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Digital Nomad: the Golden Ticket?

Maxence Poutord on November 07, 2019

Last year, I joined the so-called Digital Nomad movement. If you never heard about it, I am combining remote working with travelling. I really like...
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James.Scott

Nice post! I would love to do something like this in the future. I had a couple of questions:

  • Was it difficult to negotiate a remote position with your current company?
  • Do you they require you to work a certain number of hours that overlap with theirs?
  • Where are you planning to travel after Thailand?
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Maxence Poutord

Thanks for the feedback James.

To answer you:

  1. As you might guess, I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it here. I started with Europe. To stay on the same timezone. After a few month I moved to SEA. I also told them that if something goes wrong, I can go back in the office.
  2. Nothing contractually written but I like to keep synchronous contact with my colleague. I usually overlap for half day. Sometimes I have meeting on the evening.
  3. That's a good question. I've no idea! For 2020, I'm hesitating between 2 completely different destinations: Japan and Budapest!
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James.Scott

Interesting... I hope more companies adopt the remote blueprint established by the likes of Shopify, Gitlab etc. Although I do see the value in having an office presence - I think I'd missed the social interaction and working in a team if I did remote for too long.

Budapest is really cool! Probably my favourite European city. Would highly recommend it.

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Maxence Poutord

You can still have social interaction with your colleagues through Zoom/Skype/Slack/... and if you need real human interactions (without screen), co-working spaces are usually a good option :)

Thanks for the recommendation James :)

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Colin Dellow

I didn't win THE golden ticket, I won MY golden ticket.

That right there speaks to me so much! I've done stints of trying to be productive while travelling and, for me, it just doesn't work. My workspace at home is set up just right for me to be effective. When I try to recreate it for a week or a month in a foreign place, I can sometimes come close, but never quite match.

Thanks for putting it like that!

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Maxence Poutord

Yeah getting a routing is important for a lot of people! Thanks for the feedback Colin :)

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Frederik πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’»βž‘οΈπŸŒ Creemers

Very interesting post!

So given that many of the clichΓ©s aren't true, what keeps you living the digital nomad lifestyle? What do you enjoy most about it?

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Maxence Poutord

Thanks Frederik!
I'd say the best thing is to be able to work from wherever I want in the globe. So I don't need to take holidays to travel :)

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Alan Hylands

The clip of the kids walking in on their dad on the BBC interview never fails to make me laugh. All remote working parents will no doubt agree that it's a very real operating risk every time a video conference begins!

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Daniel Cunha (he/him)

Interesting post! I'm not into the digital nomad lifestyle, but I do think about going remote next year. So, do you have any advice or tips on where to look for a remote position?

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Maxence Poutord

Getting a remote position is super hard. Lot of remote position got hundred of application. You have to polish your profile and make it attractive for companies.

Another option can be to start your own business or kinda consulting company (β‰ˆ freelance). I met a few people doing it.

Good luck Daniel!