00:00:19.439
hi so I managed to catch a pretty nasty
00:00:22.400
cold right in time for the conference so
00:00:25.960
we'll see how long my voice holds out
00:00:28.199
and I'll try to reduce is sniveling to a
00:00:30.759
minimum while I talk so bear with me
00:00:35.680
please all right remote
00:00:38.559
work working remotely is kind of this
00:00:41.480
legendary opportunity that you have as a
00:00:45.160
developer or really anyone working in
00:00:47.760
the digital trade like the freedom to
00:00:51.120
work from wherever you want to it's
00:00:54.120
pretty great
00:00:55.440
right and it really is I mean there are
00:00:58.879
a couple of tradeoffs there are a few
00:01:00.719
things that you have to work around when
00:01:02.719
you do so but all in all it's really a
00:01:04.720
great chance to like go places and still
00:01:07.400
earn money while you do
00:01:10.240
so there is this assumption however that
00:01:14.000
working remotely is something that you
00:01:16.479
do when you're kind of like a more
00:01:19.320
experienced programmer senior is someone
00:01:21.520
who has a couple of years of experience
00:01:23.600
doesn't really need co-workers to
00:01:26.119
support them that much and it's not
00:01:28.520
really something you see all a lot of
00:01:30.360
Juniors doing and most companies are
00:01:32.600
also kind of worried about you know if
00:01:34.399
they have a junior that wants to go
00:01:35.759
remotely they're more like H maybe
00:01:37.280
that's not such a good
00:01:39.799
idea so my name is Laura I work as a
00:01:43.479
junior developer I also work remotely
00:01:46.439
and um today I would like to share my
00:01:49.320
story with you how that happened um how
00:01:52.680
we made it work and I'd like to share a
00:01:54.799
couple of points with you how you as a
00:01:57.719
junior developer that might want to go
00:01:59.960
remote or as a company a manager of a
00:02:03.240
junior developer that want might want to
00:02:05.039
do the same thing how you can make it
00:02:06.680
work
00:02:13.519
too so in
00:02:16.440
2013 after graduating from
00:02:19.200
University I moved to Berlin and started
00:02:22.360
working there as a junior developer for
00:02:24.560
a local startup so this is Berlin if you
00:02:28.160
photoshop it a little bit and and this
00:02:30.959
is if you don't Photoshop
00:02:34.800
it
00:02:36.480
so let's pretend this is
00:02:39.599
Berlin and um yeah so I started working
00:02:42.400
in Berlin I moved there I really liked
00:02:44.360
my work I enjoyed um what I did there my
00:02:47.200
co-workers were great and um so yeah I
00:02:49.840
worked there for a while but after about
00:02:51.840
a year or so going to the office every
00:02:54.680
day I kind of started to get bored of my
00:02:58.760
surroundings of being being in Berlin
00:03:00.400
being in Germany which is a great place
00:03:02.440
don't get me wrong but you know I'd been
00:03:05.159
back for about four or five years after
00:03:07.040
living in Bangkok for a while and um I
00:03:11.440
was just kind of starting to feel that I
00:03:13.879
wanted to be somewhere else again so I
00:03:17.200
kind of pondered this for a while and it
00:03:18.760
really boiled down to the fact that I
00:03:21.760
love my job and I didn't really want to
00:03:23.840
quit but I didn't really want to be in
00:03:26.319
Berlin anymore
00:03:27.640
either so
00:03:30.879
after I thought about it for a while
00:03:33.519
this thought popped into my
00:03:36.280
head that was well working remotely
00:03:39.319
would be the perfect solution for that
00:03:40.920
right I wouldn't have to quit my job I
00:03:42.239
could still stay with the same company
00:03:44.560
but I can also go somewhere else in that
00:03:47.120
case it would be Tokyo which is where I
00:03:48.640
wanted to
00:03:52.159
move and um right after that there was a
00:03:55.239
second thought there was like well can I
00:03:58.159
actually do that I mean I'm a junior
00:03:59.879
developer I don't have that much
00:04:02.000
experience like is that possible can I
00:04:04.519
like can I do that will that work at all
00:04:06.599
and how the hell do I get my company to
00:04:08.159
agree to
00:04:11.239
that so after thinking about it for a
00:04:13.840
little bit I finally decided to talk to
00:04:16.560
my boss about it because I mean the
00:04:18.199
worst thing he could say was no
00:04:20.720
right and um if you decide to do the
00:04:24.960
same thing I have two points that I did
00:04:28.560
before talking to my boss and I really
00:04:30.360
recommend that you do those too because
00:04:32.600
I think that were really something that
00:04:35.280
things that helped me to get to yes
00:04:36.800
after all or at least on the right way
00:04:38.720
to a
00:04:41.759
yes number
00:04:43.759
one find benefits for the
00:04:46.720
company if you just walk up to your BS
00:04:50.320
and go like well you know I want to go
00:04:52.560
remote because I really want to that
00:04:55.440
might be true but it's not a very good
00:04:57.080
argument like you know they might say
00:04:59.280
like well but what's what like what's in
00:05:00.840
that for us like why why why we should
00:05:02.759
we allow that so actually think about
00:05:06.160
something that like in you being remote
00:05:09.080
would actually benefit the company as
00:05:10.600
well there could be anything from for
00:05:13.039
example like I'm more productive when
00:05:14.800
I'm not in the office with a lot of
00:05:16.160
people around me that bother me all the
00:05:17.800
time or you won't have to actually find
00:05:22.000
hire and train a new
00:05:23.479
developer if you decide that you're
00:05:25.479
actually going to leave the company if
00:05:26.639
they don't allow you to work remotely
00:05:28.840
but don't just make some something up
00:05:30.360
like make it something that is actually
00:05:32.639
true um and in my case one of the things
00:05:35.080
that I used was if I actually go to live
00:05:37.000
in Tokyo due to the time difference we
00:05:39.560
will have a longer time frame where
00:05:41.639
people are actually awakened online so
00:05:44.000
that we can immediately fix stuff as it
00:05:46.039
comes
00:05:48.440
up and that way you you show right away
00:05:52.160
that you a thought about it and you'll
00:05:54.199
be not only interested in your own
00:05:55.639
benefits but actually also think about
00:05:57.319
what's good for the company as well
00:06:04.160
second prepare to address their concerns
00:06:06.960
before you show up and talk to your boss
00:06:09.479
about it actually you know there's a
00:06:12.160
really high probability that that they
00:06:13.880
will have some concerns or they they
00:06:15.639
will come up with some objections they
00:06:17.639
will worry about something about you
00:06:19.680
going remote so before you actually talk
00:06:21.639
to them go and research common
00:06:24.319
objections common concerns about you
00:06:26.199
know that come up in remote work
00:06:28.560
negotiations and find answers to
00:06:31.599
that so when they come up like in the
00:06:34.280
negotiation itself or when you talk to
00:06:36.479
them and this question comes up you can
00:06:38.800
actually answer in a way that's a
00:06:40.919
reassuring and B shows them you thought
00:06:43.120
about it and like you know you have a
00:06:45.560
solution to that issue if it comes up or
00:06:47.759
you have like a way to avoid that issue
00:06:50.960
like actually showing up and a couple of
00:06:53.639
the points that I'm going to make in a
00:06:55.720
bit might help you to answer those
00:06:57.919
questions as well so stay tuned for
00:07:02.000
those so after preparing that way I
00:07:06.360
finally walked up to my boss you know I
00:07:08.319
was a bit nervous so I walked up and I
00:07:10.039
kind of tried to catch him in a moment
00:07:11.680
when he was not super stressed and not
00:07:13.840
super busy that's actually important to
00:07:15.840
you wouldn't believe how many people
00:07:17.199
actually come up to you and you know
00:07:18.720
when you're like in work until here and
00:07:20.479
you look super stressed and they go like
00:07:21.960
hey can I talk to you like I want
00:07:23.199
something and I was like yeah that's not
00:07:24.360
a good idea catch them when they when
00:07:26.240
they're like relaxed and in a good
00:07:28.520
mood so I asked him for half an hour of
00:07:31.199
his time and I you know was like okay um
00:07:34.560
so I really enjoy working in this
00:07:36.759
company and I would like to continue
00:07:39.560
doing so but I also would really like to
00:07:42.000
move to
00:07:43.560
Tokyo and he was a bit surprised like he
00:07:46.240
wasn't super thrilled in the beginning
00:07:48.280
probably also due to the fact that I
00:07:51.120
would have been the first person in the
00:07:52.919
whole startup that went remote like we
00:07:54.720
didn't have any other person working
00:07:56.120
remotely at that time and meia Junior on
00:07:58.720
top of that
00:08:00.680
but he listened to what I had to say and
00:08:02.840
because I had answers to most of his
00:08:04.639
questions he was willing to think about
00:08:07.039
it and he just asked me for like a week
00:08:09.840
or two of you know time to consider and
00:08:12.240
he would come back to me after
00:08:16.199
that so after a while he did come back
00:08:18.919
to me and was like Laura you know let's
00:08:21.319
talk about this remote thing again I
00:08:22.720
wouldn't talk about that and I was a bit
00:08:24.479
you know like okay what's he going to
00:08:25.639
say now is he going to say yes is he
00:08:27.000
going to say no is he going to fire me I
00:08:28.680
had no idea
00:08:30.479
but it turns out that he wasn't
00:08:32.959
generally opposed to the idea of me
00:08:35.279
going remote but he was worried about
00:08:37.560
the
00:08:38.399
risk that we would only find out
00:08:42.200
afterwards like after I had moved to
00:08:44.640
Tokyo that this whole remote thing
00:08:46.920
wouldn't work out after all that would
00:08:48.959
have been a problem so we sat down
00:08:50.920
together and tried to figure out a way
00:08:53.480
how to minimize that risk which is my
00:08:56.680
next point
00:09:00.200
do a trial
00:09:01.800
run this is something that makes sense
00:09:04.079
for you as a junior who wants to go
00:09:05.800
remote if you haven't done it before and
00:09:08.200
for the
00:09:09.120
company because it will lower your risk
00:09:11.839
so what you do is a trial run where you
00:09:14.399
try out the whole remote working thing
00:09:16.360
without the person actually moving to
00:09:18.360
another
00:09:19.800
country so in my case we did it in two
00:09:22.920
steps in the first step I worked from
00:09:26.519
home from home office for one week at
00:09:28.320
regular German office hour so we were
00:09:30.440
working at the same time so we could
00:09:32.519
focus exclusively on the issues that
00:09:34.480
would come
00:09:35.519
up um because I wouldn't be physically
00:09:39.200
there and then in the second step we
00:09:42.279
faked me being in the Japanese time zone
00:09:44.640
that means for two weeks I worked from
00:09:46.120
home as well but every day from 4:00
00:09:47.760
a.m. in the morning until 12:00
00:09:50.800
noon that took a bit to get used to but
00:09:54.040
it was actually very good because that
00:09:56.000
way we could figure out how to you know
00:09:58.680
get around the issues that would come up
00:10:01.399
due to this time
00:10:04.560
difference
00:10:07.320
so the important thing about this trial
00:10:10.720
run is this this is the time when you
00:10:12.680
want problems to appear you expect them
00:10:15.800
to show up and you you iterate like you
00:10:18.360
you find a problem you try to solve it
00:10:19.959
you try to make it better then you
00:10:22.399
iterate so in the end you can actually
00:10:24.480
like make your work flow smoother and
00:10:27.360
not just blow the whole thing off
00:10:28.720
because it's like oh there's a problem
00:10:30.040
obviously the whole remote thing doesn't
00:10:33.399
work so after doing this trial run for
00:10:36.480
three weeks we had a meeting like we all
00:10:37.920
met up and it turns out that it all went
00:10:40.079
a lot smoother than we really had
00:10:43.040
expected and my co-workers were didn't
00:10:47.120
have a problem with me going remote at
00:10:48.639
that point because they had seen that we
00:10:50.240
could make it work my boss didn't have
00:10:52.680
any objections anymore
00:10:54.680
either and there I have my yes
00:11:03.399
so a couple of months later actually
00:11:05.480
last year in
00:11:07.279
October I moved to
00:11:09.720
Tokyo and after taking some time to you
00:11:12.920
know Orient myself and like finding a
00:11:15.160
place and
00:11:16.399
everything I started working from there
00:11:20.040
remotely I like you know sometimes from
00:11:22.360
home sometimes coffee shops or in
00:11:23.880
co-working spaces and I really enjoyed
00:11:25.720
being in Tokyo I liked um you know to
00:11:28.480
free them that working remotely gave me
00:11:30.800
even though like sometimes I missed my
00:11:32.200
co-workers but it was still really
00:11:35.360
nice and um we did have a couple of
00:11:38.600
small issues coming up but the two major
00:11:41.480
things that we figured out during the
00:11:43.320
trial run really helped immensely to
00:11:45.760
make stuff go Fairly smoothly right from
00:11:48.160
the beginning and that's why I'd like to
00:11:50.480
share those two things with you as
00:11:54.959
well communicate proactively this pretty
00:11:57.480
much sounds like a no-brainer but if you
00:11:59.680
think about it I mean it's not only that
00:12:01.200
you're not especially when you're in a
00:12:02.600
different time zone it's not only that
00:12:04.560
you're not always part of all the work
00:12:06.720
related conversations or meetings it's
00:12:09.760
also that you're not like a part of all
00:12:11.800
the Casual conversations like you know
00:12:13.560
when people work together in an office
00:12:15.199
they meet in front of the coffee machine
00:12:17.160
they go for lunch together you're not
00:12:20.079
there so you really have to make sure
00:12:22.399
proactively have to make sure that you
00:12:24.639
don't disappear from your team's Horizon
00:12:26.800
that you you know fall over the edge and
00:12:28.480
people and think about
00:12:30.199
anymore so if you have daily standups
00:12:33.959
like my team does that kind of covers it
00:12:37.560
like so you have actually you have
00:12:39.160
contact with them every day anyway if
00:12:41.920
you
00:12:42.880
don't really do make sure that you have
00:12:46.600
a a way to touch base like on a regular
00:12:49.800
basis and not only like not only
00:12:52.240
professional stuff like doesn't hurt if
00:12:53.760
you just like chat with people once in a
00:12:55.480
while or like Skype call and just like
00:12:57.079
figure out oh how's it going and stuff
00:12:59.720
just the same way you would do if you
00:13:01.120
were to meet them in the
00:13:05.440
office and this is really like don't
00:13:08.199
you're the person that's remote so don't
00:13:10.120
wait for them to reach out to you you
00:13:11.920
want to be really proactive about that
00:13:13.800
and try to touch bases often as
00:13:22.440
possible documentation writing things
00:13:25.240
down this kind of goes hand inand with
00:13:27.880
what I said before and but it's
00:13:29.440
especially important if you're not in
00:13:30.760
the same time zone so Japan is currently
00:13:33.639
7 hours ahead of
00:13:35.399
Germany that means it's pretty okay for
00:13:37.920
my team in Berlin because their morning
00:13:40.880
is my late afternoon thereabouts that
00:13:44.600
means when we do a stand up in their
00:13:46.160
morning the first thing they get is an
00:13:48.360
update from what I did during the day
00:13:50.160
and they can just hand off stuff to them
00:13:52.160
but after I sign off if they decide
00:13:54.880
something and they don't write it down I
00:13:57.519
don't see it the next morning I will
00:13:58.800
only hear about it when I talk to them
00:14:00.519
again in my evening and we actually had
00:14:03.560
that happening once where they in the
00:14:05.680
beginning they kind of decided you know
00:14:07.759
to change an approach how to build a
00:14:09.800
feature and did they forgot to write it
00:14:12.600
down I didn't know about it and I kind
00:14:14.759
of ended up working on something for a
00:14:16.360
whole day that we had to throw away
00:14:17.759
afterwards just because I didn't you
00:14:19.480
know there was no way how I could have
00:14:21.639
known in
00:14:23.320
advance and it's something you can
00:14:25.959
really avoid doing and in fact it
00:14:27.920
actually it actually ended up improving
00:14:31.079
my company's development workflows
00:14:33.120
because like that we suddenly had to be
00:14:35.199
a lot stricter about stuff right like we
00:14:37.079
had to actually properly assign tickets
00:14:40.240
or like you know GitHub issues like
00:14:42.120
write proper commit messages because you
00:14:43.959
can't just show up and ask like what
00:14:45.399
what the hell is that right and actually
00:14:49.000
like if you make decisions write them
00:14:50.440
down so people can everybody is informed
00:14:52.560
people can revisit
00:14:54.240
them so that was a actually a very nice
00:14:57.279
side effect
00:15:01.639
and there is one more thing that as a
00:15:04.800
junior who works remotely you probably
00:15:07.519
ask yourself or at least I did and that
00:15:11.720
is like how do you actually keep
00:15:15.000
learning and improving when you're not
00:15:17.360
around your co-workers all the time who
00:15:19.680
might like you know this is a very real
00:15:21.600
issue as a junior developer because
00:15:23.120
you're at a part in your career where
00:15:25.320
you're maybe not a complete beginner
00:15:28.639
anymore
00:15:30.240
but you still need you know guidance or
00:15:32.639
like you know support from your
00:15:34.120
co-workers and like on a fairly regular
00:15:36.480
basis and you still need to learn a lot
00:15:38.279
about the technologies that you're
00:15:40.440
working
00:15:41.480
with and um you really want to do that
00:15:45.319
because like this is not only you who
00:15:46.839
has a stake in that you don't it's not
00:15:48.600
only you who has a stake in becoming
00:15:50.279
better as fast as possible or at least
00:15:53.079
you should have but your company does
00:15:56.920
too so
00:16:00.839
do take a very very active approach to
00:16:04.079
make sure your improvement gets at least
00:16:08.000
as much attention as it would if you
00:16:09.680
were physically in the
00:16:11.560
office like do ask your pro your
00:16:14.120
co-workers for um pair programming I
00:16:17.759
mean like online pair programming is not
00:16:19.639
quite as convenient as um you know
00:16:22.440
physical pair program where you actually
00:16:24.199
sit next to each other but there are a
00:16:26.399
lot of tools out there for that so it's
00:16:28.120
definitely possible
00:16:29.440
it's very important you can learn a lot
00:16:31.160
so try it out and see if you can make it
00:16:34.480
work ask for code reviews and really
00:16:38.079
really make sure you get them because
00:16:39.480
that's also a very good way to learn
00:16:40.800
when people actually tell you okay this
00:16:42.360
is a part of your code that you could
00:16:44.440
write better in this and that
00:16:46.959
way and
00:16:49.480
um you can really do it in whatever way
00:16:52.480
you want but like something I've made
00:16:54.399
good experiences with or like me and my
00:16:57.240
team have is like the pretty regular
00:17:00.199
thing like the reviewer actually
00:17:01.720
commenting on your polar requests on
00:17:03.319
GitHub and then at s time or after that
00:17:06.319
um doing a Skype call where they
00:17:09.039
actually explain okay this is what I
00:17:10.880
meant and then you go through it
00:17:12.199
together and they will you know tell you
00:17:13.839
okay this is how you can do it
00:17:16.760
better and yeah pretty much like you
00:17:20.480
would um if you were in the office but
00:17:23.520
with the internet in
00:17:25.360
between also ask for General feedback
00:17:28.319
General feed back in the sense of like
00:17:31.160
your work performance since you are
00:17:33.720
since you kind of change to remote or
00:17:36.960
stuff that you could do better and do
00:17:38.600
the same for them like let them know if
00:17:40.160
there's something they can
00:17:43.039
do excuse me if there's something they
00:17:45.960
can do to make things more smoothly for
00:17:49.240
you and for
00:17:57.120
them so let's recap those points that um
00:18:00.440
will actually help you to successfully
00:18:02.720
negotiate a remote working agreement and
00:18:05.559
then after your remote to make it run
00:18:07.360
more
00:18:09.120
smoothly benefits come up with benefits
00:18:11.640
for the company that are like connected
00:18:14.559
to you being remote before you actually
00:18:17.280
talk to your
00:18:18.520
boss and prepare to address the concerns
00:18:21.520
that they might
00:18:25.720
have suggest a trial run and actually do
00:18:29.559
it before going remote this is a very
00:18:31.919
good way to find out about problems or
00:18:34.880
possible issues and fix them in a very
00:18:37.360
cheap and low-risk way it's also a good
00:18:40.039
a good thing if your your boss is a bit
00:18:42.200
reluctant like would this really work I
00:18:44.080
don't think it works and you can say
00:18:45.520
okay let's do this for two weeks or
00:18:47.120
three weeks and see if it works because
00:18:48.840
there's nothing lost if I work from my
00:18:51.039
home for for three
00:18:55.280
weeks communicate I don't think I need
00:18:57.679
to get the deeper into that it's pretty
00:19:01.320
self-explanatory document things write
00:19:03.760
things down so everybody knows what's
00:19:05.520
going on and can check back at all
00:19:10.200
times and definitely ask for feedback
00:19:12.799
feedback in form of code reviews learn
00:19:16.039
um learning like code reviews pair
00:19:19.919
programming is also kind of like very
00:19:21.760
direct feedback but like get as much of
00:19:24.000
as you
00:19:26.960
can so after after all of this let me
00:19:30.280
say one thing I do still think it's
00:19:33.159
harder for a junior to work remotely
00:19:35.520
simply because of the difference in
00:19:37.960
experience that you would have as a more
00:19:40.440
senior programmer as a junior you're
00:19:42.200
just simply more like more inexperienced
00:19:44.960
and that is a thing that is more
00:19:47.960
difficult but it's definitely possible
00:19:51.240
and it can even be a very good um
00:19:53.280
personal and professional
00:19:55.080
experience so I learned a lot while
00:19:57.240
doing it we even improved my company's
00:19:59.440
um workflow and a development workflow
00:20:02.600
while doing it and
00:20:06.679
um don't just jump into it like take
00:20:09.720
your time to prepare for it and if you
00:20:12.960
do that I'm convinced that you can
00:20:14.760
absolutely make it work for you and your
00:20:16.600
company to in a very successful
00:20:23.520
way I'm happy to answer any questions
00:20:26.480
you might have uh now or later thank
00:20:37.360
you uh what kind of tool communication
00:20:39.960
tools do you use for making sure you're
00:20:42.320
in touch with your team and stuff like
00:20:45.360
um pretty much regular I mean obviously
00:20:47.480
GitHub like comments and stuff we do
00:20:49.320
Skype calls for the standups we have
00:20:52.039
slack to write stuff down like we have
00:20:54.640
different Channel we have a channel like
00:20:56.000
for decisions that were made and like
00:20:57.679
you know what whatever comes up this is
00:21:00.440
pretty much it we do some emailing but
00:21:02.240
mostly it's Skype slack and
00:21:04.080
GitHub cool thank does that answer the
00:21:06.240
question yeah yeah thank you hi um how
00:21:09.400
long have you been doing it
00:21:10.720
now I'm sorry how long have you been
00:21:12.840
doing remote I've been remote since
00:21:16.080
October last year so it's been about six
00:21:18.840
months has anyone else in your company
00:21:20.760
started doing have asked to do the same
00:21:23.480
thing um since I started going remote a
00:21:26.840
couple of the other developers started
00:21:28.640
going remote not completely but
00:21:30.120
occasionally so for example um one of my
00:21:32.960
co-workers has family in Poland so once
00:21:34.720
in a while he'll just go over and work
00:21:36.840
there for two weeks or something like
00:21:38.840
that because now we already have the
00:21:40.320
processes established so it became a lot
00:21:43.640
easier and in fact we hired a a a
00:21:46.480
contractor for a while who was sitting
00:21:48.039
in the states which we never did before
00:21:50.480
because we just didn't know how to deal
00:21:52.240
with people who were
00:21:54.559
remote so it's actually made it easier
00:21:56.559
for your company to employ people
00:22:01.000
yes great thank you so much Laura if you
00:22:03.520
guys have any more questions for her you
00:22:04.840
can catch her during the break