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Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

I don't think there's a correlation between the primary language used at the job and the employer's willingness to allow remote working. Investigate C/C++ listings, see if they allow employees to work remotely. Obviously you'll be expected to appear in-person for the interview, but if they are sufficiently convinced that you can be left alone to get your work done, they might agree to let you work remotely.

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Eh... I'd say the problems you need C or C++ for tend to be much more finicky than the typical web development job. Not that the web development work is easier, but the issues tend to be fairly intuitive and pretty close to a human problem.

Explaining C++ lookup rules or convincing a teammate that a particular piece of code contains undefined behavior... it helps to be in person. I haven't tried this sort of work over video chats, though.

>Explaining C++ lookup rules or convincing a teammate that a particular piece of code contains undefined behavior... it helps to be in person. I haven't tried this sort of work over video chats, though.

That can't be explained over email? How do the LKML people handle this?

Certainly there is. I'm currently working on a JSF project for a client ... it's nightmare to bring a new remote developer on board, their environment configured properly, eclipse working, blah blah blah.

My last Django project, a remote developer had the app up and running in their environment and was fixing bugs before lunch to get a feel for our code.

C/C++ jobs tend to be more more like the former than the later. Many C/C++ jobs are not even possible to do remote; the last time I managed a C programmer it was for an application appliance and I would have had to ship them prototype hardware if they were remote.

It's secondhand, but I worked with a C/C++ embedded guy once who did exactly that - worked remote doing embedded software, carried around prototype device and interface hardware and shipped it back and forth as needed.

I also helped hire and support a consultant who was updating some C++ drivers for some proprietary hardware we had. He never actually came into the office, I just shipped him the device, supporting software, and emailed instructions.

So it's definitely possible to do, but it isn't the easiest type of job to get, especially if you can't visit the premises at all.

For the OP, I'd suggest relaxing your preferences on what type of code/language you want to write for now. Try to find a job doing something you already have the most experience in, but at a company that either has the C++ projects that you're interested in, or seems likely to have connections to companies that do that. Once you establish your competence with them, you may find it easier to switch over to C++ while still being all remote.

If your build environment is that difficult to setup and undocumented, that's a big problem, whether or not you are remote or an on-site developer.

Agreed, but that's often the case with large legacy projects. I'm slowly pushing them to more modern approaches.

I think there is. But it could be a gut feeling.

If I look at actual sit in office jobs.. I see something like

Java > PHP > .NET > Node > Ruby...

but if I look for online jobs, I see something like

Ruby > Node > <sharp dropoff> > Java??

Sure it changes by area for the local job breakdown.. but while trying to find a remote job, I sometimes regret being a Java/Scala guy instead of a Ruby guy. (But when my code doesn't take 300 servers to run on due to Ruby perf, I am sure that regret will soon fade).

Same here (scala dev / haskell wannabe trying to go remote.)

I have a feeling it has to do with the general demographics of those languages users. Python/Ruby/Node positions would be mostly filled by young people working on web stuff (so they're more open to remote work), and Java positions would mostly be in BigCorps with a more traditional organization. But that's just a conjecture.

The comment about performance made me chuckle (Most of my colleagues work with PHP)

I mean entirely remote jobs and in-person interview is not possible. The reason is that now I live in a small town in Russia.

Living in Russia could be a problem depending on where you're applying. I know that at one company I worked at (in the US), they wouldn't even let beta testers from Russia test the product because they were concerned about piracy and were concerned about political issues in the country affecting their business.

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