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David Boddie
David Boddie

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Being a member of a remote team

I've been seeing a lot of listings for remote and freelance jobs. I'd like to know, how difficult is it working remotely and still being part of a team? Is that even possible? I assume that without complete autonomy with your code, that it's hard to keep a team dynamic or even keep your job. I'd like to hear what you have to say.

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joshuakeel profile image
Joshua Keel

Hi David,

I've had a remote teammate for over 10 years. I've also worked remotely myself for well over a year now. Much of our team works remotely 50% of the time. We communicate over Slack, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, and email.

In my experience, it's totally possible to keep the team dynamic. We have daily stand-up meetings on Google Hangouts, and regularly consult each other with questions, doing screenshares or even pairing.

It's certainly not hard to keep my job! I actually get great reviews from my managers and teammates. I was a bit concerned myself when I first went remote, but things have worked out great.

One thing that definitely helps is having a supportive team, and having worked with them in the same office for years. I had great relationships with my teammates before I went remote, and those relationships have continued to be good.

Does that help answer your questions? Ask me anything. :)

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dcboddie profile image
David Boddie

Thank you so much for your help! I'm currently in a IT desktop support position at a university and I'm learning Node and Javascript, hopefully to move back into web development. I've been out of the HTML/CSS environment for a while, and I'm nervous about leaving my current job to go back. I've been contemplating applying for remote work, but I think I'm a little too new to fullstack development, that it would make it more difficult for me.

I may have some questions, but don't have any at present.

Thanks again!