Telecommuting realistic?

Dojiscalper

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.

networker050184

It's definitely possible but I don't think sustainable long term. I work from home now but I still wouldn't move very far from a major IT city I can find another job in easily though. You never know when you might lose your job or need to move on. Maybe I'm just paranoid!

Lexluethar

Finding a work from home job is much more difficult than having your current position transition into a work from home.

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.

TechGromit

Dojiscalper wrote: »

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 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.

Dojiscalper

100% might be too strong,hehe maybe 99.99%.

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.

kiki162

Where exactly are you thinking about moving too and the reasoning behind it. I know that when I moved to where I am now 6+ years ago, I knew the job market was crappy. I eventually got a job, but had to drive 2 hr round trip for over 3 years. Eventually we moved and cut down the travel time by 30 minutes. I was facing a dark dim realty if I were to stay with that job, so I decided to get off my butt and earn a few more certs to help move up. Took me about 15 months after I made that choice, and now I currently work remotely. The bottom line for you is that its doable, but the question is what are YOU going to do to further yourself and make you more marketable so you CAN work from home? When you work in IT, you must continuously invest in yourself and your education in order to survive.

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.

Mitechniq

I did a quick search on Indeed 'Help Desk' and 'Remote' which provided several results. I am quite sure these positions probably get bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of resumes but the possibility is realistic. I work from home and 80% of the project managers, engineers and architects I work with on a daily basis work from home.

Danielm7

networker050184 wrote: »

It's definitely possible but I don't think sustainable long term. I work from home now but I still wouldn't move very far from a major IT city I can find another job in easily though. You never know when you might lose your job or need to move on. Maybe I'm just paranoid!

I think you're just being realistic.

markulous

Doing consulting and/or a job that has you travel a lot would be your best bet for job security. Wanting to be a sys admin and WFH 100% remotely though is probably going to be fairly challenging in a few different aspects.

shodown

It depends on where your at in your career. I have been working remote with some travel for a long time. The more senior you are the better. Also think about the long term implications. I had to start my own company to continue the lifestyle. Most of the time you will just work as an individual contributor, and may lead a project or 2 here and there. If this matches up with you then yeah go for it.

joelsfood

shodown wrote: »

The more senior you are the better.

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.

beads

A job board dedicated to (mostly) remote work. Many of these are actually travel jobs. One hundred (100%) percent remote is fairly rare. Also keep in mind that unless you plan to retire in place remote work is generally considered a career ender.

https://www.virtualvocations.com/

- b/eads

ratbuddy

Career ender? How so? I never heard that..

DatabaseHead

I wouldn't call it a career ender but it can very easily stunt your growth, with lack of visibility etc. For some that's okay, my friends older brother is a VP and works 100% remote, but he is killing it financially so in his situation no big deal. On the flip side we have had account managers who are a 100% remote who end up coming back in after a few years because they can't move up anymore. We just had this one gal come back in who did that and within one year she was promoted to senior account manager. I've seen it go both ways.....

networker050184

I'd strongly disagree with it being a career ender for sure. Unless you're just an admin that sits maintaining a system all day. I'd say that is career ending no matter where your desk is though.

beads

Ummm yeah from an HR standpoint your not going to be in line for promotion and if and when you decide to change positions, forbid the thought of going back to a cubical the hiring manager is likely to look at a home based worker with some skepticism you'd be able to adjust to working in an office again.

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

networker050184

Sorry, but that's just nonsense. Anecdotal evidence if anything. Really a company by company thing not something you can make a blanket statement about.

joelsfood

I can say from personal experience it in no way has to be a career ender. Just make sure you make yourself standout. Same thing you do in an office, you just have to do an even better job at it.

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.

DoubleNNs

There are tons of 100% remote DevOps and programming positions available.

gespenstern

Lexluethar wrote: »

Finding a work from home job is much more difficult than having your current position transition into a work from home.

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...

LeBroke

DoubleNNs wrote: »

There are tons of 100% remote DevOps and programming positions available.

So, uh... some leads on DevOps?

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.

DoubleNNs

There's a huge DevOps community, which just being a part of almost instantly gives access to tons of open jobs. MeetUps, conferences, IRC, Slack, Reddit, etc. And just having the word "DevOps" on your resume/LinkedIn, or at least System Admin exp w/ some scripting/auotomation, will have recruiters contacting your for remote positions.

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

powerfool

Outside of consulting, many of the WFH jobs that are serious for IT workers requires you to be within X miles of one of their offices.

DatabaseHead

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.

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.

beads

DatabaseHead wrote: »

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

networker050184

Let's keep it professional. No need for the whoa is me attitude.

Broad sweeping statements are usually met with much resistance. Everything is relative. It's all based on hiring managers opinions.

Seab

Guess I'm late in this discussion, but remote work is something I am looking into for a while now.

At the moment I am working abroad, not remote though, but worked on 3 different continents so far , and it is a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone whom enjoy travelling and can do it easily - Guess it would be a challenge if you have a family, but not impossible, as I've seen plenty of people doing it as well.

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.

tt0000

It is doable. I am a sysadmin and I work 100% remote. You have to develop skills that will allow you maintain working remote if the 1st remote job goes down the tubes if not its back to the office.