Why the Top Software Engineering Talent can be Remote from Now On

Since the pandemic there has been a massive increase in the amount of remote software engineer job roles. Coupled with the fact that the market is hotter than ever right now, more and more companies are required to look outside the bounds of their city. When I ventured out to get my first job as Software Engineer, it was a given that I would have to move to somewhere the job required me to outside from my small hometown. Today that is no longer true. I type this from my home office in my hometown. The same is true for many, many talented engineers in our field. We now have a choice and it is up to us where and with whom we want to stay. The culture has changed massively. A particular company may not provide a remote option, but a developer with some talent and motivation can prepare for interviews and land a job that will. The Nash equilibrium has completely shifted for the better.

Even in the past, the best of workplaces offered generous work-from-home policies which boosted employee well-being. Such workplaces were also better at maintaining work-life balance and employee happiness. There were also complete all-remote companies as well (eg. GitLab) and these were highly sought after to work at. Remote working is nothing new. Fast forward to today, the number of remote jobs available has risen exponentially higher than ever before.

It's a complete seller’s market today. The amount of jobs available to talented software engineers is almost boggling. People are making pay jumps, and switching to roles better suited for them at a rate I have never seen before. Many, many job listings are advertising in bold that they are Remote. Anecdotally, I have also seen candidates outright reject listings that do not do so.

In fact, any employer not offering remote possibilities is forgoing such a vast amount of talent pool that their remote competitors rejoice. From the employer’s perspective, remote job roles can reach out to a far, far wider range of talented individuals. They are unrestricted by city boundaries, state boundaries, and even country boundaries. And obviously the bigger the pool you can choose from, the higher the quality of the candidate you will get. The competition gets even more stark in the startup world. Companies here regularly face grow-or-die situations. How is a startup with a mediocre team going to fare against a competitor with talents scored from far and wide? Think about it, one team is like an All-Star team facing a regional-only team. Everyone knows how such matches end. Any startup wanting to make it big needs to grow and innovate faster than its competitors and have a better product. They NEED that All-Star team.

(In fact, as I write this article, a unicorn in my country named Meesho has just declared that they are embracing all remote work environments with occasional team offsites and optional seats in coworking spaces across the metros in the country.)

A few days ago I was discussing this same topic with a very talented software engineer friend of mine. His wife does not work in tech and has to go to the office in a not-so-big city. When I asked him if he would take a non-remote job, he categorically denied it because the job would be in a tech city and he would have to ask his wife to find a new job there. He does not want to uproot his wife’s professional life and no reasonable amount of money will change that opinion. There are many people like him. Some need to take care of their spouses or kids, some want to live closer to their parents, some just want to breathe cleaner air than a polluted city.

I am not saying all software engineering will be remote. But the most talented individuals who do wish to work remotely are all going to be working remotely. And the companies where these individuals work are going to succeed.

PS: If you are interested in remote software engineering, and want to be immersed in the culture and community follow me on Twitter. I tweet every two days and the community will help fastrack all our careers.