Will Farrington and Mike Skalnik, of Github, talk about being a part of one of the most widely distributed companies out there, coordinating work between teams, and give advice about successfully securing a remote working position.
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Show Notes:
Twitter: @wfarr
willfarrington.com
Github
Twitter: @skalnik
mikeskalnik.com
Github
00:35 – Introduction
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- Will Farrington: System Operations @ Github
- Mike Skalnik: Rails Developer @ Github
- Calling in together at Github Summit in San Francisco
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01:40 – Github is widely distributed all over: Korea, Australia, New Zealand, England, USA
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- â…” of company works remotely, full-time
- Company paid office setups
- Traveling is a huge part of being a part of the company
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04:48 – Github Summit
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- Semi-annual week-long get-together
- Meeting people in person
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05:40 – Coordinating work
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- Everything is asynchronous
- Loosely organized teams
- Weekly live streaming fireside chats in Campfire
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09:15 – Keeping people on the same page and adding employees
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- Put on notification blinders
- People hired have specific focuses
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11:00 – Flow of incoming information
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- Danger Room: everything non-work related
- Internal Twitter: keep up to date on higher level things
- Mass emails
- Using team & individual mentions
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15:14 – Planning
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- Pull requests
- Unofficial policies
- Rolling things out internally, staff-only first
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18:09 – HUBOT
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- Deploys the site
- Automates tasks
- A source of fun within the company
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23:50 – Frustrations working distributively
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- HR software
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25:40 – FaceTime
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- Mostly during summits & conferences
- Trust
- Constructive criticism
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30:30 – Getting into remote work
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- Seeking out companies that trust remote workers
- User groups & conferences
- Getting involved within the community
- Being passionate about what you’re working on
- Ask your favorite companies, “What would it take to work for you?â€
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34:30 – Advice for distributed teams
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- Make it reasonable for everyone to be able to participate
- Communicate
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