alone." :-)

------
philfreo
> Any tips about where to look for work

\- [http://weworkremotely.com/](http://weworkremotely.com/)

\- [https://remotive.io/](https://remotive.io/)

\- [https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/)

Also post on your social media accounts that you're looking for remote work
and make sure you have as attractive as an online presence as possible to show
off your past work and skills.

> Also, will I need a work visa if I’m to be employed by a US company, even if
> I work from Canada?

No.

> Do US companies typically hire you as a contractor or can you be employed as
> an employee? I’m asking because contractors usually have no benefits here,
> including holidays/vacation/sick days, insurance, company-paid parental
> leave and all other perks so it has a huge impact on effective salary.

Most US-based remote tech companies work this way:

For people working outside of the US, they will be technically employed as
contractors, but often treated like full-time team members in other ways,
including vacation/PTO/sick days/parental leave. (This is how we do it at
Close.io: [http://jobs.close.io/](http://jobs.close.io/)). Medical
benefits/insurance and retirement plans (401k) are very country-specific so
that is far less commonly offered for non-US team members.

~~~
organsnyder
> For people working outside of the US, they will be technically employed as
> contractors, but often treated like full-time team members in other ways,
> including vacation/PTO/sick days/parental leave.

Is this legal?

~~~
jpindar
There's a list of signs that someone hired as a contractor is being treated
too much like an employee (i.e. the business thinks of them as an employee but
pays them like a contractor to avoid taxes etc.), but any one of those signs
isn't necessarily proof.

~~~
pc86
Does the IRS care about the employee/contractor determination if the worker is
outside of the country?

~~~
lazyasciiart
Yes because it affects what taxes the employer pays.

------
shubidubi
#rant

The problem I find with remote work usually is that people pay you less than
if you work onsite. when it's an on-site position you compete with local
people in the market rates. when it's remote you compete with people in India,
China etc that can get paid much less. Another problem I find is that it's
harder/impossible for senior level engineers find projects, especially if you
need to manage people. companies want their managers to be on-site.

~~~
Nacraile
> The problem I find with remote work usually is that people pay you less than
> if you work onsite.

Is this actually a problem, or even particularly surprising? Remote positions
provide massive non-monetary benefits to employees (flexibility in general,
but particularly: you can live wherever you want, including on the road, with
no commute, in low cost-of-living areas, closer to other things you value,
etc). These benefits attract more applicants, which alters the supply/demand
balance, with predictable effect on market salary. Remote work should be
understood as a win-win, where the employee gets significant quality-of-life
and maybe reduced cost of living in exchange for somewhat reduced salary, and
the employer gets significantly reduced costs (directly in terms of salary and
office space, indirectly in terms of easier recruitment) in exchange for
(maybe) somewhat harder management. If you don't like the employee-side trade-
off, tough to be you, because you're competing against a lot of people who do.

> when it's remote you compete with people in India, China

It's not clear that this is really true. It's relatively easy to run a
distributed organization that has a common native language, legal system, and
continent. Language barriers, massive timezone discrepancies, and
..challenging international legal systems make successful management much
harder. In practice, it seems that many companies are unwilling to take on
those costs and risks.

~~~
xtracto
Except that someone working remotely will usually have to absorb additiona
costs of:

\- Internet \- Electricity, water and other utilities \- Office maintenance
(i.e., how much of his home space is being used by the company? including
surface, desks, equipment, etc) \- Sometimes food

In Mexico all this toghether can get to up to $500 USD a month per person.
Can't imagine how much that would be in the USA.

~~~
flamtap
If you are working from home in Canada (as a self-employed individual), you
can claim some of those expenses on your taxes entirely, and a portion of some
others.

I can write off my entire phone and internet bills and all office supplies. I
can also include a portion of my rent (or mortgage) and utilities proportional
to the size of my office and the total square footage of the dwelling. The
actual list of claim-able expenses does not end there.

I also burn a hell of a lot less fuel since I have no commute.

~~~
digianarchist
The reason I am reluctant to go self-employed in Canada is the idea of
covering all of my dental fees and pharmacare.

I wouldn't have a second thought of doing this in the UK because that is
subsidised/covered.

~~~
flamtap
Yeah, that definitely has to be factored into the salary. I choose to pay for
an individual insurance plan for these things, including disability insurance
which should be accounted for as well.

I don't have any dependents, but that would certainly change things as well.

------
CalRobert
Sample point of 1 here, but I just got "hired" by a US company with no point
of presence in my country. They use a firm called CXC Global. Basically, I'm
an employee of CXC offering consulting services to their client company.

It's not like a typical staffing agency arrangement in that I interviewed with
the US company, negotiated with the US company, got an offer letter (of
"engagement", not "employment") with the US company, etc - CXC only came in at
the final stage.

So, that may help with the visa options.

Also, check out
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16768024](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16768024)
for more recent discussion.

------
acconrad
Someone else asked this recently so I actually _just_ put together a massive
list of remote job sites (50+), could be useful to you:

[https://userinterfacing.com/here-is-the-full-list-of-
my-50-r...](https://userinterfacing.com/here-is-the-full-list-of-my-50-remote-
job-sites/)

I also provide some helpful getting started work as well, stuff like about
polishing your resume and getting your online presence in good shape.

------
k__
I started with searching for startups and joined one as remote developer.

Their VC forced everyone to work on-site later, so I left.

Switched to freelancing later, because I didn't want to meddle with all this
company politics anymore and live by my own rules.

Working for remote 4 years now, 2 years as an employee and 2 years as
consultant. Wouldn't go back anymore.

~~~
el_benhameen
If you don't mind sharing a little bit, how did you make the switch to
freelancing?

~~~
k__
I looked online for companies that needed a freelancer, wrote a few of them
emails and started working for them.

------
chrisbennet
_" Do US companies typically hire you as a contractor or can you be employed
as an employee? I’m asking because contractors usually have no benefits here,
including holidays/vacation/sick days, insurance, company-paid parental leave
and all other perks so it has a huge impact on effective salary."_

In the US, if you're a contractor, they _can 't_ treat you as an employee. A
few years back, Microsoft contractors complained that they did everything an
employee did but didn't receive the same benefits. As a result, law(s) were
put in place forbidding employers to treat contractors as employees in
everything but name. [1]

 _Independent_ contractors are responsible for all their own benefits. If you
work for someplace as an employee that in turn hires you out, you can
sometimes get benefits through them but you also share a portion of what the
client pays them.

If you want vacation and benefits, you might want to consider a remote
employee position for a US company.

[1] [https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-
findlaw-...](https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-findlaw-dont-
treat-c/dont-treat-contractors-like-employees-idUSTRE53063S20090401)

~~~
philfreo
It sounds like the OP is not in the US.

~~~
lazyasciiart
No, but they are specifically asking about the US.

~~~
philfreo
They specifically asked about working in Canada:

> Also, will I need a work visa if I’m to be employed by a US company, even if
> I work from Canada?

~~~
lazyasciiart
An employer in the US is bound by US laws on whether the OP is an employee or
contractor, no matter where the OP is. (If the OP was defined as an employee
then many laws like the ADA would _not_ apply to them, assuming they never
travelled to the US office, but Canadian employment laws would, like required
notice periods - it's a very complex setup and many employers just won't do
it, some smaller companies do it without actually understanding what they're
doing.)

------
hagbarth
We're a remote first company, FWIW we post positions here in the Who is Hiring
posts, and on Angel List.

The very first thing we look for in new employees is indicators that they will
be able to perform in a remote environment. This is by far our most important
flag.

Good indicators for remote performance could obviously be previous remote
experience, but also experience as a freelancer or founder of a startup. We do
hire people without these if they are great communicators and obvious self-
starters during a take-home task that we give everyone.

------
dizzystar
As noted by someone else, you should be charging enough per hour to take
vacation, sick days, and so on, when you work as a contractor. It's all about
trade-offs. I almost feel like an employer would see such concerns as a
contraindication for doing remote work.

Remote work is a mindset, and in my opinion, a skill. You have to be ultra
independent. You have to deal with little to no communication, which means you
aren't going to be tapping someone on the shouler for help. You have to set
your own hours, and you have to deliver, no excuses.

I think that it's highly unlikely that you'll find work as a generalist. Most
contracts that are general are going to seed from the local area. When the
search gets more specific, companies start being more open to dealing with
remote work.

Also, learn Linux or Unix if you aren't using already. As a contractor, you
have to supply your own equipment, get set up, and get things working (in the
US), and by golly, things better load up and run when you submit code. An
employer is supposed to supply your computer, but I'm not sure how often that
really works out.

There are many ways to get work. I know this thread is getting flooded with
various remote position sites, but I personally never got work from them. Be
open to working on tech you aren't familiar with, and be open to doing small
jobs for companies that aren't really well-known. Some of my best and most
consistent clients were non-tech companies that needed small jobs done now and
then.

~~~
scarface74
_Be open to working on tech you aren 't familiar with_

I would think it was just the opposite. As a contractor, I wouldn't even try
to get a gig unless I knew at least 90% of the technology. I would think a
company wouldn't be too happy about paying someone to learn a certain tech
stack.

As a full time employee, I usually go for jobs where I don't have but at most
70% of the required skills (and I'm honest about it), companies are willing to
give FTEs some amount of ramp up time and they could care less if you work
extra hours to come up to speed to learn - they don't have to pay more.

------
rb808
In a related note- has anyone kept a full time job and worked on small remote
projects at home at the same time? eg an occasional 20 hours on a weekend. or
a few hours per week.

~~~
beefalo
I am doing this now. I work full time and spend another 10 - 20 hours per week
doing work for a startup as a contractor. The other contractors I work with
are all on opposite side of the world time zones so it's a bit difficult to
communicate. I end up working really random hours, 6 - 9PM, 10PM - 1AM. I'm
not sure how common this kind of work is but it has been going well so far. I
think the key to my situation is that the company is local to me (I live 2
blocks from their office). I only go to the office once or twice a week for a
couple hours and I am the only contractor that is local.

~~~
cbluth
I would like to try this. How did you 'land' this gig? How would you suggest
finding something similar?

------
peelle
My personal experience is that you can often find work with companies that are
headquartered in rural towns. They know they cannot easily get skilled workers
to move to them.

The downside to this is these type of companies still put out ads in the local
paper, and local craigslist, or the job board associated with the language
they standardized on, so it takes more digging to find them.

Because of your visa requirement you most likely won't be able to find work
with smaller US companies. In my experience the smaller ones are less likely
to have a full HR department and less likely to want to deal with that extra
hurdle. On the flip side smaller Canadian companies are still an option.

------
jinfiesto
I have worked remote for a company that's primarily in the UK and South Africa
for almost 2 years now (I've been with the company for longer than that and am
located on the US west coast.) My advice would be to try to convince your
current company to let you go remote or at least partially remote. It's
important to get some remote experience, because it shows you can be trusted
to get work done away from the office to other future remote employers.

------
barry-cotter
Relevant recent post

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17047736)

------
pvg
An evergreen as a topic and specific question (couple of threads about it in
the last 2 months or so). Sorted for recency:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=remote%20work&sort=byDate&pref...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=remote%20work&sort=byDate&prefix&page=2&dateRange=all&type=story)

------
ed_balls
[https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-
job](https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job)

------
msukmanowsky
I've worked remotely for Parse.ly
([https://www.parse.ly/](https://www.parse.ly/)) for the last 6 years and am
also a Canadian, living in Toronto.

To answer some of your questions:

Q: Where should I start?

Job boards like [https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/) and
[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/) are great places to
look for remote work (Parse.ly has posted jobs and hired candidates from We
Work Remotely before).

For companies that you see on those boards, follow their social accounts and
maybe the accounts of their founders/leadership. They'll often tweet about
postings prior to them even going up on a job board.

Q: How do I make my resume attractive?

One of the most critical parts of remote cultures is being an effective
communicator. Since you won't be in an office to bounce ideas around, you need
to show that you can express your thoughts. Your resume itself will convey
some of this, but if you have links to blog posts/essays that's great to see
as well.

Aside from that, always good to see examples of work that you're proud of.

Q: Will I need a Visa if employed by a US company?

Not necessarily. If the company has a Canadian office, they'll likely take you
on as a full time employee and pay all the regular benefits and payroll taxes
for you. If they don't, you'll likely work as a contractor and will have to
decide if you want to incorporate or be a sole proprietor. You do not require
a Visa to be a Canadian working for a US company as a contractor.

You are correct that contractors have no insurance/benefits, but that's
usually OK because you can negotiate higher wages as a contractor and pay for
benefits yourself via something like Blue Cross
([https://on.bluecross.ca/health-insurance/health-insurance-
so...](https://on.bluecross.ca/health-insurance/health-insurance-
solutions/self-employed)).

If you have a spouse, it's also possible you're covered under their plan so
that's a good thing to check.

Regarding holidays/vacation, it's just something to negotiate as part of your
arrangement. If you're "consulting" for one company, you're effectively a
full-time employee and will likely have some level of vacation time built in
to your contract.

Parse.ly has amazing holiday and parental leave policies and we're hiring
[https://www.parse.ly/jobs/#frontend-
engineer](https://www.parse.ly/jobs/#frontend-engineer) :).

You can also learn more about the how and why of our distributed team here
[https://blog.parse.ly/post/3203/the-how-and-why-of-parse-
lys...](https://blog.parse.ly/post/3203/the-how-and-why-of-parse-lys-fully-
distributed-team/).

~~~
smithmayowa
Quick question do a have a degree, I.e did they require a degree from you.

------
ydnaclementine
consulting companies are mostly remote. companies like accenture,
razorfishsapient, deloitte, etc

~~~
Raidion
As someone who has worked for a company in that list, that's not strictly
true, although I've gotten a chance to work remote when I was just an
established code monkey on some project. If you're doing higher level work,
you're going to be meeting with the client, and even if that's not done in
person, having as many relevant people in the same room is encouraged.

