I'm currently working remotely through some extremely lucky means (Company I worked with full-time let me work remotely for a year) and I would love to continue doing this full-time.
My biggest hurdle is finding a company that is interested in hiring a junior-intermediate remote worker. I just recently officially graduated and only have 2 years of 'real' experience and it seems most companies that offer remote work are looking for workers with 5+ years of experience.
When did you start this lifestyle? Do you find the benefits outweigh the positives? How do you balance having a family/wife/children?
I had 4 years of experience when I started freelancing. I quit my job with enough reserve to last one year and an half and moved to Southeast Asia.
I still continued to do a bit of work for my previous company but it was actually very difficult finding new clients and if I were to do it again I'd recommend not doing what I did.
It took me about a year before I found new clients with enough work to support me. Part of the reason for that is that it took me a while before I could actually force myself to work productively at home without anyone breathing down my neck. I found my clients with a combination of blog post and contributions to open source projects.
I don't have a family and children, I have a girlfriend who does remote work as a graphic designer so it works out well for us.
I really like the life I have now but it's true that it's not for everyone, working at home is not easy for a lot of people (I do recommend checking out local co-working spaces for this). You also have to enjoy spending time learning new languages and trying to adapt to a culture that's different from your own. Moving to a new place and getting everything ready can be stressful (I tend to be easy going by nature so that doesn't bother me)
I'm currently working remotely through some extremely lucky means (Company I worked with full-time let me work remotely for a year) and I would love to continue doing this full-time.
My biggest hurdle is finding a company that is interested in hiring a junior-intermediate remote worker. I just recently officially graduated and only have 2 years of 'real' experience and it seems most companies that offer remote work are looking for workers with 5+ years of experience.
When did you start this lifestyle? Do you find the benefits outweigh the positives? How do you balance having a family/wife/children?