remote working the survival guide for under-graduates in the era of lemi orhan ergin co-founder,

LEMi ORHAN ERGiN co-founder, Craftbase & Craftgate founder, Software Craftsmanship Turkey alumni, Sony, eBay, ACM, iyzico programming, since 2001 with love culture cultivator, with teams for years speakerdeck.com/lemiorhan this one are right there! I am an active programmer I am usually in that mood the others happen when I run out of coffee mainly on backend side

The way we live professional career has changed Thousands of new graduates join every year to sector Still our sector struggle with a huge talent shortage The meaning of education has changed in years Companies evolve to be distributed and people oriented Professionals are expected to adapt to new ways of working

Your grades are not important What is important is not your grades, or your order in top graduate list. It doesn't mean you don't need to work hard to get good grades from courses. What does it mean then?

Your discipline is important Your ability to learn new topics fast is important. That requires self-discipline of hard work, direct focus on ethics and building knowledge of the fundamentals.

Survivorship Bias Assuming one success tells the whole story and not adequately considering past failures about the story. i.e. when a college dropout becomes a billionaire, we assume university education is worthless without knowing thousands of fail stories from dropouts.

Unless you are gifted, the only way to survive is working hard and adapting to new working conditions Hard work, time management, planning and coordination, learning how to learn and soft skills are fi rst experienced while you are studying. has an average IQ like me

Remote work is the new normal 30% of companies will be fully distributed 90% of workforce don't want to work in of fi ce again Companies cut their of fi ce space by 50-70% Companies fear for losing talents to remote competitors Easier to hire better talents and be more cost-effective Chris Herd, Founder of RemoteCouncil 
 After speaking with 2,000+ people about remote work 
 Ref: https://twitter.com/chris_herd/status/1365272598767144960

There are multiple ways of working remotely • Sync, async and hybrid communication styles • Fully distributed or co-located team types • Same timezone or having timezone differences But there is no "half of the team remote, half of the team co-located" way. It is either remote for all or for no one. never try at home or in the office

It introduces... new tools new collaboration styles new communication challenges new responsibilities new expectations new working conditions new level of commitment new meaning of productivity new teamwork dynamics new role of management Craftgate team celebrating the coming of Gülşah to the team 
 photo from https://twitter.com/craftgateio/status/1364587566528258048

Note down who is responsible for what Take notes, please Ask for joining pairing with each teammate Ask for mobbing with the team Never skip a topic without understanding the meaning Don't be reactive, be proactive while learning Demand regular sessions from seniors to ask questions Use chat rooms for chit-chats with teammates Harder to onboard to the team Less time with the team for knowledge transfer Less communication, more dependency to documents Many questions but hard to fi nd answers from people Loss of passive knowledge sharing

Share status of the progress of your work regularly Join discussions and conversations for giving your ideas Take notes about the things you worked to remember Ask your manager for feedback regularly Ask any guidance from seniors for better performance Never miss meetings or collaboration sessions Being invisible on progress Harder to proceed on career steps Promotion rates fell conditional on performance Availability bias experienced a lot people promote due to relationships with managers

The stronger the culture, the less need for supervision Collaborate with pairing and mobbing Take notes and make it an habit Not every question needs an answer immediately Use collaborative apps, like Google Docs Align with your team/pair about how to collaborate Dif fi cult to collaborate Harder to reach experts to get answers immediately Cannot feel engaged and accountable Takes more work to initiate a conversation Being an introvert makes everything harder Harder to be accessible at the same time with others

Use pomodoro technique, turn off messages periodically Limit work in progress, do not start all task at the same timw Work on one task at a time, prefer mono tasking Ask for help when you get stuck on problems Encourage quick video calls or chats instead of meetings Work from different places few times in a week Change your out fi t after waking up Eat the frog fi rst, i.e. the most important task Align with the team to learn which tasks are important Use productive tools, like Basecamp, Zoom, GDocs, etc. Lack of productivity and focus Procrastination Overload by too many meetings, messages, emails Losing focus and motivation Easier to jump into social media Easer to skip working on the most important things fi rst Productivity losses by using wrong tools

Clarify anything that could be a misunderstanding Be proactive in speaking up Prefer face to face calls for important discussions Open camera and ask for opening camera during calls Be nicer to eliminate possible misunderstandings Prede fi ne agenda of each meeting Push the team to follow the agenda Communication problems Harder to resolve con fl icts For introverts, it can be hard to communicate enough Problems with written communication Hard to feel people, especially when camera is closed Productivity losses in the meetings

Include social breaks in your schedule Try working at co-working spaces or coffee shops Be more intentional about joining local groups or organizations Feeling lonely Fewer conversations Lack of human interaction Social media is not a place to feed your social needs

Create a signal to let others you are in focus mode For young kids, coordinate with your spouse Keep consistent work hours, make routines Escape, you do not have to work from home Home of fi ce distractions Interruptions from kids or family members Having not enough separation for focus

Take breaks and leave your working area Walk whenever you have time between breaks Sleep and wake up early, do your breakfast well Use ergonomic equipments for mouse, keyboard, chair, desk, monitor, lights Physical health problems Not moving and exercising Sitting for a long time without giving any breaks Not having ergonomic equipments

Have the best equipment as you can effort Get the best internet speed as you can get Have a backup plan, like have a mobile internet ready Hardware and internet problems Internet or electricity outage Slow internet speed, slow hardware Bad video or sound quality

Align with team about when to take breaks and when to leave Create physical boundaries btw living area and workspace Unplug after work and fi nd a hobby to switch your mind It is normal to have personal time, just inform your team Working harder Easier to burn out Work is in fi nite, there is always something to be solved People tend to work without giving any breaks Flexible working hours mean working all day long

Key Takeaways Be proactive to ask the things you do not understand Do not expect to be trained for everything Take notes and make it a habit Use ergonomic equipment, and fast internet Open camera during discussions Prefer pairing and mobbing whenever possible Prede fi ne agenda of meetings and keep focus on it Create clear boundaries with working area Do not forget to take breaks Always align with the team regularly Do not hesitate to ask for help

If you're searching for remote work, 
 never work at companies where... You are asked to live always in the city of the company Pairing, mobbing and collaboration are not valued Personal performance is measured by idiotic metrics

Ask questions in the interviews How do you onboard newcomers? How do people collaborate? How do you de fi ne the culture of the company? Which challenges of remote work do you experience? Which practices do you follow to improve remote work?

lemi orhan ergin co-founder, speakerdeck.com/lemiorhan