Remote Success Stories: Amiel Martin, ActionSprout
From 👋 Remote, this is Remote Success Stories, an interview series exploring successful transitions into remote work in the technology world. Interested in transitioning to remote work? Want to chat with other fellow remote workers? Join our global remote work community at helloremote.life!
Our interview today is with Amiel Martin, a software developer at ActionSprout.
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m a developer at ActionSprout. We help the social sector use Facebook more effectively.
What appealed to you about beginning to work remotely?
It offers me flexibility to maximize the time I get to spend with my family and so my daughter can spend time with both sets of grandparents even though they live in different states.
How did you first approach the subject with your employer? Had other employees been working remotely before you?
ActionSprout was already partially remote, so it wasn’t a big stretch for me to work remotely. I started with short stints (2 weeks a couple times a year). By the time my daughter was born, I was working about 50% of my time remote.
What surprising things have you discovered about working remotely?
As I started experimenting with working remotely part-time, my co-workers became more used to the idea. I think that was a big part of what made it possible for us to make our first fully remote hire. I didn’t realize my (possibly selfish) desire to work remote would help our company grow.
Have there been any downsides to beginning to work remotely?
There’s some things I miss when I’m not in the office like spontaneous coffee or lunch outings with co-workers and free coffee and snacks. The other things that I haven’t found a good remote replacement for is brainstorming with a whiteboard, particularly when diagrams are involved.
Are there any tools or software that you’ve found particularly effective?
We use what I think is the fairly standard set of Github, Slack, Pivotal Tracker, Google’s office tools, and various video conferencing tools. Screenhero (now part of Slack), has been particularly useful for making remote work possible.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I like being a partially remote worker and I’m not sure how many people do it like I do. My family switches between Bellingham, WA (where the ActionSprout office is) and Fairbanks, AK about every 2 months. When we are in Bellingham, I work from the office and when we are in Fairbanks, I work remote. I kind of get the best of both worlds and it allows us to spend time with both sides of the family.
Amiel Martin is a software developer at ActionSprout. Follow him on Twitter.
