Remote_Microsoft_Stack_Jobs

After repeated requests from users on the site, we decided to make a job board post on .NET.  However, we soon realized that we should also cover C# to make it more well rounded (like our inclusion of Django for Python), essentially making this a “Microsoft Stack Job Board”

ASP.NET is developed by and runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system and has a set of 13 software packages and 7 different development models available to work with.  It’s an an open sourced, web and mobile app develop framework that isn’t regarded as a simple framework to get started with.

For the most part, the developers you’ll find w/ experience are less the ‘hacker’, but have a CS / Computer Engineering background.  Further, we find that most developers using these frameworks have about 5+ years of experience programming (if not more) so at the very least, employers won’t be dealing with rookie developers making careless mistakes.

#5. Indeed

Pros

  • Extremely Popular Job site (typically top ranking results for job searches)
  • OK filter (enter “Remote, Telecommute, OR anywhere ” in location OR Keyword search)
  • Decent number of opportunities
  • Good Mix of Startup + Corporate

Cons

  • Is just an aggregator, you will have to apply on employer’s site
  • Not Developer focused
  • Lots of ‘noise’ to go through, and filter’s don’t work too well

 

Overall

Indeed/ SimplyHired aggregates from a huge amount of job boards, so it initially seems as if they have the most opportunities. However, since they only aggregate, interested .NET job seekers will still have to apply on the listing companies site, which is a huge time waste if you’re applying to many opportunities. The search function only returns opportunities that have ‘remote’ (or similar) in their subject line, but this still returns a decent amount. Overall, Indeed & similar job sites are average at best for finding remote .NET jobs, but they have the potential to be a great resource if they add a “remote” search box

 

#4 Skip The Drive

Pros

  • Only Remote Opportunities, No need to filter jobs!
  • Mostly corporate or agency positions
  • Simple to navigate – Simple UX / UI

Cons

  • Limited opportunities + some opportunities are aggregated.
  • Only a few startup opportunities.
  • Average quality of opportunities (lower salary + perks than the other sites)

Overall

Skip the Drive had a surprising amount of opportunities (compared to other sites w/ .net), but it’s lacking any game-changing quality that would push it to the top 3 sites.  Skip the Drive had a good spread of opportunities, but we found the random opportunities that were aggregated a bit annoying amongst the other opportunities.  Either way, Skip the Drive is one to keep an eye on, but it’s currently not a ‘top’ site.

#3. FlexJobs

Pros

  • Most popular .NET / C# job board (FT, PT, & Contract)
  • Largest # of real opportunities (very low on recruiters)
  • Well known (good marketplace)
  • Mix of Corporate and Startup

Cons

  • Poor UI
  • Have to become a member to apply
  • COST (monthly fee to be a member)

Overall

At first, we didn’t think too much of flexjobs because the site looks a bit ‘spammy’ at first glance. However, they have a huge amount of C# / .NET Opportunities, more than all the other job boards. The one giant glaring weakness is that they charge job seekers a monthly subscription fee to apply to their positions. This allows them to have cheaper prices for employers to post opportunities, but is also quite annoying when nothing is guaranteed on the job seeker side. Nevertheless, if you’re really looking to get a new remote position, the monthly fee is nominal if you actually do apply to a ton of opportunities and use your payment to it’s full potential.:)

#2. Stack Overflow Careers

Pros:

  • Number of truly remote posts (approx 50+)
  • Quality of Employers: There’s some really solid employers posting great opportunities.
  • Quality of Applicants: Through our experience hiring, we consistently found awesome applicants through Stack Overflow
  • Application Management: Strictly for employers, but Stack Overflow has created a very simple way to manage applicants. Making it more likely that employers will stick with it.

Cons:

  • Price: $495 a post for employers, which limits the pool size.
  • Awareness: We think they could draw more attention to it for developers

Overall

We’ve posted to many different job boards to help clients fill technical positions, but have always gotten the best .NET applicants and the highest volume through Stack Overflow. On the job seeker side, we always find a solid number of opportunities, fast responses from the employers, with a great mix of startup and corporate positions.

Stack Overflow has positioned itself so well by creating two simple check boxes: one for employers, one for job seekers. In the job posting form (for employers) the following statement is below the ‘Telecommute’ checkbox–‘Check this only if you are considering candidates who will work entirely remotely’. Job seekers have the option to select ‘Allows remote’ in their locations 

#1 Dice.com

Pros

  • Largest # of FT opportunities
  • Well known in the Tech world
  • US & a large number of international opportunities
  • Good Filters

Cons

  • Some positions posted by recruiters (Cybercoders)
  • Need to go into “Advanced” filters to find remote filter.
  • Most positions require you to apply on company site (like Monster or CareerBuilder)

Overall

We were quite surprised by the # of great remote opportunities on Dice for .NET, but do know that it’s primarily used for a different audience than the Ruby / Startup type positions we post or look for ourselves.  One big weakness of Dice’s job seeker UX is that users need to go into advanced filters to check the ‘telecommute’ box, which we expect many users fail to do.  We’re not sure why this isn’t front & center on the location search (like Stackoverflow’s) but we’re sure they’ll add it at some time.  Finally, they could do a better job of finding startup opportunities, but we only know a handful of startups that use the Microsoft stack in the first place.

 

Summary

Dice.com out of nowhere for the win!  Dice is rarely a site we’d check for remote opportunities, but after a few conversations & research in the .NET community, we really didn’t think it was fair to put any other site as the top .Net job board. As mentioned above, we do highly suggest Dice moves their ‘telecommute’ checkbox to the first page, but that’s just preference.  For the others on the list, we didn’t find too many startup opportunities, but were pleasantly surprised by the decent # of choices on all the sites.  Overall, interested job seekers should check all the sites during their job search because we didn’t find too many similar choices amongst the sites.

Further, we found creating this list harder than some of the other languages and frameworks for a variety of reasons, namely our lack of experience recruiting .NET / C# / Microsoft engineers.  Most of the developers we work with started with .NET or PHP & then moved into Rails after it really start to grow around 2010.  Further, we haven’t really met any developers that have ‘toyed around with .NET’ or are interested in learning the foundations of it, and we don’t get asked to develop applications in it.  However, it’s more secure than some other frameworks & is quite established, and we don’t really see an end in sight for it.  For these reasons, we expect more disagreement in the comments than for our other job boards, but welcome all help in creating the perfect list!

Written by remotenation