My mom took a PHP class with me in college, and she did some database admin stuff after that, but I think the last time I saw her she couldn’t remember what company I was working for or what I was doing.
It was definitely easiest to explain when I worked for Groupon. The funny thing is she would actually email me about Groupons for things she thought I needed… I bought a blender and a vacuum cleaner by her recommendation.
My wife tells people she doesn’t know what I do aside from make money…
The surprising thing for me working at a fully remote company for the first time (Seeq Corporation - over 100 employees) is that, with the right tools, I think it's actually better for junior roles that need more help. For one thing, there's a lot less friction hopping on a video call than finding someone at their desk. Another thing is that results are the only metric you have to go on, so you don't fall into the mistake of assuming someone is doing okay just because they're sitting in front of their computer and not asking for help.
I work at Seeq Corporation, which is also a fully remote company with over 100 employees (not on the list). We compensate everyone the same regardless of their location. The other companies that I've worked remotely for (Groupon and a startup) did not do that, and I think it's great. At Groupon, my compensation was adjusted for "Cost of Labor," not "Cost of Living," which was annoying since the calculation was completely opaque. When I decided to move they misinformed me about how my compensation was going to be adjusted.
Anyway, living in a city doesn't appeal to me, so companies that don't incentivize living in a city do appeal to me.
I don't believe the original example was contrived. It sounded like a real series of steps that this guy went through. But you're right, it's even worse if you don't have any idea what you're doing.
I have a friend who's a beginner pilot for a regional airline (American Eagle). He doesn't fly more than 80 hours a month and he only gets paid for the hours he's actually flying, but he has to be on call a lot (sometimes on call in the airport). And yeah, he makes like $20k a year, I think.
He was so upset with the airlines that he quit (also trying to save his marriage). But he loves flying so much that he went back to the same airline, and had to start over again at the bottom of the seniority ladder.
He says that flying is so much fun that he just thinks it's great that he gets paid to do it instead of having to pay to do it, ha. Still, though, he's enrolled in classes again so that he won't have to pay off his student loans because he can't afford the payments.
After he got some experience, he could come to China. They are paying major dollars for pilots right now with enough experience to fly a 737 or 320. There are serious shortages in the world that many of the pilots flying within China (and other countries in Asia) are not from Asia.
It was definitely easiest to explain when I worked for Groupon. The funny thing is she would actually email me about Groupons for things she thought I needed… I bought a blender and a vacuum cleaner by her recommendation.
My wife tells people she doesn’t know what I do aside from make money…