How I got a remote consultant job
It’s been 6 months that started working remotely as a Javascript Consultant. Here I am sharing my experience on how I chose to take up a remote job, my interview experience, the pros and cons of remote working, few tips and how you can get a remote job.
Right from my school days, I was always passionate about building websites. Whenever I create a website or a web application I feel like I am GOD. I learned HTML and CSS from Jon Duckett’s book and later I started learning Javascript on my own. I created small web apps, yes, those laggy TODO apps and after that, I enrolled in some udemy courses and that’s how I became a web developer. I have created many projects and if you are interested, take a quick look at my portfolio here.
Before I got into this job as a Javascript consultant, I have done my first internship as a remote full stack developer. From this internship, I understood how to work with distributed teams and learned how to collaborate with other developers. In a nutshell, I completely understood the remote working workflow.
Why did I choose remote work?
I chose remote work because it gives me the freedom to travel. I can work from a workspace, home, train, bus. Before this job, I did an internship as a full stack developer.it was my second internship. To reach the office I have to change two buses and it takes almost 2 hours to reach. So, remote work cut off all those little expenses like transportation, eating outside, etc. One of the biggest advantages that I found is it gives balance in my life and work after working I can go to the gym, take a walk, or I can start side hustling.
Before you start finding remote work crazily. There are some cons and pros of remote work that I found. Working remotely is a seductive option but for some people it is hard. So here are some cons and pros of remote work
Pros
- It gives freedom to travel and I chose remote work because of this reason.
- Cut off expenses like transportation, eating outside. If you live in metropolitan cities you can understand what I am saying. you will save money and with that money, you can invest in yourself
- Balance in your life and work. trust me in my previous job after coming from the office I became exhausted and I just go to sleep. Remote work gives you time. So, you can spend time with your friends, family or you can go to the gym or take a walk.
Cons
- The biggest disadvantage of remote work is a distraction. It is hard to get a distraction-free environment when you are working from home. It becomes harder If you have children, spouses, pets.
- Relationships with your co-workers. When you work in the office it will allow you to make a good relationship with your co-workers. Remote working makes it difficult to establish relationship among co-workers.
Ok, now I will tell you how I conducted remote work job searching
Finding Remote work
- You can use all those jobs finding websites like indeed, remote ok, LinkedIn, or whatever. But here is a secret to getting all job posts in one single platform. Just download the telegram and subscribe to the remote job groups. There are tons of groups in the telegram of remote jobs simply subscribe to it and start applying.
So, here is the overview of my interview process. There was two round of interview and the whole interview was conducted online.
First Round of interview
In the first round, the interviewer asked questions about single page web application, client-side and server-side routing, ajax and state management, underhood ajax, browser cache and memory leaks, lifecycle methods in react js, SQL and NoSQL database, object-oriented programming, clean coding, best practices, prototype inheritance,es6 concepts.
After the interviewer showed me one web application and I have to identify technologies used in that web application.
After this task, I have to write a small restful API of factorial. I build the whole API using node.js and express and tested it in the postman.
After writing restful API, the interviewer gave documentation of XPath and I have to find some elements using XPath. I think this test was crucial because the Interviewer tested my learning ability. I completed and asked for feedback.
Second Round of interview
- it was a telephonic interview and I thought that they ask about data structures and algorithms and I have to write some algorithms but it was just a conversation about automation testing, frameworks, salary, contract work, joining date.
How to get a Remote job
- Work on your skill set — this is a crucial thing to get a remote job. In India, most companies managers equate your physical presence with work being done so, in India it is hard to get a remote job and it becomes harder if you are fresher. So, pick a skill and start working on that and you can take some courses.
- Work on your soft skills — you might be thinking that what is the need for learning soft skills? Soft skill is needed because if you don’t know how to communicate. It will create a communication gap between you and other developers.
- Building projects — Build at least 3 or 4 mid-size projects you can create any kind of project whatever you learned just apply it in your projects. Projects should be based on the real world or you can make a clone of Facebook, Twitter Instagram. Build your projects and deploy them. So, the interviewer can see it.
-Building portfolio — create single page static webpage list out all your skills, projects describe yourself give contact details and also resume. If you did 10 projects then don’t list out all 10 projects put those projects which are mid-size and in high quality. Don’t spend too much time on building a portfolio single page with a decent design will work. If you want some inspiration for the portfolio you can check it out my portfolio
- Get Remote internship — Now this is completely optional for experienced developers and consultants. But if you are fresher then you should do at least 2 internships. It will boost your resume and you will understand that your good fit for remote work or not?
- Find Remote job — in the above section, I explained everything about finding a remote job.
Tips
- Get a clean workspace. A clean workspace will motivate you to work for a long time and peacefully.
- Get some productivity apps. There are so many apps that block social media for hours.
- Don’t become careless.
- Get stable internet. Invest some money on the internet because you have to attend online meetings.
- Try to find a distraction-free environment if you are working from home.
- Always ask about feedback after the interview. So, you can work on yourself.
- Answer the Interviewer enthusiastically and confidently.
Conclusion
It is not that much hard or easy to get a remote job. You should know how to sell yourself? Work on your skill set, build projects and find the right company which met all your requirements.
Don’t forget to like, comment, share and follow.
