The Ultimate Guide to Remote Working Based on Personal Experience

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Where to look for remote work, how not to let clients and colleagues down, and how not to feel cut off from life. And also - the features of working in Bali.

In July, Tilda held a dedicated to the practice of remote work. This material contains the main theses from it: how to find a remote job, organize a workflow and remain in demand as a specialist. Also, Tilda employees shared their personal experience of how they managed to live in Bali and effectively cope with work tasks.

1. Formats of remote work

There are three options for remote work: full-time, part-time and freelance. I will briefly tell you how they differ.

Freelance

A common misconception for newbies that the only possible option for remote work is freelancing. But this is just one of the scenarios: you can find a customer on specialized resources and work with him one-time - to complete a project and look for the next one.

Permanent remote work

This is a format when you have a full-fledged job in the usual sense: you are officially employed in a company and receive a salary every month. But at the same time, do not go to the office and work from anywhere in the world.

Partial remote work

This is a mixed format: you work in an office, but the management allows a certain number of hours per week or month to work from home. Thus, you can independently plan the work schedule and use free slots at your own discretion.

2. Where to look for remote work

Sergey Bolisov

Employers have long understood that they should not limit their search only to Moscow. Thus, they can not only save on salaries (let's be honest, some employers pay attention to remote work for this reason), but also attract specialists to large projects who have already reached the ceiling in their hometown. Here are some options for where to look for remote work.

On traditional job sites

On, and other resources where offers for office workers are published, there are vacancies for remote workers. And there are many more of them than you think.

On sites for freelancers

Using services like,, you can try project work if you haven't worked remotely before. Perhaps one-time orders are just what you need to try out this format of work on yourself and decide whether it suits you or not.

In social networks

Both VKontakte and Facebook have large groups for job search. I can recommend the community "Vacancies for good people" (,), where most of the proposals involve remote or partially remote work. There are vacancies from Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. Offers from foreign companies are published occasionally.

In Telegram channels

For example, there is Pavel Fedorov's channel "", which publishes vacancies for SMM specialists, editors, copywriters, marketers. First of all, the emphasis is on remote workers. Or channel "": 50,000 subscribers and regular job advertisements in good companies.

3. How to get a remote job

Ivan Bystrov

A friend sent me a job for a support specialist at Tilda. When I looked at the requirements, I wondered if I could qualify. And here's my advice: don't be afraid to apply for jobs that you think are too difficult for you. Employers usually describe the maximum in the requirements and weed out unsure people.

The employment process went like this: I applied for a vacancy on HeadHunter and received a test task. It was designed for 30 minutes, but it took me 50. After the test, there was an interview stage. We agreed on a convenient time and phoned on Skype.

So I got to Tilda and started working remotely from home. There were no difficulties: I worked half the shift, went about my business, and then sat down to work again. It was cool because I used to spend two hours a day commuting to and from work.

Three life hacks to help you find a remote job

1. Find out if you can switch to a remote format at your current job. This is the easiest and most comfortable option. Talk to your boss and explain the situation to him: you don't want to spend an hour or two every day on the way to the office, so the only option that suits you is remote work. If this option is possible, agree on how the transition will take place. If not, think further on how to develop within the framework of this company.

2. Email employers directly. It often happens that the company you would like to work for does not have open vacancies on the site. Try to write a letter with a suggestion and a description of how you can be of assistance. It is highly likely that the company is ready to work with remote workers under certain conditions. Even if there are no open vacancies in your area, do not hesitate to offer your services.

3. Apply for vacancies with office work. Let's say you met a vacancy on HeadHunter or SuperJob that clearly says: work in an office, at such a metro station. Please respond and send a letter in which you describe in detail your professional experience, how you can be useful and why you think you should get this position. But clarify that you live in Kursk and work successfully remotely. Even large companies will pay attention to the letter if the specialist really deserves it.

4. Features of work in Bali

Seva Petrov

I worked remotely from Rostov-on-Don, but wanted to try living abroad. Therefore, when he found out that Ivan was leaving for Bali, he decided to follow him - when there are acquaintances in a foreign country, it is already calmer. Before that, I had not traveled either to Turkey or Egypt, I was not in the near abroad - for me it was the first big trip.

Regarding what our working day looked like: life on the island cannot be compared to life in the city. Now I am looking out the window, and there are concrete slabs, panel houses. And there are unusually beautiful views around: the ocean on one side, on the other - the sea, on the third - mountains, forests, rice fields.

It seems that it is not the workplace that is changing, but that you are changing. The environment influences you greatly. It is more pleasant to work there, even if the conditions are worse than urban ones. For example, in Bali I did not have a special workplace: I worked at home at a coffee table or went to a cafe.

We had one advantage - time zones. We could get up early, go somewhere or go surfing, and at 11 am local time we sat down to work - at 6 am Moscow time. That is, we had 4-5 hours in the morning and 4 hours during the break for rest and exploring the island.

Internet in Bali is worse than in Russia. Therefore, when there were problems with the connection, we went to varungi - small cafes where there is free Wi-Fi. And of course, we always had a mobile Internet with us, but it is quite expensive: 600-1,500 rubles for 30 GB of Internet, which does not always work.

Ivan Bystrov

When I got tired of working from Krasnoyarsk, I bought tickets to Bali, rented a hostel for the first month and went to a country that I knew nothing about before. All issues were resolved on the spot. Here are some tips for those who want to repeat our experience.

How to get a visa to Indonesia

You do not need to make a visa for a period of up to one month. If you want to stay for a couple of months, then it is enough to pay for an on arrival visa at the airport. It costs 35 dollars and makes it possible to stay on the island for up to 2 months without leaving the country. The only thing that needs to be done is to renew the visa after the first month. It also costs $ 35 if you do it yourself, and $ 50 if entrusted to an agency.

After the expiration of the visa, you need to leave the country and repeat the procedure for subsequent residence. In Malaysia, you can make a social visa (you need a letter from a resident of Indonesia, you can do it through an agency) immediately for 6 months. This visa can be extended directly to Bali, but you cannot leave the country - it will burn.

Where is the best place to rent a house and how much does it cost

Housing is not more expensive than in Russia, while the quality is better. The average option will cost about 3,000,000 Indonesian rupees - about 13,000 rubles per month. This is a guest house, in fact a small hotel. We lived in air-conditioned rooms with large beds and all comforts. The kitchen is shared for 5 rooms. Nearby there is a bar, swimming pool, bike parking. The price includes Wi-Fi and cleaning once a week.

How to get around the island

Unexpectedly, there is no public transport in Bali. Therefore, renting a bike is as obligatory here as finding a place to live. Prices range from 600,000 rupees per month to 2 million. In rubles, this is 2,500-8,500 per month. For 2,500 rubles you will get a moped to move around the island, and for 8,500 you will remove the Kawasaki Ninja and enjoy the speed.

How much does food cost in Bali

Prices for locals and tourists may differ by an order of magnitude. For example, a coconut costs 40 rubles - you can drink it and eat it. A portion of rice with chicken - 60 rubles. That is, for 150 rubles, you can have a good lunch and drink freshly squeezed juice, if you know where. I have seen such that the price of the same dishes increases up to ten times if you eat in a restaurant, and not in a cafe where locals eat.

Do I need medical insurance

Necessarily. I didn't need it, but my friend needed the help of doctors twice: due to poisoning and toothache. If there was no insurance, then 80-100 thousand rubles would have to be paid. Medical care is very expensive here.

5. How to organize work so as not to let down clients and colleagues

Ivan Bystrov

To communicate with colleagues, we use the chat in Telegram, where it is convenient to exchange anything. From time to time we test other services, for example, we change the platforms for the schedules - we are trying to find the most suitable one.

We also try to meet with colleagues if we intersect in some cities. Part of the Tilda team communicates personally, and we try to call up in video chats. For example, on Fridays we hold video meetings where all the support staff discuss the tasks for the week and say what needs to be added, what to look for.

When a newcomer comes to the team, we do not need to explain that we have remote work - this becomes clear already during the interview process. We, in turn, help him gradually get up to speed. We are only "for" if the beginner asks questions and marks us in their tasks. We help and do not burden the backend with complicated questions until it masters the main points.

Alexander Marfitsin

For a specialist who wants to start working remotely, I can give three simple tips.

• Allocate a zone in your apartment where you will work. Keep no one in there for a cannon shot throughout the day. If you don't abstract yourself, you will be tugged all day, and you will not work normally.
• Do not spare money for a good chair and table.
• Run, swim, go to the gym, play soccer, basketball, practice yoga. Choose whatever you want, but be sure to be physically active.

Seva Petrov

Most of our communication takes place on Telegram. But we also use a great Trello task manager. We put our wishes, tasks, bugs there. And when the tasks are solved, we add new ones.

Sometimes non-trivial tasks arise, for example, when users ask for features that we did not even think about. We look at the reaction of users: if 30-40 identical requests are collected, then we must pass them on to the developers for consideration.

We have built a small hierarchy: we communicate with users, identify requests and bugs, and pass them on to front-end or back-end specialists. If for a good answer I need the developer's help, then I send him to a special chat.

Tanya Abrosimova

It turned out to be very simple to build processes. For a year I worked remotely in Moscow, and now in Tbilisi. All our working communication is concentrated in Telegram, supplemented by Trello and Google Docs. It turned out that everything can be done remotely.

But there are some peculiarities: at remote work, my sleep regime is out of order, so I can wake up at 12 noon, and fall asleep at 4 in the morning. Therefore, I can write to my colleagues at 3 am. But I never demand an immediate response. If they have a different regime, they will just do the job when it suits them. It often happens that when I wake up, they have already sent me the results.

Alexander Marfitsin

To build processes when working with remote workers, you don't need to do something unusual: you just explain to them how everything happens. Any adequate person will be able to work remotely. And if he cannot, then he will not cope in the office either. To remain a sought-after specialist at a distance, you need to do the same thing as in a regular job: do your job well, be in touch and be able to communicate with people.

6. How to work outside the office and not feel out of touch with life

Sergey Bolisov

One of the frequent problems of remote workers, with which many of my colleagues are familiar, and I myself have experienced it sometime, is a kind of isolation from the world. Personally, I have two ways to deal with this. The first way - I artificially invent for myself reasons to leave the house. Even if I don’t need anything in the store, I’ll figure out what to buy in order to walk another 10-15 minutes. And the second way is travel.

Seva Petrov

When I worked in the office, everyone around me was chatting, talking, and by the end of the working day, communication is enough for you. At remote work, this is not at all the same - there is a lack of communication. Therefore, I want to go out, talk, take a walk. In my free time, I hang out with my family and friends.

Traveling is a reboot and helps you cope with spending most of your time at home.

Ivan Bystrov

Socialization has not been canceled, I meet with friends. But I also have two more life hacks. Once a week I go out to work in a coworking space or a cafe for the whole day. There is nothing difficult in this, in Russia it is easy to find a place with good internet. The second thing that cheers me up is extreme sports. I do something like this two or three times a week. Wakeboarding, skiing, surfing, bungee jumping … After such an activity, it was as if you had not worked for a whole year and started all over again. Only with the experience that I have already accumulated.

Alexander Marfitsin

If we compare office and remote work, the office is still preferable for me. But the secret is that you can't work in one place for too long. The best thing about the office is that it is a special place where people come to work - you don’t lie there in your underpants on the couch. But if you sit in the office for too long, then productivity decreases. Therefore, when freelancing, I constantly went to cafes, libraries, coworking spaces.

7. What will help to remain in demand as a specialist

Sergey Bolisov

I have two pieces of advice from personal experience and the experience of my colleagues that will help you stay in demand. Both of these tips are based on the assumption that any remote employee is hidden from the sight of large companies and well-known HR professionals.

Get out to public events

At least from time to time, once every six months or a year, go to a major conference in Moscow or St. Petersburg. This is an opportunity to ask questions to colleagues and experts, to learn something new, to meet people. This will help you become more visible in your field.

Share your work

Everyone has something to tell. Share interesting things from your experience on your blog, social networks, Telegram channel or YouTube. If you are engaged in SMM, tell us how the new mechanics were applied in social networks. If you are a designer, tell us about new approaches to infographics. Or show something interesting going on in your work. Share this so that the people and subscribers around you will see how you can be useful. And when they have a need to hire an employee with the same skills, they will remember you. Even if they are in Moscow, and you are in Novosibirsk.

Tanya Abrosimova

I've been working remotely for a year now, and in my opinion, this is the best thing that can happen to a person. But this realization did not come immediately.

At the very beginning, it was difficult when it was necessary to learn how to switch from the state "I am resting at home" to the state "but I am already working." I did not have a workplace, and the sofa was so inclined to just lie. Friends gave advice on self-organization: equip the workspace in order to draw a clear demarcation, start a work circle, and even change into work clothes. Very good advice that I did not use. It turned out that the most effective thing for me is to make a list of tasks, complete them and cross them out.

There was a lack of socialization. In the office, between tasks, you could chat with colleagues, exchange jokes, play, and go to the bar in the evening. The large open space disposed to this - many colleagues, many friends. And when you work remotely, during the break between tasks, the maximum you can go to the kitchen to fry the cutlets.

If we compare the results of remote and office work, then outside the office, personal effectiveness is higher. What was a plus in terms of socialization turned out to be a minus: when you are distracted with laughter by your colleagues and flooded in the chat, the likelihood of working with concentration drops to zero. Therefore, in the past, I did most of the tasks at home, when no one writes or bothers.