Working from home

[Disappointed]

It's definitely possible, though I think it would be very difficult to find the contract unless you're lucky. Depends on your skills as well of course.

My previous contract was 100% work from home. I went over to the guy who had hired me, for him to show me how the current system worked for a long afternoon, then I didn't meet him again until about 3 months later when we went over to the end customer to demonstrate the system. All in all, during the about 10 months when I worked more or less full time on that project, I met him maybe 5 times. Still doing the odd bit of work on that project during weekends, 2.5 years later.

But it was just luck that I got that contract (he found me on jobserve or jobsite), and because it was a one man consultancy that couldn't charge the customer too much and that still wanted his cut on the rate from the end customer, my rate was low, about 70% of what I'd have expected normally.

[psychocandy]

Hi,
I was recently made redundant after working in software development for 14 years. During that time I had worked as a software engineer, through various roles, up to Head of Engineering.

For personal reasons, if I am to get another job, I will need to work from home, at least for the next 12 months.

I am just wondering what the likelihood of getting contract or permanent roles, which are 100% working from home (from Day 1) is. I am not too fussy about the role I take, as long as it is within my core competency of software engineering.

I am guessing "not good", but I thought it would be worthwhile asking.

Any input would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Umm, NIL....

To be honest, if you get any contract that allows you work from home even a little then its a super-duper bonus....

[Pondlife]

Unless you intend to make a living bidding for work on rentacoder type sites I'd say your chances are not good. Is there no way you can accomodate some time on site, at least at the start?

[normalbloke]

Never from Day 1

But do you talk from experience of seeing corportates give 100% home working as the OP requests or are you making a generalisation about WFH that is no use to the OP? On site for first few weeks <> 100% from home.

To be fair the OP cannot expect anything if he is offering absolutely zero flexibility. I think he hasn't worded his request properly.

Agreed . I have NEVER had a WFH contract that started from Day 1! From Day 6, yes......

[Low Gravity]

Hi again,
Firstly, thanks for all of the advice so far. I have read through all of it, and it's been very informative and helpful.

Without going into too much detail, I do basically have to care for a relative. It doesn't take up much of my time during the day, I really just need to be here, so I could easily do a full day's work. However, having given it a bit more thought, I would be able to attend an office on occasion (perhaps something in the region of once a fortnight), and I could also arrange some time at the start.

When I said from Day 1, I didn't mean strictly Day 1, I could almost certainly arrange go in for a week or so at the start. I just meant that it couldn't be a situation where I had to work in the office for an extended amount of time at the start. Sorry that I wasn't clear on that.

I'm not very hopeful, and I completely understand that from an employer's point of view it is not very enticing, but I'd like to try to get some work if I can, while having to be a bit limited for the time being.

Thanks again for the advice so far, and any other thoughts would be much appreciated.

[NotAllThere]

Working from home should be your goal. To get there you may have to start off weekly commuting, move to daily commuting, then to working from home. It takes time, and in my book, weekly commuting is better than no income.

I've not worked away from home - excluding a few days on various sites - for five years now. I work from home occasionally - the infrastructure is there. But it's only 20mins to the office, so it's worth going in.

[Joe Bloque]

As a precursor to this email I apologise if I have contacted you incorrectly.

I am currently looking for a JAVA Developer on a permanent basis the role will be home based.

Required skills are:
• OOP
• JAVA
• XML
• Web Services
• HTML
• SQL
• 3-5 years experience as a JAVA Developer

Must also have a proven record of learning new technologies fast

Must have good customer facing skills and have examples to prove this.


If you feel that you have the right skills please send an up to date CV and a convenient time to contact you.


Simon Creber
Axica Recruitment

Intelligent IT Recruitment

Tel: +44(0)844 879 4341
Int: +44(0)161 273 4746
Email: s.creber@axica-recruitment.com
Website: axica - intelligent it recruitment

It is rare I come across such opportunities. If you are into Java this might help.

[nomadd]

It is rare I come across such opportunities. If you are into Java this might help.

Jobs like this are a complete p.i.s.s take, at least the ones I've looked into in the past.

Firstly, the "lure" of working from home is to offer you peanuts.

Secondly, it's carefully and misleadingly phrased as "based" from home, not "working" from home - so you actually end up getting body-shopped by a software house all over the place. I mean, look at the contradictory statements in the ad: "role will be home based" and yet "Must have good customer facing skills and have examples to prove this." Why would you need such terrific customer-facing skills if you didn't need to met the customers all the time? I highly doubt those customers are going to come round to your house.

Be careful, would be my advice.

[nfoote]

Its not "nill chance", even for "from day 1" and it doesn't need to be "you've really proven yourself in the past". Though it probably does need to be "very lucky".

I got only my 3rd contract as a 100% work from home role, from day 1. I even managed to push their initial rate offer up Went in for an interview obviously but then didn't see the client for another 3 months.

Startups would be the key I think. They don't have much money to spend on things so just want pure code out of you.
This client I worked for wanted to save money on not renting offices, not providing machines, not providing anything actually! I was in fact taking over from a eastern european based coder so hiring me in the UK was already a bump up in expenditure! Very small company 1 business owner, 1 coder, 1 dba, all remote working via phone/skype. I believe its call tele-commuting.

Worked out great, initial 3 month contract extend out to 8 months in the end. Word of warning tho, working at home might sound great (3 second commute from bed to computer is nice) but it gets pretty BORING not talking to anyone all day. Sometimes it'd get to Thursday and I'd realise I hadn't left the house since the weekend!

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I am really lucky in my current role in that I could work most of the week in home but that is mainly because of the client's relationship with myself - i.e. they really trust me and know I will be working solidly. I didn't work from home for the first 3 months even when given the chance in order to show my dedication, commitment and ability. So you need to find somewhere which has a work from home policy, build trust and then prove you can work home at least as effectively (though preferably more effectively).