Rajnish

⚡️ Quickfire Round

Where is your current homebase ?

Keep switching between Bangalore and Jamshedpur.

Where have you travelled/lived after working remotely?

Worked from many locations for a week or so like Manali, Simla, Jaipur, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Goa and Singapore etc.

Highest education qualification ?

Post Graduate(MCA & MBA)

Occupation

Information Technology

What is your family/friends reaction to remote working on a scale of 1-5 (where 1-negative and 5-very positive)

5

How much do you earn per annum?

20-30 lacs

Years of total experience ?

10+ years

Years of freelance/remote experience ?

4+ years

When I think about the ability to work freelance/remotely, I feel ____

More time with family and friends

What was your key motivation for being freelancer/remote work

Gives me a chance to live a balanced life

🔥 Fireside Chat

How did you land your current remote job ?

In my first 6 years of career I worked with Mindtree and Tavant Technologies on a permanent role as a Java/Ruby Software Engineer/Lead.

After 6 years when I was planning to switch job i got one offer to work remotely and they offered me a much better salary compared to other non-remote offers. I was uncertain whether to join or not because I have never heard of full time remote job(work from home) before and none of my friends working like that.

I took suggestions from my friends and family, and it was mixed response. Finally I decided to give it a try as the worst case scenario would be looking for another job which is fine as I was confident that can I get one easily in Bangalore.

Do you have any rituals or habits which help you to work remotely?

Remote work does offer flexibility but I prefer to work on a fixed time slot (10AM-7PM IST). This gives me workday some structure without which I won't be able to be productive.

I like to go for a long walk in the morning. This keeps me active whole day and healthy. And the evenings are reserved for family time. Also the weekends are spent with family and friends and completing chores. This helps me to cut-off from work.

What is the biggest benefit of working remotely?

There are multiple benefits

• Better Income with Income Tax relaxation which improves your financial health.
• Saving of Transportation time and cost - I used to spend 2 hrs daily for office commute earlier and it's getting worse everyday in Bangalore.
• More time with Friends/Family as you can work from your hometown and attend all the social gatherings.
• Travel more as you are not tied to a particular place. It’s always good to see/explore new places.

• Pockets of free time open up which can be used to explore the areas you are interested in apart from work. Can be travel, food or any side project.
• Food. I know this one's a weird one but when I was in Bangalore I used to miss my local delicacies. Now I can actually go to different places and get a taste of their unique food culture. I still remember the mouth watering Gulab Jamun taste from Shimla.
• You get to be a more confident person as one has to cultivate the growth mindset. There is volatility in working remotely but it helps you to be stronger.

Do you see any challenges of working remotely and how do you try to overcome it ?

To work remotely we need to have self discipline and the desire to learn(attending conferences, online courses and books etc helps a lot).

In my initial days, I faced many issues like

• I used to work on backend mostly and not have much exposure to the whole application like server setups and frontend etc. I feel a remote job allowed me to understand other concepts as well. Despite being a backend developer, I did frontend and support work and now I am better off because of it.
• Didn’t know anyone who was working remotely and hence i got frightened in the initial 2 months but after that it was smooth. Connecting with other remote working people will help a lot.
• Small team size - I was the single backend developer working alone most of the time and that sometimes felt like there was no one to discuss problems with or to review my changes. There was always self-doubt. Taking help of some automated tools for review/scans etc will help.
• Health is another important aspect which many remote works neglect. I faced some health issues because I did gain a lot of weight. I didn’t like going to the Gym either. Finally I started walking/running in the morning that solved the problem.
• Finding focus during the work hours is a challenge as working from home means there will be more distractions. Now I have a separate room designated for work and I have instructed family/friend members not to disturb unless extremely necessary.
• I used to face internet connectivity issues in my hometown but it’s getting better day by day. Investing in a 4G sim router which is portable and having external antennas has worked wonders.
• Working alone remotely can feel lonely some time so stay surrounded by Family/Friends. As they keep you involved :-)

Where can people can find you on the internet (if they have more questions)?

Folks can feel free to reach out on any of the popular social networks.

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook