Ask HN: Can new graduates get (good) remote work? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Can new graduates get (good) remote work?

8 pointslwithers11 comments

Hey HN,

Long-time lurker here. I'm going to be graduating my Computer Science BSc in Summer 2017, and like the idea of getting involved in remote work.

There are several companies which actively hire remote workers, however are they less likely to take on new graduates who don't have prior experience in a larger workplace environment?

Also, for those who are working remotely, do you know if graduate developer salaries are reasonable (I'm UK-based, not in London)?

Thanks for any information! :)

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In my opinion and to a first approximation, this is a bad idea. The technical experience gained in a person's first professional setting have a massive impact on a person's technical development over the course of their career. I think of Peter Norvig going to work for Margret Hamilton.

That's the other aspect. Working in an office expands one's professional network more usefully than remote work ever can...Norvig later went to NASA's Ames Research.

I'll put it another way. Being a new graduate means lacking the experience to make highly informed professional judgments. Recognizing that you're in that position is useful when considering making a radical career decision at the start of one's career. Don't kid yourself, choosing to work remote has a high probability of being seen as a negative trait in future hiring because it is hard to determine if it is a 'real' job. Remote work creates a deficit in social proof (alongside the deficit in social network and the experience deficit).

Finally, difficulty finding remote work is symptomatic of a weak professional network. If it's really a priority, then underpaying freelance work from the notorious freelance sites are where to start. If that's unattractive then, it's not a priority.

Good luck.

Makes me sad to read this as my first job didn't have any great technical mentor like that, but was a bunch or regular devs trying to ship a run of the mill product.

How can a grad tell they are going to work for a top company that is great for their career within a good team? Especially if outside the US so not necessarily just going to work for Google.

My take is it was a good right out of school job. But it wasn't Google awesome. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8736450

Anyway, regular devs shipping regular product is, to me, a better first job than remote work for most people. The people for whom remote work right out of school is less likely to be detrimental are probably people who were banging out open source or side projects while in school...i.e. those with a strong established independent habit.

Ok I see. Tangentially, I remember when I graduated I would have hated work at home as the social side was important, and getting to hang out with other techies is a bonus. Now work from home would be good for the family life

So by mentioning salary I presume we're talking indefinite contracts here rather than lots of different clients.

To be honest you're going to have a tough time, competition is high and hiring juniors seems quite rare. (You may have more luck with larger remote companies but most remote companies tend towards the smaller side).

However here are some things you can do to maximise your chances (applicable to non remote work too).

1. Be effective and clear with communication, remote work requires you to over-communicate. Don't assume the person with whom you're talking to via email/slack has all the information that you do.

2. Being a grad you've got no real CV experience to fall back on, imperative that you have a github/bitbucket account with examples of the work you can do. At least one fully fledged project in the stack that you are targeting. For example if you're going to work with Rails then having a project where you use some common libraries, integrate OAuth or some sort of authentication,talk to external APIs with good test coverage and and documentation.

3. Almost as important as #2 is to blog with what you're learning, show any companies of the learning that you're doing and the potential that you have. We had an applicant once who included a link to all 50 Amazon reviews he'd written of different tech books, fantastic way to show passion and understanding.

4. Be realistic, being a grad and go straight into remote work will be tough. Have a plan B.

My advice would be to try and work in a larger company for a while, find the opportunity to work with experienced developers and see how it is, you may actually like being in an office! Remote work is not for everyone and while it seems to be perfect it has many drawbacks.

Best of luck!

Your presumption is correct :).

Thank you for this insight. My GitHub has been largely left untouched as I haven't published many of my projects, I'll prioritise this. I like your recommendation on blogging too, definitely seems a good way to provide a log of what I'm getting up to.

I'm fortunate enough to have had a side-project turn into a successful business, however it's largely automated now and requires very little input, hence looking for a "proper job" upon graduating.

That said, it's been entirely working by myself, so I lack the experience of working within a larger company. Based upon some other comments here, it sounds as though I'll have a real tough time getting into remote work without some proven experience under my belt.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it :)

Well having a profitable side project is exactly the sort of thing you should show off as much as possible, the fact you took an idea, iterated and created the technology behind it. Sounds like a great idea to blog about it! :) Out of curiosity what is your side project?

What's your motivation for wanting remote work? If you've already got an almost passive income then that should allow you to live in the location best for you and find a company close by in the UK/EU.

Getting a remote job will be pretty hard as a junior developer, since remote work requires more trust in someone's ability to work independently.

I would also say it's not good for someone in your shoes: you'll learn much more and much faster if you're in the same room as experienced software developers.

It's a challenge for an employer to support or train a junior developer remotely, which is probably why these jobs are harder to find. They do exist though. I started out working remotely and loved it, but I know I would have grown my skill set much more quickly had I been around experienced developers during that first year on the job.

I tried finding a decent remote job as a new grad. I have 4 internships at top companies (Microsoft, Google). I applied to dozens of companies, only got one interview by a NY based company looking for cheap developers in Eastern Europe.

I gave up, I'm probably moving to London soon.

Just apply already.

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