Remote programming experience?

[Did]

Does anyone here have experience working remotely with programming as a skill? I'm thinking of either a short term contract now and then, with plenty of time off for adventures, or a part time remote gig that allows for a sweet lifestyle. What's the reality?

[maxysu]

what kind of skills do you have? do you have a cv that you want to pm me? i know some companies that might be looking

[GandK]

I spent about 2 years working remotely as a developer.

I thought it would be a great fit for me when I started. I'm introverted, I'm self-motivated, and by and large I worked on independent projects. At first I did enjoy the flexibility and the additional parenting time it afforded me. But by the time two years had passed, I couldn't wait to work in an office again.

There's a feeling most people have when they set foot in their home after work... that long "aaah!" like when you first step into a jacuzzi on a crisp autumn night. Warm relaxation hits you; there's a shift in both priorities and roles. Home is a refuge, a place of safety, a place to escape from a society that is a very poor fit for many of us. But when your home is also your workplace, that feeling goes right out the window. There's no longer a separation between work and play; between what other people want you to do and what you choose to do for yourself. Rather than having more time available, I felt like I had less because my work was always within arm's reach. Even walking by my computer during my "off hours" became stressful because it was a constant reminder of unfinished tasks. I so missed that feeling of relaxation at home that I eventually found I preferred my commute, my business casual clothing, my whistling coworker, my micromanaging supervisor and all the pointless meetings to the scary-empty feeling of sitting down on the sofa after dinner with a glass of wine in the evenings and being too keyed up to ever enjoy it.

Perhaps if my job had been so enjoyable that I did not need to escape it on a regular basis, I would have had a different experience. I am also the sort of person who has a tough time compartmentalizing. But for what it's worth, that was my experience.

[Did]

@mazysu I am a dinosaur in terms of skills. I studied computer science and law as a young fella in the 90s (BSc(hons)/LLB(hons)) and did a 6 month stint as a C++ programmer working on an interactive TV browser/PRG in the late 90s while travelling before becoming a lawyer. I have worked with pascal as well and to a lesser extend Delphi. I developed and sold a few programs on the side. I know I need experience to get back in the game but I was just wondering if people out there had made it work from a lifestyle perspective.

Post ER from the law I have one client who has stuck with me, although I can't strictly give legal advice as such due to regulations. I help him a few hours a month. Anyway, I'm sure he would let me do work experience with his remote crew. It's Delphi/Firefox (or is it Firebird - the SQL database anyway) which I know isn't popular but it could be a good gateway for me and I doubt anyone else would invite me in at first.

I am confident I would get back up to speed very quickly given the chance.

@GandK That would be a fear. My wife has taken a remote gig working for some arsehole in London and I tell you what sometimes I wish she was working at the pub down the road. Location independence is important to us, but if you have a skill that is actually useful in a general sense you can work then quit then work and so on all over the place.

The good news presumably is that should I skill up, to collect berries from time to time as Jacob would say, then I could do either - a contract here or there or some sort of home gig.

@Augustus Great story. I would enjoy doing a scaled down version of that sort of gig with a reasonably in demand skill that I can take over the world doing interesting gigs. WHen you say nomadic do you travel around the world?

Any other success stories?

[Scott 2]

I'm on the pm/ba/qa side of things and have been 80-90% remote for the past six years. I get paid well, but have know the company founders for over ten years.

There are a lot of downsides. No work / home barriers. Full time can be lonely. Self starting is tough. Getting family to respect that you are working can make you seem like a jerk. If the office was 10-20 minutes away, I would be there often.

With that said, my wife just started working from home as well, 100% remote. Similar story, knew the people who hired her for 5+ years. Comparable pay to in office. So there are clearly enough upsides that she was into it as well.

It's definitely a different lifestyle. I'm perfectly happy to accommodate an evening or weekend request, but I also might take a three hour lunch. I have peers that spread their hours through the full day, work is just an integrated part of their life.

The market is hot for full stack .net developers at the moment. Finding competent people is a pain.

[Did]

Thanks @all. I would just use Delphi because that would be the opportunity offered knowing I would transition to something else. I too would prefer a more popular language.

Plan is deferred in any event due to a broken arm!

[bristoldude]

I've been enjoying working remote for the last few months, I've enjoyed the freedom of location a lot. Looking to use that to financial advantage in the next year as well as purely for pleasure / social advantages.

The reduced small scale office distractions means I tend to get my work finished a lot faster.

[bristoldude]

Phisical seperation of the space I work in is a must for me. A room in the house I only use to work, or a desk in a coworking space. Otherwise everything leaks both ways

[Did]

Well lads I've arranged for some unpaid work experience with my client with potential for paid work once I prove my worth. Of course ill be in read only mode until my broken arm heals enough for me to type!!

[FBeyer]

Well lads I've arranged for some unpaid work experience with my client with potential for paid work once I prove my worth. Of course ill be in read only mode until my broken arm heals enough for me to type!!

The Oracle Of Scandinavia predicts that it will be a very long time before you have 'proven your worth'.

If at all possible: find out what your employers deems valuable in easy-to-understand terms and make an agreement on it.
Find out what metrics you are being evaluated on so there is no confusion whether you meet those criteria or not.
That way you can point to an agreement and say: I can do thing X now, henceforth I should be paid for doing thing X.

[Did]

@fb fair warning! But there is huge trust here and if I only ever get experience I would still be grateful at my age and with my almost extinct skill set. FI is a time for fun things that may lead to cash no and I'm excited by this. It's a long term play and this is a first step.

[FBeyer]

I wish you the best of luck. I really want to do the same thing, to work from home at some point with programming or statistics, so I'm all ears about how it turns out for you.

[Did]

Thanks for your advice A. Truth is simple web stuff would bore me. Pretty savvy on contracting side of things as I am an ex IT contracts legal partner. Sorry short reply due to arm.

[Did]

Yeah i get ya. But I have a chance here for some real world experience and I'm going to give it a crack. Soft re entry. Will transition away when appropriate.

[BRUTE]

the Delphi market is likely approximately 3 clients in the whole world, but Delphi really isn't that different from Java (or C sans pointers). sure, some of the syntax is a bit different and what not. but it's a pretty high level, object oriented, imperative language. 90% of it will translate to Java et al later.

[Did]

the Delphi market is likely approximately 3 clients in the whole world, but Delphi really isn't that different from Java (or C sans pointers). sure, some of the syntax is a bit different and what not. but it's a pretty high level, object oriented, imperative language. 90% of it will translate to Java et al later.

That's what I figure. And the opportunity for a 41 year old lawyer to program again after almost twenty years in a friendly environment is in Delphi so I'm gunna take it....I could apply to three hundred other companies and they would all say fuck off most likely.

Delphi jobs do seem to exist in Europe at least. He pays his lead guy eighty Aussie an hour in Oz which would be pretty sweet berry picking for a remote interesting gig.

[Did]

Ps been twenty years but surely Delphi has pointers

[BRUTE]

rly? brute hasn't used it in.. not 20, but 10+ years now. he thought it was all references, like Java. but no idea really.

edit: completely agreed on the opportunity. taking the job that actually exists vs. mystical dream fantasy job == win.

[JamesR]

C++/Java deifnitely has a lot of work available. Java's ecosystem is pretty huge though, and C++ also has many new things going on since 20 years ago.

You could try picking up small jobs on a site like upwork.com or similar? Focus less on the money and more on smaller quick jobs to help get you back into the game perhaps and help dust off the rust perhaps?

Speaking of rust, Rust is a hot new programming language, kind of a replacement for C without the headaches of dealing with memory allocation and garbage collection. Might want to try it out since it's just starting out and the market for that is growing rapidly. (Often hot new languages result in hot new jobs and that makes it easier to break into the industry, and it'll be more fun working on it since it's less "enterprise")

[James_0011]

Does anyone here have experience working remotely with programming as a skill? I'm thinking of either a short term contract now and then, with plenty of time off for adventures, or a part time remote gig that allows for a sweet lifestyle. What's the reality?

I would suggest the site "angellist" there are a lot of startups on there that hire remote programmers.