Ask HN: How did you get your full-time REMOTE job? - josemore
======
godot
Mostly luck of the draw; I was non-remote for most of my career (12+ years)
before and one day a recruiter for a fully remote company pinged me with a
role matching my skillset and I responded to it and interviewed.

Perhaps the only worthwhile point to mention is that I took a step down in
level/title in order to make this jump. In the previous 3 companies I held
various titles of Staff / Principal Engineer or Architect (i.e. 1 or 2 levels
above Senior) and I took this job with a Senior Engineer title. Being able to
move out of the bay area as a result though, makes it well worth it. I'm
infinitely happier by not living in the bay area.

------
cody_ellingham
Not full-time, but I have done a couple of a days a week remotely on projects
for a few years now. It started by working onsite and building trust. All of
it comes down to trust really.

I started doing one day offsite, and then totally remote. We built an
understanding around communication and clarity (video calls > voice calls >
slack > email) and the whole team had a strong vision around what needed to
happen week to week.

I imagine it must be easier to turn an onsite job into a remote job instead of
trying to find something remote from day one, maybe someone else has some
thoughts on this?

------
strikelaserclaw
I've had 2 remote jobs in the past, i got them both the same way, joined a new
company, worked really hard for a year or a year and half, proved myself to be
invaluable and basically asked for it. I had an easier time at a startup
company i worked at because it is pretty hard to hire good people who are
willing to work for belowish market wages and are dependable.

------
caspg
I'm working remotely most of my career. My first programming job was for a
software house. Their approach was remote-first but they had an office in my
city. They required to be on-site for the first couple of months and after the
initial period, I was working 100% remote. Next, I moved to work directly for
startups with full-time remote contracts.

Working remotely is not for everyone plus companies prefer to hire people with
prior experience. I think the crucial thing is to get some remote exposure
before finding a full-time remote job. Probably, the easiest way to do this is
with freelance work or negotiating partial remote with current employer.

I believe that online presence helps to find remote job (more than an onsite
job). It won't hurt for sure if you can show a nice blog, programming related
twitter or side projects.

------
geoffchan23
Definitely luck. I worked as a front-end developer on a team that was part-
time remote (1-2 days wfh a week). Then our team got merged with another IT
team that was full-time remote. I was at that job for about 6 years. After
that I worked at a consultancy for a year and then a startup for another year
with no remote work. Then I started my own consulting business, so I got to
work full-time remote again. It's been about 2 years now and I'm loving every
minute of it. I just bought a standing desk and a new french press :)

------
sethammons
Worked on site for several years, and went to two days remote. A couple of
years later, moved and became full remote. Same company for 8 years now.

