Re: Cases for telecommuting/working remotely

[John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

Interesting thread.

I'm the recent recipient of walking papers from a MegaCorp who 
ostensibly has been backing telecommuting for a number of decades. I've 
been telecommuting from my home office on 20 acres of pastoral beauty in 
idyllic southern Vermont (better than a boat!)  for the last year, and 
if it hadn't been for issues with acquisitions, project delays, and all 
around "stuff" that's totally beyond my control, I would be looking at a 
nice future of telecommuting.

However, in the last month or so I've had to hang out my shingle as an 
independent freelance software technical writer.

I gotta say that it looks like one of the best things that's ever 
happened to me. Granted, it's only been a few weeks, but I've already 
established good contacts at virtually all the local software shops 
(thanks to Google and a few local professional groups). Nothing has come 
of them yet, but they're there and they know I'm here and I've had some 
talk with a few folks. I even got the chance to do a presentation for 
one of the local software developers'  groups and made some good contacts.

But I've also landed a great contract for a software company in the 
Boston area. It's over 2 hours away, but so far I've been down there 
twice in four weeks. Everything else I've done from home. And get this - 
they contacted me.

Since day one, I presented myself as a no-doubt-about-it, 
I'm-working-from-home guy. And they were so impressed by my credentials 
(!) that they were willing to offer me a gig pretty much sight unseen 
and let me work from home. On a project that has no specs. On a project 
that I have to access remotely through a VPN. With a developer, QA 
person, and product manager who I email, IM, and talk to on the phone as 
necessary. On a project with a very tight deadline. And within 2 and a 
half weeks, I turned in a darned decent (if I do say so myself) first 
draft of a help system that they thought was good enough to send out to 
a prospective buyer/user.

I have to put in a plug for LinkedIn here. The product manager found me 
by typing in "technical writer" into his LinkedIn account and my name 
came up. I then used LinkedIn to find out that I had worked with the VP 
of HR there, so that pretty much sealed the deal, and when it turned out 
the permanent tech writer they have on staff is an old colleague, well, 
the die was cast. If you're not already on LinkedIn.com, get there. NOW. 
It's sort of like MySpace for professionals, especially high tech 
professionals. Send me your email and I'll send you an invitation to 
join my network (especially if you know me and I know you).

It's great for both of us. I get a great gig that pays well, they get 
what they want, and it's all working out great. As I told the product 
manager - I can do everything from home except go lean over someone's 
cubicle wall, and I can call someone there to do that for me if it comes 
to it.

So - telecommuting is not just a pipe dream. If you've got some cred, if 
you've got the nerve to demand it, you just might get a chance to do it!

My 2¢,

John Garison



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