Ask HN: What do you look for in a remote developer?

169 点作者 daryllxd大约 7 年前

I'll be applying for jobs soon. I'm a Rails dev with 4 years exp, currently learning Elixir. I've just created a blog for my future employer and potentially future clients, gotten testimonials from my previous clients, reading interview questions, anything else that I can do to improve my chances/add value to the company I'll be joining?

23 条评论

DoofusOfDeath大约 7 年前

My background: Worked many years in offices, and the last ~4 years remote.Understand that companies hiring remote developers, especially for the first time, might not be aware of things they need to do for success. These include:(1) The manager needs to be above-standard.(2) They need to be ready to treat communications challenges as first-order, high-priority problems.(3) They need someone onsite who will advocate for you, particularly w.r.t. challenges that are specific to you working remotely.(4) They need to understand the challenges posed by distributed teams, particularly if the team isn't entirely remote.As far as what you can do, I'd suggest:(1) Learn everything you can about the challenges of being a remote employee.(2) Address those challenges as best you can at your end.(3) Be ready to educate your employer about those challenges as well.(4) Recognize that the employer just might be incapable of properly handling a remote employee. I'd suggest screening employers carefully if possible, and be prepared to move on to another job if they're not able to do what they need to do to make remote work.

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Zyst大约 7 年前

I’ll be 100% honest even though it might not be applicable for you:One of the most valuable things I look for is someone who has already worked remotely.From my personal point of view not everyone is suited to doing remote work.* Some people cannot work up the motivation to get stuff done when the bar for others realizing they are slacking off is a lot higher.* Some people realize they miss the meatspace interaction and decide to quit after three months which you mostly spent ramping them up, so not quite their full potential.* And some others realize they cannot really focus at home for a plethora of reasons.Anyway, hiring someone with no remote experience always feels like a risk. Perhaps you could find a way to assuage those concerns, and improve your chances that way.

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Finbarr大约 7 年前

Our team is entirely remote (mostly contractors currently). Here are the things I look for:1) Productivity. Is this person working and getting things done? Can I rely on them and trust them?2) Quality. Is the work being done to a satisfactory standard?3) Communication. Can this person speak English well enough?For number 1, do you have a github profile with private contributions showing? It's the first thing I look at when talking to anyone. If you have a wall of blank, I'm immediately less interested. Obviously there are false negatives here, but there are so many candidates that it's easier to just move on to people who look productive. Other things I look for here are positive reviews on sites like Upwork or good tenure at previous positions.For number 2, we typically hire very quickly and just give people test tasks. If they are completed well, we keep on giving more test tasks. Eventually the tasks become much larger.For number 3, this is really simple. If the writing is good, then I'd look to have a video call and see how good the verbal English is.

zachruss92大约 7 年前

This is a pretty good question! When i'm looking to hire this is what I look for: (1) Excellent written and verbal communication. Since there is limited in-person interaction it is paramount that a developer can clearly and effectively communicate about a project/status/whatever.(2) Asks lots of questions. Builds off of communication.(3) Be a self-starter/self-motivator. Supervision is very low, so I need to make sure someone can get started/done without a ton of oversight.(4) Knows how to ask for help. Don't be shy about not knowing something and getting stuck. Sometimes it's better to ask someone for help rather than trying to brute force the issue yourself.Edit: formatting

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jfaucett大约 7 年前

I'm a Freelancer and work a lot of remote projects. Here's the most important skills.1. Clear communicator. Get in front of and clarify issues so you dont waste anyones time.2. You get things done on your own. You dont waste time on irrelevant stuff, but you constantly pludge forward getting stuff on the agenda done, without anyone having to watch over you / motivate you.3. Excellent Communication skills. Did I alread mention that? Ita that important. You better be able to clearly communicate and be able to manage sending emails, answering chats promptly, etc.

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mooreds大约 7 年前

So you are really asking two questions:How can I improve my chance of being hired?And, if I am hired, how can I improve my chance of success at the company.I will defer answering question #1 to folks who have hired plenty of remote devs (I have only hired a few).For question #2, I have a few things to say, based on my experience as a remote developer and observations of others. Many of these are predicated on working for a company where remote work is not normal.1. Set expectations. This will be a conversation between you and your manager. Depending on how experienced the manager is, you may or may not be driving the conversation. But have it either way. This will include things like:How is status communicated?Are there core hours of availability I need to keep?What are the best tools to use fot asynchronous and synchronous communication?Can we set up a regular meeting to check in about my remote work performance?2. Be proactive. Proactive about communication. About your work. About making sure your manager or lead knows what you have done and are doing. Don't let any needed question go unanswered.3. Perform above average, at least for the first 6 months. This is important when starting any job, but especially when you aren't there. This means being on time to every meeting, going above and beyond in helping other team members and in general bringing your A game. This will pay dividends when your situation comes up in future management discussions.4. Be prepared to ask a lot of questions. Discussions will happen without you, and you need to be able to confidently ask how decisions were arrived at. If possible, document how the decisions were arrived st (Google docs, slack). This discipline will benefit everyone, but is easy to slack on when everyone is onsite.5. Be prepared to have a slower career trajectory. Even for remote friendly companies, management is typically a onsite function (unless the company is 100% remote, of course).I love my remote commute (roll out of bed, walk a few feet to the office). Good luck!

colemorrison大约 7 年前

Aside from all of the usual hot fluff, I know some will disagree, but..a) open source activity b) github activity c) active blogging on knowledge or topic related to devThe reason? Remote work takes a lot of independent work (obviously). And external activity from just a job is a great signal that "hey they like this enough to do it in their own time." This indicates that their interest goes beyond just what they're getting paid for.I know, I know. "But that's not necessarily a great indicator!"When you're on a big time crunch to fill the role, and you have 100s of folks to look through, you've got to filter somehow. And quite frankly things like this are going to be far more proving than just "well I have nothing up because it was all company work so I can't show you" or "I have a life outside of coding" etc etc.

manoa大约 7 年前

At Envoy (<a href="https://envoy.com/" rel="nofollow">https://envoy.com/</a>) we have roughly 33% of our engineering team working out of their homes so I can speak to both what we look for and what we've found that works:(1) High I/O. Communication between folks on and offsite can be lower bandwidth due to tech, not always face to face or synchronous, and fewer serendipitous interactions. You need folks who love hearing from and reaching out to people, such that they have a bias to compensate for these limitations.(2) Overlapping time zones. Related to above.(3) Fully formed, mature human beings. Related to above.(4) Evidence they've been effective doing it. Not everyone can self-manage and motivate. I, for one, suck at it.(5) Working experience. It's harder to have less-experienced folks tether to teams in other locations, because by nature they need much more communication both ways.As a bonus, here's what you should look out for when seeking your next team:(a) The same stuff as above :)(b) Unintentional biases. Ask when the meetings are scheduled. What tech they use to "dial in" folks. Unclear differentiation in comp, benefits, etc. (it may be different by location, but there should be a methodology behind it) Even clues like heavy use of the word "remote" (which sounds 2nd class) vs something like "distributed".(shameless plug, we're hiring. <a href="https://envoy.com/jobs/" rel="nofollow">https://envoy.com/jobs/</a>)

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tmaly大约 7 年前

When I have a side project, and I need remote developer, communication skills are the number one skill I look at. Secondly, I look to see if they can code according to a technical specification.There have been countless times where I have had to spend excess time going back and forth due to lack of these two skills.Your situation might be a little different if your employer is not someone who can write technical specifications. If this is the case, I would say the skill of translating the customers requirements into a specification would be an important skill.

CyanLite2大约 7 年前

Most important thing I look for as a manager is the candidate's driving/travel distance to a common location.Example: If the job's main HQ is in Atlanta, you can work remote and live in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, etc. If we're having a new kickoff meeting and we need everybody to be on site for an in-person meeting, then a short 2-3 hour drive can solve a ton of issues.Upper management gets to see real live people tackle a project. (If you think your CFO isn't internally questioning spending 6 figures on a remote developer then you haven't spent enough time with him/her). It also builds rapport with the rest of the team. For the remote folks, after working in a house for so long it can start to feel like a prison, and a road trip is a good excuse to get out of the house. I also work remote, so when I travel it's actually a good break during the day.And we don't do it often. Perhaps once a quarter or so.

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maxxxxx大约 7 年前

I think number one is the ability to work independently without constant handholding. But there is also the need for willingness to fit in with what's there already. I had remote developers who got a kind of an ego trip and wrote beautiful software but it used some tech that didn't fit with our code so in the end it was useless.It's really important to listen a lot and understand current processes first before you try to add some innovation.Be willing to clarify things a lot and if you go the wrong direction be willing to drop your work without hard feelings.

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chasd00大约 7 年前

I've been working remote about 4 years and have managed both good and terrible remote workers.You have to position yourself as someone who can handle working remotely. Some otherwise great people just can't do it very well, no knock on them, it's just the way some people are wired.Join a coworking place and put that in your blog. That says to an employer even though this person is remote they appreciate a workspace separate from their personal life. Intermingling work and personal life, even trivial things like folding a load of laundry over lunch, only leads to problems.Also, say up front that you're up to traveling from time to time to meet face to face. I try to spend about 4 days a month at corporate having lunch and coffee with the people i chat with on slack all day. It goes a long way both for them and for me.

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greggarious大约 7 年前

Proactive. You're not having those serendipitous water cooler conversations, so you need to go out of your way to be proactive and think about what work should be done in the future, what issues may arise, and make decisions based on those projections.This can take the form of brainstorming potential future features/issues, but it can also be as simple as trying to schedule quick 1:1s with coworkers to allow for unstructured verbal conversation.(Personally I don't think Slack/IRC allow for the same sort of interaction as a verbal conversation)

codingdave大约 7 年前

Self-awareness and self-motivation.I worked for 5 years in a fully remote company, and every single new hire spent a few months iterating and tweaking their own work life -- their office setup, working hours, home life, etc. You have to be able to do that, and manage yourself in general, to be effective. There is nobody there telling you how or when to work, when to relax, when to slack off or not, etc.Everything else can be practiced and learned, but to be remote it is a fundamental requirement to have the ability to manage thyself.

amw大约 7 年前

When we hire (we are a 100% remote company), our questions focus on conflict resolution and communication. We like to be able to see assumption of good faith by default, and red flags are things like "automatically blames X for issue Y" or "constantly says negative things about management they've worked with in the past" (people are definitely allowed to have whatever conflicts and opinions they have, but the red flag is bringing that up as the inherently unsolvable obstacle to happy and/or productive work rather than treating it in the same class as any other work-blocking obstacle). We want people to focus on how issues can be fixed rather than who broke them. We look for signs that someone is comfortable receiving guidance from disembodied words in a chatroom, and willing to proactively ask clarifying questions, as well as to patiently answer clarifying questions from other people. Familiarity with remote-collaboration tools is a plus (the usual list of suspects--git and the fancy website UIs built around it, ticket-tracking software, some form of CRM, and IRC/Slack/Discord/keybase chat/whatever, everyone uses some form of group messaging app and this last thing is a really low bar). If the candidate hasn't worked remotely before, we want to suss out how comfortable they will be not being able to see their workmates in person on a daily or weekly basis, because there are a surprising number of people who aren't chill with that and who don't know it until they try. We want some indication that the person can be productive without someone breathing down their neck, although honestly this shakes out pretty fast (once you're with us, we know your commits and your releases and we're either happy with them or not, whether you spent exactly forty or fifty hours a week on your butt in your home office producing them isn't really relevant).

simonebrunozzi大约 7 年前

I might sound pedantic, but try to write in correct English:"reading interview questions, anything else that I can do to improve my chances/add value to the company I'll be joining?" -> there should be a ; after "questions", or even better a full stop and a new sentence.As an employer, I value your grammatical skills as much as your coding skills. I believe that the two go hand in hand.

linsomniac大约 7 年前

As someone who ran a company that spent most of 18 years with all employees working remote: The most important thing to me was that workers had the ability to treat it as a job. During interviews I'd ask where they planned to work, if they had an office, if they had a family and if so what their plan was for having an office at home.For example, I had one employee that I spent a significant amount of time over nearly a year trying to help with his performance. The situation seemed to be that his stay-at-home wife just wouldn't respect that he was "at work". One of our discussions he said "My office currently doesn't have a door on it, and she's always coming in to ask me questions."But, of course, just being at an office doesn't mean the job will be treated seriously. Another co-worker would do maybe an hour of work a day, and spend the rest of the time dicking around on the Internet. Actually, I'd say this described the bulk of my co-workers when I was at the phone company...

kull大约 7 年前

Background: we are 20 people all remote, 2 years old startup, with employees across US and Europe.The key is a great communication. You need to show you can easily communicate via emails, slack, video. And I mean: being quick to reply, never keep unanswered questions, be proactive and be able to write and say your thoughts and difficult concepts is simple language.Example: after the interview, send a follow up email to the interviewer. Send me daily updates on the status of the project even if I did not ask.

gesman大约 7 年前

Don’t mention remote. It’s unrelated.What you need to convey is low risk and high fidelity service that you deliver.All with constant communication.Make employers realize that requiring someone to sit on their local chair can mean more risk and less quality to them then to hire you.

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itamarst大约 7 年前

Being able to work independently. You're not being closely supervised, so you want to make sure your resume, and interview, convey your ability to work on your own.

jcadam大约 7 年前

Name != 'jcadam'I mean, as far as I can tell. I've been trying to land the mythical 'remote gig' for years.

mindhash大约 7 年前

In past I have looked for candidates with a bit of experience working remotely.If you have never done this, you could partner with someone (from different location) on a side project. Product hunt community has a slack channel for finding people.

sebleon大约 7 年前

Excellent communication and responsiveness. If you’re able to respond to any question on Slack or email within 2min during waking hours, that drastically improves the remote dynamic.

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