Faraz Patankar

⚡️ Quickfire Round

Where is your current homebase?

Depending on when this comes out, could be either Bahrain, Mumbai or somewhere in South East Asia.

Where have you travelled/lived after working remotely?

Bali, Chiang Mai and Bahrain.

Highest education qualification?

Started a bachelor's degree in engineering but ended up dropping out. Did a web development bootcamp at Ironhack in Miami.

Occupation

Software and Product

What is your family/friends' reaction to remote working on a scale of 1-5 (where 1-negative and 5-very positive)

5 - very positive

How much do you earn per annum?

💰🤔💰

Years of total experience?

A little over three years

Years of freelance/remote experience?

Almost a year since I went fully remote plus a few months here and there between jobs.

When I think about the ability to work freelance/remotely, I feel ____

Privileged and a little fortunate at times.

What was your key motivation for becoming a freelancer/remote worker?

Freedom to work when and where I choose to.

🔥 Fireside Chat

How did you land your current remote job?

Coincidentally. I had just quit my full-time job in Pune and was looking for work that wasn’t full-time while I figured out what I wanted to do next. I messaged a friend of mine asking him to spread the word that I was looking for contract-based work and the company he was working for needed a developer. He set up an interview for me the very next day and I started working with them within a week after that.

For those who are curious, I had a little less than three years of experience at that point in time and had some experience doing freelance projects remotely. The position itself was in React which I had used only for a few months but I had built a few side projects with it which came in handy because they were essentially proof that I could build products using React.

Do you have any rituals or habits which help you to work remotely?

Having a defined system always helps. I try to get up early and do something that makes me feel better about myself early on in the day, for example going for a run.

I also try to look for small wins during my day as I feel it is very easy to get demotivated when you’re working alone/remote. It could be something as small as preparing my own meals or something big like deploying a new feature.

Working from different places over the course of the day/week also helps. I often switch between my apartment, a coworking space or a coffee shop depending on my mood and whether or not I feel like I need a change in environment.

What advice would you give to someone who is out there looking for a remote job or freelance work?

The most basic and perhaps the most important piece of advice would be to hang in there. It might seem like there are tons of remote jobs (and there are), yet you still aren’t getting any responses. But you also have to account for the fact that there are tons of people applying for them.

Be honest and straightforward in your applications. Try not to reuse cover letters between applications and actually talk about why you want to join said company.

If you’re a developer or a designer, it always always helps to have an online presence. For designers, this would involve being active on dribbble and behance and for developers, ideally, it’d involve open source contributions.

Lastly, just build stuff even if you’re literally rebuilding an existing product or even better solving your own problem. It showcases to an employer that you have the ability to turn an idea into a product and actually get it out there.

What is the biggest benefit of working remotely?

Like I mentioned earlier, for me it is the fact that I can work whenever I want to and from wherever I want to. Just knowing this puts me in a good headspace before I sit down to work. I often start my day at home and end it in a coffee shop or a coworking space.

I also get to spend more time with friends and family. I remember being upset about not being able to make it for some important event, because I had a job in a different city or a long day at work. None of that is an issue anymore 💪.

The option to travel and work: I’ve been in 4 different countries this year and intend to increase that number before we reach the end of the year. I highly doubt that would have been possible if I weren't remote.

Do you see any challenges of working remotely and how do you try to overcome it?

Being motivated/productive is often a challenge for me when I am working alone. I try to overcome this by adding some structure to my day and also making it a habit to work from a coworking space. Just having people around who are also hard at work helps a lot more than one would think.

Where can people find you on the internet (if they have more questions)?

You can find me on Twitter at @farazpatankar13. My DMs are always open and I am more than happy to help people who are looking for advice/mentorship.

Seriously, just hit me up with any questions you may have or any advice you may need.