Note: I failed epically and didn't deserve the job. No hard feelings, though - this led to some awesome opportunities! Also, I love this shirt and wear it all the time. Super comfortable. Props to Airbnb.
Wait, I thought they sent out t-shirts and just ran out.
Due to overwhelming response, we’ve run out of our entire stock of tee-shirts! With future challenges we’ll be offering a reward for the first group of people who respond.
So, did anyone get a shirt or just the first few people?
> I’m not sure what made them rethink their [remote employee] policy, but Balanced again asked me to come work for them, this time as their first remote developer.
I can answer that. We changed the policy to allowing remote team members as long as they are primarily contributing to open source projects.
The problem with being remote is how much you lose in communication when working on a project. You don't have that problem with open source projects. The design mocks, discussions, etc. on Github are the same as anything someone in the office would see.
Also ... it just got to the point where it was stupid not to hire remear (Ben).
How much do you lose in communication when working on a project remotely?
I've been working from home for many years and, work-wise, it was really not that different communicating with the team vs if we all were sitting in one room.
It is just the personal feel that is different. Things like you miss some side-jokes, which might not be that fun without personal presence; Hanging around after work; etc...
I've worked with a remote dev team for 5 years as a product manager working in the office. The team-level collaboration was probably better than in many office environments I've worked since.
This was circa 2005, so as you can imagine the tools weren't quite as well developed as they are today. This meant that everyone had to make sure they communicated extra well. Rule of the road was that you were available on IM same time as office hours, you announced coming and going with an email to a shared distro list, etc. No rocket science.
My favorite part about Ben, is before he was an employee, he would take over the morning support shift on IRC.
He would help with technical integration, redirect to support, etc. I was very appreciative - it also allowed me to see how much he cared about fostering the community :)
The biggest takeaway is the last sentence: "... the key to finding happiness in my career isn’t just by doing what I love, but by also being part of a team that openly appreciates everyone’s achievements and gives people the freedom to thrive in their passions."
"At the time, I was working for a “closed” company. One, in fact, that practiced stacked ranking, and prohibited contributing work back to open source projects."
Sounds like a certain company occasionally known as "The Beast of Redmond."
I asked for a job:
http://www.lorenburton.com/
.. and all I got was a t-shirt!
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3743/10195265204_e01cc38c73_b....
Note: I failed epically and didn't deserve the job. No hard feelings, though - this led to some awesome opportunities! Also, I love this shirt and wear it all the time. Super comfortable. Props to Airbnb.