Finding remote work as a Software Engineer

TheTacticsGuy · 11-09-2018 2:27pm #1

I've been looking for remote work since the beginning of July with absolutely no success. Most companies don't even acknowledge your application and never send out any correspondence.
Its only in the last week have I received 2 emails from 2 different companies informing me that they are not proceeding with my candidacy. Since July I've applied to 12 different companies.
I feel the remote landscape is way more competitive and because I have yet to receive any feedback on why my candidacy is not progressing, I'm unsure what I need to do for my application to be attractive.
Has anyone else experienced this? And does anyone have advice on how to be more successful with finding remote work?

srsly78 · 11-09-2018 4:57pm

Reduce your rate enough to compete with India and there is lots of work.

awec · 11-09-2018 9:24pm

srsly78 wrote: »

Reduce your rate enough to compete with India and there is lots of work.

I think he is talking about remote permanent positions rather than contracting.

OP - I would think that unless the job explicitly lists remote as a possibility that you will really struggle. You probably won't convince many companies to adopt remote working as a policy just to hire you unless you are really amazing.

Especially when it sounds like you've never done it before.

_brendand_ · 11-09-2018 9:32pm

The Remote landscape is very competitive, as you might expect.

https://remote.com/ is a handy resource, though you're probably aware of it already. What's your skillset and I may be able to provide some tips. I have worked remotely before, for a period of six years, but got kind of bored of it. I may go back eventually, but not for now.

14ned · 12-09-2018 11:43am

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I've been looking for remote work since the beginning of July with absolutely no success. Most companies don't even acknowledge your application and never send out any correspondence.

They don't do that anyway for any kind of job application.

I feel the remote landscape is way more competitive and because I have yet to receive any feedback on why my candidacy is not progressing, I'm unsure what I need to do for my application to be attractive.

Firstly, there are multiple forms of remote work.

The most common form in Ireland is "remote is a perk". So, some companies get away with paying you a bit less in exchange for better work conditions, one of which is that you can work from home for some number of days in a week (but not all usually). This perk is usually only awarded to senior staff after usually a year of being onsite, and is purely at the discretion of your line manager.

The next most common form is 100% remote in a permanent role, and it's almost always not with an Irish employer, and usually your skillset is highly specialist and people like you are very hard to find at a global level.

The least common form is 100% remote contracting. This pays the best by far, but you need to be a widely recognised and accepted world expert bar none in a specialism. People are specifically hiring you, not somebody, for a specific wicked hard to solve problem that is a company make-or-break showstopper.

Has anyone else experienced this? And does anyone have advice on how to be more successful with finding remote work?

It depends on your skillset and specialist depth, and which of the types of remote work above you're looking for.

Niall

TheTacticsGuy · 12-09-2018 10:51pm

I'm in the software industry and its the "100% remote in a permanent role" option that I'm after. I'm also in the 12-15 years of software development XP bracket so its a senior position that I'm after.

Previously I worked remotely for nearly 2 years even though the job was never advertised as a remote position, the company were just very online centric so all that was required was a fairly decent internet connection. 100% of our tool set accommodated remote employees and we essentially worked in an asynchronous manner.

I'm in an office again in my current position and I really miss the flexibility that the remote position offered. It was a US based company that were 6 hours behind so I was able to work my own schedule around other commitments.

Fully distributed teams in my field are starting to catch on, lots of these type of companies are US based but there are a few on this side of the pond. I have no preference whether they are US based or not. But to date, I haven't had a good experience finding a remote software engineering job.

14ned · 13-09-2018 11:05am

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

Fully distributed teams in my field are starting to catch on, lots of these type of companies are US based but there are a few on this side of the pond. I have no preference whether they are US based or not. But to date, I haven't had a good experience finding a remote software engineering job.

Most Irish jobs don't tend to mention whether any remote working is possible or not. So basically you just have to ask.

But I wouldn't personally be asking up front. They'll just filter you out then. Rather, I'd apply, get to face to face interviews, then ask.

Do bear in mind that most places which say that remote might be permitted after a year as a perk will not follow through. They'll say whatever to hire you if they want you. Look for a majority of the interviewers interviewing saying they work remote, and are annoyed having to be in the office to interview you.

Good luck with the job hunt!

Niall

jester77 · 13-09-2018 5:38pm

I'm not too familiar with most fields but if android is interesting for you, then plenty of remote jobs here

matrim · 13-09-2018 6:48pm

Gitlab were hiring for remote positions last year. Not sure if they still are now

TheTacticsGuy · 17-09-2018 10:10pm

So its either web frontend dev or preferably backend dev in either Node.js, Python or Golang.

I tried applying to GitLab but they were not accepting applications from Ireland

14ned · 18-09-2018 10:23am

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

So its either web frontend dev or preferably backend dev in either Node.js, Python or Golang.

I tried applying to GitLab but they were not accepting applications from Ireland

Most employers won't want to hire someone in a tax jurisdiction where they don't have an office to handle payroll for you. For SMEs, Ireland is such a small market they tend to not have an office here. For big multinationals, they do tend to have an office here even if they don't anywhere else, so it goes the other way too.

If you self-incorporate or go under an umbrella, you can offer yourself as a B2B hire where the employer just pays you gross. I'm currently negotiating exactly that setup with a German company in fact, so I'd be fully remote as a permanent employee, working on the German calendar complete with German vacation time, and they'd pay me gross before German payroll taxes. I'd handle paying payroll taxes etc here locally via my self incorporation so they don't need to think about that part.

So it can be done, you just need someone in a company somewhere to make it happen for you specifically. That usually means you need to bring something to the table they can't get easily elsewhere.

Niall

Elessar · 20-09-2018 8:48am

It's rare enough here in Ireland I've found, and the cynic in me says its because employers here want to be able to see that you're working to ensure they're getting every last minute out of you.

It can be done though. Friend of mine was working as a permanent contract dev in Dublin city for a few years. After about 2 years his employer let him work 100% remotely so he immediately moved to Spain

Still working for them and he seems happy. So don't lose hope, you just need a mix of the right company and time (and a bit of luck).

It seems more and more people are looking for that work-life balance so companies will have to start offering more remote working options if they want the staff. I know I wouldn't take a new role if there was no work from home element to it. I'd want 2-3 days a week ideally.

Finding remote work as a Software Engineer

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