Post: #1

What up my shield brothers,

you might know me from threads like Affiliate Marketing Datasheet and that’s probably it. This thread will be about my most recent (and most glorious) endeavor - working as an IT Consultant living on my own terms, as well as travelling the world while working remotely. Well, that’s the idea, at least. I'm still at the beginning of this path and all data and updates will come in time.

Formal Career Goals

I want to be as location independent as possible to do as much travel as I want and to live on my own terms. I don't need to be 100% location independent all the time - for now. I am okay with working overtime to take time off to go travel somewhere else, as well as working e.g. 50% while travelling and so on. I don't need to be self-employed (for now), if I can live on my own terms and my co-workers don't annoy me (not the case). I'm not particularly interested in getting more money if it involves sacrificing my time, energy and independence. As long as I can (could) feed a family and own property I'm good.

Professional Background

I studied Applied IT Science and didn't think I would work in that field, as I wasn't too passionate about it. I dabbled in other fields like Marketing and Fitness, and wasted a lot of time trying to make ends meet while my Girls 2000km away faded away slowly (more on that later).

Personal Goals (not relevant to topic, but in case you are interested)
- Learning Russian. I'm frustrated about how little I know after 1 year of doing just a little bit on the side. It seems that I need to increase my effort. My work will be highest priority, though and it’s going to be challenge to combine the mental effort of becoming a Server Pro and Learning a language
- (Re-)Visiting Russia as soon possible (April). I haven't been successful in the last year: No money and/or no time. Currently I have (/used to have) about 3 quasi girlfriends there and saying Goodbye tears my soul apart as I know I won't be back for many months. Many shitty, lonely months. On the bright side, it gives me a lot of motivation to do something about my situation and push onwards.
- Levelling up my day game, making my approaches more consistent and natural. It's the most glorious thing to go to a girl and talk her up. Usually you get the highest quality of girls, too. Looking forward to meet Vinny in summer and get coached by him.
- Within 5 years: Getting a traditional, European wife, getting a homestead on the country side and have many children and survive the decline. Maybe get the fuck out of Germany before shit hits the fan.
- Maybe I will blog about that, too.

here I will log about

- If it possible to become location independent and work remotely (yes), and to what degree
- If yes, how would you go there to do something similar? Is it a feasible path if you don't have an IT Background?
- The challenges I experience on my epic journey of glory

Make sure to keep an eye out for updates.

Post: #2

Subscribed because I am looking to get out of Germany at some point just like you.

Where is the question but location independence is a beautiful thing to have.

Post: #3

What do you plan to do to earn money when location independent?

With server administration, I imagine it will be hard to be location independent. Two things --

First, companies don't like their employees running around rogue and logging in from different locations. IT departments are overzealous about cybersecurity and you can easily get locked out, unless you log in through a static IP address. VPN might help, but still it'd look dodgy to your IT department.

2nd, server administration needs a lot of on-site work. Installing and setting up server hardware, configuring them, etc. I don't think you can do everything off-site. 50/50 maybe, but what if a server goes down and you're 3,000 miles away?

A better location independent path with an IT background is web development. But I used to be in IT, and I actually quit web development for several reasons. What I do now has nothing to do with IT, in fact.

IT consulting? You could do all that through skype meetings, but I imagine a lot of companies will want to meet with you in person at least for the initial meeting... and give you a tour of their facilities, etc. They may ask you to work on-site, too.

I'm not saying this to burst your bubble, but unless you're the top 10% of full-stack web developers working through an agency that allows remote work... it's hard to see how you can become location independent with IT work.

Post: #4

Quote:What do you plan to do to earn money when location independent?

With server administration, I imagine it will be hard to be location independent. Two things --

First, companies don't like their employees running around rogue and logging in from different locations. IT departments are overzealous about cybersecurity and you can easily get locked out, unless you log in through a static IP address. VPN might help, but still it'd look dodgy to your IT department.

I've been thinking about the limitations and problems as well. I'm working in an IT Consulting corporation - we are our IT department, so to speak. We work with VPN, some co-workers exclusively from home (2nd,3rd level support and network programers) or on-site (dedicated IT Consultants). We have certain Security Policies and Protocols in place.

Quote:2nd, server administration needs a lot of on-site work. Installing and setting up server hardware, configuring them, etc. I don't think you can do everything off-site. 50/50 maybe, but what if a server goes down and you're 3,000 miles away?

These are the reasons I made concessions and am not planning doing an “exclusively remote” job. All in all, I am not working alone with clients and workloads can be shared or distributed – one month I’m responsible for 3rd level support, the next month my co-worker is and so on. How it will look in practice and how I manage will be part of this topic

Quote:IT consulting? You could do all that through skype meetings, but I imagine a lot of companies will want to meet with you in person at least for the initial meeting... and give you a tour of their facilities, etc. They may ask you to work on-site, too.

Many companies prefer remote work, as they don’t have to pay you extra for on-site work. It’s the most interesting phenomenon that has emerged in the last years with the rising technologies of virtualization and SaaS. It's the paradigm of our business (I know other IT-Consulting business with different views) And, like I said, I am realistic (and open) about not being completely location independent all the time (going full digital nomad isn't my aim, but let's find out if it's technically possible).

Quote:I'm not saying this to burst your bubble, but unless you're the top 10% of full-stack web developers working through an agency that allows remote work... it's hard to see how you can become location independent with IT work.

Let’s find out!

Quote:Subscribed because I am looking to get out of Germany at some point just like you.

Where is the question but location independence is a beautiful thing to have.

I will cross that bridge when I come to it. There will be a seperate blog about this (highly political) topic. This thread is just an experiment, exploring new technical frontiers.

Post: #5

Thank you for this thread - subscribed!

Quote:Is is feasible to work somewhat location independent without an background in IT?

There is no real yes or no answer I would say. If you don't have an IT background then you could probably work something else which would give you the option to be location independent. Or at least you can do it for 2-5 months and than go on vacation for a month or longer before you return.

Non IT background:
You could become a commercial truck driver and work long-haul. You drive a couple of missions and than take a month off before you call your boss to give you a new work order. Being a truck driver can be fulfilling because you are your own boss on those trips. No office gossip and stuff like that.

Or you try the route of being an English teacher in Asia. Teach half a year in Bangkok before you are heading over to Saigon for example. Maybe this could be something for you to reflect on.

Copy-writing?

IT background:
Because you have an IT background why not leverage on that. I saw your affiliate data sheet and for me this means you have knowledge on this particular topic. Personally I hate it nowadays because it is so fluctuating and all in all I don't really like the people who are working in this field. But this can be completely different in your case, it's not clear to me from you initial post.

There is a company which is set up completely remote with no real office, they do social media stuff. Maybe you could apply there. Info: https://open.buffer.com/distributed-team-benefits/

You wrote that you were dabbling in the fitness niche? It could be a possibility to work for one of those big Fitness-Youtubers and just be a customer service employee. If you could arrange that you don't want to work stationary during the contract design it could work out at the end. Of course the payment is not high but answering a telephone call or reply to emails from customers is something you can do anywhere where you have access to fast internet (eg. Bangkok).

The best thing would probably be to find an employer which gives you tasks for a certain period of time (project based work) and lets you go on sabbaticals more than once per year. But finding this is really difficult I presume.

An other idea would be to look for jobs on oil rigs. They have long shifts but only work for a couple of month I heard. If that is the case for office workers there too, I don't know.

Just a reminder: Keep in mind that when you work on-off in a year that you will lose percentages of you pension entitlement which means you would have to provide privately in one or another way.

I don't really understand the idea of leaving Germany but if you really hate it here or don't see a bright future than so be it.

If you decide to buy a homestead please blog about it. I also want to do this in the not so distant future.

Post: #6

Subscribed.

I'm looking to do the same thing, I have a few hundred quid coming in a month, for hosting a web application I built for a client, and I do under an hour's work a month to keep that going. I'm looking to increase this by selling this client add-ons, that will land me further lump sum payments as well as increased recurring payments.

Once I've gotten to about £10k a month I think that'll be enough to quit contracting working for other people.
I'm not going to go remote without having multiple clients, or whilst working for someone else, because then I'd be one "firing" away from having to return back to England, or wherever. So I'm going to wait and do it properly

Post: #7

Here is another guy who is looking for a remote programming job.
Whenever I see a remote job opportunity on Stackoverflow, I'm motivated to work hard to improve my programming skill, so that I can get a chance to work in the place I'm interested in.

Now I've been working on my own web app project. Once this is completed, I would publish it so that I can appeal to employers in other countries.

...By the way, OP and kirdiesel are apparently in Germany.
Germany is in the middle of Europe, so it won't be so difficult visit EE/FSU countries, I think.
Honestly I'd like to live in either Germany or Austria, because I'm a fan of Czech and Slovakia.

Post: #8

Thanks to the OP for this post, I am always on the lookout, searching topics like this, why? because working remotely from anywhere in the world is one of my main goals. I have experience in IT and proper background but without a degree. I am currently studying Linux to become an Administrator, and later will probably add AWS, LFCSA or RHCSA. I was told that you cant work remotely if you are a Linux Admin, but you will have more chances if you do AWS and or cloud computing, does any one of you guys have any Linux experience working from home and how feasible is that, you know, managing users, groups, etc but without having to be in an office? I know that if you work in a data center it s very likely that you will be called to be on site IF there is any HW issue. Any thoughts?
Thanks

Jay

Post: #9

(04-12-2017 05:10 PM)TravellerJay Wrote:  I am currently studying Linux to become an Administrator, and later will probably add AWS, LFCSA or RHCSA. I was told that you cant work remotely if you are a Linux Admin, but you will have more chances if you do AWS and or cloud computing, does any one of you guys have any Linux experience working from home and how feasible is that, you know, managing users, groups, etc but without having to be in an office? I know that if you work in a data center it s very likely that you will be called to be on site IF there is any HW issue. Any thoughts?
Thanks

Jay

I don't want squash your dreams but I doubt that you can go anywhere remotely with Linux admin or even engeneering, usually those are system used in production so you need to have a direct access (on site) to the data center.
Now you can find jobs anywhere in the world knowing your stuff in Linux and system architecture and that might be a good point.
If you want to work remotely go in the DEV département, make some extra cash selling scripts and programs to editors facilitating the integration of their solution.
That's what I'm aiming for right now.

Post: #10

What happened in the mean time?

I've been working really hard on my career now, and here's what I can say:

Some insider info: If you are looking into Server Administration, think about Exchange Servers. My company was DESPERATELY looking for an Exchange Expert. Only one suitable application. One! And that guy wanted 100k €, which is considered on the upper end. I checked the average salary scales and they don't quite reflect that situation. Naturally, experience plays a big role. What's also interesting is the fact that they decided to employ me and train me and pay for all certificates, trainings etc., instead of picking an established expert - because of my internship some years ago and they simply liked me, while they weren't sure if the guy demanding 100k was a good fit.

The bad news is, which actually makes this thread kind of hilariously moot: At the moment I am not allowed to travel abroad and work at the same time for security reasons. Duh! Haven't thought about it, but it makes sense. Carrying around sensitive data isn't that easy. Maybe in the future when I have my own clients and own responsibilities. To be fair, that's not a big disadvantage. The idea of working while travelling is a bit romantic, and seperating the two is a good idea. All in all they are very lenient and I have no problem trading in a bigger pay for more flexibility. For example I just had a quick trip to Eastern Europe, I will write about that some place else.

My work itself consists 90% of remote work. There are some instances where I have to go to the customer, though. I suspect these occasions will increase in the future when I get more clients.

Post: #11

The biggest issue is also where you're living. If you're in a true third-world place, you aren't going to have the sheer bandwidth needed to pull it off.

Some people mentioned needing access to the data center. When I had a corporate job, teams were big enough that you always had someone on site. So if you manage to get your foot into a big enough corporation, that may be covered by sheer number (as long as you can provide good enough instruction to those with site access).

As far a security, I worked for a government thinktank and was allowed to work from home, in coffee shops, or wherever. Just not on the Top Secret data. That was sealed off and you couldn't bring any electronics into it.

Post: #12

I think having sufficient bandwidth in a third world country won't really
be a problem as there are many, people working online in third world countries I've don't it a few times myself it's just simply finding a good provider with stood connection, and a solid backup. You're biggest worry is if it's truly a third world country would be electricity.... If you're working for a compmay they may have issues due to security concerns however if your working for yourself most likely that won't be an issue due to the fact most work IT companies do is remote these days anyway.

Post: #13

(04-21-2017 03:46 AM)ElJefe1 Wrote:  I think having sufficient bandwidth in a third world country won't really
be a problem as there are many, people working online in third world countries I've don't it a few times myself it's just simply finding a good provider with stood connection, and a solid backup. You're biggest worry is if it's truly a third world country would be electricity.... If you're working for a compmay they may have issues due to security concerns however if your working for yourself most likely that won't be an issue due to the fact most work IT companies do is remote these days anyway.

RDP'ing into multiple VM machines with a 10mbps probably won't cut it...well, it'll work but you'll about want to off yourself.

That's the thing - find the good provider, you're fine. It's when you're renting AirBNBs and you just don't know what you're getting you might find yourself going mad.

Post: #14

I do it all the time and don't remember the last time I had a 10mbos.... Damn I miss Comcast

Post: #15

If I were you, OP, I'd learn to program and go remote with that. Having your sysadmin (or whatever you call it) knowledge and experience will still be very valuable whether you're working alone or on a team, and it's a lot easier to pull off a remote position as a software developer.

Post: #16

I'm a bit frustrated. I have a well paying job, a nice appartment in a beautiful, rural area and I am healthy and in great shape. Still I am frustrated, because I am stuck here for now. It's a golden cage.

Workload has been immense, but I like challenges. What I hate is multitasking, not being able to focus on a single task, being interrupted and so on. This led to me scheduling my tasks and time as I see fit. My main task is second and third tier customer support. After that comes scripting, technical adminstration and so on. I very much prefer deep work activites and not monitoring customer support all the time. I managed to finish all the technical tasks with excellence, but still got flak for it by my bosses for my deliberate scheduling of tasks and time. The fact that I'm employed and need to answer to other people (my old nemesis) comes back to haunt me.

I'm solely responsible for some areas and clients. This means I need replacement when I take time off. One of my bosses already said it will be difficult to take more thant 2-3 weeks off because of that, so I should not try to work overtime for now. They forbad me to work overtime in my probation period. This means I can say goodbye to my extended summer travels. This means my motivation is on a all time low. I really don't give a fuck if I only have to work 9-5, as long I'm stuck in that hamster wheel.

My plan is to get my paid certifications as soon as possible, because it gives me more leverage and options. Currently I have no alternatives. I dislike the city where I work. I don't like western women. I really don't like being stuck here. I don't care about making money, as long as I can live souvereignly.