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Show HN: RemoteMore – We connect developers with full-time remote jobs

334 points| BorisBorisov91 | 6 years ago |remotemore.com | reply

147 comments

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[+] codingdave|6 years ago|reply
"Pass our screening" -- I both like this, and do not like it. While I agree that not everyone is made for remote work, most of the skills to communicate and work effectively when remote can be taught. So what are you screening for? The underlying personality traits that make or break working remotely? Or the learn-able skills?

Also, while not as important, it is worth noting -- for people like myself who have been working remotely for almost a decade, having to go through a screening is a turn-off.

[+] monkeycantype|6 years ago|reply
"and ask you to submit a short video to ensure that you have good fit with working remotely." I don't have a lot of confidence in the measurement of having 'a good fit'
[+] johnmaguire2013|6 years ago|reply
I am disappointed to see OP responding in this thread but ignoring this question.
[+] xchaotic|6 years ago|reply
We have a total of 30 remote workers in our company screen sharing etc daily. We also have a policy of not using cameras and not sharing faces by default. Some people like that for privacy reasons and most people turn off video to save bandwidth and screen real estate. Showing you face is a nice to have but if you’re doing technical work it’s far in the list of priorities
[+] ben_jones|6 years ago|reply
Just because all workers can be trained to work remote does not mean all employers are capable of doing that training for all employees.

There should be cases for skipping the training like yours, but it’s going to be necessary for a lot of companies who otherwise would burn 4 months failing to on-ramp somebody.

[+] Izmaki|6 years ago|reply
May I ask, how do you find working remotely? I imagine the freedom aspect is nice, and the fact that you don't have to spend x mount of hours every week commuting, but were there other deciding factors in your case?

Would you recommend a remote job over a job "on-site"?

[+] x0x0|6 years ago|reply
A guess -- as an employer, if it's just a random pile of resumes without any screening, I can't be bothered to engage. I can have that any time I like by posting basically any public job ad.
[+] jaggirs|6 years ago|reply
So learn these skills before applying.

Unless you are arguing from the perspective of the employer. Then I suppose you will have less offers. But apparently employers mostly care about the social skills (comment by op), so this doesn't matter for most.

[+] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
depends on how the screening is done. if it's a proper tech interview or a coding test then it's not much different than doing tech-interviews/testing as a service, like codility or karat
[+] eternalny1|6 years ago|reply
I worked remotely for years, then went back to an office environment, now am fully remote again.

If it's up to me, I'm going to be a remove senior dev for the rest of my life. No more offices.

There is absolutely no need. I work on very complex projects and am disciplined, but outside of that there is nothing special required. I discuss issues via Slack, we have occasional team video/voice chats when discussing issues that involve the whole team, and then carefully track issues in JIRA.

Can I play video games all day? Yes, and if the work doesn't get done I'll be fired. It's the same as being in an office. You get assigned work, you either do it or you don't do it, and if it's good and ready when it's due you either do more work or you're fired.

Zero issues with any of it ... and I'm not going back.

[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
Totally. Remote work makes work to be about the work you do, not some other thing such as hours spent in the chair, or office politics.
[+] rohan1024|6 years ago|reply
Are you in the US? I think it's easier for US developers to find remote jobs than rest of the world.
[+] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
exactly, in a few office jobs i either had a private office or i was sharing a room with people who were not on my team. i could have played games or commenting on hackernews all day without anyone noticing, or i could have worked just as well from home or anywhere else.
[+] donretag|6 years ago|reply
"Commission per hire: 15% of annual salary"

So basically getting the same fee as a normal recruiter, without them doing any of the work.

Lower fees will attract more companies. For the standard recruiter fee, I rather just use a firm.

[+] rohan1024|6 years ago|reply
They are claiming to pre-screen candidates which in case of remote job I think is not a bad idea.
[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
The recruiter fees start at 20%, and they are usually 30%+.

Also, with our service, the companies get instant access to lots of pre-screened developers, which they don't with recruiters.

[+] blisterpeanuts|6 years ago|reply
"We will review your profile and ask you to submit a short video to ensure that you have good fit with working remotely."

Why is a video needed? Seems counter-intuitive; someone's age, appearance, and presentability are probably less important in full time remote work (should never be a factor in any job, but the reality of course is that there is a likability factor for on-site workers).

The only thing I can think of is if some of the employers need to video conference a lot, and want people who don't look like hideous monsters, or some such thing. What am I missing here?

[+] firefoxd|6 years ago|reply
What's the relationship with the employers? I find the main issue with job website that are posted here is that there is usually zero relationship.

Meaning it's mostly information copied from the career page of companies. That's why most these job boards disappear after a couple years.

I suggest if you gather enough interest here today, use it to get actual connections with employers, even if it's a handful.

[+] dudul|6 years ago|reply
The "Developers hired through our service" section is super fishy. I googled the 2 devs presented and found their Linkedin. The guy hired "in Portugal by a Danish company" doesn't list any Denmark based company in his profile. The one hired "in Spain by a German company" seems to live in Eastern Europe and doesn't list any German company in his employment history.

Also, including Basecamp, Gitlab, Zapier, Trello, etc logos without having a formal relationship with them probably opens the door for legal actions.

[+] mooreds|6 years ago|reply
Sorry, what makes this different than all the other remote job boards that have been posted at HN over the past years?

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=remote+job+board

[+] tmikaeld|6 years ago|reply
Interesting how few still have a working website.
[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
That it is not a job board :-)

You create your profile once, and the companies contact you with remote work job offers.

[+] wolco|6 years ago|reply
Something doesn't need to be different. Variety helps the ecosystem as a whole.
[+] all2|6 years ago|reply
I don't want to have to add a photo to my profile. Doge.jpg! I choose you!

Once a value in the "city" line of salary selection is selected, I can't unselect it. If all I want is remote work, and I accidentally click that line there is no way (that I found) to undo it. Except for starting over. Which I did.

I'm interested in what you do for a "profile review".

[+] negamax|6 years ago|reply
Toptal has definitely cut out a brand name for themselves. But most good companies has their in house recruitment team. I wonder how RemoteMore will value add to them. This is one trend I really want to accelerate
[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
One thing on our roadmap is - resources (series of videos) on best practices for managing a remote team.

We see ourselves mostly as helping the companies to adopt remote work, and in this way helping the developer community. Most developers are ready to work remotely, it is the companies that need to get ready (as a whole, in general).

[+] buboard|6 years ago|reply
If you have any ideas, i m all ears (making a similar community)
[+] westoque|6 years ago|reply
One thing often not discussed with remote work is the legal aspects of it. It’s easy to say you want to work for a company on the other side of the world.

What if there’s a disagreement in the team and the employee goes rogue and puts the code out in public? You can’t do much unless there’s a legal entity in the country of employment.

[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
You are bringing up a very good point. We will build the solution to this - we will incorporate in different countries, and offer to take care of the legal part as a service. Then it is real employment and not freelancing like on other platforms.

It makes a lot of sense to allow people to work together regardless of where they are based. So someone needs to build the solution to make it easier/better.

Btw, Remote work doesn't have to be across countries.

[+] wolco|6 years ago|reply
What if they do it locally? The information is already out there. Having someone in jail doesn't help you.
[+] z3t4|6 years ago|reply
Would be good with an example video so you know what kind of video you should do with yourself.
[+] analognoise|6 years ago|reply
There's never any remote FPGA or circuit design work posted.

I know it's niche, but a ton of embedded stuff requires or utilizes them, and it's a relatively difficult skill to hire for. So you'd think it would be a great fit for remote work.

[+] SkyPuncher|6 years ago|reply
Doesn't that have a pretty big hardware dependency? That seems like the biggest challenge of working remotely.
[+] aivisol|6 years ago|reply
Why your contact address is in Berlin but phone number in Denmark?

Also: please fix "How does it works?" to "How does it work?" on the front page.

[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
Ugh that's an embarrassing typo - we were changing that page, sorry for that. I'll fix it tomorrow (it's late in the evening here at the moment).
[+] johnnyo|6 years ago|reply
Is there a way to see potential job descriptions before signing up?
[+] PorterDuff|6 years ago|reply
It sounds like a reasonable idea for another job shop who gets a cut, perhaps dealing with some of the contractor's paperwork over time. The more the merrier. Good luck.

What I would like to see are contractor middlemen who are more technically specialized. An embedded systems one would be a great thing.

[+] frequentnapper|6 years ago|reply
I've been working remotely for past few years and have been a team lead before and now am a consulting senior dev. But I would like to move into a leadership role such as management or even directorial. Are those available remotely?
[+] BorisBorisov91|6 years ago|reply
Yes, you should target the more mature remote companies. There are even fully remote companies (Zapier, GitLab and so on), so it's definitely possible.

The companies that are very early on their remote capabilities typically avoid hiring remote juniors, and remote higher-level management positions. The reason is that those levels require communication with more stakeholders which means more mature remote practices. Project management type of positions are typically not too difficult to have remote.

[+] k__|6 years ago|reply
I work remote for 4 years now. One year as employee and three as freelancer.

I think the last one fits me perfectly, because of the time/space freedom both freelancing and remote work bring.

I sleep till noon. Only work a few months a year and have plenty of time for my relationships.

[+] ilaksh|6 years ago|reply
I hope you are screening based on actual skills and not just what they look and sound like.
[+] lawlorino|6 years ago|reply
I tried making a profile and noticed a few points of friction:

1) LinkedIn syncing does not seem to work, had to enter everything manually.

2) required entry of end date of your current employment in the experience section

3) Spelling and grammar errors (e.g. "Freelancng")