Telecommuting realistic?
Dojiscalper
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My wife and I are thinking of moving somewhere that the IT job market is going to be pretty weak. Is getting a systems admin or similar job that is near 100% out of the office something that I'll be able to do or is this just a dream. I have no trouble with distractions, etc and already manage 100% of my time on my current job.
Comments
As networker said I would be paranoid as work from home tend to be the first to be downsized and / or required to come into the office (HP and Yahoo just did this).
I have a family member that has worked for 15 years from home, but he was with the company before and they have made specific groups come back into an office.
I think a 100% situation is pretty tough to find. I know a guy that is a safeboot admin and works from home, but still has to travel a couple times a year for meetings and to do training. This was a position he was able to transition into after working on site in his position for several years. He was able to move and currently lives in an area that's no where near a major metropolitan city.
I totally understand having the ability to find a job in the event of losing one as being important, but even here in Charlotte if I where to lose my job I could easily see it taking 6 mo to 1 year to find a good replacement job. Since my current job is field service there's no way that can become home based, but I have skills that allow me to work in other fields for the same money. I'd just like to move into a desk job soon, even if I stay in Charlotte.
I'm going to come at this from a different angle and ask the all important question. If you are looking at move because of the wife and you want to make her happy, while you quit your job and have nothing lined up, then you should really think about staying where you are. You are unlikely to get a job remotely with only help desk experience, however if you give yourself a good 2-3 years, and start investing in yourself and your career more, you'll have a better chance of getting a remote job.
I think you're just being realistic.
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This right here is key. Or to be more specific, the more valuable you are to your employer (current or future), the more likely you are to be able to work remotely. Whether this value is from having more experience, specialized skills, etc, gaining and demonstrating value is always going to give your more negotiating power and flexibility in gaining and keeping a job.
https://www.virtualvocations.com/
- b/eads
Their are trade offs here. If you need a few dozen or so articles to be linked on the subject and your Google-Fu is lacking today I will provide. Though a couple I have read are behind the SHRM paywall but there have been plenty of others we can find discussing the pro's and con's or remote work.
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0611meinert.aspx
Lets stick to industry accepted facts rather than I have a friend who..."
This is the most balanced if not positive article I have read regarding telecommuting. Still it may shock you how HR sees telecommuters. I come from a background of supporting an HRIS system for 15 years, am a HIPAA SME and am married to a world class HR and benefits expert so I am well steeped in this type of discussion on a near daily basis - trust me. We talk about HR related matters all the time.
- b/eads
20% raise this year, calls from recruiters continuously, continued advancement in company, etc.
Also be aware of the fact that more companies are adapting telecommute policies and adjusting HR/supporting policies to go with it.
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I double that. Every remote gig I had was a result of a typical gig transitioning to remote. And no way they accepted remote candidates at the time of hire...
Might be looking to try to go 100% remote next year for a +/- 6 months so I can go do the whole digital nomad thing.
Then there's also:
https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job/
and
https://github.com/jessicard/remote-jobs
The "DevOps Engineers" Slack, which I'm a part of, also has a "job-openings" channel, as do a lot of other DevOps related Slacks.
Edit: Replaced HackerNews link to link of GitHub repo
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Learn: Terraform, Kubernetes, Prometheus & Golang | Improve: Docker, Python Programming
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How is this different that I have a friend who?
Any article trying to lump all environments into one way of thinking is trash..... Like Networker mentioned it really is about the culture of a company and that is a fact.
Clearly you haven't bothered to read the article link or any of the supporting articles in SHRM to even begin to grasp the complexity of what is said. Then ad hominem accuse me of trash - perfect. Perhaps tomorrow we can work on straw man arguments.
Like coming out of a small company larger organizations are going to treat you with some skepticism moving back to a more formal business organization. Remarked above by more than just myself.
Please let just discuss things from our own personal feelings, shall we? Or perhaps you should stay in your safe space.
- b/eads
Broad sweeping statements are usually met with much resistance. Everything is relative. It's all based on hiring managers opinions.
At the moment I am working abroad, not remote though, but worked on 3 different continents so far
Anyways. About remote work, I think that getting yourself specialised is something essential. Achieving certifications make sense, as you are officially recognised and people hiring you are more confident.
If you have many years of experience in your domain, or/and can do a difference for a company, working from home should be something possible and this is what I am aiming.
Also, have a look to 4 hours work week. Even if this might not something transferable to your day to day work at the moment, it certainly worth to have a look for inspirational purpose, ideas, and telling yourself it is something possible.