Five tips for being a remote developer

Working remotely as a developer is a dream job for many. Here are five useful tips to help structure your working life as a remote developer.

Coronavirus has changed the way we do business. Overnight, companies that have spent years putting off remote working strategies have been forced to go online just to stay open. However, even before mandatory distance work, developers have always regarded remote work options as one of the most important job factors: 33.3% of respondents in the 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, which surveyed over 65,000 developers, cited remote work options as one of the most important considerations for choosing one job over another. Remote work brings up fantastic benefits: no long commutes, no traffic jams, and the power to manage your own schedule and work. Here are a few tips to help you unlock the full potential of being a remote developer.

Be clear on your expectations and responsibilities

There are a variety of ways to work remotely, including:

• One-to-one, where you’re working for a single person.
• A company that has many remote contractors. (Check out the five best companies to work for remotely.)
• A company where you are the only remote worker and everyone else is on-site.
• You’re partly working remotely and partly on-site (this is probably the most common arrangement at the moment, given the realities of the Covid-19 lockdown)

However, whichever of these arrangements you pursue, you should ensure that you and your client (or employer) have an up-front and fair understanding of work expectionas. After all, just because you’re not in a traditional working arrangement does not mean you should be treated any differently from a normal, on-site employee. 

And so it is important to enforce reasonable boundaries upfront – for example, stipulating that you won’t work at inappropriate times like after 8pm or before 6am, or over weekends, without a previous agreement on overtime or other remuneration (just like you would in a formal workplace). 

Formalise your work arrangement with a contract. This goes a long way in preventing and lessening workplace misunderstandings and disagreements.

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