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Ask HN: What are the risks of working remotely?

3 points by davman ↗ HN
I'm a JavaScript engineer with a couple of years experience under my belt, but I'd like to get in to remote working. What are some of the risks involved? How likely is it that I could produce work for a company who then don't pay me?

I'm mainly looking at working for overseas companies, so essentially this would mean me being a contractor for other companies rather than being in a salaried role. I've done what I assume is the usual grunt work by searching for the companies on LinkedIn, attempting to Street View their office addresses, etc.

Any advice?

Thanks

6 comments

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orangethirty
Yes, there is a risk. Last year, I was scammed by a company in California. Not a lot of money, but it still made me angry. But I'm not worried, because it was only one out of a lot.
davman
Yeah I can imagine that would make me pretty angry too! And possibly homeless. I'm currently living paycheck to paycheck, meaning if I didn't get paid for a months work then I wouldn't have enough money to pay rent.

It sounds like this is probably something I shouldn't risk without at least a month's financial buffer?

orangethirty
I normally go for 3 months buffer at the very least, and currently have about 6. Always have done this, even when I had a regular job. It allows me to live without worries.

But in any case, you can lower the risk of getting scammed by asking for initial deposits. I always do that. Did it with the company that scammed me and I wasn't totally fucked. I lost about 60% of the total of the project, but not a 100%.

ChaimS
Agree with this guy. Cutting the work into small tranches is an option too. Remember that the one who is employing is afraid of being scammed as well!
RougeFemme
In an addition to an upfront payment, if you have can figure out a way to break the project up into multiple deliverables/checkpoints with some payment due proceeding to the next, that helps both you and your client.