Brenden
I would like to know if coding could be done at home (basically, a stay at home job)
I am Brenden. I am in 8th grade & I am very intrigued by coding whatever the circumstance whether it's for a website or a smart program. #coding #software
10 answers
Hanié (Zahra) Jafari
Hanié (Zahra)’s Answer
Hi Brenden, To answer you shortly, Yes, being a software developer can be a remote job or even a freelancer job. These are 2 different paths, If you want to be a freelancer you need to develop network, make yourself portfolio and register yourself in relevant websites. On the other hand there are lots of companies who are hiring web developers and you can work remotely with them. If you have no software engineering background, you may consider,UI, frontend developer, or mobile app developer as a career which gives you freedom of working from home.
Tobias Deardorff
Tobias’s Answer
I'm currently working as a software engineer and I have worked full-time from home, full-time in an office, and a mix. I'm currently splitting my weeks in the office and at home, so it doesn't even have to be one or the other.
It will depend on the company you work for, but a lot of companies are comfortable with remote work and enable employees to work from where ever they may be. Some companies require you to come into the office every day because they have found that works better for them.
If you're interviewing at any point, asking what the remote working situation is like at the company is a good question to ask. If people are working remotely, has their experience been good? Sometimes companies offer remote work but the remote employees end up being a bit of an afterthought since they aren't as visible as those in the office.
Josh Barratt
Josh’s Answer
Hi Brenden!
The answer is yes, it can! I work at home almost full time. I have been doing coding and other related things like designing larger systems that lots of coders will work on, all from home. These days it’s very possible to do this work remotely, because we can collaborate with other people via chat apps, video conferencing, and online tools to help organize the work, document it, and so on. I am asked to travel sometimes to meet with other people in my business face to face, but for the most part it’s fully remote.
Some companies are more open to working from home than others, or they might only open certain positions to remote people.
If you want to see some real examples, there is a website called remoteok.io which keeps track of job listings that are open remote workers. You can also work remotely but be your own boss, as a freelancer — where you work for people by the hour or by the job, instead of as an employee — or fully independent, like making apps for places like Apple’s App Store.
Steven Ocampo
Steven’s Answer
Hi Brenden,
Over time more companies are becoming increasingly "remote-friendly", allowing employees to complete their work from home.
There are now many job sites that only list opportunities that offer remote work, such as https://remote.co/remote-jobs/. You'll find that many of those job listings are related to coding or software development.
Even if you're not interested in working from home 100% of the time, many companies in the tech industry have flexible a "work-from-home" policy, where they allow employees to work remotely a few days out of the week, for example.
Steven recommends the following next steps:
Brian Tarricone
Brian’s Answer
Absolutely! In general all that you need to write code is a computer and an internet connection. However, companies vary a lot in both how remote-work-friendly they are, and also how well they handle remote workers.
Some companies just will not allow working remotely. They might prefer to have everyone under one roof, for whatever reason.
Others will claim to want remote workers, but won't be set up very well to support them. Encouraging people to document things internally in a place where everyone can access it, making use of videoconferencing for all meetings, discouraging decision-making through "hallway conversations", and trying to accommodate different time zones and just people's different schedules are all important for making remote workers feel part of the team and help them stay productive and on top of things.
But, there are plenty of companies that both want to hire remote workers, and do a great job of supporting them. Even just in the last few years, the situation has gotten markedly better as employers realize knowledge workers and work from pretty much anywhere.
Angela Castanieto
Angela’s Answer
If you want to work for a company on a specific product, then you can join a company as a remote worker. In fact, companies are moving more and more towards having a remote workforce (basically, people who work from home and use video conferencing tools like Zoom to have meetings).
If you want to start your own company or be more of a freelancer or consultant, you can definitely do that too from home too.
Piyush T
Piyush’s Answer
Hey Brenden,
It's good to hear that you are interested in coding. I would start by making simple apps or fun programs so you learn coding while having fun. An Hour or code can help you with this: https://code.org/learn .
Once you feel confident, you can also explore these other sites: https://mommypoppins.com/coding-kids-free-websites-teach-learn-programming
All of this can be done at home. All you need is a decent computer and internet. Good luck
Joel Schnee
Joel’s Answer
Kathleen Carroll
Kathleen’s Answer
I am a software engineer who works from home almost full time. It really all depends on whether you are a freelance worker or what company you work for -- some offer entirely remote positions where you can work from anywhere at any time, and some require you to work during normal hours in the office. As the world becomes more distributed, however, (meaning, more people are working from all over the place on the same thing) I think a lot of companies are offering more and more work from home positions.
When you get to the point of looking for a career, I would consider whether you want to do freelance (meaning you don't work for a company, but take on small projects for other people and companies) or work remote for a company. Those are the two options that will let you work from home, and there are pros and cons of each. With a freelance job, you can work on your own time -- you usually have a set deadline, and you get to decide when and how you work on it, as long as the deadline is met. You can also work wherever you like, and usually you can just communicate online. One of the main cons to this, however, is that you are not guaranteed to always have work. Unless you are constantly looking out for work to be done, you may go a long time without getting any jobs. On the other hand, a company offers the security of always having a paycheck, but you most likely are working on their schedule and a lot of companies don't offer work from home benefits.
Doug Beck
Doug’s Answer
You may also find the book "Remote: Office not Required" by Jason Fried, et. al., a good read on this topic. There is also another site the provides a way to find remote jobs (https://www.flexjobs.com).