Edit: Let me clarify - not saying that Eastern European programmers are better or worse but the living costs are obviously lower in Eastern Europe than say Western Europe.
I was also comparing prices in San Diego, California, and it was quite on par with Georgia.
The main reason eastern Europe appears cheap is the human labour - people are just used to low income...
US west coast prices are terrifyingly similar to prices in the Baltic States(unless you're living in a metropolis such as NYC).
Something to remember: It doesn't matter that you're from Ukraine. It matters where the company you work remotely for is stationed. If you find a company in the US or western EU willing to hire you, you can probably ask for their domestic market rates :)
Good luck.
Another approach to consider is seeking freelance work. You may be able to find work porting .NET applications to node.js which would allow you to leverage you current skill set to learn a new one. The challenge with this approach is that freelance rates can be pretty cut throat. Therefore, it would likely best to view these types of jobs as an opportunity to build experience/portfolio more than money making.
I hope this doesn't read as mean, since I suspect English is not your first language, but if you are trying to get hired by an English speaking company, you need to use proper grammar and spelling.
If you are looking for job in your native language, and just raising the topic here on HN as the best place to discuss it, then please only read the first paragraph of this comment. I don't mean to exclude you from discussing things here.
You missed an indefinite article here: If you are looking for job in your native language, ...
"Muphry's law is an adage that states that when a person criticises another's editing or proofreading, there will be a mistake of a similar kind in that criticism. The name is a deliberate misspelling of Murphy's law."
> Not to be confused with Murphy's law.
It all comes down to how good you really are. I have been looking for the past 3 - 4 months for a remote job, but since the competition out there is huge and there are definitely better programmers than me I haven't manage to land anything yet.
Make a great CV, a personal page, work on github to show your work. This will help you dramatically since you will be displaying your work and who you are. ( I have all except github as all I do is actually on my own repos )
As for the hours you are willing to put in, then that is more like freelancing than a full time job. Perhaps try Elance for some freelancing and work on your own to learn node.
Not trying to be harsh, but if you honestly believe this, you should give up right now. There will always be people smarter than you, this is a given. But you will never land a job with the attitude of "I'm not good enough to work here".
That sounds a bit dramatic, I'd advise changing what you believe.
There will always be things you believe that hold you back, but you will never overcome them with an attitude of "I should just give up now"...
I would suggest making one or more of your repos public. Even if you're the only one contributing, potential employers will still get a sense of your ability and/or experience. Another idea is to make a repo of just code samples. Nothing demonstrates how you code better than your actual code.
Some things I've heard about that I wouldn't mind reading about again:
- Making an office space in the home (I've seen workspaces designed [I think] for remote workers - do people use these and find they offer value?)
- Setting up boundaries with family members
- Communication habits - do you scrum over text chat, or daily video conferencing? What about large team meetings? Do you share daily status over email, or is that too much overhead?
- Working hours - do all-remote teams encourage syncing up time that the team is online? If you're remote and most of the team is together, do you work hours that are local to the rest of the team? I've heard it can be hard in this situation making sure that the rest of the team remembers you in hallway conversations, since it's easy to forget the one guy who is remote.
Some stuff I haven't seen written about:
- Logistics - do you need to be the admin for your PC? Do you get a hardware budget, or is it entirely BYOB?
I'm also interested in how the remote dynamic changes going from small teams to companies with thousands of employees.
I have a home office with a door on a separate floor from where most of the family is. Even though I wear headphones, being able to close the door indicates "dad is focused" as opposed to just having the door open which means interruptions are okay. Occasionally I'll work remote from being remote and hit the local coffee shop. I find that a simple change of scenery helps me focus/
We use both google hangouts and hipchat text/video for meetings as well as email and other solutions. We also conference call a lot on mobiles. We don't do daily status (I've never offered and no one asked). People sync up as needed. The only thing I miss is being able to stand in front of a whiteboard and draw things for group feedback, but I've adjusted.
I work my own schedule which is loosely based on the standard business day. I'm consider myself "in the office" from around 630am to about 5pm, but I take breaks during the day to eat, play with the dogs, go the the gym or run errands. As with most places, it's more about what you deliver than working a strict eight hour day. I'm more of an architect than developer so I'm not pair programming or working directly with someone every second. Asynchronous communications have been fine.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'm out of sight and out of mind. I miss hallway chats, impromptu meetings, etc. I consider it a fair trade off for the lifestyle. I'm not sure it's hurt my career, but it probably hasn't helped it.
We use corporate computers with VPN's as needed for patching, internal access, etc.
What's the culture like on your team regarding remote? Are you the only remote or are there a bunch of people doing the same thing?
Did you transition to remote while remaining on the same team?
I've not been asked to relocate, I've not taken any salary reductions, or had any "negative" behavior as a result. It's the main reason I've rewarded their loyalty to me with my loyalty to them. If someone needs me, they either call me or email me. Pretty simple. If I need to get on a plane (a few times) for a meeting, I just do it. But between conference calls, screen sharing via webex, etc it's pretty manageable.
Part of the reason I believe it works is because I don't let being remote be an issue. I pick up my phone when it rings, I check email constantly, I'm available via multiple chat systems, and I get things done. It absolutely helps that at some point, when crossing time zones and countries, everyone is somewhat remote. You can't have a 90K person company in the same place.
I do not do all of the "recommended things" that they say when working remote. I don't get dressed and "go to work". I get up, grab a protein shake, sit in front of my computer in my sleepwear like I would if it was a weekend. I don't have a dedicated work room, I work in the same place I play video games and work on personal projects. What it comes down to is that while others are commuting, I'm answering email. While other people are going out to lunch, I'm working on architectures with a bowl of beef and veggies. While they're taking snow days, I'm working uninterrupted. I'm not sure if I'm more productive (though I suppose we could all find ways to be more productive), but I'm certainly as productive.
Some random thoughts:
I shop for seven days worth of food because I cook all my meals every day. I eat much better. My ISP (Charter) is rock solid and high speed. In a pinch my mobile would be my email backup. I do not ask for any reimbursement for costs and I don't write anything off tax wise. Jobs will come and go, but for the first few years of my sons life I was here every single day watching him grow up. I'll never be able to get that back if I missed it. Wherever possible, I shift the burden of being remote to me. I never say "well, I'm remote and don't own a fax machine". I just make it happen. I often start controversial conversations with "well, do you need me to fly in?"
As a final thought, I get a lot of recruiters (don't we all though) contacting me. Strangely enough, it's usually the startups that seem to have a problem working remote. The first thing I tell people is that I'm while I have no problems flying in for meetings (either my cost or theirs), I'm content staying as a remote employee for now. In the future, we can discuss relocation. 95 times out of 100, regardless of the fit or role, it's a deal breaker in the first five minutes. Just find that interesting and it's a great way to pre-screen potential employers.
This is one of the reasons I am desperate to get a remote job. The chance to work on code uninterrupted. I enjoy coding, but the longer I stay in my current job, the less of it I seem to do.
EG: The AngelList search is very good and you can filter by allows remote :-)
I would create a profile on that site, most new freelancers there start with a lower rate to build experience and feedback and in a few months look to raise the rate.
Feel free to contact me by email and I can tell you what my experience has been from the hiring side.
- I think you're coming from a North American perspective
- OP is not from North America.
- I have received a few emails to my post above I've encouraged them to build a history and not worry about what they lose. Long term clients understand value and they do exist on oDesk.
- Increasingly on oDesk, for software development, there is more and more of an appetite to pay. I certainly am open to it.
Regarding the North American race to the bottom: The race to the bottom is happening in every industry. There's a book called "A Whole new mind" that might interest you.
There are lots of North American developers charging NA rates for those who are inclined. I have hired and found some great folks from there.
Anyone who has been hiring long enough knows that paying a few dollars gets you what you pay for... work that no other developer can work in, and takes longer and longer (and more money).
I want to do remote work, but going through these sites makes me grateful that I'm actually part of a company that pays me a salary.
I've always found the quality and cost of eLance and oDesk to be higher. Now that they've merged, I think there is something there, the development talent in Eastern Europe is excellent.
My colleague was always ranting about how much better Python was than Perl. Having inherited her code, I was writing far better code while learning Python than she was after doing a PhD in bioinformatics (~4 years?).
But not a lot of companies are looking for part-time programmers, why do you not want a full-time job?
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sof?query=node.js&is_tele...
Replace 'sfbay' with various cities and see what you get.
Sounds interesting.
I call them seeds because you have to realize that they will take time to give fruits. This is not an emergency technique.
Blog posts: from time to time, I was writing an article on my (now defunct but soon restarted) technical blog. It is currently offline but you can have a look here [1]. I created linkable content that got some coverage, and some of my former customers saw the blog and it created credibility to them.
Videos: similarly, I've tried since I think 2009 to give at least one talk per year. It has to be recorded and available on the web afterwards. Even on small topics, in small events to get started.
Some video examples:
- https://speakerdeck.com/thbar/transforming-data-with-ruby-an... (video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW863DOXqZQ) => people contacted me afterwards to do ETL work
- on bootstrapping https://speakerdeck.com/thbar/retour-dexperience-sur-le-boot... (video at vimeo.com/85490636) => people asked me to help them build SaaS afterwards
You can also just tweet useful, non opinion-oriented tweets and links, and grow an audience this way (I have around 1460 followers http://twitter.com/thibaut_barrere but started much lower). People looking for skills will find you this way etc.
Hope this helps!
[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20121031083446/http://blog.logeek...
Update: You have added contact details. :)