Coding on the beach

One recurrent question I get from engineers candidates I interview is: how is it to work remotely? You might tend to think that is like coding in your living room, on your patio, in the park or on the beach. In fact, it could be. And here is the trick: if the client (or manager) at the company you work for think that you are slacking instead of working, it doesn’t matter if you are the best remote developer in the world. The patient person you report to has to know how to work with remote people. Or at least, to have the willingness to learn how. If you think remote development is about traveling around the world, and you repeatedly miss the daily update meetings or become a moving target across multiple time zones, then it doesn’t matter how experience is your manager either. The healthier intersection is when both you and your manager understand one single fact about coding on the beach: you still need to ship.