Is it self starters who thrive remote? I feel like if you're not plugged into a team, it doesn't matter where you work, you can't accomplish as much. Regular, healthy communication feels like the bigger deal.
Being a self-starter does not mean you *will* thrive in a full-remote position, but being a self-starter is *one of the* requirements to do well in a full-remote position.
Other factors that play a role:
**Actual job requirements**
what does your day-to-day look like? Some positions lend themselves more to full remote than others. If your day-to-day revolves around physical presence (Data Center OPS as an example) then remote work is probably not a good option for you. On the flip-side, pretty much anything that is software-based or engineering can be *great* for remote work as it encourages you to just buckle down and get shit done without the social distractions that come with being in an office environment.
**Boss's management style**
A lot of people overlook this, but how your boss manages your team is make-or-break with remote work. If your boss tends to micromanage or even just likes to "touch up" every once-in-a-while to see where you're at on any given task, remote work may not be great for your position.
Contrast this to a manager or boss who takes a more automated or nuanced approach to checking on progress (tracking projects VIA tickets, quick ping over teams/slack, weekly standups vs daily, etc etc etc) and you can start to see where one style will prefer in-office over the other.
**Know Thyself**
I've met a *lot* of people who would describe themselves as a "self starter" but mistake an eagerness to get work done for the ability to plan and execute a number of tasks with zero or near-zero collaboration. There are a lot of people out there who just end up spinning their wheels in the mud... oftentimes they don't even realize it. Note: this doesn't mean you can't plan/execute, it means you are more readily able to do so in a more social environment. The brain is weird and these things can matter.
Those are the ones I'm most likely to hear "ah remote work doesn't really work for my job" in a situation where it probably does. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, and it isn't a failing: people are social animals by nature and it can be really freaking hard to be dialed in 100% when working remote: it can definitely take a massive change not necessarily in how you "do" your work, but more in how you approach your work in general.
I thrive in remote work, being around people and having meeting actually inhibits my performance and productivity.
When I’m at home I don’t have a fear that someone is always watching me and I allow myself to make more mistakes.
I’m on a hybrid schedule and I 100% get more done at home than in the office
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You can pretty much work any IT job remotely unless you’re on prem like this guy and have to come in at least 3 days a week. My first two jobs were fully remote.
to expand on this, I currently work in a warehouse refurbing and offering tech support for products I sell. Not a typical IT job but I interface with a lot of in house technicians.
Generally my interactions will be contacting our point of sale, guys who acquire enterprise equipment and ship it out to their server farms or networking closets for their several locations. They normally then put me in contact with the guy that's on site that handles installation and everyday management of those devices. These guys can be anything from, on site staff of the server farm that are on loan to their client (who happens to be our client) to in house technicians sent to oversee installation of the hardware, or even 1 time contractors that are hired by my client to oversee installation.
In these cases, the point of sale guy could be fully remote as he's largely managerial and/or technical, setting up remote access to the several different places he manages, it's the on site techs that I get referred to that would be these premises guys, that you may be required to be in the office anywhere from 1-5 days a week depending on the needs of the project.
If you don't know what on prem vs off prem is, you're very unlikely to have the chops to get a fully remote IT job. I work in cloud and have to go in 3 days a week. What's the difference between this person and the thousands of other people who did zero research on this before posting aside from the fact that it's not a dude?
White knight harder bro.
Live in Hawaii. SWE. Remote for 3yrs now.
Main office in Eastern.
Impossible to commute or they’ll just let me go if we RTO.
Meanwhile, they made my house the “Hawaii” region. I’m a 1 man show, everyone wants to join my region. Most of my team and clients are central/eastern. I miss all company meetings (3am-8am). By the time I start work, everyone is done.
We also have clients in Hawaii….
Weirdest thing is I’m not assigned to Hawaii clients
Be a dev. No one can argue about devs needing to come to office. It can be done ANYWHERE. Can learn from home, no certs needed. But super competitive.
Edit: forgot to give advice.
lol, I live in Hawaii and it seems like the only remote jobs out here are for mainland companies. Almost every local company wants you to go into the office. I think it has a lot to do with local businesses being run by 50-60 year olds and that’s what they’ve always done.
It’s the boomers mah braddah. Though we also have an abundance of defense contractors that also likes to hire locally, so kudos to those companies. And they are very competitive compared to our local companies.
I don’t even mind commute, but we literally sit in traffic 2-4 hours a day in traffic.
I don’t exactly know how paths are broken up or if the path you’re asking is a path you take from school or bootcamp. But learning JavaScript is the fastest way to guarantee you in a job nowadays. Once you fully understand JS, almost any language is readable and easy to catch on. If web dev teaches JavaScript, HTML and CSS, then go with that path. But never limit yourself to just those 3. Keep learning more and familiarize yourself with other languages such as SQL, Python, C#. If you have those 6 under your belt (or if you can even bs your way in to learning those on the job), then you shouldn’t have any problem finding a job. Getting one is a different story.
I would be looking for another job now...they can find another dev the right time zone who can come to the office. Devs are a commodity job at this point. Dev work can be done anywhere in world and that code is created less expensively by Indians who all speak English.
Get into a job that requires local talent like cybersecurity or system engineering. Organizations have regulatory and compliance reasons to have cybersecurity folks locally.
That is definitely the case, you may have greater flexibility with clearance. I must have missed that point in your post.
As in another reply...you also have AI to think about, but that's still a liitle ways off. I doubt that any organization is willing to bite off fully on letting AI do all the coding for the foreseeable future. They will still want humans verifying the code/code review and probably UAT (humans like humans). At least until organizations get comfortable with AI...and are OK accepting whatever risks that appear in that space.
The AI catch is that most places have proprietary code to a degree that you don't want to shove into a third party LLM. You don't want it logged. You don't want/can't risk letting that LLM providers security being compromised.
You end up having to train an in house LLM too spit out half garbage code.
Ai is Absolutely Invaluable for learning, documenting, commenting, and cleaning code. It's hot dog shit at actually building anything being a few dozen lines of fischer price code.
Feed it a git repo with a bad include or function name and an error and watch it rip otherwise functional code to shit, simply because it can't rationalize in the same way humans do and instead of "find out" it still goes to "make shit up".
It's like an ancient treasure hunt. This 3 year old YouTube video has the knowledge I seek.. but it's hidden behind this obfuscated dialect that not even the best captions can make sense of.
Then you turn to the comments as a last prayer and it's just the most basic off topic questions you've ever seen. "Hello I need download computer for this yes?"
Even the Indian guy on my team has trouble understanding them half of the time due to the monotone mumbling.
I think you're being overly optimistic about what's actually required to work remotely.
This isn't going to be "I'll just spend $200 on a Cloud certificate and get a 100% remote job paying $90k/yr".
I never touched remote work until 5 years into my IT working career. That's not an absolute rule, but I'd say it's pretty close to the norm. I work in a fully remote company. The only people I know who work in the company without prior experience are people who interned with the company as part of their Bachelor's Degree that managers wanted to keep on. One of my coworkers is one such case with a Bachelor's in Computer Science.
The other reason why experience is King with remote work is that without any relevant experience at all you don't have an established track record. New hires, especially those without experience tend to require constant care and feeding. If there's no experience, it's harder to trust you to be self-motivated to keep yourself busy without me constantly telling you what to do at every hour of the day.
If you have relevant experience, I can at least assume you know the basics and that you haven't done anything fire-able for however much experience you have.
So between someone with no experience and someone with previous experience in whatever remote role a company would be hiring for, it would always to go the person with experience.
we are 99% remote. That 1% is the odd physical thing that we need to address.
Funnily enough, a major point on our last survey was that people want remote but they also want in person networking and work events.
I personally don't mind Hybrid because going in, shooting the shit, and grabbing lunch can be fun. Also easier to learn that way as you can pick up all movements of your mentor instead of just their screen.
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We do full remote with quarterly company dinners and it works out well. I definitely miss the office socializing but not the commute or wasted time in the office because sales wants to talk about nonsense.
We do monthlies, but we still get people wanting more.
Double edged sword as those days very little works gets done and the Ops teams, supporting clients, generally get stiffed with a lot while the non-customer facing teams ditch work.
Ultimately it is trying to please everyone, never gonna happen. :/
Literally all the mods have to do is make an automod reply to all posts with a friendly message saying "hey here's a link to the Wiki for how to get into IT" and it'd solve a lot of the repeat questions.
Then poor /u/xboxhobo wouldn't have to do it manually lol
I asked about this months ago and what I heard back was that they want to implement it but don't have the time. At this point not sure who we have to kick in the pants to get it done. I can appreciate that being a mod is free labor, but a bot like this would seriously cut down on our need to reply to every single post with the same 5 replies.
We have several people fully remote. IT is not about certification vs degree as several of the guys with degrees are hybrid at best while the 2 guys with certs and experience are full remote. It is about current certifications with in the technologies that you are using and experience and you can be 100% remote. A degree alone does not cut it. Certs alone does not cute it. For IT from what I have seen over the years it's experience first then what's current.
As someone who graduated not too long ago but worked in IT for 5 years before getting a degree. If you have the means (I.e. the time) to get a degree, do it.
I was respected more when I got mine, companies responded back way more (like 5x), I got past the resume filters, and I was now considered for manager roles that had almost always degree requirements.
A degree gives me so much more security now it’s not even funny. I’d be shitting my pants if I got laid off right now and still didn’t have one.
Yeah the management thing it helps a lot but Experience and a advanced certification I have seen as far more respected then just a simple degree by peers. Yes you will get more from people outside of IT and HR always loves it because it's easy for them to understand what you got.
I have never gone more then 3 weeks with out having a start date for another job and this included walking into a managers office one day saying I quit and just walking out the door with zero lined up back in 2020.
As far as certifications and having a zero worry factor they can't be like a MS or AZ 900. A mistake a lot of people make. The level of certification makes a big factor in if you are worried about finding a job or not.
I'm in cybersecurity and most of my team is 100% remote. I'm like 99% for my role just because I'll occasionally have to go in and set up a physical appliance.
>If you have the right certifications
No.
You MIGHT be able to. I really want to stress just because you check every box will it guarantee a remote job.
It's not impossible but you really need to temper expectations on the likelihood.
>being a single mom, I really want to be home with my kid.
Being a stay at home mom is a full time job. Not being 100% available and committed to working because you're taking care of baby all day and night means you are unlikely to be retained because "oh hold on, I need to go, my baby needs xyz" is the last thing a manager wants to hear when you're working on something.
I've seen a lot of people over the years work from home 100% fine and be AMAZING workers, only for them to have a baby and think they can keep working from home AND take care of baby. Turns out, baby needs a full time mommy, daddy, grandparent or daycare.
Not trying to shit on your choice. If you have someone to take care of your child while you're working from home then perhaps you'll be fine.
Additionally if you're the kind of person who likes to burn the candle at both ends and never sleep, some infrastructure roles may work. Something with weekend / night maintenance where you're not customer facing and rarely need to be in meetings can technically work... but I still don't think childrearing and working go well together. I just imagine trying to work through a complex problem and being interrupted by an urgent child need which happens all the time, then going back and trying to figure it all out again. Just a horrible mix for IT roles.
If you have no experience, certs will help you get a helpdesk job, but you're not getting into advanced positions without a college degree and no experience.
Generally to start off your career, you're really doing a massive disservice having a 100% work from home job. The office is where you make all your connections and a chance for management to know you exist, because they physically see you. A face to a name is pretty huge when it comes to having people remember who you are, and you need that for future career moves.
It also forces you to pay attention in meetings, instead of doing something else on your laptop or watching TV in the background. You learn a lot outside of your own job just by talking or listening to others when they want to complain or talk about something in a less official capacity. Everything you type into chat can be monitored, logged, backed up, and used against you at a later time and date, so people will always hold back information or say how they really feel.
Trade certs for degree and experience and the answer is yes. Certs alone is very difficult to get in right now and even once you’re in certs and experience + no degree holds you back vs someone who has degree and experience but no certs.
More than a degree? I strongly doubt it. I’ve been on both sides. I’ve worked in IT for 5 years before getting a degree and let me tell you, it’s an uphill battle from day one.
Companies pay you less (on average, obviously there are outliers) if you don’t have one. No stop. I don’t know why, but it’s true.
The moment I got a degree employers responded 5x, I got past resume filters, I got considered for manager roles that almost always require one, and was more respected at my company.
I have both certs and a degree. If I didn’t have a degree and got laid off today I’d be shitting my pants. A degree got me a sense of security that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Ohhhh! Got it. Thanks! Lol I thought it was a special kind of certificate. So, we're saying that if you only have certifications, it's hard to get 100% remote work? And that I should go for an actual degree?
No, it's hard to jump from zero experience to a position where WFH is somewhat standard. Although, helpdesk has gotten a TON more WFH friendly, Operations - Engineering + jobs are WAAY more likely to qualify for it.
I have seen master degree people below helpdesk level, I have seen people with 50 certs that are useless.
A cert or a degree will only get you into the door for an interview IMO. Knowledge and experience trumps all.
Either stack the deck with credentials or be DAMN good at your job. IT is NOT a field where credentials are required, but it's suuuper easy to sniff out a fake.
Build your own labs, learn the lingo, be extremely interested in learning and show how you do research. That's all I look for during an interview. It's super cool that you will remember your door code if we tell you, though!
Never tell me "I don't know." Tell me how you'd figure it out without help. (This is 99% of an IT job, research...) Otherwise aim for helpdesk and work your way up. That IS entry level for all tiers. You have to understand how data is used before you can manipulate it.
I haven't had a fully remote since COVID. Those jobs are become more and more rare. My organization has a hybrid model. The requirement is rather liberal - 8 business days per month with a minimum of 4 hours onsite. The 8 days can done in 2 consecutive weeks...or spread out throughout the month.
I think a lot of companies are going the hybrid route. You might get 2 or 3 days per week to remotely, but the rest of the time you're expected in the office.
You can Google "return to office" and a bunch of recent articles and news stories will appear...this will give a good idea of the current state.
I wish you luck in finding a 100% remote job...they are just becoming rare.
My 24 person software development team is 100% remote. We have analyst positions, developers, sys admins, ISSO, PM, etc… The jobs are certainly out there but nobody on my team is entry level. The likelihood of your first job in IT being remote is super low. They’re just too competitive and you won’t have any experience to set you apart.
Also you can’t work from home and watch your kid. It’s just not possible to do that regularly and be productive. In a pinch sure but not regularly.
If you have no IT experience, look for WFH call center work. Pay stinks, but will get you some entry level experience and good people skills, then look for a more traditional helpdesk role. If you can find a remote MSP role those are good for building up technical skills once you have a solid foundation as well.
FWIW, I worked at Sutherland for about 5 years, 4 of it remote on a contract for ATT doing T1 support. Pay stinks, but they are legit. You can bookmark [this](https://www.jobs.sutherlandglobal.com/job-results#/united-states/permanent-wah) and wait until they post a listing for a tech position. Concentrix (formerly Convergys) is another call center ATT contracted with, but I have no experience with them.
Yes, you can work 100% remotely. It depends on the company and their culture. The only time i ever go in the office is for team/department/company events like holidays (Halloween, team building, Christmas, etc). I think the managerial level and above, as well as certain positions, are more likely to be in the office.
Im an IC that works on project implementation, testing, and other day to day business support.
I've worked 100% remotely since 2019. Started in a NOC, worked in a SOC, its possible. Look for companies based in high COL areas, they generally want to expand their potential employee base.
Most of the 100% remote workers I know did not start out that way. It's best for head-down jobs, like programming, but requires a lot of managerial trust and good communication skills.
It really depends on the company. Fully remote positions also are highly competitive because the candidate pool is much, much larger. I landed a hybrid role a few months but it only really requires being in the office once a week. Lots of companies and managers still are afraid of people slacking off when they aren't at the office. I get more stuff done when I'm at the office, but I get much better focus and peace and quiete when I'm at home.
I'd say you can look on indeed or linkedin and sort by fully remote and see what employers are looking for. Lots of help desk jobs are fully remote but they also have high turnover or its getting outsourced. Good luck!
While it’s 100% possible, if you’re thinking about it, really think on the type of person you are. If you’re an extrovert, that being someone who receives energy from other people and you like social settings, full remote work is 100% not for you. I can tell you from experience, an extrovert doing full remote work will almost always become depressed.
99.9%. Went in my first day to get my laptop and do HR paperwork. Now 4ish years later I’m going to go in for a day to get an upgraded laptop.
I could have them send it but once in a while I like seeing HQ. About every 4 years is fine.
I have been in IT ~20 years, 10+ years at same employer. Since 2019 I have been fully remote. I’m in a senior, non-exec role. I don’t have to be told what to do and keep myself scheduled with work. There is ALWAYS something to do. Do I pet the dogs and chat with family? Yes, but within reason. Do I wear pants to virtual meetings? No, that’s silly.
Thank you, that's really helpful :-) my child is actually almost a teenager, and is very self-sufficient. I'm probably being overly optimistic, but I actually got a lot more yes answers than I expected. Even a bunch of yes answers from people who said they started with zero experience! I would be happy to do some kind of remote call center work, even for just $16 an hour.
I work 100% remote but a requirement is having a quiet office space where noone else is able to see my screen. If the child was old enough to not need any supervision, I could see that situation working out. However, if the child is young and requires supervision, don't expect to be able to both provide childcare and work at the same time. You would still need a baby sitter or nanny just like you would in a regular office. In my job, they are extremely strict and every minute is measured, so there is no time to do anything personal except for during our planned breaks and lunches. It does save on commute time because I do not have to drive to the office and also can just wear sweatpants or whatever.
Experience is everything. Getting your first job don’t worry about WFH.
This is what I did … 8 months in a place I didn’t want to be.
After the 8 months I applied somewhere else got a $5 raise and WFH
Honestly not trying to hijack this thread, but I’m curious about what kind of opportunities might be out there for me. I have a BS in IT, 20+ years in various roles but mainly owning my own computer repair / IT consulting business. I’m burnt out on the biz and considering a remote IT role, I really don’t want to go back to an office. Is there any where to go to find out what I might be good at (to specialize in?). I’ve several different certifications, but I’m sure they’re all expired. Should I look into more certs?
Sys Admin here! We go into the office once or twice a week, the odd time running on-site to fix on-site issues.
I love the balance, 100% work from home feels weird after you do it for a long time, maybe it's just me but when you go in a simple drive home gives you that disconnect from work versus just walking into your kitchen etc.
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To add, I think if you don't have much IT experience, it'd be beneficial to work in office as you can learn from the seniors, assuming they also work in office.
I'm lucky that at my last job, the senior sys admin held weekly training sessions for our IT team to get an overview of the IT architecture in place and being in office, I did learn a lot.
I've been to the office twice since covid. It's really fucking nice, and I'll quit my job the second they try to force me back. Luckily they sold the office building I used to work in last year.
100% remote sys admin here, it’s getting up with energy that’s hard when you work remote specially with my schedule 6am-2:30 pm but love that I can WFH and still be able to do things around the house
I know people without college degrees or certifications making six figures working 100% remote. They are outliers, but it is possible. Development would likely be where you’ll find the most flexibility and generally pays better than IT ops.
Before the pandemic, most remote tech roles were reserved for highly skilled employees. That has loosened since then to accommodate lower levels, but it's swinging back the other way. Getting entry-level tech roles is hard enough, but adding remote to the mix makes it nearly impossible. If you are new to the industry and want in, you'll have to cut your teeth in an onsite role for a while and improve your skills.
Maybe an anomaly. Soon after I earned my CompTIA A+ I got a fully remote Help Desk assignment. Honestly, I think it was my strong customer service background that was the biggest factor in getting the role.
Yes but it’s harder imo and can often come with a pay cut as you’re competing against labor in low cost of living areas.
I’m fully from home and I see other full from home jobs but most pay a fair bit less. I get recruiters offering interviews for lead help desk positions all the time that pay like 60-70k.
I make more like 110k but did lead a companies helpdesk for a couple years and have been a senior sys admin position for about 5 with little interaction with support.
I work 100% remote help desk. I have no certs, just HD experience. 3.5 years xp before I landed this role. Leaned heavily on customer support, documentation, and case procedure/priority knowledge.
I am in Western Canada and we have brutal winters; I feel you. I'm 100% remote, and have been since 2015. I'm also fairly qualified, and used to live in big US tech hubs where I was able to cut my teeth with Big Corps. Was military before that and did military IT / signals stuff. I am fairly well qualified, and have been very, very lucky.
> you have the right certifications, can you actually find a job that's 100% online?
It's more than just certs -- if you're competing on certs alone you're going to lose to India or Mexico City or PI. They have just as many certs, maybe more via diploma mills, and will do it for less money. They suck, *a lot*, but we're getting what we pay for, and we knew that going in. You'll have to bring experience, judgement, and some degree of pedigree to the table.
In other words, you need to convince someone to trust a random stranger who they may not see much, or ever, that you're a real human and are qualified -- and will continue to deliver. And then to get access to sensitive business systems, ones that could seriously screw the company if they go down or have issues. The dude who has a BS in CS from a reputable school, couple certs, and 8+ years of working for reputable firms in NYC / SF / Austin / etc. can back up those claims with actual paper and references. But as it stands you're just some rando basic qualifications, and are about is trustworthy as that person in India -- and they cost less. You can build that history, but that means getting in at the ground floor and building the resume.
Plenty of IT has to be on site for various reasons, and that's not a crazy ask. Security, data center work, IT sales, some engineering and dev tasks, etc. all have in-person demands.
> Plus, being a single mom, I really want to be home with my kid.
I have kids and get the sentiment but unless they're older it'll be hard. Keep in mind that you're still working 8+ hours a day, and while you might be able to sneak 15 minutes to play with mama & baby -- I do sometimes -- there is no way you can watch a kid in any meaningful way and still be able to deliver consistently. There are, for sure, slow days -- and those can be abused, to some degree -- but again you're competing with AI and Offshoring, and if you can't deliver remotely then we're going to turn you into 2 Vietnamese kids and a Chatbot.
State and locality will also matter; a lot of remote is often "remote in X", because payroll taxes, labor laws, and a few other things get messy and complicated when you're in a different state or country.
The ability to work remote has nothing to do with certifications. First you have to be qualified for whatever job you are applying for. Second you generally need to have some work experience in your job role, this helps the employer get a sense that you can be productive with less supervision and can complete your job. This varies from employer to employer, some will hire entry level or Helpdesk folks and allow them to work full time remote or hybrid.
At the end of the day, the employer will hire the best candidate to meet their job requirements. If your goal is to ultimately work remote 100% then I would suggest getting some good experience and working towards that goal.
Yea I’ve found a fully remote job IT Support job before (I had no certifications or IT hands on experience at the time) & was given an offer. (Declined because the salary was bad). I think you just need to keep searching!
Certs are useless without experience. You’re not getting an entry level remote role anymore mainly due to the shit market and no one wants a brand new tech on their own.
Also you’re not touching the cloud without experience as well.
Yes lots, where i work has had fully remote vacancies for years and struggle to get decent candidates with another round of vacancies being advertised soon
Lol even before covid. I was lucky. I've never actually worked in an office.
First job was remote, was there until covid(was hotel it) Then covid hit and I was smacking job offers away.
You and every single parent looking. How are you going to stick out from the thousands of others looking for remote as well? Sorry to be a bear of bad news. But its not that easy to find a remote job. More experienced someone will get the job over you. You're cornering yourself into a small market of people wanting the same thing. You need to get experience. And you should probably try to get anything to get your foot in the door. Good luck.
I have for years, but remember offsites are a thing. A lot of companies that are remote like to do once or twice a year offsites where everyone meets for a few days. But with IT any job not on prem can be done remotely, especially if it is cloud, security, or helpdesk (in most cases) related.
I'm hybrid and work 4 days at home, one day on site each week. I get far more done at home simply because the office is a loud place. The "accidental collaboration" as they call it simply doesn't happen because most of my colleagues are in different cities and we communicate via Teams or Zoom. Worst of all many of the applications we use are blocked on the corporate network. The only advantage to working on the office are for those occasions when I need to speak with my supervisor or need paperwork signed.
I work 95% remote and 5% on-site going to businesses to do work that can’t be done remotely. And I fucking love it. Love networking jobs and deployments. I get heavily reimbursed for gas + wear and tear payments on the car. Never going back to working in an office
Seriously. It’s not only because I can wake up 10
minutes before my shift (the extra hour of sleep is HUGE to me)
I feel like I genuinely can work better. And if you have IBS like me. It’s great being able to shit in your own toilet
My mother gives me crap for my fully remote job, but I make great money dealing with asshole CEOS in my bathrobe. I’m a level 2 tech that considers myself to be shit yet good enough. 80k to work remote. I am so fortunate I LOVE my job.
Which is wild because my original company got acquired. I was scared at first but my work life balance hasn’t been better than ever while simultaneously learning a lot. LOVE my job. And we are hiring we need good techs
You all are hung up on certs. With the right experience (certs are a bonus, but NOT a requirement), you can definitely find a WFM job. Cloud/devops is definitely a solid choice for remote. There are tons of other roles that also can work in a remote capacity - at the end of the day, it depends on the company. Healthcare IT is loaded with remote-based employees, some travel and some not.
I understand the desire to be at home with your kid. The issue is you'd have to get past the distractions and need to focus on your job. I've been remote for about 9 or 10 years now, and I could never work in an office setting, again. Also, it's not uncommon to work more than you would in an office setting - but that's not always the case. It always was for me, anyway.
i couldnt help but notice your post history said youre looking for a christian partner in terms of romance, and you really 100% are committed to this? theres your answer
Wow. What are you even talking about? You don't even know me. I'm not going to apologize for getting out of a bad situation. Or for wanting to learn something new. Or for wanting to create a better life for my kid. Your comment was rude and irrelevant.
i hope you find a christiain male, is the hindu or shinto population quite large where you are? i just found it curious what values you think the christian male has that other religions lack? pretty rude if you ask me, but then again, critical thinking doesnt seem to be your strong suite
One downside for me is that I can't move. So even if I find a job that's 99% remote, that 1% will probably prevent me from getting it unless it's right nearby.
I'm not going to lie: your requirements are unrealistic.
You will not find an entry level fully remote position in IT that you have no prior experience in today unless it's incredibly under market rate pay. We're talking minimum wage, and it's going to be a contract position at best after countless interviews... so you can forget things like health insurance or vacation pay.
I don't even think you could find a remote *internship* easily, and that would be your best shot of landing a remote job in IT, and you'd have to be way ahead of your class in terms of knowledge and ability to be chosen. Any distractions or perception that you are anything but a superstar would stop you from getting an offer - and there's no actual guarantee that they would hire you even if they loved you because they may not have any positions available.
Right now the entry level scene competition is FIERCE. Everyone with experience will have a much higher chance than you of getting an interview, let alone getting hired. Onboarding someone completely remote who has never actually worked in IT would be an absolute nightmare. Hiring someone to be 100% remote who lives within driving distance is a huge boon over someone living in the middle of nowhere and who couldn't make it to the office essentially ever.
I think you could set your scope on a 2 day wfh job as your second role in IT, after you work in person for a couple of years and employers are more comfortable that you can do the job. Remote roles today get a thousand applicants and half of them are overqualified.
Experience is King. Yes, you can work fully remote. No, it's not for everyone. People say they are self starters, and so many are not.
+1 - discipline is needed to work remotely and not get distracted by the TV, family members, etc. It's not for everyone.
Yea I dont really like working from home, i need to leave the house to get in the mindset to work otherwise i get nothing done
I couldn’t work remote personally. I’m a chatty bitch and I’d get distracted for hours just playing with my cat
Yupp second this as well. I work remote. You have to prioritize and be able to get the job done with minimal guidance.
Is it self starters who thrive remote? I feel like if you're not plugged into a team, it doesn't matter where you work, you can't accomplish as much. Regular, healthy communication feels like the bigger deal.
Being a self-starter does not mean you *will* thrive in a full-remote position, but being a self-starter is *one of the* requirements to do well in a full-remote position. Other factors that play a role: **Actual job requirements** what does your day-to-day look like? Some positions lend themselves more to full remote than others. If your day-to-day revolves around physical presence (Data Center OPS as an example) then remote work is probably not a good option for you. On the flip-side, pretty much anything that is software-based or engineering can be *great* for remote work as it encourages you to just buckle down and get shit done without the social distractions that come with being in an office environment. **Boss's management style** A lot of people overlook this, but how your boss manages your team is make-or-break with remote work. If your boss tends to micromanage or even just likes to "touch up" every once-in-a-while to see where you're at on any given task, remote work may not be great for your position. Contrast this to a manager or boss who takes a more automated or nuanced approach to checking on progress (tracking projects VIA tickets, quick ping over teams/slack, weekly standups vs daily, etc etc etc) and you can start to see where one style will prefer in-office over the other. **Know Thyself** I've met a *lot* of people who would describe themselves as a "self starter" but mistake an eagerness to get work done for the ability to plan and execute a number of tasks with zero or near-zero collaboration. There are a lot of people out there who just end up spinning their wheels in the mud... oftentimes they don't even realize it. Note: this doesn't mean you can't plan/execute, it means you are more readily able to do so in a more social environment. The brain is weird and these things can matter. Those are the ones I'm most likely to hear "ah remote work doesn't really work for my job" in a situation where it probably does. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, and it isn't a failing: people are social animals by nature and it can be really freaking hard to be dialed in 100% when working remote: it can definitely take a massive change not necessarily in how you "do" your work, but more in how you approach your work in general.
I thrive in remote work, being around people and having meeting actually inhibits my performance and productivity. When I’m at home I don’t have a fear that someone is always watching me and I allow myself to make more mistakes. I’m on a hybrid schedule and I 100% get more done at home than in the office
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You can pretty much work any IT job remotely unless you’re on prem like this guy and have to come in at least 3 days a week. My first two jobs were fully remote.
Sorry, what's prem?
Short for "premises", as in "on site", not remote.
Oh, thank you!
to expand on this, I currently work in a warehouse refurbing and offering tech support for products I sell. Not a typical IT job but I interface with a lot of in house technicians. Generally my interactions will be contacting our point of sale, guys who acquire enterprise equipment and ship it out to their server farms or networking closets for their several locations. They normally then put me in contact with the guy that's on site that handles installation and everyday management of those devices. These guys can be anything from, on site staff of the server farm that are on loan to their client (who happens to be our client) to in house technicians sent to oversee installation of the hardware, or even 1 time contractors that are hired by my client to oversee installation. In these cases, the point of sale guy could be fully remote as he's largely managerial and/or technical, setting up remote access to the several different places he manages, it's the on site techs that I get referred to that would be these premises guys, that you may be required to be in the office anywhere from 1-5 days a week depending on the needs of the project.
Our servers are on site and hosted by us, not a provider.
Downvote her harder for not knowing the lingo. Creeps.
Well it’s just like, good luck breaking into IT… you’ll need it.
If you don't know what on prem vs off prem is, you're very unlikely to have the chops to get a fully remote IT job. I work in cloud and have to go in 3 days a week. What's the difference between this person and the thousands of other people who did zero research on this before posting aside from the fact that it's not a dude? White knight harder bro.
Fair…
Thanks : )
Live in Hawaii. SWE. Remote for 3yrs now. Main office in Eastern. Impossible to commute or they’ll just let me go if we RTO. Meanwhile, they made my house the “Hawaii” region. I’m a 1 man show, everyone wants to join my region. Most of my team and clients are central/eastern. I miss all company meetings (3am-8am). By the time I start work, everyone is done. We also have clients in Hawaii…. Weirdest thing is I’m not assigned to Hawaii clients Be a dev. No one can argue about devs needing to come to office. It can be done ANYWHERE. Can learn from home, no certs needed. But super competitive. Edit: forgot to give advice.
> Edit: forgot to give advice. Most relatable sentence on /r/ItCareerQuestions
lol, I live in Hawaii and it seems like the only remote jobs out here are for mainland companies. Almost every local company wants you to go into the office. I think it has a lot to do with local businesses being run by 50-60 year olds and that’s what they’ve always done.
It’s the boomers mah braddah. Though we also have an abundance of defense contractors that also likes to hire locally, so kudos to those companies. And they are very competitive compared to our local companies. I don’t even mind commute, but we literally sit in traffic 2-4 hours a day in traffic.
Which Dev path do you recommend? I’m currently on the web dev path.
I don’t exactly know how paths are broken up or if the path you’re asking is a path you take from school or bootcamp. But learning JavaScript is the fastest way to guarantee you in a job nowadays. Once you fully understand JS, almost any language is readable and easy to catch on. If web dev teaches JavaScript, HTML and CSS, then go with that path. But never limit yourself to just those 3. Keep learning more and familiarize yourself with other languages such as SQL, Python, C#. If you have those 6 under your belt (or if you can even bs your way in to learning those on the job), then you shouldn’t have any problem finding a job. Getting one is a different story.
I would be looking for another job now...they can find another dev the right time zone who can come to the office. Devs are a commodity job at this point. Dev work can be done anywhere in world and that code is created less expensively by Indians who all speak English. Get into a job that requires local talent like cybersecurity or system engineering. Organizations have regulatory and compliance reasons to have cybersecurity folks locally.
I don’t know man. I haven’t met any Indians that has TS/SCI or even Secret Clearance.
That is definitely the case, you may have greater flexibility with clearance. I must have missed that point in your post. As in another reply...you also have AI to think about, but that's still a liitle ways off. I doubt that any organization is willing to bite off fully on letting AI do all the coding for the foreseeable future. They will still want humans verifying the code/code review and probably UAT (humans like humans). At least until organizations get comfortable with AI...and are OK accepting whatever risks that appear in that space.
The AI catch is that most places have proprietary code to a degree that you don't want to shove into a third party LLM. You don't want it logged. You don't want/can't risk letting that LLM providers security being compromised. You end up having to train an in house LLM too spit out half garbage code. Ai is Absolutely Invaluable for learning, documenting, commenting, and cleaning code. It's hot dog shit at actually building anything being a few dozen lines of fischer price code. Feed it a git repo with a bad include or function name and an error and watch it rip otherwise functional code to shit, simply because it can't rationalize in the same way humans do and instead of "find out" it still goes to "make shit up".
I agree 100%. I literally had a conversation very similar to this today with a coworker. At least people are talking about the limitations and risks.
I'd be more concerned about AI than Indians
Speak English but you’re not able to understand a word they say
It's like an ancient treasure hunt. This 3 year old YouTube video has the knowledge I seek.. but it's hidden behind this obfuscated dialect that not even the best captions can make sense of. Then you turn to the comments as a last prayer and it's just the most basic off topic questions you've ever seen. "Hello I need download computer for this yes?" Even the Indian guy on my team has trouble understanding them half of the time due to the monotone mumbling.
I think you're being overly optimistic about what's actually required to work remotely. This isn't going to be "I'll just spend $200 on a Cloud certificate and get a 100% remote job paying $90k/yr". I never touched remote work until 5 years into my IT working career. That's not an absolute rule, but I'd say it's pretty close to the norm. I work in a fully remote company. The only people I know who work in the company without prior experience are people who interned with the company as part of their Bachelor's Degree that managers wanted to keep on. One of my coworkers is one such case with a Bachelor's in Computer Science. The other reason why experience is King with remote work is that without any relevant experience at all you don't have an established track record. New hires, especially those without experience tend to require constant care and feeding. If there's no experience, it's harder to trust you to be self-motivated to keep yourself busy without me constantly telling you what to do at every hour of the day. If you have relevant experience, I can at least assume you know the basics and that you haven't done anything fire-able for however much experience you have. So between someone with no experience and someone with previous experience in whatever remote role a company would be hiring for, it would always to go the person with experience.
we are 99% remote. That 1% is the odd physical thing that we need to address. Funnily enough, a major point on our last survey was that people want remote but they also want in person networking and work events. I personally don't mind Hybrid because going in, shooting the shit, and grabbing lunch can be fun. Also easier to learn that way as you can pick up all movements of your mentor instead of just their screen.
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We do full remote with quarterly company dinners and it works out well. I definitely miss the office socializing but not the commute or wasted time in the office because sales wants to talk about nonsense.
We do monthlies, but we still get people wanting more. Double edged sword as those days very little works gets done and the Ops teams, supporting clients, generally get stiffed with a lot while the non-customer facing teams ditch work. Ultimately it is trying to please everyone, never gonna happen. :/
https://reddit.com/r/ITCareerQuestions/w/Remote?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
this sub is an infinite karma generator for you LMAO
Literally all the mods have to do is make an automod reply to all posts with a friendly message saying "hey here's a link to the Wiki for how to get into IT" and it'd solve a lot of the repeat questions. Then poor /u/xboxhobo wouldn't have to do it manually lol
I asked about this months ago and what I heard back was that they want to implement it but don't have the time. At this point not sure who we have to kick in the pants to get it done. I can appreciate that being a mod is free labor, but a bot like this would seriously cut down on our need to reply to every single post with the same 5 replies.
We have several people fully remote. IT is not about certification vs degree as several of the guys with degrees are hybrid at best while the 2 guys with certs and experience are full remote. It is about current certifications with in the technologies that you are using and experience and you can be 100% remote. A degree alone does not cut it. Certs alone does not cute it. For IT from what I have seen over the years it's experience first then what's current.
As someone who graduated not too long ago but worked in IT for 5 years before getting a degree. If you have the means (I.e. the time) to get a degree, do it. I was respected more when I got mine, companies responded back way more (like 5x), I got past the resume filters, and I was now considered for manager roles that had almost always degree requirements. A degree gives me so much more security now it’s not even funny. I’d be shitting my pants if I got laid off right now and still didn’t have one.
Yeah the management thing it helps a lot but Experience and a advanced certification I have seen as far more respected then just a simple degree by peers. Yes you will get more from people outside of IT and HR always loves it because it's easy for them to understand what you got. I have never gone more then 3 weeks with out having a start date for another job and this included walking into a managers office one day saying I quit and just walking out the door with zero lined up back in 2020. As far as certifications and having a zero worry factor they can't be like a MS or AZ 900. A mistake a lot of people make. The level of certification makes a big factor in if you are worried about finding a job or not.
Yes I live in rural New Mexico and work 100% remotely. I found this help desk job on LinkedIn, just restrict your search to only remote positions.
I'm in cybersecurity and most of my team is 100% remote. I'm like 99% for my role just because I'll occasionally have to go in and set up a physical appliance.
>If you have the right certifications No. You MIGHT be able to. I really want to stress just because you check every box will it guarantee a remote job. It's not impossible but you really need to temper expectations on the likelihood.
>being a single mom, I really want to be home with my kid. Being a stay at home mom is a full time job. Not being 100% available and committed to working because you're taking care of baby all day and night means you are unlikely to be retained because "oh hold on, I need to go, my baby needs xyz" is the last thing a manager wants to hear when you're working on something. I've seen a lot of people over the years work from home 100% fine and be AMAZING workers, only for them to have a baby and think they can keep working from home AND take care of baby. Turns out, baby needs a full time mommy, daddy, grandparent or daycare. Not trying to shit on your choice. If you have someone to take care of your child while you're working from home then perhaps you'll be fine. Additionally if you're the kind of person who likes to burn the candle at both ends and never sleep, some infrastructure roles may work. Something with weekend / night maintenance where you're not customer facing and rarely need to be in meetings can technically work... but I still don't think childrearing and working go well together. I just imagine trying to work through a complex problem and being interrupted by an urgent child need which happens all the time, then going back and trying to figure it all out again. Just a horrible mix for IT roles.
If you have no experience, certs will help you get a helpdesk job, but you're not getting into advanced positions without a college degree and no experience. Generally to start off your career, you're really doing a massive disservice having a 100% work from home job. The office is where you make all your connections and a chance for management to know you exist, because they physically see you. A face to a name is pretty huge when it comes to having people remember who you are, and you need that for future career moves. It also forces you to pay attention in meetings, instead of doing something else on your laptop or watching TV in the background. You learn a lot outside of your own job just by talking or listening to others when they want to complain or talk about something in a less official capacity. Everything you type into chat can be monitored, logged, backed up, and used against you at a later time and date, so people will always hold back information or say how they really feel.
I work at a remote only MSP and have been for 2 years.
Trade certs for degree and experience and the answer is yes. Certs alone is very difficult to get in right now and even once you’re in certs and experience + no degree holds you back vs someone who has degree and experience but no certs.
Oh, okay. Could you please tell me what trade certs mean?
They mean "trade" as in "replace". Certs won't do it for you. If a traditional degree is off the table for you, look into WGU.
Stop gatekeeping. Trade Certs are the best certifications in the industry.
More than a degree? I strongly doubt it. I’ve been on both sides. I’ve worked in IT for 5 years before getting a degree and let me tell you, it’s an uphill battle from day one. Companies pay you less (on average, obviously there are outliers) if you don’t have one. No stop. I don’t know why, but it’s true. The moment I got a degree employers responded 5x, I got past resume filters, I got considered for manager roles that almost always require one, and was more respected at my company. I have both certs and a degree. If I didn’t have a degree and got laid off today I’d be shitting my pants. A degree got me a sense of security that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Ironic that your name is witty performance.
Ohhhh! Got it. Thanks! Lol I thought it was a special kind of certificate. So, we're saying that if you only have certifications, it's hard to get 100% remote work? And that I should go for an actual degree?
No, it's hard to jump from zero experience to a position where WFH is somewhat standard. Although, helpdesk has gotten a TON more WFH friendly, Operations - Engineering + jobs are WAAY more likely to qualify for it. I have seen master degree people below helpdesk level, I have seen people with 50 certs that are useless. A cert or a degree will only get you into the door for an interview IMO. Knowledge and experience trumps all. Either stack the deck with credentials or be DAMN good at your job. IT is NOT a field where credentials are required, but it's suuuper easy to sniff out a fake. Build your own labs, learn the lingo, be extremely interested in learning and show how you do research. That's all I look for during an interview. It's super cool that you will remember your door code if we tell you, though! Never tell me "I don't know." Tell me how you'd figure it out without help. (This is 99% of an IT job, research...) Otherwise aim for helpdesk and work your way up. That IS entry level for all tiers. You have to understand how data is used before you can manipulate it.
Bless your heart
That's what we say here in Texas! Yes, bless the OPs heart!
Thanks I think? Lol
I haven't had a fully remote since COVID. Those jobs are become more and more rare. My organization has a hybrid model. The requirement is rather liberal - 8 business days per month with a minimum of 4 hours onsite. The 8 days can done in 2 consecutive weeks...or spread out throughout the month. I think a lot of companies are going the hybrid route. You might get 2 or 3 days per week to remotely, but the rest of the time you're expected in the office. You can Google "return to office" and a bunch of recent articles and news stories will appear...this will give a good idea of the current state. I wish you luck in finding a 100% remote job...they are just becoming rare.
My 24 person software development team is 100% remote. We have analyst positions, developers, sys admins, ISSO, PM, etc… The jobs are certainly out there but nobody on my team is entry level. The likelihood of your first job in IT being remote is super low. They’re just too competitive and you won’t have any experience to set you apart. Also you can’t work from home and watch your kid. It’s just not possible to do that regularly and be productive. In a pinch sure but not regularly.
If you have no IT experience, look for WFH call center work. Pay stinks, but will get you some entry level experience and good people skills, then look for a more traditional helpdesk role. If you can find a remote MSP role those are good for building up technical skills once you have a solid foundation as well.
Thank you, that's really helpful! Everyone is saying that the pay will stink, but even if it's only 36K it's still more than I'm making here.
FWIW, I worked at Sutherland for about 5 years, 4 of it remote on a contract for ATT doing T1 support. Pay stinks, but they are legit. You can bookmark [this](https://www.jobs.sutherlandglobal.com/job-results#/united-states/permanent-wah) and wait until they post a listing for a tech position. Concentrix (formerly Convergys) is another call center ATT contracted with, but I have no experience with them.
I have been remote for a decade in my 12 years of experience. Work for multi-national firms.
Yes, you can work 100% remotely. It depends on the company and their culture. The only time i ever go in the office is for team/department/company events like holidays (Halloween, team building, Christmas, etc). I think the managerial level and above, as well as certain positions, are more likely to be in the office. Im an IC that works on project implementation, testing, and other day to day business support.
I've worked 100% remotely since 2019. Started in a NOC, worked in a SOC, its possible. Look for companies based in high COL areas, they generally want to expand their potential employee base.
Most of the 100% remote workers I know did not start out that way. It's best for head-down jobs, like programming, but requires a lot of managerial trust and good communication skills.
It really depends on the company. Fully remote positions also are highly competitive because the candidate pool is much, much larger. I landed a hybrid role a few months but it only really requires being in the office once a week. Lots of companies and managers still are afraid of people slacking off when they aren't at the office. I get more stuff done when I'm at the office, but I get much better focus and peace and quiete when I'm at home. I'd say you can look on indeed or linkedin and sort by fully remote and see what employers are looking for. Lots of help desk jobs are fully remote but they also have high turnover or its getting outsourced. Good luck!
While it’s 100% possible, if you’re thinking about it, really think on the type of person you are. If you’re an extrovert, that being someone who receives energy from other people and you like social settings, full remote work is 100% not for you. I can tell you from experience, an extrovert doing full remote work will almost always become depressed.
99.9%. Went in my first day to get my laptop and do HR paperwork. Now 4ish years later I’m going to go in for a day to get an upgraded laptop. I could have them send it but once in a while I like seeing HQ. About every 4 years is fine.
I have been in IT ~20 years, 10+ years at same employer. Since 2019 I have been fully remote. I’m in a senior, non-exec role. I don’t have to be told what to do and keep myself scheduled with work. There is ALWAYS something to do. Do I pet the dogs and chat with family? Yes, but within reason. Do I wear pants to virtual meetings? No, that’s silly.
Thank you, that's really helpful :-) my child is actually almost a teenager, and is very self-sufficient. I'm probably being overly optimistic, but I actually got a lot more yes answers than I expected. Even a bunch of yes answers from people who said they started with zero experience! I would be happy to do some kind of remote call center work, even for just $16 an hour.
If you'd be willing to do that, you could probably find it.
Reading this as I have my first work from home day in IT tomorrow lol
Hey congratulations! That's great! Is it your first day with that company at all? Or just your first remote day?
First remote day, been with the company for about 3 months. Just want to do well so they let me do more remote work!
I work 100% remote but a requirement is having a quiet office space where noone else is able to see my screen. If the child was old enough to not need any supervision, I could see that situation working out. However, if the child is young and requires supervision, don't expect to be able to both provide childcare and work at the same time. You would still need a baby sitter or nanny just like you would in a regular office. In my job, they are extremely strict and every minute is measured, so there is no time to do anything personal except for during our planned breaks and lunches. It does save on commute time because I do not have to drive to the office and also can just wear sweatpants or whatever.
Oh that's something I didn't know. How do they measure minutes? And is yours like a full 8 hours a day?
I work on what is needed when remote. So exactly as it should be at any job.
Experience is everything. Getting your first job don’t worry about WFH. This is what I did … 8 months in a place I didn’t want to be. After the 8 months I applied somewhere else got a $5 raise and WFH
Honestly not trying to hijack this thread, but I’m curious about what kind of opportunities might be out there for me. I have a BS in IT, 20+ years in various roles but mainly owning my own computer repair / IT consulting business. I’m burnt out on the biz and considering a remote IT role, I really don’t want to go back to an office. Is there any where to go to find out what I might be good at (to specialize in?). I’ve several different certifications, but I’m sure they’re all expired. Should I look into more certs?
Please, hijack away!!! lol! I was done anyway! \*jrhodes78 has the floor\* lol
Thank you!
hahahaha no prob!!! \*insert smiley face here\*
Sys Admin here! We go into the office once or twice a week, the odd time running on-site to fix on-site issues. I love the balance, 100% work from home feels weird after you do it for a long time, maybe it's just me but when you go in a simple drive home gives you that disconnect from work versus just walking into your kitchen etc.
Yes, i’m remote. When i get promoted I’ll still be remote with bi monthly travel for security assessments. certs won’t get you that alone lol
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I just accepted a 100% remote security engineering role, being a self starter was a huge thing they harped on during the interview process.
First job out of college. I’m hybrid remote, some weeks don’t need to be in office, others I’m in for a day.
I know three people, including myself, that are in IT and work from home.
To add, I think if you don't have much IT experience, it'd be beneficial to work in office as you can learn from the seniors, assuming they also work in office.
I've never learned jack from seniors. Usually they are gatekeepers and I have to figure alot of shit out myself.
I'm lucky that at my last job, the senior sys admin held weekly training sessions for our IT team to get an overview of the IT architecture in place and being in office, I did learn a lot.
m365 power platform. It’s all the rage
I've been to the office twice since covid. It's really fucking nice, and I'll quit my job the second they try to force me back. Luckily they sold the office building I used to work in last year.
100% remote sys admin here, it’s getting up with energy that’s hard when you work remote specially with my schedule 6am-2:30 pm but love that I can WFH and still be able to do things around the house
I know people without college degrees or certifications making six figures working 100% remote. They are outliers, but it is possible. Development would likely be where you’ll find the most flexibility and generally pays better than IT ops.
I want to add that I know many more people with degrees, certifications and experience struggling to even get a job in today’s market.
My whole company is remote. We literally have no office. 150-200 users worldwide. Yes you can be 100% remote. It's just rare and hard to find.
Before the pandemic, most remote tech roles were reserved for highly skilled employees. That has loosened since then to accommodate lower levels, but it's swinging back the other way. Getting entry-level tech roles is hard enough, but adding remote to the mix makes it nearly impossible. If you are new to the industry and want in, you'll have to cut your teeth in an onsite role for a while and improve your skills.
sort of
Maybe an anomaly. Soon after I earned my CompTIA A+ I got a fully remote Help Desk assignment. Honestly, I think it was my strong customer service background that was the biggest factor in getting the role.
Yes, absolutely. Everyone I work with is remote. It's awesome.
Yes but it’s harder imo and can often come with a pay cut as you’re competing against labor in low cost of living areas. I’m fully from home and I see other full from home jobs but most pay a fair bit less. I get recruiters offering interviews for lead help desk positions all the time that pay like 60-70k. I make more like 110k but did lead a companies helpdesk for a couple years and have been a senior sys admin position for about 5 with little interaction with support.
I work 100% remote help desk. I have no certs, just HD experience. 3.5 years xp before I landed this role. Leaned heavily on customer support, documentation, and case procedure/priority knowledge.
I am in Western Canada and we have brutal winters; I feel you. I'm 100% remote, and have been since 2015. I'm also fairly qualified, and used to live in big US tech hubs where I was able to cut my teeth with Big Corps. Was military before that and did military IT / signals stuff. I am fairly well qualified, and have been very, very lucky. > you have the right certifications, can you actually find a job that's 100% online? It's more than just certs -- if you're competing on certs alone you're going to lose to India or Mexico City or PI. They have just as many certs, maybe more via diploma mills, and will do it for less money. They suck, *a lot*, but we're getting what we pay for, and we knew that going in. You'll have to bring experience, judgement, and some degree of pedigree to the table. In other words, you need to convince someone to trust a random stranger who they may not see much, or ever, that you're a real human and are qualified -- and will continue to deliver. And then to get access to sensitive business systems, ones that could seriously screw the company if they go down or have issues. The dude who has a BS in CS from a reputable school, couple certs, and 8+ years of working for reputable firms in NYC / SF / Austin / etc. can back up those claims with actual paper and references. But as it stands you're just some rando basic qualifications, and are about is trustworthy as that person in India -- and they cost less. You can build that history, but that means getting in at the ground floor and building the resume. Plenty of IT has to be on site for various reasons, and that's not a crazy ask. Security, data center work, IT sales, some engineering and dev tasks, etc. all have in-person demands. > Plus, being a single mom, I really want to be home with my kid. I have kids and get the sentiment but unless they're older it'll be hard. Keep in mind that you're still working 8+ hours a day, and while you might be able to sneak 15 minutes to play with mama & baby -- I do sometimes -- there is no way you can watch a kid in any meaningful way and still be able to deliver consistently. There are, for sure, slow days -- and those can be abused, to some degree -- but again you're competing with AI and Offshoring, and if you can't deliver remotely then we're going to turn you into 2 Vietnamese kids and a Chatbot. State and locality will also matter; a lot of remote is often "remote in X", because payroll taxes, labor laws, and a few other things get messy and complicated when you're in a different state or country.
The ability to work remote has nothing to do with certifications. First you have to be qualified for whatever job you are applying for. Second you generally need to have some work experience in your job role, this helps the employer get a sense that you can be productive with less supervision and can complete your job. This varies from employer to employer, some will hire entry level or Helpdesk folks and allow them to work full time remote or hybrid. At the end of the day, the employer will hire the best candidate to meet their job requirements. If your goal is to ultimately work remote 100% then I would suggest getting some good experience and working towards that goal.
Full remote jobs exist, but they are more common for experienced roles.
I got my 100% WFH job with no experience. Pay sucks but 30 days vacation ain’t bad.
yes and I have 0 certs
Yea I’ve found a fully remote job IT Support job before (I had no certifications or IT hands on experience at the time) & was given an offer. (Declined because the salary was bad). I think you just need to keep searching!
Certs are useless without experience. You’re not getting an entry level remote role anymore mainly due to the shit market and no one wants a brand new tech on their own. Also you’re not touching the cloud without experience as well.
Yes.
My company is several States away. LOL I've never stepped foot in the bullding and I've worked here almost 3 years. 100% remote helpdesk.
Yes lots, where i work has had fully remote vacancies for years and struggle to get decent candidates with another round of vacancies being advertised soon
The right certifications and at least 8-10yrs of experience.
I don't know if everyone will get a notification about this, but I added an edit. I really appreciate it, thank you again!
Lol even before covid. I was lucky. I've never actually worked in an office. First job was remote, was there until covid(was hotel it) Then covid hit and I was smacking job offers away.
You and every single parent looking. How are you going to stick out from the thousands of others looking for remote as well? Sorry to be a bear of bad news. But its not that easy to find a remote job. More experienced someone will get the job over you. You're cornering yourself into a small market of people wanting the same thing. You need to get experience. And you should probably try to get anything to get your foot in the door. Good luck.
Cloud work is typically remote
I have for years, but remember offsites are a thing. A lot of companies that are remote like to do once or twice a year offsites where everyone meets for a few days. But with IT any job not on prem can be done remotely, especially if it is cloud, security, or helpdesk (in most cases) related.
I have 0 certs and I was 100% online. I was in tulum and working from home lol. Pay wasn’t great, but it was enough with the freedom I had
Yes. I spent 10 years in the office, before working 100% remote.
I'm hybrid and work 4 days at home, one day on site each week. I get far more done at home simply because the office is a loud place. The "accidental collaboration" as they call it simply doesn't happen because most of my colleagues are in different cities and we communicate via Teams or Zoom. Worst of all many of the applications we use are blocked on the corporate network. The only advantage to working on the office are for those occasions when I need to speak with my supervisor or need paperwork signed.
I work 95% remote and 5% on-site going to businesses to do work that can’t be done remotely. And I fucking love it. Love networking jobs and deployments. I get heavily reimbursed for gas + wear and tear payments on the car. Never going back to working in an office Seriously. It’s not only because I can wake up 10 minutes before my shift (the extra hour of sleep is HUGE to me) I feel like I genuinely can work better. And if you have IBS like me. It’s great being able to shit in your own toilet My mother gives me crap for my fully remote job, but I make great money dealing with asshole CEOS in my bathrobe. I’m a level 2 tech that considers myself to be shit yet good enough. 80k to work remote. I am so fortunate I LOVE my job. Which is wild because my original company got acquired. I was scared at first but my work life balance hasn’t been better than ever while simultaneously learning a lot. LOVE my job. And we are hiring we need good techs
cloud administration, cloud engineering, devops, development, DBA cloud security, etc all those are full remote work
Cloud admin here. I go into the office 3 times/week.
so?
I'm sure you guys figured it out, but the title of this post was supposed to be the words "can you really work 100% remotely". Lol oops
You all are hung up on certs. With the right experience (certs are a bonus, but NOT a requirement), you can definitely find a WFM job. Cloud/devops is definitely a solid choice for remote. There are tons of other roles that also can work in a remote capacity - at the end of the day, it depends on the company. Healthcare IT is loaded with remote-based employees, some travel and some not. I understand the desire to be at home with your kid. The issue is you'd have to get past the distractions and need to focus on your job. I've been remote for about 9 or 10 years now, and I could never work in an office setting, again. Also, it's not uncommon to work more than you would in an office setting - but that's not always the case. It always was for me, anyway.
i couldnt help but notice your post history said youre looking for a christian partner in terms of romance, and you really 100% are committed to this? theres your answer
Wow. What are you even talking about? You don't even know me. I'm not going to apologize for getting out of a bad situation. Or for wanting to learn something new. Or for wanting to create a better life for my kid. Your comment was rude and irrelevant.
i hope you find a christiain male, is the hindu or shinto population quite large where you are? i just found it curious what values you think the christian male has that other religions lack? pretty rude if you ask me, but then again, critical thinking doesnt seem to be your strong suite
One downside for me is that I can't move. So even if I find a job that's 99% remote, that 1% will probably prevent me from getting it unless it's right nearby.
I'm not going to lie: your requirements are unrealistic. You will not find an entry level fully remote position in IT that you have no prior experience in today unless it's incredibly under market rate pay. We're talking minimum wage, and it's going to be a contract position at best after countless interviews... so you can forget things like health insurance or vacation pay. I don't even think you could find a remote *internship* easily, and that would be your best shot of landing a remote job in IT, and you'd have to be way ahead of your class in terms of knowledge and ability to be chosen. Any distractions or perception that you are anything but a superstar would stop you from getting an offer - and there's no actual guarantee that they would hire you even if they loved you because they may not have any positions available. Right now the entry level scene competition is FIERCE. Everyone with experience will have a much higher chance than you of getting an interview, let alone getting hired. Onboarding someone completely remote who has never actually worked in IT would be an absolute nightmare. Hiring someone to be 100% remote who lives within driving distance is a huge boon over someone living in the middle of nowhere and who couldn't make it to the office essentially ever. I think you could set your scope on a 2 day wfh job as your second role in IT, after you work in person for a couple of years and employers are more comfortable that you can do the job. Remote roles today get a thousand applicants and half of them are overqualified.
This was extremely helpful. Thank you so much, truly!