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Developers, Guides, Working Remotely

Top 5 Sites for Finding a Remote ASP.NET / C# / Microsoft Stack Job

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!

May 6, 2015by remotenation
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Blog, Interview, Working Remotely

Taking a five person start-up to a 100 remote employee workforce: An interview with Paul Hartge, COO of RevolutionEHR

Remote_working_Interview

Remote Nation had the chance to speak with Paul Hartge of RevolutionEHR, the COO of a completely remote software company that has grown from small, modest beginnings to a country-wide operation. They offer cloud-based electronic health records for optometrists while solely connecting to their customers and employees via phone, skype, and the internet.

RevolutionEHR is now home to over 100 employees and Paul gave us some insight on the challenges and benefits of being a growing remote business, what steps they currently take to stay connected with everyone in the company and why they decided to not get an office.

Let’s start with the basics, what is RevolutionEHR? When did you guys start?

We are a software company that provides electronic health records for optometrists. The company was founded in 2007.

Did you work remotely before RevolutionEHR or have you worked in an office? If so, what was change like?

My previous job was out of Toronto and I worked remotely for about five years prior to RevolutionEHR. Before that I worked in an office for nearly 20 years. Initially, the change required more rigid and careful planning for meetings since the impromptu office meeting was out of the question. I did find it easier to focus without all of the distractions that come with an office setting, though.

What were the reasons behind starting a company remotely? Any big factors or was it just a desired quality with you and the rest of the team?

Each of the founders was in a different city, so no one really wanted to make the bet on relocating. A lot of the work could be done independently among people as well. But mostly it was because all the founders were in different cities. And we didn’t have any money to fund an office.

Can you tell me about the process you and your team underwent from start-up to a now well established company and how being remote played into that process? Was it a challenge or a gift?

We have 100 employees now all working out of their houses, so there was a need for technology solutions once we got to ten or fifteen people.   We built a custom collaboration tool for posting information. It is an internal collaboration tool called “nerve center.” People can blog and communicate on it. It can be serious content or fun stuff. Everything from human resources to March Madness will be posted on it. It is sort of like a Facebook, but just for us.  It is definitely helpful for introducing new employees. Just an overall good way for people to stay connected.

As we got bigger and bigger we needed to plan more physical meetings, so depending on the groups, we schedule quarterly or annually meetings. We do an annual meeting once a year in January where everyone gets together to plan for the next year. It’s like a beginning of the year kick off. Other than that, smaller groups will meet a couple times a year. We probably have employees in 20 states or so it is hard to get everyone together in one place.

Down the line, it became apparent that we didn’t want to open an office, so when we hire new people there is the expectation that they are willing to always work remotely. So that may limit us to certain demographic, but we have the ability to pull from people across the whole country

Now that you guys are out of startup mode, what are your reasons for staying completely remote?

A couple things, one it would be hard to bring everything together since we are so spread out. And now it would be just kind of weird since we are so used to operating in a remote situation.

From a recruiting perspective, we can hire anyone from everywhere, which I think it is a huge staffing advantage. We hire support personnel from optometry offices to have that insight. To try and hire all those people in one area would be extremely difficult. To be able to hire across the country is a huge advantage.

With 100 employees it must be hard keeping in touch with everyone.  What are some strategies you use to keep in contact with everyone and manage them remotely?

The technology aspect is definitely important. Skype, google, Grasshopper, those are all important for keeping in touch with everyone. But just as important, we like to empower our workers to be self-motivated and self-managing. It allows for a nice distribution of work.

Any downsides with remote working that people should know if they are looking into remote work?

From an individual’s perspective, I always try to make sure that people are aware of the social aspect of it. There is a bit of isolation, physically. The social aspect is taken out of it. The communication is all done online. So people that go on lunch breaks or coffee breaks with you is taken out of the mix most of the time. You also have to prepare yourself from the distractions at home.  Working at home is not an alternative for the need for day care.

On an organizational level, the biggest difficulties, depending on the type of the business, is the perception that if you don’t have an office you aren’t a “real company.”  You have to keep in mind how you present yourselves to potential investors, clients and other companies so that you look like a real company and not a fake company! We do all of our customer selling and support online, so there is no reason for physical meetings. But if you need that physical aspect, the external image is important.

Any distractions at home?

Yeah, depending on your office environment there can be stuff that gets in the way. But it really comes down to how disciplined you are.

What are things that keep you focused?

I think the work itself keeps me focused. There are no real specific steps I take to make sure that I am focused. There is so much to do in a startup environment. I find it easier to focus when there aren’t people around. I just think of things that I need to do during the day and I just start cranking!

Any technology you use that you just can’t live without now?

We live and breathe in Skype all day long. We use GoToMeeting a lot. We use Salesforce extensively. We use Grasshopper too, which is a virtual phone system. But I am on Skype all day long. That is the one that I really couldn’t live without.

Do you like to listen to music at home when working?

Rarely, sometimes when I am doing really mundane work I will. But I am on the phone much of the day, so generally I don’t listen to music.

With so many people all working remotely, has there been any funny stories worth sharing?

There are the usual funny stories of people not realizing that the webcam is on and regretting that later. But there was a particular situation that caught us off guard.

One customer’s software implementation wasn’t going well. There were just issues with the setup. So the unhappy customer looked on our website and came across the address where our physical mail was going to at the time. Since we had no office, this address was one of the owner’s home addresses! The customer Google-Earthed the address to see where the company was “located” and they got a house with a big lawn and a swimming pool! So that did not go over well with. I highly recommend a P.O. Box for remote startups.

***

If you’d like to learn more about RevolutionEHR, be sure to visit their site @ http://www.revolutionehr.com/

April 29, 2015by remotenation
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Developers, Guides, Working Remotely

Top 6 Sites for Finding a Remote Python Job

Top_Remote_Python_Jobs

Python is a language that is easy to read, can be used in a wide variety of ways, is scalable, but for whatever reason is not routinely talked about as a ‘go-to’ language.  We have friends in the industry who use python as their main language for creating quick scripts for marketing or other simple tasks, but we’ve yet to hear someone say ‘Our back-end is written in Python”

Nevertheless, we had to do some major digging to find the best resources for remote python developers (check out this article in Hacker News about Python Jobs) but only found a handful of sites that seem worth it.  The following is what we found to be the top six sites for remote Python jobs.

#6. Linkedin

Pros

  • Well known: Almost everyone has a Linkedin professional requirement
  • Filter works in Keyword (will also have to try “telecommute”
  • Huge # of opportunities
  • Mostly Corporate jobs

Cons:

  • Not Developer focused (lots of clutter)
  • TOO MANY CHOICES, awful filters (we counted 8k)
  • Most of the positions are posted by recruiters (cybercoders specifically)

Overall:

We were surprised by the huge # of opportunities, but ultimately disappointed because 1/2’s of them were posted by CyberCoders (a tech consulting firm) & their truly awful filtering capabilities.

However, since Linkedin has become the dominant social network for careers (and most people having a Linkedin Profile) it’s one of the most populous job boards. The best benefit (if you have a filled out profile) is you can apply directly to positions using your linkedin profile, so no resume is needed. Going forward, if Linkedin was to add a “remote’ checkbox as a filter criteria, we might move Linkedin to #1 on our list

#5. Indeed / SimplyHired

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 Python 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’ in their subject line, but this still returns a decent amount. Overall, Indeed & similar job are average at best for finding remote Python 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

Overall

Skip the Drive had a surprising amount of opportunities (compared to other sites w/ python), but it’s lacking any game-changing quality that would push it to the top 3 sites.  Skip the Drive is one to keep an eye on, but it’s currently not a ‘top’ site.

#3 DjangoGigs

Pros

  • Large # of Python opportunities
  • Well known in the Django world
  • US & a large number of international opportunities.
  • No Signup Necessary
  • Great Design

Cons

  • Django Focused Board (not just Python)

Overall

DjangoGigs is a great job board for Django (we really couldn’t find any strong negatives) but since our list is for Python, we didn’t feel as though it was proper to put it as our #1.  Either way, props to the team at Djangogigs, they know how to make a simple, intuitive job board!

#2. FlexJobs

Pros

  • Most popular Python job board (for all positions)
  • Largest # of real Python 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 Python Opportunities, more than every other job board site yet. 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.:)

 

#1. Stack Overflow Careers

Pros:

  • Number of truly remote posts (approx.): High (49 Python)
  • 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 Python applicants and the highest volume through Stack Overflow. On the job seeker side, we found a solid number of opportunities, and it was 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

 

Summary

Similar to our Ruby Board, Stack Overflow won because of it’s superior interface, volume & quality of opportunities, and the popularity / trust of the site.  There isn’t that much buzz for Python these days, and most of the Python sites we reviewed had a design similar to what was commonplace for the internet in the mid 2000’s.  We’re not sure if these site owners just don’t want to reinvest in their sites because they know the language is losing popularity, or just plain laziness.

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 Python engineers.  Over the past few years, we routinely work with developers that “know some Python” & either used it when they were first starting out, or worked with it since it was the legacy code they inherited in an old position. We haven’t met any developers that have ‘toyed around with Python’ or are interested in learning the foundations of it, and we don’t get asked to develop applications in 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!

April 27, 2015by remotenation
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Advice, Office, Working Remotely

Can’t Focus while working from Home? Music might help…

Music_Working_Remotely

Ever wonder what can help you ignore those pesky distractions and help you hunker down with your work at home? Well, research shows that putting on your trusty headphones might do the trick. While many of us need complete silence in order to work productively, putting on the right type of music may help you reach the finish line.

However, finding the “right type” of music can be tricky. There are different types of work out there, which call for different kinds of music. We explored a number of studies on the connections between work productivity and music. Throughout these studies, two distinct styles of work continued to pop up: tedious work and creative work. We summarized some important findings to help you reach that harmonious sweet spot between work and music.

Music for Tedious Tasks

Some work may not always call for significant brain power and it’s during these times when the music you love can come in handy.

In 2005, Teresa Lesiuk of University of Windsor released a study that focused on the effects of music on work productivity. Data was collected from 56 software designers who reported how music affected their work in their respective work environments during a five week period.

“Results indicated that state positive affect and quality-of-work were lowest with no music, while time-on-task was longest when music was removed. Narrative responses revealed the value of music listening for positive mood change and enhanced perception on design while working” said Lesiuk.

Her findings support that listening to music you like improves your mood and morale, which can increase your productivity. The music serves as a healthy distraction for when you are slogging through paperwork. So if you see your inbox is chalked full with new emails, by all means, crank it to 11.

Suggestions

Before you play your music of choice, make sure it is something that you already know. Listening to a new song, whether it is good or bad may distract you from completing your work. In other words, familiarity is the key here. If you are dying to listen to that new song by your favorite artist, use that desire as a reward and motivate yourself by listening to their earlier songs while working.

Music for Creativity

On the other end of the spectrum there’s creative work. Creative work requires a specific kind of music.  Clearly, you don’t want music that will be distracting to your creative process, but sound can still be a creative stimulus for your brain.  An effective medium between total silence and loud rhythmic music is soft, ambient music.

A study published in 2012 shows how ambient noise can help people with creativity. Through five experiments they observed the exact number of decibels when ambient noise and music can be beneficial to workers and their creativity.

The authors summarized, “Results from five experiments demonstrate that a moderate (70 dB) versus low (50 dB) level of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks and increases the buying likelihood of innovative products.”

The sounds arouse the brain, which leads to creativity. It acts as a constant stimulant for your brain, which then makes other noises, like your dishwasher, not as distracting. But, if the music or noise is too loud it can distract you, inhibiting the creative process.

The authors said “A high level of noise (85 dB), on the other hand, hurts creavity.”

Suggestions

So if you are trying to get some magic on paper, artists like Aphex Twin or Brian Eno can be of great service to help you focus. They both have albums with select “Ambient Works” on them, so they are safe bets. Or try listening to nature’s music or some white noise since these will provide the same effect. 

What to Avoid

Ever been really focused on a speaker then all of a sudden your attention drifts to the people behind talking about their weekend plans?   Imagine this scenario, but with John Lennon singing in your ear. We’ve looked at to how music can be helpful when working, but there are still times when music may not be so helpful, overall.

Generally, you should avoid music with lyrics if you are working on something that is demanding. Lyrics have the tendency to grab our attention and prevent us from fully focusing on the task at hand. A recent study done in 2012 looked at the effects of music with lyrics and without lyrics on 102 participants’ concentration. They found that music with lyrics negatively affected the participants’ concentration.

Additionally, music can also be a hindrance when trying to learn something new. There’s a reason why teachers don’t blast metal when trying to teach business calc. It has the same effect of multi-tasking. You cannot give 100 percent of your attention to one thing if you are also focused on something else.

Summary

If you find yourself not being able to focus for whatever reason, try listening to music and see what is best for you. But, keep in mind that some music can be more harmful than good.

Suggestions to keep in mind:

If you find yourself losing steam, try playing music that you think will help you get through your work. If you end up air playing air guitar, then you might want to find something else.

When trying to come up with ideas for your next project give ambient music or ambient sounds a try. Songza is a great site that provides a wide array of music and sounds based on the activities you’re doing, including streams like white noise and “In a Quiet Park.”

Try to avoid music with lyrics, since they prove to be distracting. Especially if something calls for your undivided attention.

And if you find that music is just too distracting, then stick with silence since that is what works for you. In the end, it’s all about what helps you get your work done well and efficiently. 

April 23, 2015by remotenation
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Developers, Guides, Hiring, Working Remotely

Top 7 Sites for Finding a Remote PHP / Lamp Stack Job

Top_PHP_Remote_Jobs

PHP is a language that is not as ‘sexy’ as it once was, and is definitely not the wave of the future.  However, php is the framework for many popular applications (Facebook, Yahoo, WordPress) and is one of the first languages that many developers learned.  Unlike Ruby on Rails, which preaches Convention over Configuration, many developers like the flexibility of writing PHP, but it’s also why many programmers think that even‘good’ php looks messy.

However, the PHP as a server side language isn’t going down easily.  Wordpress is positioning itself as the strongest CMS, and is built on PHP.  This means that unless something rapidly changes, there is still going to be an extremely large majority of the web written in this language for years to come.

Similar to our other job boards, many have pretty poor filters for truly 100% php remote jobs (without some crafty keyword searching) but we’ve done the majority of the heavy lifting for you 🙂  For these reasons and more, we find the following to be the Top 5 best sites for finding a remote php job.

#7. PHP Classes

Pros

  • Large # of PHP opportunities (avg. # on recruiters)
  • Well known in the PHP world (because of it’s classes & scripts)
  • Mix of Corporate and Startup
  • Fulltime + Contractual po

Cons

  • Poor UI
  • Opportunities list is cluttered: mix of corporate, startup, contract, and international opportunities
  • Have to become a member to apply

Overall

We have more experience with other languages and frameworks, so we had to do a bit of digging to find phpclasses. At first glance, it looked very promising, but we could eventually tell that (for whatever reason) there’s not as much time or attention given to the site as there was at some point.  The majority of the opportunities are international, and aren’t “premium”, leaving much to be desired for a great developer.  Essentially, if you’re looking for a high-end position w/ great pay, stock options, good perks, etc; then this isn’t the site for you.

#6. Indeed.com / SimplyHired.com

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 php 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’ in their subject line, but this still returns a decent amount. Overall, Indeed & similar job are average at best for finding remote php jobs, but they have the potential to be a great resource if they add a “remote” search box

#5. Authentic Jobs

Pros

  • Built for Remote & Contract type Jobs
  • Decent Mix of Startup & Corporate opportunities
  • Best Filter among all of the sites we’ve reviewed.
  • Good Design
  • Good Quality Positions

Cons:

  • Very few PHP positions (5)
  • No junior or entry level positions, only senior and experienced

Overall

This site has earned a reputation for the quality of its posts, and is well known amongst developers and designers. (i.e Employers can expect a decent # of applicants applying to their jobs) As with stackoverflow, there is a checkbox to tag the post as a telecommuting position, ‘Work can be done from anywhere (i.e. telecommuting)’. The other bonus here is filtering that allows you to separate out full-time jobs, contract, internship, etc. However, with all these great features, there’s still a limited # of php opportunities, but the process is great if interested in that list.

 

#4. WeWorkRemotely.com (37Signals)

Pros

  • Only Remote Opportunities, No need to filter jobs!
  • Well known for remote – 37Signals has written extensively on the topic
  • Many Startup opportunities
  • Simple to navigate – Simple UX / UI

Cons

  • Limited opportunities (we counted 8)
  • Too Simple for employer profiles: There’s limited space to describe the position.
  • Mostly Startup Opportunities: Lacking corporate jobs.

Overall

The posts are of good quality, but for a company that is such a large proponent of remote working, we think they should have more positions & better filter’s, but a 2.0 could be in the works.  WeWorkRemotely has a good mix of php + Lamp opportunities, which all seem to have great benefits.  Overall, solid site that should be every job seeker’s list.

 

#3. Linkedin

Pros

  • Well known: Almost everyone has a Linkedin professional requirement
  • Filter works in Keyword (will also have to try “telecommute”
  • Huge # of opportunities
  • Mostly Corporate jobs

Cons:

  • Not Developer focused (lots of clutter)
  • Too many choices, not good enough filters
  • Most of the positions are posted by recruiters.

Overall:

We were surprised by the huge # of opportunities, but ultimately disappointed because 1/2’s of them were posted by CyberCoders (a tech consulting firm). However, since Linkedin has become the dominant social network for careers (and most people having a Linkedin Profile) it’s one of the most populous job boards. The best benefit (if you have a filled out profile) is you can apply directly to positions using your linkedin profile, so no resume is needed. Going forward, if Linkedin was to add a “remote’ checkbox as a filter criteria, we might move Linkedin to #1 on our list

#2. FlexJobs

Pros

  • Most popular php job board (for all positions)
  • Largest # of real php 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 php Opportunities, more than every other job board site yet. 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.:)

 

#1. Stack Overflow Careers

Pros:

  • Number of truly remote posts (approx.): Highest (62 total) (49 PHP)
  • 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 php applicants and the highest volume through Stack Overflow. On the job seeker side, we found the highest number of opportunities, and it was 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


Summary

Similar to our Ruby Board, Stack Overflow won because of it’s superior interfacet, volume & quality of opportunities, and the popularity / trust of the site.  There isn’t that much buzz for PHP these days, and most of the php sites we reviewed had a design similar to what was commonplace for the internet in the mid 2000’s.  We’re not sure if these site owners just don’t want to reinvest in their sites because they know the language is losing popularity, or just plain laziness.

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 PHP engineers.  Over the past few years, we routinely work with developers that “know some php” & either used it when they were first starting out, or worked with it since it was the legacy code they inherited in an old position. We haven’t met any developers that have ‘toyed around with PHP’ or are interested in learning the foundations of it, and we don’t get asked to develop applications in 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!

 

April 17, 2015by remotenation
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Blog, Guides, Tools, Working Remotely

The Best Video Conferencing Solutions for Businesses and Remote Teams

best_video_conferencing

What is the best video conferencing tool for business & remote teams? We get this question a lot, and it’s a tool we use for the majority of our day, everyday. For a long time, it was hard to find a good video conferencing tool that actually added value to the interactions of a remote team. Now there are finally a number of viable options serving different needs, so we’ve created a series of categories winners, allowing you to pick the best tool for your needs. To get the most out of your video conferencing solution, we recommend checking out our article on the best audio and video setup for remote teams.

We’ve divided our review into the following categories: Large Teams, Small Teams, Cost Sensitive, 1 on 1’s & overall winner.

Best Video Conferencing Tools for Large Teams

 

1st Place: Zoom.us

At FullStack, we typically have monthly release planning meetings with our biggest clients.  Our biggest client, Higher Learning Technologies, asked if their department heads could be on the call, in addition to the development team. We were already at about 9 people at that point without the other department’s, and the Google Hangout quality was not sufficient and had a hard limit of 10 participants. After extensive research, we found that Zoom.us was the best for large teams because of:

Positives:

  1. Quality of the Audio – Light on the background noise, and very few problems throughout our many calls.
  2. Quality of the Video – Consistent video
  3. Chat functionality- an easy to use chat if you need to share links to drive folders or URLS
  4. Recordable – Users are able to download the entire conference (with Audio + Video) for later reference or to share if people weren’t present.
  5. Screen sharing – Zoom also allows users to share screens, great for large conference calls.
  6. Up to 100 video people on a call

Negatives:

  1. Cost. Zoom is relatively cheap if you use the service every day, or @ least on a consistent pattern, or if you’re not paying for it 🙂

2nd Place: Skype

In second place is Skype, but it seems as though Microsoft is making Skype a priority once again and the feature set & price is starting to improve. Most people in the US have a skype account (even if they barely use it) but it’s much more popular across the world. Skype was the first VOIP startup and defined the category, but has been pretty light on its extra features.

Positives:

  1. Best Video & Sound Quality
  2. Popular – Most people already have it installed on their computer, so there’s rarely a messy installation process.
  3. Mobile – Skype has both iOS and Android apps, allowing you to continue (or begin) your call through your phone.
  4. Price – Free!  Skype recently made their group calls free
  5. Screen Sharing – Skype has the capability to share your calls w/ others.

Negatives:

  1. App Based – Skype is a desktop application, so even though most people have it already installed, there’s some friction to getting a call started.
  2. Limit on Group size – Like Hangouts, there’s a limit of 10 people per call.

Overall, Skype is an awesome option, but there were some things that are better suited for large teams / conferences with Zoom. Interestingly, Skype is creating a feature that ‘instant translates’ your language into another if you’re speaking w/ someone from a different country.  We can’t wait to use that!

3rd Place: Google Hangouts

Our 3rd place finisher, Google Hangouts, is also the most convenient. Google Hangouts has great audio & video, but is very inconsistent w/ quality. We’ve had calls that were flawless from start to finish, but also seem to be asking each other ‘Can you hear me” for a minute (of wasted time) at the start of about one third of our calls (Quick Tip = We find that taking your headset out & plugging it back in usually fixes this). Although Hangouts is more reliable when headsets aren’t used, audio quality suffers.

Hangouts does have many features, such as chat, sharing a screen & inviting people via a phone number.  There’s also some fun features that allow you to add faces and mustaches (for example) w/ their Draw feature.

Positives:

  1. Web Based
  2. Mobile App
  3. Screen Share
  4. Extra Features

Negatives:

  1. Quality w/ Volume – The biggest flaw of Google Hangouts is that the quality of both the audio and video diminishes w/ the # of people on the call, and we routinely see people that drop off.
  2. There’s a max of 10 people on a Group Video Call. 

Hence, the stability most of the time and the convenience factor (it’s a total web application, nothing needs to be installed) makes Hangouts our 3rd place.

 Honorable Mention: AnyMeeting

We recently tried AnyMeeting which has a lot of good features, but is ultimately lacking in elite quality of audio. Anymeeting has 2 options, free (ad-supported) and paid, but if you can put up w/ the ads, the free version should be all you need.

Positives:

  1. Free – Ad supported version allows you to do almost everything you need.
  2. Up to 200! users on a call
  3. Features – ScreenSharing, chats, custom surveys, etc.

Negatives:

  1. Quality – Not the best
  2. Inverted camera – This is nitpicky, but all the other services use the same angle, and this really throws me off 😛

Overall, if AnyMeeting invested more into the sound quality and made the actual video screen sizes larger, this could compete w/ any of our Top 3.

Best Video Conferencing for Small Teams

 

1st Place: Google Hangouts

Hangouts is the winner because the primary negative isn’t a factor (audio & video quality diminishing w/  the # of people). The convenience factor of most people having Gmail, or having gmail as their work email, outweighs the quality of Skype. It’s very easy to schedule a calendar invite (through google calendar) and then use that link for everyone.

2nd Place: Skype

In a close second, Skype’s superior quality shines once again. We can safely assume that small teams have each other’s skype names, and can continue using their skype ‘group’ for calls & to hold all their chats. 

Overall, it’s hard for us to really recommend any other services simply because of the convenience, quality, features, and lack of negatives of Skype + Hangouts.

Best “Cost Sensitive” Video Conferencing Solutions

 

We understand that startups, small businesses, and individuals typically like to save their resources (aka $$) for other essentials, when ‘free’ services are available. However, the services on the following list shouldn’t be looked at as inferior as to the other options. Rather, we think that the features list + the free aspects still make these excellent options for users in the need for video conferencing solutions.

Tie for 1st Place: Skype

Skype is once again a winner because of it’s premier quality, popularity, and features.  For most situations, skype’s product suite is a perfect fit

Tie for 1st Place: AnyMeeting

AnyMeeting is a very close second to skype because it has almost every feature a user would need to host large scale conference calls (up to 200), have good quality team calls / chats or to share screens.  While the ads can be somewhat annoying after awhile, the ability to have 200 people for an unlimited time is an extremely great value and makes up for any shortcomings.

3rd Place: Google Hangouts

Hangouts is in 3rd place because the quality does not compete w/ Anymeeting, nor their features w/ AnyMeeting. The convenience of Hangouts is always a huge plus, but we can assume that those who are cost-sensitive don’t mind taking one extra step to get a feature they need or have a problem with ads.

Best Video Conferencing for “1 on 1” Meetings

1 on 1’s, or just quick chats between two people are definitely the most common type of video call or chat, but really come down to two things: convenience & speed. Sometimes a quick 5 minute call is infinitely better than a 20 minute email, but it’s obviously based on the situation.  For this review, we’ve assumed that the two users speak to each other frequently.

1st Place: Hangouts

This is the only category where we find that Hangouts is a clear #1 and shines above the rest.  Most of the quick 1on1’s we have are the result of a miscommunication through chatting, either on Slack or Hangouts, and it’s incredibly easy to stop chatting and just ask “hey, want to have a quick call to figure this out?”, & press the video call. However, one big drawback of Hangouts Calls is that all chats during the call are not saved. We’re not sure why this feature isn’t updated, but we’re sure google is on it 🙂

2nd Place: Skype

The consistently awesome Skype jumps into the #2 spot here, simply because our common chat situation which we explained in our Hangouts review.  However, if you typically have Skype open on your desktop, and don’t use hangouts, then we suggest Skype as your #1. 

3rd Place: Built-in Service

Our #3 might be a head scratcher to some, but it all is based around our main criteria for greatness in this category, convenience & speed. We’ve decided to not select one application, but a few that are built into some very popular other services.

  1. Hipchat – If you only use Hipchat as your communication tool, then you’ll love how quickly you’ll be able to do a Hipchat Video.   The quality is average, but it’s acceptable for 10 minute calls and under.  The only drawback is that it’s only available w/ their premium package.
  2. Facetime – We’ve only used Facetime a handful of times, mostly when one of our other tools aren’t working.  Facetime should be getting more popular since Apple has worked it into Yosemite (their new Operating System Version) and people are just getting the hang of it.  The biggest positive is that many people have Macbook’s for work (in the tech world) as well as an iphone.  However, the biggest drawback is that it’s not available for those without Apple products.
  3. Slack– TBD – Slack recently acquired screenhero, which we’ve used a few times in the past.  We currently use Slack as our main chat application, and can safely assume that the integration w/  screenhero will make video calls seamless.  Slack might move up in the charts soon, but only time will tell!

Overall Winner 

Google Hangouts! There are many different use cases for having a video chat, but the convenience, cost, quality, and built-in functionality of Hangouts makes it the best overall choice for teams both big and small. We did consider Skype because of their superior quality for video and audio, but Skype didn’t have the overall feature set of Hangouts.

We do expect that this list will change over time, so please let us know what you think of our rankings!

April 13, 2015by remotenation
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Advice, Blog, Working Remotely

Remote Working: On the Rise & Creating Happier Employees

remote_working_happy_employees

A recent study by AccountTemps of 2,100 CFO’s across the US said 35% of their companies have increased remote work opportunities in the last three years, but only 3% have decreased the number of opportunities.

Employees like the flexibility of working remotely, but employers are also seeing a variety of benefits. The study revealed that the 35 % of the executives surveyed see higher employee morale and greater retention rates as the primary advantages of offering remote-work options, and 28 percent said the best aspect is an increase in productivity by eliminating commute time.

Other benefits employers cite include the ability to save money on office space and gaining access to a broader talent pool when hiring.

Bill Driscoll, a district president of Accountemps, recently said in a statement “Although telecommuting isn’t suitable for every role, it can be a powerful incentive for employees who want greater flexibility. It offers other advantages to businesses, such as greater productivity, cost savings on office space, the ability to tap into talent in different geographical areas and time zones, and more around-the-clock client service.”

Accountemps offered several tips for employers thinking about setting up a remote workforce:

Security:  Since Employees will be working from home, Employers need to make sure that all confidential and important documents and information is secure from the home office.  Each company will have their own requirements for this, but employers must create some security baseline.

Promote it!:  Working remotely is a HUGE plus for many employees, even if it’s just a day or two a week.  Companies need to promote their remote opportunities  (full remote or part-time) to increase the scope of their talent pool

Communication: Setting up proper communication channels is a must for remote workers.  There are plenty of video conferencing, business focused chat tools, + normal email & phone calls that allow this, but it’s something that needs to be normalized ASAP for new employees.

Guidelines: Employers must set guidelines on how employees must work from home.  This is highly dependent on the job, but could require the employee to track their time, to have a few calls w/ their manager, or whatever makes the most sense for their environment.

Expectations:  Employers need to clearly explain expectations for remote workers, so employees don’t view it as ‘day off’ from their normal schedule.  Ideally, since there’s much less of a commute time and less distraction, employees should exceed their normal work capacity on these days.  However, all this needs to be communicated to the employee.

Overall, we at Remote Nation see this as just another set of hard data that proves remote working is on the rise and provides tangible benefits to both employees and employers.

Please let us know what you think of this article in the comments!

 

April 7, 2015by remotenation
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Designers, Developers, Guides, Working Remotely

Top 7 Sites for Finding a Remote Ruby / Ruby on Rails Job

Ruby_on_Rails_Remote

There are a lot of job sites out there for ruby developers, but only a few of them even bother to identify remote / telecommute jobs. Within that small set, far fewer of them actually allow you to filter for truly 100% remote jobs without some crafty keyword searching.

Ruby and the Rails framework have been consistently growing in popularity for almost a decade now. Rails is popular for its’ ability to let developers quickly create simple web applications, making it perfect for most startups. Also, Ruby’s easy to read syntax makes it popular among both beginners and advanced programmers for API’s & other web based applications. Typically, employers will look for Ruby programmers with a knowledge of HTML / CSS & Javascript, and experience with another server side language is taken as a big plus. Finally, we’ve seen a rise of employers requesting experience with mobile, usually writing API’s for native iOS & Android applications in Ruby.We expect that Ruby will continue to grow in popularity over the next few years, especially because of the ‘lean startup movement’. For these reasons and more, we find the following to be the Top 7 best sites for finding or posting a remote Ruby / Ruby on Rails job.

#7. Indeed


Pros

  • Extremely Popular Job site (typically top ranking results for job searches)
  • OK filter (enter “Remote” in location)
  • 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 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 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’ in their subject line, but this still returns a decent amount. Overall, Indeed & similar job are average at best for finding remote Ruby jobs, but they have the potential to be a great resource if they add a “remote” search box

#6. Github


Pros

  • Almost every developer uses Github as their code repository
  • “Remote” works in Location
  • Clean UI

Cons

  • Extremely limited ruby choices

Overall

We expected Github to have more listings because of the huge amount of developers that already use the site, but it was surprisingly low. We’ve posted opportunities ourselves, and didn’t think the applicants were as strong as some other sites, so maybe it’s just not a feature that’s marketed well on github. Either way, if they decide to make this more of a priority and developers take to it, this could be a powerhouse site.

#5. WeWorkRemotely.com (37Signals)


Pros

  • Only Remote Opportunities, No need to filter jobs!
  • Well known for remote – 37Signals has written extensively on the topic
  • Many Startup opportunities
  • Simple to navigate – Simple UX / UI

Cons

  • Should be more Ruby opportunities (for a site dedicated to it, by the guys who made Rails)
  • Too Simple for employer profiles: There’s limited space to describe the position.
  • Mostly Startup Opportunities: Lacking corporate jobs.

Overall

The posts are of good quality, but for a company that is such a large proponent of remote working, we think they should have more positions. Also, they have a ‘is this position not remote?’ flag, but they should manually be going through the job board each day.

#4. Authentic Jobs


Pros

  • Built for Remote & Contract type Jobs
  • Decent Mix of Startup & Corporate opportunities
  • Best Filter among all of the sites we’ve reviewed.
  • Good Design
  • Good Quality Positions

Cons:

  • Very few Ruby positions (3)
  • No junior or entry level positions, only senior and experienced

Overall

This site has earned a reputation for the quality of its posts, and is well known amongst developers and designers. (i.e Employers can expect a decent # of applicants applying to their jobs) As with stackoverflow, there is a checkbox to tag the post as a telecommuting position, ‘Work can be done from anywhere (i.e. telecommuting)’. The other bonus here is filtering that allows you to separate out full-time jobs, contract, internship, etc. However, with all these great features, there’s only a limited # of Ruby opportunities.

#3. Linkedin


Pros

  • Well known: Almost everyone has a Linkedin professional requirement
  • Easy to filter (enter “Remote” in location)
  • Huge # of opportunities
  • Mostly Corporate jobs

Cons:

  • Not Developer focused (lots of clutter)
  • Too many choices, not good enough filters
  • Most of the positions are posted by recruiters.

Overall:

We were surprised by the huge # of opportunities, but ultimately disappointed because 1/2’s of them were posted by CyberCoders (a tech consulting firm). However, since Linkedin has become the dominant social network for careers (and most people having a Linkedin Profile) it’s one of the most populous job boards. The best benefit (if you have a filled out profile) is you can apply directly to positions using your linkedin profile, so no resume is needed. Going forward, if Linkedin was to add a “remote’ checkbox as a filter criteria, we might move Linkedin to #1 on our list

#2. FlexJobs


Pros

  • Most popular Remote job board (for all positions)
  • Largest # of real ruby 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 Ruby Opportunities, more than every other job board site yet. 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.:)

The Winner: #1. Stack Overflow Careers


Pros:

  • Number of remote posts (approx.): Highest (62)
  • 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 Ruby applicants and the highest volume through Stack Overflow. On the job seeker side, we found the highest number of opportunities, and it was 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

Summary

We’ve posted opportunities on many of these sites & other team members have used them in the past for new opportunities, but we were quite surprised by the results. A few “Ruby Only” job boards that we’ve used in the past either didn’t have remote opportunities, or only had a handful of actual positions. Further, some developer job boards we’ve used in the past (some very large ones..) simply had awful searches for remote ruby positions, but we assume this is a reflection of the market & the types of companies that post to those sites. Nevertheless, we expect this list to dynamically change over time, and we will update it to reflect these changes.

Post in the comments if you think we’re missing any great resources & why!

 
March 29, 2015by remotenation
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Interview, Working Remotely

Interview with a Remote Developer: Brian Cobb

 

Hi Brian, thanks for taking some time to chat with Remote Nation. Tell us a little about yourself and your remote working situation.
I develop software for a living working out of San Francisco, California (specifically, my living room). I work here just about every day though I have worked in some co-working spaces in the city. Occasionally I work out of a coffee shop down the street, Bernie’s.

How long have you been working remotely?

Since June of 2011. Well, let me clarify: I’ve been working at Fullstack since June 2011, but when I started I worked out of the main office in Iowa City. The first time that I truly worked remotely was right around Thanksgiving 2011. I worked out of Clarksville, Missouri because we were visiting family in Louisiana, Missouri, and Clarksville had the closest cafe with Internet.

Tell us about your typical work day.

I get up at 6:00 PST every day and get to work by 7:00, which is a change from my time schedule when I worked out of Iowa [when I got into the office around 8:00]. It’s nice to be on by 7:00 because I know that I will get at least an hour or two in before the East coast heads to lunch. The most constant thing in my morning ritual is coffee, but I also try to take 10 minutes at the beginning of the day to just write some code for fun or just write in general. It’s like the first pancake: I burn something that doesn’t matter to kind of get the juices flowing.

Why did you choose to work remotely?

It was a combination of just wanting to work at Fullstack, regardless of the fact that it was a completely remote company, and also at the time I knew that I wasn’t planning on staying in Iowa for more than another year or two. At my previous job, they had bad experiences with people working remotely which I think was more a comment on the job than remote work in general.

Other than your home/office, where else have you worked from?

Co-working spaces have been the best experience since they tend to be more reliable than your average coffee shop. Sometimes [cafe wireless] just cuts out, and then it’s not a conducive place for work.

What is the biggest benefit to working remotely? Biggest challenge?

I think the biggest benefit is that I feel extremely comfortable in my work environment. I don’t work in the nude or anything: I still try to treat it like a ‘job’, otherwise I don’t think I would take my job seriously. I know exactly what is around me—it’s hard to describe the feeling. I know that if I need to focus, I can. I can be very intentional about my environment.

As for challenges, there is nothing like a water cooler, so you don’t just happen to see someone and ask them how their weekend was. You have to be a little more deliberate about [getting to know people]. It’s not an obvious thing to do, especially when you first start working remotely. Communicating effectively in general is just a little more difficult when you have to either write something or speak but you can’t demonstrate or read body language.

When you are sitting with somebody in a meeting, you can look at them and most of the time you can tell if they’re frustrated, but when you’re on a call there could just be silence on the wire and you have no idea that they are sitting behind the screen steaming mad.

How do you minimize distractions while working from home/office?

There are two ways that I can get distracted. One of them is environmental factors. Right now the maintenance people are sawing stuff right outside of my apartment. It’s a little distracting and there’s not much I can do about that, but then there are other distractions which I might divide into two categories:

  1. Skype conversations which are potentially relevant to what I am doing, but sometimes I don’t want to have my attention taken. So I’ll be sensitive to that and twiddle with notification settings. Maybe I want a half hour of complete silence over Skype unless somebody talks to me directly. I’ll basically tell Skype to not pop up in my dock.
  2. If I find myself distracted by Twitter or my feeds, I try to use that distraction as a feedback mechanism. “Why am I tempted to look at this stuff?” Usually it’s because I either don’t want to do what I am currently doing or it’s just that I don’t know enough about what I am doing and I need to ask someone for guidance or clarification.
Which app could you not live without for remote working?

Google Docs. I use it in two ways that I find indispensable:

  1. As a really quick whiteboard that I can use on calls. I know there are probably actual apps that can act as whiteboards between several parties, but Google Docs is the lowest barrier to entry out of anything that I have seen. You can send anybody a link and they can edit it.
  2. As my own personal place to dump ideas—I just find it a good environment for writing. When I use it as a dumping ground, then I won’t necessarily share the document with anybody else. But if I do, there is no friction to sharing.
What do you wear to work?

Usually jeans and a sweater. I do wear slippers to work– ‘Slipper Driven Development.’–my feet might as well be comfortable. If I wore, like, PJs I don’t think that I would take my job very seriously.

Silence or music? Rdio or Spotify?

It really depends on the day. There are some days where I need to have music. I use Spotify.

Any pets that work with you?

I have a cat sleeping on my desk right now, his name is Cashmere.

Any advice you would give to others who are considering working remotely?

You’re not going to enjoy working remotely if you don’t already enjoy what you do in the office. Be aware of the additional work you’re going to have to put in to communicate effectively with all of your coworkers. That said, if you have the opportunity to try it out, I would really recommend doing it because there is not a great way to approximate it without actually doing it.

Thanks Brian!

It was nice catching up with Brian and getting some insights into his remote working story. I work with Brian pretty regularly, but it was nice to hear how he runs things out in San Francisco.
Keep tabs on Brian and follow him at twitter.com/bcobb

March 7, 2015by remotenation
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Designers, Interview, Working Remotely

How to manage a remote agency: an interview with a Remote Working Guru, Josh Cramer

Remote_Working_Interview
Remote Nation conducted an exclusive interview with Josh Cramer of Fullstack, a high-end design and development agency that’s 100% remote. Be sure to read how Josh is able to manage a large team effectively, while building great products.
Remote Nation: What was your first traditional workplace environment like? Looking back, do you see any elements there that began to push you into favoring remote working?


Josh Cramer: I worked as an engineer in a photovoltaics manufacturing company. I designed and built the machines that made the solar cells. The facility that I worked in was a 15 minute commute each way. That’s 30 minutes of driving per day in traffic (and one hour if I came home for lunch). The work environment was fine and I just accepted the commute time as normal.However, once I started working in a situation without the commute, I realized just how much stress that time in the car caused each day. I’ve gone long periods without driving a car and would find myself getting very stressed when having to drive anywhere. Although I think we can get conditioned to better deal with the stress of a commute, I think we’d all be a lot happier if we didn’t have to do it. Slate and The Economist have reported on the scientifically proven correlation between happiness and the length of your commute.

I love the flexibility to be able to commute to a co-working space if I want or to work out of the home office if I feel like it.
RN: Building on this point, what are some the factors that lead you to embrace remote working for your recent businesses?Cramer: I think there is value to being in the same place together in a centralized office, but that doesn’t mean we have to be together every day all day in order to do our best work. I think cutting out commute time and being closer to your family are benefits that should not be overlooked just because of our non-remote work traditions.Beyond that, I think many talented people want to live in parts of the country that may not have work opportunities that best match their specific talents. Building a remote working opportunity can unlock potential for these people and for the business that is willing to hire them. I’ve definitely recognized that and have taken advantage of it over the years. It benefits both sides.RN: Remote working gained substantial media attention a few years ago when Yahoo! and other companies decided to no longer allow people to work from home. What are some suggestions you’d offer to employers who are considering taking similar action?

Cramer: If people are taking advantage of a remote working situation for their own gain at the expense of the company, that is a good indicator that you don’t have the right people on your team. The right people will respect the company that is employing them and give their best effort to make that company successful regardless of whether they work from home or the office. With Yahoo!, that clearly wasn’t happening and something needed to be done. I think we’ve seen that the problems ran much deeper for Yahoo! than the remote work situation. Just getting people in the same office is not enough to make your company successful.

The lesson here is to get the right people on the team and the wrong people off the team. Create an environment in which remote team members can participate with everyone else on a completely level playing field. Make a commitment to help team members whether they work from the central office or from their home offices.

RN: It is easy to argue that a geographically centric office can more effectively build a stronger work culture than a remote/distributed work environment. What are some steps you think businesses with remote workers can do to also build a strong work environment?

Cramer: I tend to agree that it is easier to build a stronger work culture in a geographically centric office as compared to a remote scenario. However, I think it is possible to build a positive culture in a remote team if you have the right people on the team.

I think the answer is to facilitate structure for the team. If there is no structure, it is so easy for remote workers to drift off into their own caves and not interact with others on the team. However, if good structure is in place, each remote team member has an opportunity to interact with others on the team in positive ways. Creating the right structures and contexts for interaction is the fabric of culture. In a centralized office, some of these structures and contexts happen naturally, but in a remote setting, it is necessary to be more intentional about these things.

RN: Being able to successfully work remotely is a skill set that takes time to develop. What steps do you take as an employer to make sure someone is ready for a distributed work environment?



Cramer: The easiest way to deal with this is to hire people who have had prior experience working as part of a remote team. If that is not the case, you really need to look for evidence that the individual is self directed and can operate autonomously for the most part. I do think in most cases that if an individual can be successful in a self directed capacity working in an centralized office setting, there will be no trouble translating this to a remote setting.

Other things you can do are to set up regular status meetings with people to monitor progress. We’ve used short daily standup meetings with remote team members to create a regular daily opportunity for managers to interact with team members. One of the items on the agenda is, “What roadblocks are you facing today?” Forcing everyone to answer this question exposes any problems that may be impeding progress. It also creates an opportunity to solve any problems at a regular known time so that everyone can get back to work. This is arguably more efficient than the interruption style of roadblock removal that is more present in centralized offices.

RN: The idea of being able to work from home, a favorite coffee shop, or wherever one wants sounds ideal, but what are some obstacles you think unprepared remote workers might experience?

Cramer: I’ve seen some people try to work remotely without establishing proper boundaries. This can create a lot of problems for remote workers. If you are working from a home office or a coffee shop or the beach, you are still working. It is important to make sure that the environment that you are working in is conducive to productivity. This means that you should not have any other responsibilities that may distract you, like watching the kids, waiting for the plumber to show up, etc. Also, I think a quiet place to work is essential if you ever have to talk to other people you work with.

We’ve had team members try to work 100% out of various coffee shops in the past. Between the bad WiFi, loud background noise, and variable conditions at coffee shops, it really starts to take a toll on productivity. In my view, this is not professional or acceptable.

This may mean that you have to talk with your spouse or roommate to make sure they understand your commitment. It also means that you’ll need to create a dedicated workspace that is distraction free. We present our team members with the concept of a minimum viable office that defines these conditions for them.

RN: Tracking progress and meeting milestones is paramount to the success of every business, what are some programs that you rely on to make sure everyone is on track?

Cramer: We are heavy users of Trello, Harvest, Pivotal Tracker, Slack, and Google Apps. There are a large variety of excellent tools out there than can help remote teams keep on track even better than centralized teams using a whiteboard. I think this is really a matter of each team figuring out which system is best for them.

RN: Overall, how do you think you have professionally and personally benefitted from having a business that allows for remote working?

Cramer: 

I’ve been able to be closer to my family. Interacting with them at lunch every day is great. I’ve also been able to travel more. I have regularly gone on more extended trips than I otherwise would have been able to, because I’m able to work at full capacity while on the road.

I think building and managing a remote team has also forced me to build a more organized and efficient system behind the company. I believe we’ve benefited from better documentation and systems. A geographically centric team that I’ve been a part of in the past was more apt to rely on ad-hoc communication to make things work. While this isn’t bad, having everything be part of a clearly documented and universally accessible system has benefits that cannot be overstated. A remote team needs to do this in order to survive.

RN: Finally, for companies considering remote working, what are some books and sources you’d recommend they read?



Cramer: The books Remote and Rework [both by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson] are good introductory books on the topic. Also, the RemoteNation.co website is a great source to keep an eye on 😉

March 4, 2015by remotenation
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