There's not much remote work available. Those jobs are the most desirable and also the very hardest to get. In the past 10 years, i've received 100s of calls from desperate recruiters looking for Software engineers: and every single time, it's because they're looking to fill positions of companies in Palo Alto or San Francisco. Anytime, I ask them to find a position outside of the penninsula or SF, they turn up empty handed (east bay).
Companies can learn from this as well: there's a difference between # of workers working in a field and labor supply vs labor demand.
Honestly I kind of feel like any company that is offering market rates for remote workers has a bigger problem filtering developer applications than they do finding great engineers. Complete opposite from the hiree perspective vs in a big tech town where everyone is desperate for talent.
Between my last 2 positions I tried looking around at fully remote jobs - sane hours, good pay, good (virtual) environment including codebase - pick 1, maybe 2 if lucky.
It depends upon where you're located. Are you looking for remote work? Its far more difficult to get hired for a remote job than to find one that is local to your area. The bulk of remote jobs go to engineers in inexpensive countries not in places like LA and SF with a high cost of living.
When we hired for a remote position we received probably 100x the applications as when we hired in San Francisco. The pool of labor is much bigger and much cheaper.
Now we're hiring a full-time machine learning instructor, and I can't even imagine trying to find someone in SF. Even remote is difficult, but at least there are applicants.
The truth is that there's just a lot less demand for remote engineers, and among companies that do hire remote, it's usually for very specialized roles. (There are obviously exceptions.) Looking at our stats, about 5% of the companies we work with are interested in remote engineers. We're not going to expand to remote jobs until we have that number up to a point where we can provide a good experince. I don't have a time-frame, but not in the next 3 months (over the next 3 months we're focused on expanding to other cities)
Almost all software engineering jobs can be done remotely. If the only thing you have to offer is proximity, you’re probably not going to be in a good position.
Those companies are definitely on the bleeding edge of remote work culture, but there seem to be many others who would hire someone remote if it were the right fit (my company for example). I've been contacted by outside recruiters and corporate recruiters big and small, but when in comes to bay area they always seem to be hellbent on you being on site.
Then again, maybe it's because I'm not really looking, and I'm being contacted by those who are just grasping at straws at that point.
Can confirm. I've been looking for a remote job in the bay area. Not because I don't want to move there, but because it's virtually impossible to move there because all the companies want you to move on a very short notice and they don't want to spend a lot of money to get you an H1B visa. It was very hard to find companies that were willing to work with remote employees (even though they are much cheaper and often just as qualified).
My current position is remote only with no travel. It was advertised as on site in SF and regular travel. Seems that top engineers with skills can fill such positions remotely, but the company does not want to offer that perk to average engineers. I feel very fortunate and might just be lucky, but I think that there exist more opportunities than there appear on job boards.
keep trying, there are companies out there looking for remote software engineers. I wrote a script to collect remote job listings from various job boards... in the last 30 days there were more then 700 of them. sign up with http://remoteworknewsletter.com, we are launching soon.
Consider offering remote positions. Even if those positions are only used as a way to open new people to the possibility of moving to SF.
If your shortages are severe, why limit your talent pool to the smallest, most competitive market?
You're right. Here's how I see the remote landscape:
* Well-run 100% remote companies - Extremely high application rate, not only because the pool of candidates is much wider (people all over the country and in some cases all over the world) but also because it's a dream job for many of them. In order to deal with that extremely high application rate, the companies need to figure out a way to turn away the vast majority of them as quickly as possible. In many cases, that involves up-front hurdles, like passing tests before you even get a preliminary call with an actual person. But because there is no coordination between companies, you have to jump through the same hurdles for every single application, which makes these opportunities infeasible for a lot of people who just need a job right now. There are a few services, such as Triplebyte, that are seeking to reduce the friction by letting you apply once and qualify for multiple companies, but their support for remote positions is still in its infancy.
* Well-run companies with some remote positions - These positions tend to be those that can't be filled locally because they are too highly specialized. It is uncommon for traditional companies with mostly in-office workers to be looking for remote generalists unless they're growing so rapidly that they can't even find them in their own market. Instead, for these remote positions, you need to have a rare set of hyper-specific skills. Chances are that at any given time, a job seeker will only match those skills for a handful of companies, so it's better if you're just passively looking for new opportunities, rather than actively looking for a new job.
* Poorly run companies or those paying below-market salaries - These constitute the vast majority of remote positions I've seen advertised. They're hoping that the pool of potential candidates is large enough that at least a few will be dumb enough or desperate enough to apply.
It is easier to find remote work if you are already senior developer. If you live in a small town 3 hours north of NYC like me and are trying to gain experience at a quality company it is nearly impossible to find a remote employer even if you agree to a very low salary and to go in to the city whenever they need you to.
Try getting one :) Remote job listing also means that there is an entire world of competition out there, much of which makes less than half of SFBA dev wages.
I love working remote, and wouldn't consider working any other way. That being said it's still difficult to find work at home jobs, even for software engineers. I have recruiters hitting me up on LinkedIn all the time about open positions, but when I tell them I'd rather work remote, they sort of just shrug and go away.
Any other engineers out there that feel the same way? How would you approach finding a work at home job should you be looking?
Companies can learn from this as well: there's a difference between # of workers working in a field and labor supply vs labor demand.
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