Our ability to communicate over many different channels and distances has changed the landscape of how we work and socialise. When I was a kid we were unreachable until we got home near a landline. Now we have a myriad of ways of staying in touch. While this has annoying, distracting downsides, it opens up a new world for companies to engage in remote work solutions.
I started reinteractive as a 100% remote software development company. While not all businesses are suited to this model, I find that many software developers enjoy remote work.
Here at reinteractive, I feel very privileged to have access to some of the most awesome and talented Rails devs. I still have much to learn and through flowdock, our group chat app, I am regularly treated to some great tips and techniques as our devs uncover new and clever ways of doing things.
Last week, for example, I learned that the plural of corgi is corgwn. Yes, I know that sounds totally random and not at all useful, even at trivia night. But it is a great example of the wonderful culture we have here at reinteractive.
Working as an Operations Developer for reinteractive (a company half-the-world away from the peaceful refuge that I call home), has allowed me to not only get a competitive income, but to continue to develop as an IT professional. I work with amazing people, enjoy an encouraging company culture and have access to technologies, techniques and a knowledge base populated by professionals, in a way that transcends all commonly established barriers.
One of the problems emerging countries face is a lack of competitive opportunities for young people to stay and work locally after finishing college. In Panama, where I come from, a lot of college/university students who display talent tend to apply for jobs abroad, especially in the U.S. and other first world countries. It’s not that there aren't any good jobs here but, in certain industries like IT, they are very scarce and/or seriously underpaid. This situation becomes more severe the further you go from the capital.
I’ve been working remotely in my capacity as a salesperson since July 2014. I have greatly appreciated the opportunity of working remotely as I can help my wife run her law practice by occasionally taking care of our two young children. There is sometimes work that needs to be done after the kids go to sleep but I have helped my boss, Mikel Lindsaar, grow the company consistently for the last six months as the Sales Manager for Asia Pacific.
Most of the employees at reinteractive are developers. All of the developers work remotely and working remotely is a condition stated in their contracts. Some companies struggle with the concept of remote work and the struggle is largely in answering the question: "how do you manage a remote developer?"
The end of the financial year is that special time of year where everyone gets to enjoy the wonderful process of compiling your tax returns.
We are all remote workers at reinteractive, and in our online chat room today there was a discussion about what things people should remember to claim on their tax returns to ensure a maximum return. This was quite helpful to several of the team so I thought I'd put it online here for other fellow remote workers.
While growing reinteractive I have been asked many times how we operate. I've been asked this by prospective clients and by prospective staff. I thought it would make sense to write up a blog post covering the key points on how our developers and team work at reinteractive and what parts of our development process are important to us.
Having our entire team work remotely is a strong management point for us. Our remote team encourages focused work without the large distractions of an office environment. Of course, this means that you can't shout a question across the office, or go and interrupt another team member, we see this as a good thing. However, team communication matters so we have numerous Flowdock channels to communicate on each project. This has the added advantage of information being recorded, allowing for any team member to "get up to speed" on what is happening after a short absence by reading the log of what has been said.
At reinteractive we work 100% remotely. And when I say 100% remote, we have no office. None.
Over the past 2 days, Sydney (where a bunch of our administrative staff are) has experienced very heavy rainfall, resulting in a large social and economic impact on the city and greater state.
I made the hard decision to leave reInteractive recently. It wasn't easy for many reasons but at the end I decided to take on a new challenge. I don't want to go without writing something about my time at reinteractive which has been really great.
During the last 18 months I have had a blast working with this team, reInteractive is a fantastic company with a lot of respect and care for their developers.
