Ask HN: What are the risks of working remotely? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the risks of working remotely?

3 pointsdavman5 comments

I'm a JavaScript engineer with a couple of years experience under my belt, but I'd like to get in to remote working. What are some of the risks involved? How likely is it that I could produce work for a company who then don't pay me?

I'm mainly looking at working for overseas companies, so essentially this would mean me being a contractor for other companies rather than being in a salaried role. I've done what I assume is the usual grunt work by searching for the companies on LinkedIn, attempting to Street View their office addresses, etc.

Any advice?

Thanks

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In an addition to an upfront payment, if you have can figure out a way to break the project up into multiple deliverables/checkpoints with some payment due proceeding to the next, that helps both you and your client.

Yes, there is a risk. Last year, I was scammed by a company in California. Not a lot of money, but it still made me angry. But I'm not worried, because it was only one out of a lot.

Yeah I can imagine that would make me pretty angry too! And possibly homeless. I'm currently living paycheck to paycheck, meaning if I didn't get paid for a months work then I wouldn't have enough money to pay rent.

It sounds like this is probably something I shouldn't risk without at least a month's financial buffer?

I normally go for 3 months buffer at the very least, and currently have about 6. Always have done this, even when I had a regular job. It allows me to live without worries.

But in any case, you can lower the risk of getting scammed by asking for initial deposits. I always do that. Did it with the company that scammed me and I wasn't totally fucked. I lost about 60% of the total of the project, but not a 100%.

Agree with this guy. Cutting the work into small tranches is an option too. Remember that the one who is employing is afraid of being scammed as well!

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