WFH - Reality or Pipe Dream?
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
I tried it in a previous job and I wasn't strict enough for it too work. I would goof off more in the day and do my work at night. When the job was more to support the database in working hours I can say that job it didn't last too long.
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
My current position also has 1-2 days a week WFH but it can be extended if needed like this week when my kids are out of school for "fall break". I will be glad to get back to the office next week. WFH is nice but even this misanthrope has found he needs face to face coworker contact. You do have to be disciplined in your work ethic though, it's very tempting and easy to get distracted but when you get focused you can find yourself working longer than you might if you were in the office.
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
StampedePress wrote:
I'm rather early in my career,
I urge you to reconsider working from home at this point in your career. While it definitely has its pros, there are downsides to WFH that you should be cognizant of.
- WFH makes you invisible to hallway meetings and impromptu technical decisions (more correctly, potential decisions).
- IMHO, you learn less from your colleagues when not physically in their presence.
- Unless you're an experienced and "indispensable" member of a team, you risk becoming redundant or losing opportunities that would otherwise may be available to you when present at your physical work location.
/ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
I'm not going to try to sell you on the merits - the pros outweight the cons, and it sounds like you don't need any convincing. I've been doing it since September 2007, so 9 years this month. Our group still meets at an office once a week to discuss how things are progressing, whether anyone's stuck on something, project planning that requires face-to-face discussions, etc - although when we're busy putting the final touch on a new release and such, we might skip a week or two (or three). We have a daily 5-10 (max) minute call over Skype early in the morning, and we all make ourselves available during "normal" office hours (primarily, again, Skype). Email client (fetching email from my work account only) is running all the time--nobody but my coworkers has my work email. That reduces a lot of the noise. We all have a VPN connection back to the office. Something that can do screen sharing is a must (again, Skype's sufficient here most of the time, although it doesn't seem to scale as nicely as GoToMeeting). The key is self-discipline. I'm not on Twatter or Facebag, so there's a lot of the distraction others suffer from simply gone. Friends and relatives have all been told they should contact me during the workday only if they have something so important that they'd try to reach me just the same at an office if I was working away from home--when you explain it to them from that perspective, most people are smart enough to understand. Those who aren't, by their action aren't worth picking up the phone for. [Edit] Ravi brings up some *great* points - although in my case, we all work from home, boss included, so that levels the playing field, in the sense that nobody's "disadvantaged" by not being there.
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
My current position is 100% remote (I am in FL, job is in VA) and I have been at tit for about 6 months. All respondents had good recommendations, and I agree with them. I miss the face-to-face meetings in the halls, and even though we do a standup every morning, I find that I have no faces to names. Slack helps a lot, I find it much better than skype (or Lync - whatever the flavor is now). And knowing when to call it a day can be hard - I recently put in three days of 8AM to midnight runs; but sometimes ya just gotta.
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
When I first started working where I am now, I was WFH nearly 100%; I found that it was much harder working from him as I felt honor bound to really stick to it vs., whilst in the office environment, a chat over coffee or stretch-walk is quite OK. Aside from travel, the day goes much quicker when not at home. Also, the snacking is very strongly reduced. These days, I reserve WFH for when I don't think it's safe or sane to go in (bad storms/hurricanes, piled snow on roadways, etc.).
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
With few exceptions, I think working at home arrangements don't work very well. The amount of information you get by chance meetings and/or by overhearing something can be quite extensive. I've also found that it does a disservice to those who don't work at home and need help of some type or another. Though often a cliche, but synergy can be real, but rarely happens when people aren't interacting. (I've been at jobs where I figured something out only by overhearing another conversation.)
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With few exceptions, I think working at home arrangements don't work very well. The amount of information you get by chance meetings and/or by overhearing something can be quite extensive. I've also found that it does a disservice to those who don't work at home and need help of some type or another. Though often a cliche, but synergy can be real, but rarely happens when people aren't interacting. (I've been at jobs where I figured something out only by overhearing another conversation.)
Thanks for so many great replies. Currently my whole team is spread across the country so going into the office is mainly a social event. Unfortunately I don't get that much mentoring as a result but I have been able to work with some great people. Unfortunately my current job won't allow for expanding my time working from home, which leads me to my next question.. Are there any jobs which are more suited for WFH? Or at least have the most openings for the best salary. I really would like to make the transition into it 100%, or at least 4 out of 5 days. Would trying to transition to more Cloud Engineer or Network Engineer work offer more opportunities? I love working with VM's, Linux and Managing Backups. Any suggestions?
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Currently my job offers me a 1-2 days a week working from home, and I really enjoy that setup. Actually I would love to move to a 100% work from home setup. I'm rather early in my career, 2 years of experience and graduated with my bachelor's 6 months ago. I get the impression working from home is usually a privilege reserved for employees who have been with the company for many years (unless their local office closes and they're forced into it, I should be so lucky). Does anyone work from home now, and how would they rate the opportunities out there for someone just starting out? I'm a Systems Engineer and I do a mix of Dev Ops, Linux & Windows Administration, VMware Administration and Cloud Administration. Is there any specific niche anyone could recommend where WorkFromHome jobs are plentiful, and rank isn't so heavily discriminated? Thanks, :java:
I prefer the air-conditioning and company at an office, as long as the commute isn't unbearable, which it easily is.
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