officeunbound/working-remote-david-dashifen-kees.html at master · chrisfrantz/officeunbound · GitHub

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          <img src="assets/images/avatars/david_kees.jpg" alt="100%x200" width="120px;" class="avatar-1">
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        <h1><strong>David Dashifen Kees</strong> </h1>
        <p class="lead text-muted">Life in a university as a remote developer.</p>
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                 <a href="https://it.engineering.illinois.edu" class="blog-post-details-title" style="color:white;">University of Illinois</p></a>
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              <h4>What are you working on and where are you located? </h4>
            <p>At the moment, I’m working on three major projects concurrently:  a survey related to ethics, a data collection system for a research center, and an administrative application to facilitate the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering (WYSE) Academic Challenge.  The upside to working in academia is that the environment is a lot more laid-back than many other ones.  One of the downsides:  a lot of work happens during the summer and winter breaks! </p>
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            <h4>How did you end up working remotely?</h4>

            <p>When my wife graduated from the Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, she was an intern for one year in Springfield, VA.  At that time, it was possible that, following her internship, we would remain in Illinois, so I did not follow her there.  But, at the end of her internship, she ended up moving into a three-year residence in Massachusetts.  Not wanting to remain apart that long, I began the process of selling our house in Illinois and moving back to the East Coast (I grew up in Pennsylvania).  Illinois was very gracious in allowing me to keep my position though all my travels, which began with a few months crashing in PA with my parents until my wife’s internship ended, continued in Massachusetts for three years, and now has us located across the Potomac from the nation’s capital. </p>

            <p>As an aside, for those few months living with my folks between Illinois and Massachusetts, I actually did live in their basement.  And, I play World of Warcraft.  So, I was literally a computer programmer in his thirties living in his mother’s basement and playing WoW!</p>


            <h4>What are the largest challenges you've encountered?</h4>
            <p>For a long time, people weren’t sure if I was still working for the University.  Remote work isn’t very common, yet, in academia, though it’s growing.  Other staff knew that I wasn’t around the halls anymore and someone else had moved into my office, so they were not quite sure if I was still available to help them.  Plus, people who don’t know that I’m remote keep asking if I can stop by their office, which I can, but it’s going to take me twelve hours to get there! </p>

             <blockquote class="blockquote"><em>Plus, people who don’t know that I’m remote keep asking if I can stop by their office, which I can, but it’s going to take me twelve hours to get there!</em></blockquote>

            <h4>Where is the most interesting place you’ve ever worked from?</h4>
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                    <p>Washington D.C. - Short drive from Arlington</p>
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            <p>I had a prescription to pick up at a pharmacy while living in Massachusetts.  I ran out there over lunch, but it wasn’t ready yet.  I had a meeting and the delay at the pharmacy meant that I wouldn’t be back to my desk to take it.  So, I logged into Skype on my phone, connected to the meeting, and did the entire thing from a CVS parking lot.  Everything was fine until emergency services drove by with their lights and sirens turned on.  The cat was out of the bag, but luckily, no one else in the meeting cared. </p>

            <h4>What time zone do you keep?</h4>

            <p>I keep Eastern Time, mostly.  Academia is less focus on starting and stopping times, it seems, than other work environments.  Some professors arrive very early, others work late; staff people tend to keep 8 – 5 hours, but even we have the freedom to step out without worrying too much beyond notifying our team members that we’re going to be missing for a bit.  So, the difference of one hour between Illinois and Virginia isn’t enough to worry about.  </p>

            <p>One of my other teammates is in California, now, and we’ve all had to think carefully about how to accommodate that she’s two hours earlier than the on-campus team—and three hours earlier than me—so that creates a larger chronological hurdle to surmount.</p>

            <h4>What gear do you use on a day to day basis? Is there anything that makes your job easier?</h4>

            <p>Nothing outlandish.  Illinois provides me with a Windows desktop machine to do University business.   I still have two of their monitors, too, though the third one is my own as is my laptop.  After that, it’s all streaming my music and resisting the urge to watch Netflix when I should really be working. </p>
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            <h4>Do you ever run into any difficulties explaining your choice to work remotely to others? What’s the general reaction you receive?</h4>

            <p>It’s not usually remote work that people are surprised about, it’s that I do application development in academia.  Some of my friends can’t understand why I do the work I do but get paid so much less for it than I would if I worked for an agency or corporate office.  But, the benefits of working in academia tend to be less concrete than the paycheck at the end of the month. </p>

            <p>For those that are surprised by my remote status, once they understand that I went remote because my partner was leaving Illinois for greener grasses, they get that.  I’m sure many people have moved and changed their lives for their loved ones; that’s something most can empathize with.  I just didn’t have to get a new job when I did it!</p>

            <h4>Do you have any advice for anyone thinking about going remote or just starting out?</h4>

            <p>Ignore all the books, articles, TED talks, etc. that tell you how to do it.  Hell, I’d say ignore me, too.  Find out how it works for you.  For me, it works well to have a home office, but that’s also where I game, watch Netflix, read my book, run my weekly Shadowrun game, etc.  So many different sources tell you that you set your office aside from the rest of your home life, but at least for my family, we don’t have the kind of money to afford a house with an extra room just for the office!  Everyone’s going to be different, and it’s going to take some time to adjust to the new reality.  Give yourself that time, and it’ll all work out. </p>

            <p>Also:  take sick days.  It’s weird to be sick at home and also work from home, or at least I find it so.  But, the work you do when you’re ill is just not as good as when you’re healthy.  Sure, you’re not going to get the rest of your team sick when you work remote, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of yourself.</p>

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              <h4>How does your current cost of living compare with other places you’ve lived?</h4>

              <p>It’s much, much higher.  Worse:  my paycheck reflects the cost of living in central Illinois.  So, if I try to make a comparison of my paycheck to the others in the Washington D.C. area, I tend to really question my life choices.  But, with my wife’s veterinary job, between the two of us, we make enough to get by, remain comfortable, and have enough left over for recreation and entertainment … when we find the time!</p>
            <h4>What’s next for you? (Location, remote vs office, etc.)</h4>
            <p>I don’t know.  I’ve been working for Illinois since 2004, and prior to that I worked for a different university starting in 1998.  I have trouble ever imagining a world where I don’t work in academia.  I’m thinking about going back to school to get a Masters in Divinity in 2018, and Illinois has been very flexible in the past, so I suspect that I’ll stay with them for as long as they’ll continue to have me, and once I graduate with my MDiv, I’ll see what the future holds.</p>


            <hr style="border: dashed 1px;">
            <p>You can find David on his personal site at <a href="https://dashifen.com">dashifen.com</a> or on Twitter <a href=" http://www.twitter.com/dashifen">@dashifen</a>.</p>


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