Ask HN: Sources of remote dev work with minimal human interaction?
&quot;What I want is a remote dev job where I close tickets. That is, one where the gig really is cash for functioning solution that meets spec, code standards, and QA. My ideal world would be where I log in somewhere, pull a respectably specified ticket with clear acceptance criteria, and then pull request myself to at least a modest quality of life. Does anyone know of any remote work where the hassle is just engineering related? I will specify that I am not interested in simply transitioning the interpersonal bullshit to a Skype-based model, so team-intensive remote work won&#x27;t suit this requirement. My greatest thanks for any insightful thoughts or resources you guys can provide.&quot;<p>I have been contracting for the last 10 years and I have a contract like this now.  It&#x27;s great, I&#x27;ve been completing tons of work for the company, but it&#x27;s not the norm.<p>I report directly to the CTO of the company and talk to him almost daily.  I have no daily standups and almost no meetings.  Everything is as needed.  IE: If we need to meet with someone in the company. we schedule a short meeting.  Everything else is through our main ticketing system.<p>&quot;pull a respectably specified ticket with clear acceptance criteria, and then pull request myself to at least a modest quality of life&quot;<p>If you want a better quality of life, choose companies that don&#x27;t rely on software as their main source of income and have been in business at least 5 years.  I usually only choose companies that utilize software, but the main product is not the software itself.<p>My motive is that I have side businesses that I also run during the day.<p>Consulting companies are probably the worst in terms of work&#x2F;life balance.  I worked for a consulting company that had hundreds of clients and multiple projects all going on at the same time.  The pressure was crazy.<p>They originally hired me to get a project done in 3 months (down from the original estimate of 1 year).  When I started working on it, they told me I had 7 weeks and pushed me every day until it was done.  Luckily, I was able to figure out some better ways of completing the required tasks and got it done in time.<p>As far as pull a &quot;respectably specified ticket&quot; goes, this might be difficult.  Most of the time, people don&#x27;t know exactly what they want and part of your job (unless it&#x27;s a very large company with a layer in between you) is to decode someone&#x27;s request and translate it to software.  It will almost never be as easy as seeing a ticket with perfect requirements.<p>But it really does sound like you should be contracting.  You won&#x27;t need to be part of any gatherings or useless meetings, because a company is paying you hourly.