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I work as a software consultant with a mix of working from home and traveling. One woman I worked with got an RV so she could travel with her dogs, but that was frowned upon by management. If you live in a major metro area (NY-metro, Bay Area, Chicago, etc) where the company has many clients then you might be able to get away with minimal travel, but you'd probably wind up going to client sites more often since the clients won't have to pay for travel. These days there is quite a bit of work out there for software implementations.
My husband does level 4 system support and works from home without travel. He lucked out with his situation. He also worked as a programmer remotely at a previous job. Both times he started off going into the office but was gradually granted the privilege of being remote. In his case it was both proving himself to be reliable and luck.
Also, companies often change their work from home policies on a whim - Melissa Mayer at Yahoo and Ginny Rommetty at IBM scaled back working from home.
Melissa the same person who had built a personal nursery for her child. Must be nice to have such power, lol.
Cubicle Dweller that's sad if the lady is getting the work done what difference does it matter if she travels with her dogs? That's awesome for your husband at my current position we are permitted to work for home but under certain circumstances. I never quite understand it though the work we do literally can be done at home. Most of the workers I see are constantly talking or take numerous walks throughout the day to pass the time.
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Originally Posted by Blondebaerde
I work for a 2K person company in IT, Seattle office, where the bulk of us work from home or client site. Largest office is Irvine, the HQ, with maybe a hundred of us. I've spent bulk of last twenty years at client sites, in conditions from stupendous corner offices (never lasts) to gray walls that are not bad, but neither good. Only maybe five of those years have I had a real office. I don't care for it one way or another, that's not how IT is usually.
These days I'm continuing the salary march into truly "good money" level for a principal IT manager, but amusingly enough, I base myself from home. Other option is client's 70 building campus nearby, but why the hell would I want to go there and camp in some cafe or seldom-used office. I have a home office, chosen when I bought my primary residence as probably the hottest room (not in a good way) but with a decent view like all the windows in my house (it's Seattle, lots of trees, grass, and nature). Faces east, I get morning sun, for some reason is hot in in the afternoons, no big deal.
It's weird being in a home office, this will be longest stretch of nearly a year, I suspect, considering size of the client project I'm remotely managing. The solitude bothers me, though with really high quality VoIP headphones and video we do okay communicating that way. Phone has always been my least favorite, between written, in-person, and phone...but that's how it goes.
OP, too bad about layoff. It happens. But much to my surprise, when making an upward move year or so ago, the company's people at a big management consultancies are almost never in the office: why would we be, my home facilities have gigabit Internet! Remember, only 18 years ago offices had T1 and OC3 which positively buried home Internet, which is why we worked there in addition to security: being within the domains was more secure. These days, the inverse is true, which is weird but there you go! We're pretty well locked-down with VPNs so I keep one client computer on my right, locked up and tunneling through my Comcast Xfinity, other one here to the left for my screwing around purposes. I have 2x 34" widescreen Samsungs and need to find a reason for a third to complete about a 120 degree arc of monitors around me (chuckle).
Bottom line: whatever you do in IT may have a home component if you ask about it, or it's specified as part of the job. I "think" this will become increasingly prevalent over time.
Blondebaerde, thank you for sharing your story, very inspiring. I'm not sure if I need a change of career or just a change of scenery. It feels very depressing in the morning, I do feel more energized at home saves me an hour commute as well.
Melissa the same person who had built a personal nursery for her child. Must be nice to have such power, lol.
Correction from my original post - Marissa Mayer, not Melissa. Pretty hypocritical that she cracked down on remote work when she could have a nursery and nannies in her office. And she just received a big fat golden parachute severance when Verizon bought Yahoo. Agreed, must be nice to be her...
Yeah I'm not a big fan of human contact. Honestly don't understand how people can't tolerate being alone I'm single so it's just me and the dogs and that's perfect for me. I'm usually the first to get my tasks done, meanwhile the rest of the co workers go for walks or they spend their time talking.
Expert, I don't work in help desk I have not done so in years. I've worked my way up the corporate ladder and recently obtained a job in cyber security. The issue of course is within working these contracts there's many uncertainties. I have gained the certs and the experience even experimenting with projects on my own. A my years of being a federal contractor I have learned nothing can prepare you for a layoff. I have sent out many resumes and applied to many jobs. It's very frustrating to be contacted by either people who offer you help desk roles ( they don't speak english and the contracts only last 6 months or less) or for people who have jobs but low ball you in pay.
Federal contracting has been tough recently. And if you get caught with a smaller company or one that doesn't value their staff - it's basically butts in seats until the contract expires and you're done. You need to find one that have multiple contracts - which are typically the larger ones (LM, Deloitte, Booz, Northrop, etc.). There are some smaller ones that are also really good. But you have to vett those out a bit more.
But cyber is certainly an area where that's been the least hit. I used to do FISMA/SecEng work as a contractor and I'm always being hit up by former colleagues and employers trying to fill various roles and asking me if I knew anyone (Security Engineer, IR coordinators, threat analysts, etc.). If you are near the DC/NoVA area, they can't find enough people to fill these roles. That said - they definitely aren't lowering their requirements either for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, most require you to be onsite - especially the ones that have a clearance. But there are also a few civilian agencies hiring (IRS, various HHS OpDivs, VA, etc.) and those are typically remote.
Federal contracting has been tough recently. And if you get caught with a smaller company or one that doesn't value their staff - it's basically butts in seats until the contract expires and you're done. You need to find one that have multiple contracts - which are typically the larger ones (LM, Deloitte, Booz, Northrop, etc.). There are some smaller ones that are also really good. But you have to vett those out a bit more.
But cyber is certainly an area where that's been the least hit. I used to do FISMA/SecEng work as a contractor and I'm always being hit up by former colleagues and employers trying to fill various roles and asking me if I knew anyone (Security Engineer, IR coordinators, threat analysts, etc.). If you are near the DC/NoVA area, they can't find enough people to fill these roles. That said - they definitely aren't lowering their requirements either for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, most require you to be onsite - especially the ones that have a clearance. But there are also a few civilian agencies hiring (IRS, various HHS OpDivs, VA, etc.) and those are typically remote.
Really in my experience its been the opposite the last few contracts I've been on have been larger corporations going to smaller companies because " that's what the government want." I don't quite understand but probably money related.
I wish I had that luck the only offers I get are from recruiters who offer great help desk positions with "great pay." I've networked quite a bit..........but nothing.
I'm about 4 hours to NoVA, lots of jobs there, that's my contingency plan if I can't find anything that commute is going to be rough.
I don't mind traveling during the day however being away overnight would be hard with the animals.
One option to consider: If you work for larger consulting companies, they'll give you a daily per diem while you're travelling (typically adjusted to COL of the area you are staying in). Say you have to travel out of town 4 days a month, you can apply that to offset pet care for M-Thursday of the week you travel. Here in NYC metro, overnight pet care runs about $70/day (on average), sounds like you're in the DC metro(?) so it may be similar.
My point here is not to be flippant but to suggest that there are workarounds available, especially if the travel is infrequent and allows you to work from home most of the time.
There are not alot of work from home jobs as you can already see.
When there is 1 work from home job available, you are competing against the top tier people in USA from every state for that job. So you better be very good at what you do. Be prepare to have lots of people applying for that 1 job.
There are not alot of work from home jobs as you can already see.
When there is 1 work from home job available, you are competing against the top tier people in USA from every state for that job. So you better be very good at what you do. Be prepare to have lots of people applying for that 1 job.
I agree with your assessment - lots of competition for work from home jobs. Most people I know with work from home jobs started off by going into the office and establishing themselves first (just like my husband did). Or the jobs advertise as 50-100% travel without a requirement to report into an office when not on the road. My job advertised that way, but it's really only been about 25% travel in the time I've been there. I also know several people in sales that work from home unless they are on sales calls.
TBH, I find working from home definitely has its cons - I'm less in the loop on my company's products and what's going on in general. If my company's home office were within a reasonable commute I would probably pop in at least once a week to keep my finger on the pulse. Instead they are located a few thousand miles away. I'm on so many projects with so many other colleagues that at least I'm not out of sight, out of mind, but that can happen when working from home. I do feel that way when there's a slow period, though, and I'll usually ask for the OK to travel to the home office just to feel more engaged. I also find working from home to be somewhat isolating, but my introvert husband LOVES that aspect of it.
I worked in tech consulting for a few years. Depending on the company, you may be able to work from home anywhere from 50-100% of the time, depending on the project and travel schedule. For example, I did two longer projects (over a year each) where I was working from home in NY and flying to CA once a month for a M-Th meeting. On my next project I negotiated even less travel and only was out at the client site about once every other month.
It really depends on the individual job, but if you don't mind travel and airport hassle, you may find IT consulting to be an interesting change of pace.
I also worked in consulting. One company was 100% remote. One was occasionally remote but we had some 100% remote employees.
Depending on the project, some clients required no onsite meetings, and others required some. During my heaviest travel period - non-local travel was 1/month. Local travel went from none to 3 days a week, other days working from home.
In my last few jobs, working from home occasionally is fine but I prefer to work from the office. I found I missed the ad hoc conversations and collaboration of an office.
I don't mind traveling during the day however being away overnight would be hard with the animals.
I had pets and hired quality pet sitters and boarded the dog at a dog spa. Not the cheapest but in this case it was the best option. It all depends on frequency and whether you want that job enough.
Yeah I'm not a big fan of human contact. Honestly don't understand how people can't tolerate being alone I'm single so it's just me and the dogs and that's perfect for me. I'm usually the first to get my tasks done, meanwhile the rest of the co workers go for walks or they spend their time talking.
Expert, I don't work in help desk I have not done so in years. I've worked my way up the corporate ladder and recently obtained a job in cyber security. The issue of course is within working these contracts there's many uncertainties. I have gained the certs and the experience even experimenting with projects on my own. A my years of being a federal contractor I have learned nothing can prepare you for a layoff. I have sent out many resumes and applied to many jobs. It's very frustrating to be contacted by either people who offer you help desk roles ( they don't speak english and the contracts only last 6 months or less) or for people who have jobs but low ball you in pay.
You just answered your own question. Like you the older I get the less a fan of human contact I am. I’ve never been in your situation, but after being in IT for over 20 years I realized that part of my problem is having to deal with the same people, answering the same questions. They literally ask me the same question in a different format and try to make it seem they are asking me something different. One of the main causes of this is because I am here onsite every day. I am responsible for multiple sites across the US which don’t have onsite support, and 90 percent of the problems that come in are from the people in the office I work in. Last thing I want to do when I get home is talk to someone if I don’t have to.
I only work from home if it's bad weather, or logistics don't make sense for me to drive in to the office for a few hours if I have an appointment in a different direction from work. Even when I work from home I go a little crazy since I can't really go out to enjoy nice weather, or it's snowing.
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Must be nice to have such power, lol. 
