Remote jobs for software developers

[axsis]

Load shedding is no issue for remote work. Why would it be? There is no difference between remote and in-office for load shedding. At home I have a working big screen while in-office I have to struggle on a small laptop screen.

My previous two work places have had power during load shedding so this is only the case when your employer also can't afford a load shedding solution.

I have a 1440p monitor at home so it's a big difference on that front too but any decent development company will give you at least a 1080p monitors (if not 2). Other industries seem to be particularly bad at realising screen real estate boosts productivity.

 

[charlieharper]

I enjoy my second monitor, especially when doing frontend stuff where you need to work off a Sketch / Figma design and have to make it come to life with JavaScript... but as recommended by my remote / nomad friends, if you can work on only a laptop and get the same thing done, it's a great habit.

TLDR: Get a laptop with high res screen and good battery life for loadshedding.

 

[slimeball]

Load shedding is no issue for remote work. Why would it be? There is no difference between remote and in-office for load shedding. At home I have a working big screen while in-office I have to struggle on a small laptop screen.

Unless you have a generator at the office.

 

[hj007]

Truth is local companies just cannot compete with the dollar. This is a huge concern for local startups and established businesses. Omnicron scare came along and I got a decent December bonus as the rand tanked. In the end I am guessing the wide spread of fully remote will eventually have a direct impact locally in terms of renumeration. And more importantly how local companies treat their staff.

Started seeing reports of decent pressure on local salaries to compensate for weak Rand vs remote work.

I'm glad to see that remote work here to stay and there seem to be a decent number of websites that have remote work positions exclusively.

 

[hj007]

There are recruiting agencies that specialize in this (eg, I’ve heard of Turing.com). It may make sense to work through these than try find specific jobs.

The best (read: long game) way to get remote work in SA (or anywhere really), is to go overseas and work for a while, then move back to SA and continue working at the same (or close to that) comp. It gets the overseas company names on the resume, potentially foreign citizenship, and avoids the companies hiring from SA for cheap labor.

A have a couple of friends who have done this. One makes a bit over R3m/y, after relocating from the UK.

What sort of disciplines/areas do you think are well suited to offshore remote?

 

[cguy]

What sort of disciplines/areas do you think are well suited to offshore remote?

You mean, to go overseas and work at a company? Or specifically remotely while overseas?

For general overseas, software engineering experience, especially having applied good CS fundamentals is a strong plus. Often a given company will also give preference for certain types of experience: Eg, Compilers for AMD/Intel, Graphics/Drivers for Nvidia/AMD/Intel, Cloud/HPC for Amazon/Google/MS clouds Division, quantitative finance for banks or hedge funds, etc.

 

[hj007]

You mean, to go overseas and work at a company? Or specifically remotely while overseas?

For general overseas, software engineering experience, especially having applied good CS fundamentals is a strong plus. Often a given company will also give preference for certain types of experience: Eg, Compilers for AMD/Intel, Graphics/Drivers for Nvidia/AMD/Intel, Cloud/HPC for Amazon/Google/MS clouds Division, quantitative finance for banks or hedge funds, etc.

For SA-based devs to get work remotely for US or UK (or elsewhere).

Are there particular types of roles/skills/disciplines better suited to be remote-type work than others. Most of the sites like remoteok.com seem to focus on Web-dev roles, blockchain, and a decent amount of contract work is available across languages/web/mobile/desktop.

Just wondering if you're seeing what major skillset US-based companies are outsourcing for remote work that is applicable to SA devs (rather than say the low-pay of India/Philippines and Ukraine/EE)?

 

[cguy]

It does look like mostly web stuff to me. The bigger companies usually don’t hire in countries that they don’t have an office in. I have seen exceptions to this, but they have all been with people who were well established at the company and left to work from their home countries (which usually means being turned into contractors and getting paid all cash rather than shares).

I do know people who have worked for smaller overseas companies that typically advertise themselves as having “distributed teams”, so that is something to look for. One does “social media analytics”, the other is a games company.

 

[hj007]

It does look like mostly web stuff to me. The bigger companies usually don’t hire in countries that they don’t have an office in. I have seen exceptions to this, but they have all been with people who were well established at the company and left to work from their home countries (which usually means being turned into contractors and getting paid all cash rather than shares).

I do know people who have worked for smaller overseas companies that typically advertise themselves as having “distributed teams”, so that is something to look for. One does “social media analytics”, the other is a games company.

The one's I'm aware of are Gitlab, Zapier, Gumroad and Automattic that don't seem to have restrictions on location really at all. But most are as you say, having a linkage to a presence in-country, just with lots of locations, like Stripe etc..

Just wondering if folks will go more or less distributed over time. Outsourcing seems to making a bit of a come-back under the guise of remote..

 

[Harmonic]

The one's I'm aware of are Gitlab, Zapier, Gumroad and Automattic that don't seem to have restrictions on location really at all. But most are as you say, having a linkage to a presence in-country, just with lots of locations, like Stripe etc..

Just wondering if folks will go more or less distributed over time. Outsourcing seems to making a bit of a come-back under the guise of remote..

My personal view on it is, at the smaller scale teams may become more distributed over time. As VC capital runs dry and cost becomes more of a concern for startups, the best man for the job "wins". I'm already seeing this in my own business, looking for developers in a niche subspace. IDGAF where you live, if you can get the job done, you're hired.

 

[hj007]

My personal view on it is, at the smaller scale teams may become more distributed over time. As VC capital runs dry and cost becomes more of a concern for startups, the best man for the job "wins". I'm already seeing this in my own business, looking for developers in a niche subspace. IDGAF where you live, if you can get the job done, you're hired.

Definitely, it will interesting to see how a global marketplace plays out, with different salary structures based on location vs skillset, and orgs own biases of which countries are better. You see it already on contract platforms that saying you're from a country like India/Phillipines/EE/SE Asia there's an expectation of lower pricing and quality vs US/EU-based. Better to not post the location, but rather time zone it seems.

At least rating systems and a portfolio of work seems to let people hit an equilibrium on rates/salaries over time that starts to detach from cost of living calculations that employers are doing. But that requires that you're already seen as the expert in that niche, and you're able to bring that message across in an online environment.