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Ask DN: Product Designers! How did you land your Full-time Remote gig?

over 6 years ago from , VisualSitemaps | Design2Dev

Anyone pull this off right from the start? ( instead of transitioning from on-site > offsite )

I'd love some seasoned advice on this search for the holy grail of jobs.

My initial attempts shows that this works better for current distributed startups rather than the incumbent seasoned companies ( which is my ideal goal )

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks

8 comments

  • Katie MacoyKatie Macoy, over 6 years ago

    The same as any "getting a new job" process really - found some adverts for full-time remote jobs online (dribbble, weworkremotely, authentic jobs, etc), applied for about 50, got interviews at about 10. About 5 of those moved me on for second, third, fourth round interviews and eventually a job was offered.

    The main differences are that I had to send out a lot more applications for remote jobs than local jobs - I have a feeling remote jobs receive a lot more attention these days with the whole ~digital nomad~ culture.

    Other things to note, when a company says they're remote-friendly, they're usually not. I've found if they can find someone local who may even have less experience they will always go with the local person. I've had the most success at companies that are entirely remote.

    2 points
  • Kyle SKyle S, over 6 years ago

    I was finishing up my BA in graphic design at Portland State (PDX) when I landed my first salaried job with an agency (going on 2 years now). My program is run by some pretty rad design celebs so their connections to the design community was very valuable in finding me a job straight out of school. Didn't apply to a single place and I was fortunate enough to get interviews with a few companies before deciding on one.

    So my advice would be to connect with anyone and everyone in the industry, ask them questions, be friendly, know how to talk about your work and problem solving. Basically just show that you are a hard working and friendly person and the rest should speak for itself.

    0 points
  • John PJohn P, over 6 years ago

    Honestly can imagine few things worse than having to work with a remote product designer.

    0 points
    • Sebastian GrazSebastian Graz, over 6 years ago

      Interesting. Im curious about working remotely, care to elaborate?

      1 point
      • John PJohn P, over 6 years ago

        Working remotely is generally amazing for the person doing it but a pain in the arse for everyone else involved with that person. This is minimised with devs because they are able to get away with just chipping away at tickets. Yet it's still a pain for a designer who works with those devs when they're working on implementing design, means you end up having to have calls with them explaining stuff and misunderstandings arise because you can't just point at things together in real life.

        For a product designer, someone who should have discussions often with all stakeholders, devs, marketing, etc to not just be in the room and able to jump in on meetings or talk with devs directly without having to pull people into meetings just seems like it would be a nightmare to me.

        I don't think I know anyone who isn't annoyed when the entire meeting has to pause while the disembodied voice of the remote worker from the laptop starts rambling on about something that isn't an issue or a problem has been solved or a non-issue they have misunderstood by not being in the room and you have to sit there for 2-5 minutes and don't want to just tell them to STFU because they've misunderstood.

        Think as a designer you can get away with it if you have a specific role like as an illustrator but a product designer is meant to be a conduit for many parts of the company, not just a fire and forget job.

        2 points
        • Darren AlawiDarren Alawi, over 6 years ago

          Slack, Zoom and other remote tools worth billions of dollars would suggest you're opinion is in the minority.

          1 point
  • Account deleted over 6 years ago

    I saw a recruiter post on Linkedin. I was in New Zealand, the job was in Germany. I got the job, worked from NZ for a few months then moved the Berlin.

    0 points
  • Antoine Marguerie, over 6 years ago

    Just read about a different advice. Instead of mass-applying, select a few that really interest you, and set yourself apart by showing how you could help solve their specific problems. Worth reading: https://medium.com/personal-growth/how-to-use-angellist-to-get-a-remote-job-53d33f62532f

    0 points