NYCPHP Meetup

[Steve Manes]

Mark Armendariz wrote:
> As for large projects.  While I agree that you won't easily find a big 
> gig when solo - it is very possible.  Every large gig I get usually 
> involves being invited to a team put together by one of my clients.  So, 
> sure big gigs can be difficult, but they are absolutely possible if the 
> right people know you're good at what you do.

Except for four years, I've been telecommuting since 1989.  Most of my 
jobs have been on the large side: 1+ years.  Usually, I work solo but 
I've been on teams as large as 15 developers scattered around the country.

A few of those gigs, like Operative and answerThink, started as 
fulltime/on-site but when the boss saw how much I was getting done on 
weekends and evenings at home, he or she told me not to come in except 
for meetings.  If nothing else, for them it meant an two extra 12 hours 
of work out of me every week that I was otherwise wasting on an MTA commute.

Successful telecommuting involves two things that an IT department 
should already have but too often doesn't: motivated tech workers with 
good initiative and communications skills and tech management that knows 
how to manage a software project, not just butts in chairs.