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This may have been discussed here before, so my apologies if I missed it. I did search on here before posting.
Do any of you have experience or suggestions about finding remote work as a programmer?
I’ve been a software engineer for a long time, and for a number of reasons, would prefer to take contracts or direct hire to work remotely.
Do recruiters have any interest/clientele in matching us up with remote work jobs?
What methods do you use to find remote work jobs (contract or direct hire)?
Any interesting stories about remote work jobs you have had?
Thanks in advance.
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This is exactly what I did last round and it worked fine.
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
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"remote" as in far flung places ( @daveauld comes to mind) or off-site / work from home?
<< Signature removed due to multiple copyright violations >>
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For me, work from home. Others may be interested in remote “far flung” locations for jobs, though. Good point you made.
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Or remote as in 'TV Remote' ?
Would coding something like TeamViewer be considered remote work?
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Or maybe remote work as in "There is a remote chance this code will work!"
I, for one, like Roman Numerals.
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Hi!
I like remote. I've even don't really mind the monthly commute!
The weather's better in Cyprus and Qatar than Scotland, and I don't have to endure the sound of Nippy on the telly every night!
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I have not done real "remote work" but the last assignment meant three days work at home during the week and 2 days at location (45 km away ). I really enjoyed that as I had a lot less traffic stress in this godforsaken country ( Belgium ) of eternal traffic jams.
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I guess I've lucked out and have a "regular" full-time job (not contract work) only, the company I work for doesn't really have an "office" so everybody works from home. It was presented to me as a perk, but as it turns out, I couldn't "go to the office" even if I wanted to.
The boss did rent out a tiny office we can meet at, but that had more to do with him needing to get out of the house rather than needing a formal office place. Only the boss has an actual desk; the rest of the place is filled with old hardware, a conference table and a bunch of chairs. It doesn't even have a phone or internet (his laptop uses his smartphone's internet connection). All very minimalistic.
Pros and cons are another discussion altogether, and I don't think that's what you were after. Suffice it to say that for me, it's been over 12 years, and I've never looked back. I'm hoping I can stretch this out until retirement.
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I got a remote job where you can go into the office if you want... but the office is in Utah and most the workers are spread across the US. We do go in to the office for a week once or twice a year, and if we happen to move there we could go in if we wanted to.
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
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I have been working for 5 years from home for software company, as your case, our company has no offices, my boss lives in the US west coast, the sellers works from US East Coast, and I work from Central America.
When we meet, is more entertainment meetings than jobs meetings, since all the stuff related with the company we do from our homes.
The Pros is that I am able to go to the beach, my family enjoys the weather, pools and all the commodities, and I could work from the hotel room. We went a few trips in this way and after my job is done, I could enjoy with my family.
I have a 3 yo son, I saw when he said his first words, he made his first steps, a lot of stuff that dads usually lose by being out working on a regular job.
The Cons: Is that I never leave the office, even when I am out, or on our family time, I am always checking my f@#$ing phone, our clients or my boss calls me, so that is the hardest part.
Other is benefits and vacation time. Is really hard to work for a US company as a consultant, since I work overseas, I don't have a employee contract, so I don't have medical assurance, dental or anything. Also I don't have Paid Days Off. On my country by law we have 2 weeks of PTO per year, plus Hollidays paid (Christmas, New year, Independence day, etc), even US holidays I have to work to get some $. On my case, the vacations are paid by me, not receiving any money.
rocking since last century.
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MSBassSinger wrote: Do any of you have experience or suggestions about finding remote work as a programmer?
I've found that finding remote work through job boards and recruiters is next to impossible. The exception might be Ruby on Rails and Python work because for some reason those languages are accompanied by a culture of "new tech" thinking.
A few years ago I spent some time responding to remote work opportunities here: We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more[^] Nobody even had the courtesy to say, "thanks but no thanks."
Now, except for the last 3 years, I've spent over 20 years working remotely. How? Basically knowing the right people (the decision making people!) or knowing people that know people. Getting someone to recommend you, particularly if they are an employee of a company, can really help get more than just your foot in the door and bend "no remote work" policies.
MSBassSinger wrote: Do recruiters have any interest/clientele in matching us up with remote work jobs?
Pretty much, no. The main reason is that you are a completely unknown quantity to a company that is going through a recruiting agency. They want to see you warming a chair. Of course there are exceptions, but they are exceptionally hard to find, almost never in an established company, more likely in a small (20 employees or less) company where your specific talents are in desperate need.
MSBassSinger wrote: What methods do you use to find remote work jobs (contract or direct hire)?
Friends in the industry and people I've worked for in the past.
MSBassSinger wrote: Any interesting stories about remote work jobs you have had?
You bet. I've worked remotely for projects like satellite design software, end of life failure analysis of said satellites, boat yard management, adult entertainment club management, kiosks and ATM's for casinos, a website for tracking feedback for informational meetings for Black Mothers Breastfeeding Association in Detroit, in-flight entertainment systems, emergency services and record management, as well as pro bono website management for some non-profits that I am happy to donate my time to.
Where I am now, as an employee, I love because there's an office and great people and a very flexible remote work policy, which I consider the best of both worlds, as the tax hit, up-and-down income of contract work, health insurance, retirement plan, etc., is all addressed by being an employee.
So I'd suggest finding an employer that has a trusting attitude to remote work but where you are still engaged as an employee.
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Our country has very hot summers, so if I, very seldom, work from home, I really do miss the air conditioning of the office. Oh yes, and the free internet 
"'Do what thou wilt...' is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its level; man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself."
—Aleister Crowley
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Hi All,
I am being called by my Boss & HR to a meeting tomorrow, for raising faults, in the system I am testing, JIRA I fear. So I was told by my boss to test, identify and not fix faults, raise the faults as defects. I have being doing this I raised Faults as Defects, I first get a talking to as I am causing too much on the back log. If I am to test this 'thing' properly a bug will display in more than one area. If I am not allowed to poke around the fault or ask others what other sections that could be affected, I am going to raise faults the fault is linked to a test ticket (right?) the issue appears to be the Dev team have identified the fault and then fixed but haven't gone through the ticket back log to link all the tickets that are linked. These tickets stay active and then someone who has permissions takes it off the back log, right? I notification that a ticket has been cancelled by not my boss. I am now lost, sorry for the rant!
Glenn
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It sure is a surprise, since it's your job and you were specifically asked to do it. It sounds like you're working for a wan^H^H^H moron who's concerned with optics rather than reality. If your HR folks are actually impartial, they may defend you. Good luck.
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similar to what Greg said perhaps your function was not to find the faults, but rather to prove the correctness.
... as to any potentially significant technical issues perhaps at most check they're covered in the T&C / disclaimers / error margins.
<< Signature removed due to multiple copyright violations >>
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Well the company ethic is to 'Make Life Easier', Plus this is firmware in a critical infrastructure! I was under the impression finding and raising faults was a good thing? 
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In the good old days of raising bugs on paper forms, I was sent to test a new application and given 150 sheets for the bug reports. On the second day I was severely told off for being at the photocopier instead of looking at their new application. It never occurred to them that I had already found and documented 150 faults and needed more report logs to write on.
So things do not change. Testers are there to confirm that the developers are right to congratulate themselves on a job well done, not to test things.
"The purpose of testing is to find bugs, not to prove their absence" [I have yet to find the source of this quote - it is someone like C A R Hoare or Edgsar Dijkstra or Donald Knuth; if you know who originally said it, please let me know]
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"The purpose of testing is to find bugs, not to prove their absence."
I don't know who said it, but I think we can rule out formal methods weenies.
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Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
Dijkstra (1970) "Notes On Structured Programming" (EWD249), Section 3 ("On The Reliability of Mechanisms"), corollary at the end.
He's guilty of several different versions of that quote.
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I think somewhere it says that "always make the boss look good". Or at least, not bad (no matter how much you want to).
But that reminds me: I went to a meeting once with users to discuss "enhancements" (to the software I wrote), while the little cretin I was with filed the requests as a "bug report". I told him what was on my mind.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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Good grief.
Sounds like an exercise in petty mindedness from some Jira Ninja to me, and why would HR would need to be involved in such?
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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HR are involved as I had done this before (why wasn't the thing changed then?), I don't quite know what the outcome will be. Hope for the best, expect the worse!
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but HR being involved is always a bad thing. If you are lucky, you will be put on a Performance Improvement Plan which is a very serious reprimand. If unlucky, it likely means you will be sacked. In either case, you should immediately be updating your CV/resume and visiting all of the relevant job boards.
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