Just wondering, one of the big advantages of telecommuting is to be able to live in a more livable place, however the flip side is that, say, if you telecommute for an outfit in the silicon valley and you live in, say, madison, what do you do if your original company goes under? Although it is fairly feasible to move towards a telecommuting position in a company you have worked for a couple of years, where they see you’re good and trust you, interviewing for a position and saying ‘oh, btw, I want to telecommute’ might not be something your prospective company wants to hear…
I guess my question is, what has been your experience telecommuting from an area where you would have trouble finding a local job? Has it been an issue? not? what do you think?
I think you really need to understand the expectations of the company in this regard. While a potential advantage to the employee is “living in a more liveable place”, the employer may have other expectations even when they do support telecommuting. When I started telecommuting with IBM, there was still an expectation to show up at the office periodically for team meetings. Now my team is pretty much virtual and global, so this is less relevant now, however many companies still expect you to be within driving distance of an office. Depends on the size , job position and nature of operations. Last year HP eliminated telecommute totally, forcing employees to relocate or lose their job. Their feeling was that the teaming by being in an office superceded the gains made by lower costs of telecommuters.
You should also think about your job prospects relative to your location should your job disappear for whatever reason (if you are talking IT, you have to give serious consideration to off-shoring your work). It would be fairly difficult for me to obtain similar work where I live, given a small market locally, and the fact that most of the positions I am qualified for that are abound the DC beltway require security clearance that I cannot get since I am not a citizen yet. But this was where my wife and step-daughter were established in the school systems at the time.
I don’t think I would tell a prospective employer that I wanted to telecommute as a requirement of getting the job, but rather see what their policy is on telecommuting. If you have job options, then you can choose whichever fits your desired lifestyle the best.
If you have other questions about working the telecommute lifestyle, let me know. I was an early adopter with IBM in 1999, so have been at this for a while.