Is Working Remotely A Good Idea?
If you have been toying with the idea of switching to full-time remote work, then you've probably asked yourself the question, "Is working remotely a good idea for me?" Given the uncertainty that remote work often brings along with it, this doubt is completely valid and something you should ponder upon before taking the leap.
Over time, we've spoken to quite a few remote workers and understood their reasons for making this switch. The answers we received have varied from circumstance to a will to travel the world to even pets! (along the lines of travel, check out these travel trends we expect to see in 2021.
In your quest of finding out whether working remotely is a good idea, We hope their answers are able to motivate you (without bias 😛). Here's what they had to say:
Also check out this beginners guide to remote work & freelancing that has curated inputs from remote work experts across the world!
Question: What motivated you to decide that working remotely is a good idea for you?
Candace Ramirez, Freelance Content Writer & Graphic Designer
Remote Work Experience: 6 years
Having worked remotely for around 6 years, here's what Candace, a Seattle-area content creator, had to say about why she thought working remotely would be a good idea for her:
I realized in my junior year of college that I wanted to work from home. I didn’t know what kinds of remote jobs were out there, or how to get them, but I remember telling my advisor that’s what I wanted to do. She looked at me in disbelief and said that I’d have to work 50+ hour weeks for at least a decade to make that happen. I’m so glad that wasn’t true!
I’ve just never felt comfortable in an office setting. I need to be cozy and completely at ease in order to focus on work. I’m a night owl too, so I do most of my best work at home in the evenings with my dog curled up at my feet.
And truthfully, there’s also a mental health benefit in it for me. I have PTSD, and working from home takes a lot of the stress out of my day.
Read Candace's full story here.
Gabriel Bujold, Growth Marketer, Digital Marketing Enthusiast
Remote Work Experience: 1.5 years
Remote work was a dream that I was caressing, but didn’t think it was
possible. I did an internship at a pharmaceutical company and in three
months, I remember that I did like maybe 5 or 6 days of telework because
of the bad weather (snowstorms in Canada are not a joke, people). And
those days were really less productive than I thought it would be.
So, the beginning of my relationship with remote work was not the
best, because I was wondering how it would be possible to work from home
with all of those distractions around me. After this internship, I
worked for about a year in a small business, having to drive 45-50 min
every day, in a cubicle without a window and four people all around me.
I started to become depressed, wondering if that’s all that life has for me. I also started to talk with someone on LinkedIn that was offering me some SEO contract on the side, and that guy was a complete digital nomad. I was not necessarily interested in traveling all year long, but it was sounding like a dream compared to my situation.
When I got interviewed at V2 Cloud, my principal goal was the fact that I was going to work in a tech startup. That was all that was driving me. I didn’t care if I had to relocate to Montreal or Toronto. All I wanted was to work in a field that I was passionate about.
But during the interview, my boss told me that it was a fully remote job. I wasn’t sure if this work-frame would fit me, but the motivation to thrive in a tech startup was bigger than my insecurities and I was going to do everything possible to make sure that I would be a perfect fit.
Read Gabriel's full story here.
Melissa Smith, Virtual Assistant Matchmaker, VA Trainer, Remote Work Consultant
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
My family is my motivation for everything. I wanted and needed to
have a more flexible lifestyle. The perception a lot of people have is
that if you’re a woman working from home you have children much younger,
say toddlers. When I started working from home, my daughter was in high
school and my son was in college. It didn’t mean they needed me any
less. My husband had passed away two years earlier and these were
crucial times in their lives.
Remote working allowed me to not only be physically present but allowed me to travel to be with my family when I needed their physical presence. All while doing the work I loved.
Read Melissa's full story here.
Boris Borosov, Co-founder of RemoteMore
Remote Work Experience: 4 years
With the goal of going back to university, and on his manager's proposal, Boris decided that working remotely would be a good idea for him. Now the co-founder of RemoteMore, the journey since has been only upward for him.
Surprisingly, I started working remotely because of my manager. Back then, I worked at Kiloo Games. Even though my job had all the glamour of working for a successful gaming company, I wanted to go back to university and get my Masters’ degree.
My manager proposed to me that I can work remotely, part-time, with the company, while living in another city and pursuing the Master’s degree.
Stories like this are actually not rare. Many companies when faced with losing experienced people, prefer to have them remotely. When this becomes a success, remote starts to be more accepted in the company. Often the companies start with remote work by allowing everyone to work from home on Fridays, or requiring people to be in the office only during some core hours such as 11am to 3pm.
Read Boris' full story here.
Silvestar Bistrović, Web engineer, CSS developer, JAMstack enthusiast and WordPress theme specialist
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
Remote working was something that was always on my mind. In 2017, the company I was working for had to shut down, which was like a sign that I should try my luck in freelancing. So, after a few short gigs, I realised I was capable of working remotely. After that, I have joined a formidable talent network as a UI developer (one of the first ones) and landed a great gig within a month.
The biggest motivation was to work with professionals all over the world. I have been lucky to have a chance to work with great professionals from the very beginning of my journey.
Challenging and exceptional projects were the second reason. I always wanted to work on projects where my ideas and vision could be beneficial for building a stable codebase for easier maintenance and flexibility.
Read Silvestar's full story here.
Irma Mesa, Product Manager. Shipping curriculum solutions for students and teachers.
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
A nagging need for change led Irma to decide that remote working would be a good idea for her. Having left Miami a while ago to achieve this, here's what she has to say:
At the time, my motivation was getting out of Miami, FL. I know, you’re probably asking, ‘Why would she ever want to leave Miami?!?”.
But after living there for practically my whole life I needed a change. I wanted to experience a new environment, new people, less traffic and start a new chapter. That was my big push to go remote.
In addition, I wanted to have the flexibility of working from any location I wanted, which was a huge win for me as I considered remote work.
I created this really neat pitch deck (I wish I had it now) for my bosses at the time. By researching remote work, I found that it seemed like it’d be a good fit for me. So, I used that to my advantage on top of showing my bosses all the benefits of working remotely and drafting a lite Remote Plan trial for the company.
My bosses were totally supportive and let me go off to work remotely from Indianapolis, IN, for their company in Miami, FL.
Read Irma's full story here.
Laura Cunha, Product Designer at InVision
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
When I moved to India in 2015, I was very excited about all the travel opportunities across Asia 😀. But other than the occasional travels within the country (which were amazing in their own right), I was so focused on work that I ended up not having many opportunities to travel.
After a while, I started looking out of the windows of my office building, longing about faraway lands. It dawned on me that there were not so many reasons that I should always be at an office in order to get things done.
That’s when I started considering remote work: I decided that being physically at an office is not the same as productivity, and when I decided that I didn’t have to sacrifice my career in order to see more of the world. Shortly after that, I joined Remote Year as a Program Leader, where I led a group of digital nomads on a year-long round-the-world trip.
Read Laura's full story here.
Alondo Brewington, Mobile app developer, maker, podcaster, digital nomad
Remote Work Experience: 10 years
My first remote work experience was in 2003 when I was doing small
data projects in Crystal Reports for a hospital in Georgia while I spent
a few months in Malaga, Spain. I got my first taste of international
travel but I wouldn’t consider it as a full-time option until after
another trip during graduate school in 2007.
At the time, remote work was still in its infancy and only thought of by most people in terms of call centers and offshoring. I worked a long-term contract engagement at Atlanta Public Schools, which briefly experimented with allowing some team members to work remotely. although, it was quickly shuttered by the new CTO shortly after my arrival, I got an opportunity to confirm that my skills and productivity were not location dependent 😎. From there it was easy for me to start thinking about pursuing remote work as the norm, rather than the exception.
Read Alondo's full story here.
Fernanada Prats, Native Brazilian Translator and Writer
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
After a very frustrating experience as a fashion stylist, Fernanda made a brave and risky switch when she decided that working remotely would be a good idea for her.
Let me tell you about my old routine to help you understand why a
fashion stylist felt happy getting rid of tonnes of shoes & clothes,
make-up & accessories, as well as the car and apartment.
Most days, I would be at a photoshoot or filming session. Forget about glamour for a moment. Think non-stop running back and forth to please everyone on set with the outfits that I’ve selected for the job. And that’s the part I liked most about that career, together with writing a monthly column for a magazine.
On other days, I was visiting dozens of PR agencies, showrooms & shops, taking and returning collections, attending long in-person meetings and fancy events to make PR guys happy. Always involved in a lot of projects, I had to constantly deal with overlapping schedules.
I also had to be super flexible and forever ready (aka no time for personal life), since the sessions’ dates and work conditions could be updated anytime due to bad weather, new ideas that popped into editors’ or client’s minds, crazy celebrities’ requests… well, you name it!
I feel exhausted just to write about it! 😫
This lifestyle didn’t leave me with any mind space to even think about changing it. I was either tired or wired all the time; but I could afford amazing trips. That was the sparkle for me.
Getting out of this craziness felt so great that my vacation breaks became longer, and l decided to look for a better match of travel, work and play.
In May 2015, I started living a new experience as a digital nomad instead of dressing actors and models to make a living. It took me a while to reshape my career, but I believe writing and translating remotely is the perfect fit for me.
Read Fernanda's full story here.
Francesco Agnoletto, Remote Italian JavaScript Developer
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
I decided to pursue a remote career when I was still at University. I had a few months break from studies and decided to visit a part of my family living in Sicily. The experience was life-changing!
In Sicily, I had fresh ingredients every day to fuel my cooking hobby. I could get everything I needed from local farmers, fishermen, and winemakers. As a cherry on top, the weather was perfect – sunny & hot but not sweaty. I had the opportunity to see a gorgeous natural landscape as well as the ancient ruins of old civilizations.
While this might all seem perfect, there was a major drawback. I had no internet. At all! 😕
I remember while I was at the airport to go back home after this
idyllic adventure, I checked the news for the first time in two months.
Only then did I discover about the 2014 People’s Climate March, the
iCloud hacks and the Ebola outbreaks. I felt like Philip Fry on
Futurama, when he wakes up a thousand years in the future. 😮
At that point I decided I wanted to live in a place like Sicily, but to have access to the internet as well. After a few years, when I was ready to get a serious job as a web developer, I moved to Valencia, Spain.
Read Francesco's full story here.
Al Chen, Solutions Architect and Evangelist at Coda.io
Remote Work Experience: 10 years
It was out of necessity, really. When I left Google to pursue my own
startup and work as a freelancer, I bounced around my apartment,
co-working spaces, coffee shops, and even the public library. I chased
good Wi-Fi anywhere I could find it in NYC. It was strange at first
since I was basically thrown into the remote world and didn’t have a
playbook on how to do it. Like many things in life, I learned to adapt
to my new world by buying the right equipment, packing my backpack
properly if I planned on being out most of the day, and got really good
at e-mail and writing notes.
Over time, I realized two things about remote work that motivate me to continue a lifestyle of remote work:
- Productivity – Without unnecessary meetings and face-to-face time, I am extremely productive and am able to block off large parts of my day for deep work.
-
Flexibility
– By not having to go into an office every day, I am able to work from
anywhere which means I can travel if I want to, run errands in the
middle of the day, and do things that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to do
if I was in a 9-to-5 job.
With my current role at Coda, I am still working remotely in NYC but there is a little more structure to my day (which I like). I definitely appreciate the nomadic lifestyle, but it’s not something I could do for a month or year. Having a weekly cadence to my meetings and projects does give me a sense of stability and also keeps me “plugged in” with the rest of my team on the west coast.
Read Al's full story here.
Reid Peryam, Software Architect, Engineer, Entrepreneur
Remote Work Experience: 4 years
After working in office cubicle's for a good number of years, Reid was pretty clear that working remotely would be not only a good idea, but a necessity to a fruitful life.
Prior to 2015 I had spent 12 years working in office cubicles during which work and life was a repetitive routine that felt unfulfilling.
Would this be my life for the next 30 years until I could finally begin living it on my terms, post-retirement? No way I could last that long.
Five years ago I stumbled upon a startup company named Remote Year, which was the catalyst that launched my remote life. The company functions as a concierge service to handle the burdens of locating accommodation, booking flights and securing workspaces in an effort to help transition on-site workers to becoming location independent while travelling the world.
The cost each month was less expensive than living my regular, conventional life and on top of that it came with the benefit of living in international destinations. At that point in my life I had traveled to 23 countries – but being able to travel while working – I knew I had to do it. I joined Remote Year’s initial program to travel, live and work for a year across 12 countries with 70 other people. Since then Remote Year has launched over 50 programs and I’ve continued to travel and work remotely, albeit solo.
Read Reid's full story here.
Chanell Alexander, Freelance Writer & Remote Work Evangelist
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
Honestly, I needed a big change. If you live in Atlanta or anywhere in the United States, you know that in major cities, traffic can be a huge problem. In Atlanta, my commute was almost over an hour each way to my job in midtown. I loved what I did, but the treacherous commute was a drain.
Also, I wanted to have more autonomy, and work where I felt the most productive. It was hard to focus at work because I was consistently dealing with distractions whether it be co-workers or phone calls from clients. I knew that this was a major part of the job, and respected it as such.
However, I felt I needed an escape and a working environment that genuinely allowed me to focus. Every distraction made it challenging to get back in the groove (especially with the amount of writing work that I was doing). After a conversation with a colleague about her freelance writing side business, I was hooked and wanted to learn more.
Read Chanell's full story here.
Siddhant Goel, Software Developer & Entrepreneur
Remote Work Experience: 4 years
In my case, remote working chose me.
In 2016, I was working at a small-ish company in Munich, when a
professor of mine back from university emailed me about a project that
he and a few others were working on. We talked more, and eventually we
decided that it would be best if we found a company around the idea and
work on it full-time. So I quit my job and co-founded this startup in
the German real-estate software sector with 3 other co-founders. This is
also currently my main day job.
At the time of founding, all the co-founders were based in different
cities (but within Germany), and none of us wanted to move to a whole
new city, so the decision was already made for us. Looking back, I don’t
think that we thought too much about it. It was more of a “alright,
looks like we’re all living in different cities, so let’s figure out how
we can make things work”.
I don’t think there was a specific motivation for me to choose remote working. I did always love the idea, but at that time it didn’t have as much momentum as it has now.
Read Siddhant's full story here.
Steph Smith, remote growth marketer, writer, and indie maker
Remote Work Experience: 3.5 years
There were multiple factors that drove me towards remote work, but at
a high-level, they all fell under one bucket: having control over my
life.
In 2015, I started a job that led me down a very clear and likely
“successful” path. However, to continue following that path meant that I
would need to continue working 60+ hour weeks. It meant that I would
need to spend 2 hours commuting daily. And perhaps, most notably, it
would mean that I would need to live in a city that I didn’t love.
Many people make these sacrifices for good reason, but in my unique circumstance (i.e.: no one depending on me), I knew that if I tried hard enough that I could find a better path forward for me. I didn’t know much about the space, other than that it existed and seemed to remove some of the more prominent problems in my life. I’m very happy to say that transitioning to a remote role has not only given me the freedom that I was looking for, but has over-delivered in ways that I hadn’t initially considered, including the ability to improve my work ethic and getting to work with incredibly talented people.
Read Steph's full story here.
Shane White, Founder of The Match Artist and Midwest Streams, Programmer
Remote Work Experience: 7 years
I actually had no intentions of working remotely, it was out of pure necessity. I moved from North Dakota all the way to Texas to teach at a computer science bootcamp. After teaching for 3 months, the school closed, so I was stuck in Texas with no work.
In Fargo, I was able to keep food on the table with my company, Midwest Streams, and I also had a wedding DJ that paid most of my bills. I ended up selling the DJ business when I moved to Texas, and was committed to making my rent from this bootcamp. Once the bootcamp closed this really turned my world upside down, and I immediately began job hunting.
The job hunt was brutal. Because I hadn’t had a traditional job in a long period of time and employers didn’t want anything to do with me. It was at this point where I started looking for non-traditional work.
Read Shane's full story here.
Alda Lima, Freelance Translator & Interpreter
Remote Work Experience: 11 years
Alda had multiple factors that made her consider whether working remotely would be a good idea, but from what she has to say, it was worth it!
I grew up in the fashion industry because of my family’s business.
So, I have loved fashion since I was little, and it’s what I chose to
work with after graduating in Fine Arts. Thereon, I worked as a visual
merchandiser and stylist for many years. In the last few years in that
industry, I started translating as a side job to make some extra money.
I’ve always loved reading the English language. Also, I was invited to take a test, which I passed and then began translating books (coincidentally, my first book was a novel written by an 80s supermodel, and was all about the fashion industry). It paid off; I’ve just finished translating my 46th book ☺.
In the meantime, I was getting frustrated with the fashion business
and its crazy routines, hours, egos, and not so great pay. I left a
company I loved for another company’s invitation to make almost 3x as
much and at a higher designation. It was a big mistake: things in the
new company weren’t what they seemed. Who am I kidding? I’d go to work
dreading it, and come back crying. The second my 3-month experience
ended, I quit. That was when I decided to leave all that behind and take
a chance with full-time translating, which I was starting to enjoy more
and more.
I’ve always been a bit of a loner, so the working-by-myself thing never bothered me. Plus, being remote allows me to work from home or anywhere in the world, which is a big plus when you love traveling! It gave me more flexibility in every aspect of life. I just really enjoy having the freedom.
Read Alda's full story here.
Himanshu Vaishnav, Freelance UX and Product Designer
Remote Work Experience: 2 years
I come from a very small town in southern Rajasthan – just like everyone there trying to build a career in tech, I moved to Delhi to lead the design and tech at Food Talk. While Delhi had a lot to offer in terms of career growth and experiences, I really didn’t like the quality of life and intense work culture there. So after 3 years of working in-house, I re-negotiated my contract with Food Talk to work remotely (had to take a small pay-cut for not being in-office). That’s how I got exposed to remote working and have never looked back since then.
Read Himanshu's full story here.
Vlad Shvets, marketing & growth at Paperform.
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
In fact, I always had freelancing in mind and kind of envied those people who are able to earn money from anywhere in the world without breaking their work schedule. Then at one point, I started working in a half-remote company – we’d only met for coffee and lunch once per week, working the rest of time from home.
I really liked it. There was no need to get up early and come to our office, wear a special uniform or suit, solve organizational issues and adapt to the general indestructible schedule. Remote work opened tons of new opportunities for me, allowing me to spend more time on personal growth and traveling.
Read Vlad's full story here.
Rhys Jones, Photographer, Graphic Designer & Frontend Dev
Remote Work Experience: 20 years
My wife. With her career being the way it is, she has had to travel to numerous places for work.
Had I not been a remote worker, I would not have been able to follow and our relationship would have struggled greatly. However by biting the bullet and choosing remote working, specifically in fields that are very receptive to it – graphic design and web development – our relationship has flourished.
Another thing that sticks in my mind from around the time I decided to try my hand at remote working, New Zealand had very little job prospects in the fields I enjoyed working – graphic design, web development and photography. There was nothing for recent graduates without first having a minimum of 3 years commercial experience and how am I meant to get that if no one will give me a job. Instead, I was working the midnight shift at a local food supply warehouse driving forklifts to make ends meet. This was most definitely not my idea of a good time, I had to change my situation and remote working allowed me to do so.
Read Rhys' full story here.
Emilie Schario, Remote Data Engineer
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
Because of the nature of my husband’s career, we move a lot. The
statistic was that we’d have to move once every 3 years, but in the 4
years we’ve been out of college, we’ve lived in 3 states.
We were lucky enough to be college sweethearts, so early on I
narrowed into remote work as a requirement for me to build my career, if
we were going to work. Now, we’ve been together for 6 years and we’re
both thriving in our careers.
In a lot of ways, I didn’t choose remote work. I chose to build a career while being with my husband, and that required remote work.
Read Emilie's full story here.
Peter Fritz, Writer, Web Designer, Marketer. Founder of OfficeAnywhere.co.
Remote Work Experience: 20 years
After a number of years in the corporate world, I discovered that traditional workplace incentives created a subtle form of entrapment. They lured me into an endless cycle of working to pay for what I’d already bought.
Promotions, salary increases, and status elevations only served to prop up the lifestyle upgrades I’d factor in ahead of time.
After a while, I began to see that money and status (at least the kinds conferred to me by an employer) weren’t the game at all. Freedom, autonomy, and flexibility to pursue other opportunities were.
It came to a head when, some 20 years ago, I approached my boss with the idea of working from home. My role at his software company involved building marketing channels for our enterprise solution, so it seemed an ideal fit.
This was the beginning of the Internet, and the idea that I could get more done with fewer distractions by avoiding the commute and the drone of background chatter made a lot of sense. Fortunately, my boss agreed, and the rest is history.
Fast forward to today, and the benefits of remote work are echoing around the world with incredible force. For many, it’s now a matter of public health – even life or death.
I’ve often said the best job title I ever earned was ‘Dad’. A close second is ‘remote worker’. That’s because the second title has helped facilitate the first. Unlike a lot of dads in the corporate sector, my work arrangement has allowed me to be around for my kids.
It’s also allowed me to pursue many other opportunities, to build unique skills, to save precious time and money, and to create additional sources of revenue. It’s made me happier, more productive and less stressed than my office-bound colleagues.
Read Peter's full story here.
Joe Barbour, Self-taught programmer, Travel-holic, CTO at knoma.io
Remote Work Experience: 2 years
Joe was set and confident about working remotely being a good idea, thanks to his love for travel. Here's what made him etch his ideas in stone:
Much like my unconventional way of learning, so was the way I worked. I prefer to work at night, or early in the mornings, so the 9-5 was something that never really worked for me. Naturally working remotely was a good fit as I got to work the hours I wanted and because of it, my work was better.
Not to mention I liked my own space and I liked to be able to take breaks when I needed them, rather than a forced ‘lunch hour’. I also found when I was on a roll I could stay as late as I wanted without distractions (often working into the early hours). And when I wasn’t, I could take some time to my self without the stigma of being lazy.
Read Joe's full story here.
Hannah, Operations Manager at Running Remote
Remote Work Experience: 10 years
I love the independence of working remotely. It’s also allowed me to
work on jobs that I am passionate about, rather than choosing a job
based on where I live!
But for me there are much wider benefits of remote work. I am much
more productive when I sit down to work. I can roll out of bed and get
my work done first thing in the morning and then spend the rest of my
day relaxing. Or I can take a few hours out in the middle of the day to
run errands or meet with friends.
Because I work from home I’m saving hundreds of dollars a month on an office, train tickets and eating out in Manchester city centre. I’m also lucky enough to work with a team and a manager who trusts and values me.
My biggest motivation to work remotely is being able to work on projects I care about and the freedom to spend my time doing what I love. How we spend our time is one of the only things we can really control and having a job that not only allows me to do this, but creates the tools for others to do the same is really motivating.
Read Hannah's full story here.
Alexandra Cote, Remote Digital Marketer & Content Writer
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
I always knew I wanted to do this. I just didn’t know it was called
“working remotely”. Frankly, I’ve always hated the idea of having to go
and come back from school, college, anywhere really. The same repetitive
scenery just wasn’t for me. All hail no commute 🙏. So I also realized I
didn’t like the perspective of doing the same things over and over
again, living in one place, and only getting to see the world for ~20
days/year.
Working from home has also kept me sane mentally. No more forcing
myself to go to work, eating at set hours, or having to go through
headaches or other health issues in an office. Plus, I’m saving a lot of
money and not bothering with having to make sure I get to work on time,
prepare food ahead of time, or have the right clothes for the day. You
know, for when the temperature in the office is not exactly to your
liking.
Not to mention, most distributed teams are not part of corporations where my life would have just drained away and I couldn’t have dealt with all the unexplainable policies, like: “Sure, you have 2 days to work from home each month in case of an emergency.” 🤦♀️
Read Alexandra's full story here.
Jason Fleagle, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Writer, and Software Developer
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
The biggest motivations for me to choose remote working were freedom,
flexibility, and spending more time with my family and side projects. I
wanted freedom and flexibility to be able to arrange my schedule around
the work that needed to be done and also be able to do that from
wherever I lived. I didn’t want to feel stuck in coming to an office
every day when I believe that it’s important to do work from other
places and experience new things to be able to get inspired with more
solutions and interactions with other people.
Rather than a commute and wasting time, I wanted to have more time devoted to my family. So taking breaks where I can take my daughter out for a walk is great. I not only get rested, but I also get to spend time with a family member. I do what I do for my family and the other people I serve.
Read Jason's full story here.
Andriy Haydash, Freelance wordpress dev
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
I’ve always wanted to become a solo entrepreneur and freelancer to be able to have more control over my life and my income.
That’s why I made that leap in July of 2017 to become a freelance developer.
The first month was a bit weird for me as it was tricky to get used to working alone and not having anyone to talk to.
But as time has passed, I’ve become accustomed to it and now I love it.
Like anything in life, there are good and bad things about being a freelancer.
To me, the best things are the following:
- Flexibility – Being able to control my own time and my own schedule was a great deal for me. Especially in winter, when the days are shorter. I hated having to spend all of the sunny hours in the office and not being able to see the sunlight.
- More control – Being able to be my own boss has been great for me. I’ve known that it requires more responsibility, but I wanted to be able to have control over the clients that I work with, how much I charge and how I structure my work process.
Read Andriy's full story here.
Nuria Estruga, Digital Marketer, Tourism Specialist, Passionate Traveller
Remote Work Experience: 2 years
I would say everything I did in my life led me to remote working. I
have always been a travel lover and I also like working with computers. I
really didn’t think I would be able to work and travel at the same time
but somehow I managed to get the opportunity.
I was living in Istanbul and I was offering my services as a Digital Marketing Specialist for a medical travel company. After a while, I decided to quit my job and life in that huge metropolis to travel around Asia. My biggest client at the moment didn’t want to lose me, so they offered me to keep working remotely. It worked out for both of us and then I decided to maintain this lifestyle as I was really enjoying it.
So, summarizing, I would say my passion for traveling made me choose remote working as I couldn’t think of a better way to discover the world, meet new people, learn from new cultures than working while wandering around!
Read Nuria's full story here.
Scott Dawson, Web Developer & Author
Remote Work Experience: 22 years
Before Scott could consider whether working remotely would be a good idea or not, his boss gave him the choice of continuing as a remote worker 22 years ago! Here's what he has to say:
You could call me an accidental remote worker.
I was almost two years into my job in 1998 and I was newly engaged.
My fiance and I had looked at housing, commutes, and jobs, and decided
that living in New York City wasn’t for us. I was honest with my boss. I
told him I was about to be married and wanted to live in another area. I
wanted to let him know I was going to be searching for jobs — either an
internal transfer or a job with another company. I had no other angle.
No other motivation.
He considered what I said. After a few moments he asked, “How would
you like to work from home?” He said I was doing a good job for them,
and they didn’t want to lose me. I hadn’t considered working remotely,
but months later I was working out of a spare bedroom of our new
apartment in Massachusetts.
I had a laptop, fax machine, an ISDN line (twice the speed of dialup!) and easy access to New York City if I needed to go into the office for a few days. It was positioned as a 3-month trial, after which I’d return to the office if it wasn’t working out. It did work out, and I continued working remotely at that company for another 15 years.
Read Scott's full story here.
Teresa Douglas, People & Operations Manager
Remote Work Experience: 10 years
In the beginning, remote work chose me. I freelanced briefly right
after finishing my MFA in Fiction, but soon settled into a management
position in a traditional office in corporate America. Then one crisp
fall day in 2010, I walked into a work meeting and found out that my
entire division was going remote. I had two choices: I could interview
for the remote version of my management role, or I could find a new
job.
I could have looked for a different position, but I really loved my work tribe. There aren’t too many workplaces where quoting lines from The Princess Bride is normal. You can’t let that kind of quality interaction slip through your fingers. On top of that, I was seven months pregnant with my second child. I didn’t know if remote work would help me balance my personal and professional roles, but I was willing to take the leap to find out.
Read Teresa's full story here.
Jennifer Aldrich, Design Community Partnerships at InVision
Remote Work Experience: 10 years
My journey to remote work was a bit of a rough one. In my mid 20’s my health suddenly took a dive. After a boatload of testing, they identified that I was battling Mixed Connective Tissue Disease and a rare seizure disorder. My employer at the time was incredibly supportive, but my doctor pushed hard to get me to stop working and go on disability. Instead, my employer allowed me to work remotely part time whenever I was ill.
About a year into that arrangement I was contacted by InVision about a role that was my dream job, so I joined the team and have been working remotely full time ever since, having a blast. Rather than being on disability, I’ve had the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder from a safe environment. The impact on my health has been incredible. I’ve written extensively about that journey on my blog.
Read Jennifer's full story here.
Ryan Wilcox, Freelance Software Architect & Developer
Remote Work Experience: 15 years
I went to college at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY, about 2 hours west of where I grew up. I was lucky enough to be given two choices: take a DBA position for a small manufacturing business near Rochester, or go into business for myself, as I had found a 15-20 hour a week consulting project from a friend.
I decided to go into consulting for myself, move back home, and leaned heavily on remote work to get clients – it’s a good trick when you can get it, big city money and small town expenditures. I ran out of money at least three times, but I know it would have happened much, much sooner in a higher cost of living location.
Remote work is a great economic equalizer, giving a larger range of opportunities anywhere to people from anywhere. Save our small towns: work remote!
Read Ryan's full story here.
Ben Breckler, Product Designer at Doist
Remote Work Experience: 8 years
After living and working in the UK for a number of years, I decided
to move back to Luxembourg. At the time, the digital design job market
in Luxembourg was in its infancy and didn’t offer the same level of
opportunity that I could find in other countries.
I realised that I would have to give up a job that I really liked,
working with very talented people. At the time the company was local to
Brighton (UK) but open to me working remotely for them. So, I took up
the remote role.
Years later, when I was looking to make a career move, I only
considered remote positions. I aspired to work for a leading product
company with a great team that I could learn from and grow with. So I
explored remote opportunities globally!
I’ve been enjoying the freedom and flexibility of remote work. It’s a major perk that allows me to be more productive and do my best work. As a nice bonus, a remote position also lets me travel and surf more to improve. Being confined to an office with set work hours would mean putting other passions of mine on hold.
Doist was a great fit. They’re long-time remote work advocates with exciting digital products, Todoist and Twist. The company doesn’t restrict hiring to specific locations or time zones and allows team members to manage their own work schedule.
Read Ben's full story here.
Relja Damnjanovic, Software Mechanic at Codernia
Remote Work Experience: 9 years
I’m a Computer Science graduate from a University in Belgrade, and I
do have both corporate and freelance experience. Naturally, both have
its benefits, I’d be lying if I said freelancing is some sort of perfect
work setup. It’s not, it has its own ups and downs and at times it can
be a bit too chaotic and uncertain. Corporate working is definitely a
more stable and steady type of work, and to some people that is very
important, which is completely understandable.
What really attracted me towards freelancing and remote work is a certain type of freedom you gain with it. You get to choose when you work, on which projects, from where, you’re free to organise your own life in accordance with your work obligations. In a way you are your own boss. That alone means a lot, and it allowed me to fully explore things in a greater manner. I got to travel around the world and become a digital nomad, attend concerts, run marathons all the while my professional career was going forward in its own way.
Read Relja's full story here.
Jacqueline Zeller, CMO at Workplaceless
Remote Work Experience: 5 years
When considering whether working remotely would be a good idea, Jacqueline was forced by circumstance. 5 years down the line, here's what she has to say about it:
I originally chose remote working because it’s what worked for my family. I wanted to continue to grow in a career that I loved, but my life with two small kids required a level of flexibility that wasn’t achievable with an hours long daily commute and being stuck in an office. Our family moved to five different cities across three countries in a period of six years. Constantly searching for new roles based on location was exhausting. Once I realized working remotely was an option, it opened my eyes to new ways to achieve my career goals. The challenge became uncovering the specific opportunities.
Read Jacqueline's full story here.
Calvin Rosser, Growth Marketer & Ex-banker
Remote Work Experience: 4 years
I stumbled into remote working early in my career. After college, I
joined an investment bank to find my financial footing. I enjoyed the
steady paycheck, but I really didn’t like spending 15 hours a day in a
cubicle doing grunt work. I knew there had to be more to life, so I
planned an escape from the cubicle.
While looking at different career options, I spoke with a good friend
who had been traveling around the world while working remotely for a
technology startup. His work and life sounded exciting, so I explored
roles with the company and ended up landing a remote position as a
growth marketer at Toptal.
After an awesome first week of onboarding with my boss in Cartagena, Colombia, I realized that I could travel and still be incredibly productive. So I moved out of my apartment in New York and traveled the world while working remotely for 4 years.
I’m grateful I fell into the remote working model. It aligns with how I prefer to work and live, and it has accelerated my personal and professional growth. And in being able to design life on my terms, I’ve felt more consistent levels of joy and fulfillment.
Read Calvin's full story here.
Nicholas Davies, Owner & Designer at Untold Design, Property Marketing & Design Specialist
Remote Work Experience: 3 years
From what Nick has to say about his past work and all the downfalls of a 9-to-5, it's pretty clear that he had his mind set about working remotely and whether it would be a good idea.
After 7+ years working as an in-house designer for a number of
organisations, in an office every day, spending hours commuting to and
from work, I finally made the decision to leave that all behind and
focus on my own business, Untold Design.
I had just married and was looking forward to starting a family,
which really fueled my desire to start something of my own, with the
ability to work from home to give me the freedom to spend as much time
with my family as possible.
Kirby and I are the kind of people that love to spend as much time as
possible with each other, and had discussed our dream working situation
from the start. With this in mind, Kirby made the decision to leave
work completely in preparation for this, and it only took a few months
of leaving her at home every day for me to also take the leap.
I also got to a point where my freelance work was starting to affect my ability to perform at my full-time position, which isn’t something I wanted. I was working from 8:30am till 5pm (if I was lucky) every day at my day job, and then from the time I got home until late most evenings on freelance projects. I had a choice to make on which way I wanted my career to go, and I chose my own business and working from home, and have never looked back.
Read Nick's full story here.
Lindsay Alissa King, Development Coordinator for a Nonprofit Independent Publisher, Deep Vellum
Remote Work Experience: 8 years
A passionate remote work advocate, Lindsay feels that remote work 'found' her and she didn't really spend much time thereafter pondering whether working remotely is a good idea or not.
I actually fell into remote working somewhat accidentally. As a Ph.D.
student, much of my work could be done at home, and I found that I was
more productive and happier when I was working from my kitchen table
than when I was at the back of a cold library. I also lived in LA and
found that I could buy two extra hours of time each day by skipping the
commute.
When I began working at a policy institute during the last years of
my degree, remote work “found me,” so to speak, because we were just
launching the institute and did not have a dedicated office space for
some months. By the time the institute was formalized, I had already
developed a really efficient work-from-home routine so I only went in
when we were hosting an event.
I assumed that after I completed my degree, I would get an office job
like most people I knew. But everything changed when I gave birth to my
child in early 2019. I had finished my degree a few weeks before giving
birth and found myself on the job market with a tiny newborn. My
husband and I decided to relocate across the country to be closer to
family.
Twelve weeks into my experience of motherhood, I started looking for freelance gigs as a way to ease myself back into the professional world. I honestly could not imagine returning to an office, not only because I wanted to be physically close to my child but also because of the truly next-level torture in-office.
After doing several hefty freelance projects on my own hours in my own time, while playing with my child in between, I found that I really loved the way that working from home allowed me to integrate work and life. At that point, I committed to making remote work a non-negotiable in my job search.
Read Lindsay's full story here.
Frederick Coleman, Currently the VP of Growth at Blockonomics
Remote Work Experience: 1.5 years
The main motivation was the ability to travel. Just before my
Sophomore year at university ended, I knew I needed to have some kind of
work experience under my belt. However, I was planning on spending the
first half of the summer with my parents in Europe, which let out a job
in my hometown. I needed something that would allow me to work in the
AirBnB, and also still give me time to see the sights.
A friend of mine suggested I check out AngelList, he had worked for a startup that he found through that site. I browsed the site and sent out a few applications, but only a few got back to me because I didn’t have experience, nor was I studying, with communications or social media. However, the application I sent in to a small startup with Bitcoin was received, and we had an interview. although I knew very little about Bitcoin, Shiva, the CEO, felt I showed promise, and so hired me for a marketing internship.
Read Frederick's full story here.
Sylvia Barnai, Remote Software Engineer at IFS North America
Remote Work Experience: 6 months
although Sylvia started working fully remotely only recently, she had a very clear answer when she asked herself the question about working remotely being a good idea or not.
I enjoy the flexibility that comes with working remotely. I like being able to choose the environment that I work in and schedule my hours depending on how I structure my day. Some days I may want to work from home; other days I might feel like working in a library in the city.
This freedom allows me to be more productive and creative at work. I
find that remote working roles help me have more control and autonomy in
terms of how I want to plan my day out.
Engineering requires good problem-solving skills, and when you are stuck in a 9-to-5 bubble, sometimes it can be hard to find solutions to problems. In those situations, I like to take a break in the middle of the afternoon and come back to it. I also like having more time during the day (as a result of a more flexible schedule with no required commute) to pursue my own passions and spend more time with friends and family. It feels like I can truly make the most of each day.
Read Sylvia's full story here.
Florian Rüchel, Security Architect at Atlassian
Remote Work Experience: 2 years
My dog 😅 No seriously, I didn’t expect to become a remote worker. But when I got my dog (a gorgeous Border Collie called Loki), I started out working from home while he was a puppy with the aim to transition back to 4 days in office and one day working from home. However, when I tried to go from 2 days a week in the office to 3 days, I realised how much of my energy is drained by the daily commute and the busy life of the city centre.
So I asked my manager if we could stick to a 2:3 split, where I come into the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work from home on the other days. It worked so well, I did this for over a year and it slowly emerged that I would like to become a full-time remote employee. Sydney just wasn’t the place for me, but I wanted to stay with Atlassian and so I worked with my manager on the transition.
Read Florian's full story here.
So as you see, taking up remote work was something a lot of these guys were forced to do whereas some of them took it up intentionally. We hope that their experiences helped clear your confusion, too, about whether making the switch to remote work would be a good idea or not. Do make sure to check out their complete stories and see what their experiences post doing so have been like!