Answer Type: Business Development

I believe that remote working has been fairly mainstream in most metropolitan cities over the past 5–7 years. Some of the leading challenges are related to companies’ remote working policy or a limited number of available places welcoming remote workers.

I’ve spent years working from a number of coffices and wrote a cofficers guide for freelancers and telecommuters.

There are some technical innovations already available but not as affordable or applicable for coffices. Here are some of my top picks – along with those that I haven’t seen on the market yet.

Portable Noise-Canceling Headset

There are hundreds of headsets available out there – yet, I’m still on the hunt for a portable, comfortable, and affordable one that won’t annoy a prospect over a call.

Jumping on a call is always a chore for everyone who happens to be in a loud area. A small headset that reflects the noise and produces crystal clear voice quality at an affordable fee would be a dream for any cofficer who has to contribute with voice communication as well.

5x More Powerful Laptop Battery

Some business laptops are getting better in battery life. Yet, that comes at a price.

You either end up with an 11″ screen that isn’t suitable for pixel-perfect design, or a large notebook with an external battery that weighs a ton.

On top of that, some activities require powerful CPUs or video cards that can easily kill even the most well-optimized hardware devices out there.

Being able to take a flight overseas and spend 15 hours on your laptop without breaking a sweat would be more than ideal. Plenty of journalists and bloggers struggle during long conferences. Professional video editors can hardly imagine running a portable station that would last more than a couple of hours.

Wide Coverage 4G Modems

OK, Internet connectivity is pretty much a solid requirement for most remote workers.

There are three main problems that people face when working from a coffee shop:

1. The local Wi-Fi may be unreliable – slow, crowded, you name it
2. The venue may be in a shopping center or underground – thus receiving low signal to a mobile phone (tethering from the phone being no longer an option)
3. A trip abroad may target a place with an extremely expensive phone plan and a limited coverage area

Being able to work from a beach or in any coffee shop with a reliable 4G modem would be very much preferable. I use both my phone and a 4G modem locally and they fail in certain areas – especially outside of the big city.

Skyroam is an interesting alternative that covers a good number of countries. It may very well be a good solution when traveling.

Notebook Lockers

Spending several hours in a coffee shop will likely result in a restroom break. Leaving your notebook unattended is not preferable yet carrying it over to the near restroom is inconvenient.

Some notebooks support different forms of lockers – such as the Kensington cable lock. Those have some limitations in terms of size or reliability – and there are ways to squeeze a notebook around then if you browse some YouTube videos.

A locker system that’s portable and extremely reliable would be a safe bet for remote workers. An example would be a strong magnet that doesn’t affect that machine and can be tapped under the table with a fingerprint. It would be the size of a large coin and make your laptop entirely stuck on the table until unlocking it yourself.

Projection Virtual Keyboard

Virtual keyboards already exist although they’re far from common. Their reliability and the typing comfort is arguable, along with their cost.

The main benefit of using a virtual keyboard would make a large notebook obsolete. You can use your phone or a tablet and avoid carrying a heavy backpack on the way to a coffice. Also, this would let you spend some time working at all times – waiting in a line or for a dentist’s appointment.

Virtual External Monitor

In addition to the virtual keyboard, a virtual external monitor would be really awesome. On one end, you can still use it with your phone – limiting the constraints of the small screen size. On top of that, many of us utilize a second monitor at work.

If you sit near a wall, you can easily project your screen right next to you. Some privacy concerns may arise and projecting on the desk instead may be more preferable. In practice, using your keyboard holder or a small and tiny stand used for projecting would still work perfectly – being a lighter and more portable alternative.

The Bottom Line

There are additional utilities such as self-charging stations (already available), self-walking suitcases following your watch, Moleskine notebooks storing data in your iPad and the like. Google Glass was also an interesting experiment and I expect a competitor to follow with a more refined model soon. But the more affordable and common new gadgets become, the easier would it be for remote workers to become productive in the coffee shop next door.

Mentorship is overrated, especially during the first years of one’s technical career.

But Why Is Mentorship Overrated?

Not because mentors lack the skills or experience to help out. There’s simply too much emphasis on the need for mentorship for one’s successful career.

Great mentors are highly experienced, somewhat successful, and extremely busy. This effectively reduces the number of “available” mentors across the board. So, it’s safe to say that for every great mentor, there are probably 1,000 or more potential candidates who may benefit from their services.

Since that’s virtually impossible to happen, people insisting on having a mentor tend to rant about having none, asking on forums for available resources, or get someone of their peers to help out (which leads to unpredictable results).

Developers Need To Take Action

It’s about making the first move and iterating upon that, over and over. With time, results will come, and the following experience will raise real-world questions.

Mentorship is only effective when built upon a solid foundation. If a recent graduate isn’t even sure what they plan to do over the next few years, a mentor won’t be of use.

A junior engineer with a year or two on the job has a lot more to learn before deciding on a possible career jump or the advancement into a consulting role, a senior software architect, or a technical project manager.

Mentorship was barely discussed a decade ago, or even 6–7 years back. It suddenly became viral and people mistakenly believed that every successful person was born and raised with a mentor alongside. Same goes for 1-on-1 trainers.

Mentors Can Be Invaluable Later In Your Career

As an already successful professional eager to step up their game. Working hard for a continuous period of time is likely to rank you higher, and land you great job opportunities. But a mentor can take you to the next level with some guidance, direction, and help you refine your action plan accordingly.

It may be rough at first, especially if you don’t have a vision for your own career. And this may lead to some trial and error until you figure it out. Once you do, work hard for a while, get to the point of being productive and satisfied, and look for a mentor who can push your boundaries even further.

Cultural differences do have an impact on remote teams. Influencing how team members communicate, collaborate, and understand each other.

Firstly, communication styles vary greatly across cultures. In some cultures, people tend to be more direct in their communication, while in others, indirect communication is the norm.

This can lead to misunderstandings in a remote setting where non-verbal cues are less apparent. For example, a team member from a direct communication culture might perceive a colleague from an indirect communication culture as evasive or unclear, while the latter might find the former’s directness rude or abrasive.

I personally believe that to be an upside since I’ve always been genuinely interested in different cultures across the world. My first remote job was for a company building two translation products, and I truly enjoyed the experience for the very same reason.

I feel that it’s more common than not, considering the millennials’ passion for traveling and exploring different cultures.

 Stay As Far As Possible From

Then again, it is not for everyone. Some people can’t grasp that and don’t want to comply with the basic norms and moral standards. That’s one of the first tests distributed companies need to align on — you want to stay as far as possible from racism, xenophobia, chauvinism, or any form of discrimination whatsoever.

Certain behaviors may be fine in a small team or over drinks after hours. But a larger distributed team may cause some friction if you don’t understand everyone’s culture.

Disclaimer: certain customs may be different for various groups of people, I’m speaking from experience and there may be certain inaccuracies that need clarification.

Some examples on top of my head:

• Americans and Eastern Europeans tend to swear a lot more compared to others. This may come off as a lot more offensive than you can imagine.
• Some people are quite religious. Messing with that even indirectly may be considered harmful. Also, they may drop the occasional “God bless you” which may be interpreted in different ways.
• Many Muslims take occasional prayer breaks throughout the day. This may be quite surprising to others, especially since the prayer times depend on the position of the Sun and the locality of the individual. It may very well fall in the middle of a meeting and you simply need to understand that.
• Food discussions are safe most of the time, but not necessarily. Jewish followers stick to Kosher food, Muslims don’t eat pork (and usually don’t drink). We have vegetarians and vegans, gluten-free people or lactose-intolerant ones (did you know that 90% of Asian-Americans are lactose intolerant?) On top of that, vegetarianism breaks down into other areas, pescatarians are vegetarians who eat fish, but not all vegetarians do; Jains in India don’t eat root vegetables like carrots, potatoes, or onions, and the list goes on.

Cultural References

Also, cultural references of local areas (food chains or supermarkets), movies, sports may get weird. For instance, I hadn’t heard of Tesco or 7-Eleven before driving through the UK and visiting the US a few times. I often see references of Indian actors or politicians on Quora, and I know nothing about cricket (and almost nothing about baseball or American football).

I won’t even touch on the metric vs. imperial system, currency exchanges, certain numeric gotchas (i.e. lakhs and crones in India) and the like:

Bottom line, it could be quite fun, entertaining, and enlightening if you’re open-minded and into that. But it’s not for everyone so bear this in mind if you’re in an international setup.