Can I work from home?

July 21, 2011 6:19 AM

What are the legitimate options for full time, stable work-from-home jobs for a skilled techie?

I found some previous discussions of working from home here, but the circumstances seemed fairly different from mine.

I want to be able to work from home, anywhere in the US I feel like. Some travel is ok. 25% travel or so sounds reasonable. I am highly experienced as a software engineer and product manager with marquee company names on my resume. I make a six figure income and need to continue doing so (I'm sorry for being blunt about this, but that's part of why I'm anon here, and I think it's very relevant to the question).

I DO NOT want to freelance, consult, be a contractor or anything of that nature. I want a full time, stable, salaried job that does not require me to commute in to an office. I am not married to a specific job title or type of work. If there are career changes I could make that would build on my existing skills (i.e. I don't want to start again at the ground floor, and I need to keep a good income), I'm open to that. All else being equal, I prefer PM work over programming work. I'm an excellent writer, though I'd forgive you for doubting it after reading this hastily-composed question.

Is this possible? What are my options? There are a lot of scams, low level data entry jobs, etc. when I search online. It's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'd like some help narrowing down my search, and understanding what really is possible.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Most of the people I know professionally who do this worked it out by being re-hired by a former supervisor who knew and trusted them. In my case, it was a boss from a couple jobs back who was at a new company and needed someone he could trust.

The smaller subset will be companies that embrace remote working generally. An example that comes to mind is IBM, at least on the specific projects I've interacted with them on their PMs and non-datacenter technical staff all work from home offices. There must be more like that, perhaps you could compile a list?
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:36 AM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

My company (the one I work for) is 100% remote with limited travel, and your salary requirements are not necessarily a deal breaker. We are currently looking for developers that work primarily on the MSFT stack.

If interested let's discuss over memail
posted by askmehow at 7:34 AM on July 21, 2011

When I did software development at Bank of America a couple years ago, they were big on telecommuting and lots of my co-workers did. Their positions weren't specifically designed to be telecommuting positions; I'm not sure if it would be clear from B of A job postings whether telecommuting is an option or not. It was a decent place to work if you don't mind the usual big-company issues. Bennies were good, salaries were competitive.
posted by magicbus at 7:55 AM on July 21, 2011

Technical writing is a great job to do remotely. At my current employer, where the vast majority of people work on site, I can think of several technical writers that spend most time at home.

Six figures for technical writing is pushing it though. You can do high five figures.
posted by crazycanuck at 8:16 AM on July 21, 2011

Any job whose function doesn't mandate being in a specific place can be full time telecommute if the company values you enough to allow it. Have you talked to your current employer? Be prepared to walk if they won't consider it, either on faith or by having another job lined up.

I'm 80% telecommute as Dir of Sales and Marketing for a software company. I go into the office one day a week.
posted by COD at 12:14 PM on July 21, 2011