The Benefits of Remote vs. In-Office Software Engineering Jobs

Table of Contents

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• A Day in the Life of Working Remotely vs In-Person
• The Future of Remote Work

The way software engineers work has changed a lot over the past few years, especially with the rise of remote jobs. Lately, we’re seeing more companies push for a return to the office. So, what are the benefits of either work environment for new developers? Does working in-person make it easier to learn and network, or does remote work still win when it comes to flexibility and work-life balance? To dig into this, we spoke with Tech Elevator graduates, Dj Litts (an in-person Software Engineer at JPMorgan Chase) and Shane Smith (a remote Software Engineer at FNBO). They share what it’s really like to start a software engineering career in both setups.

You both studied computer science in college before enrolling at Tech Elevator. What prompted you to enroll in a coding bootcamp? 

Shane: I left the police department, and I wanted to get back into programming. I had just gotten into my junior year of a computer science degree, but I didn't learn that many skills. Everything I was learning was unrelated to what you do in the field. It didn't seem like the best use of my time or money to go back to college and finish that degree, and Tech Elevator offered a much faster course where I would get a bootcamp certification.

Dj: I had a similar situation. I discovered that I enjoyed coding in college, but due to personal issues, I dropped out of college halfway through my degree. I entered the casino industry as a temporary career knowing I wanted to get into coding. I was planning to go back to college, and I knew that that would be a two-year commitment. I spoke to a friend who highly recommended a coding bootcamp. I went for it, and I'm glad I did!

What sets Tech Elevator apart from other coding bootcamps?

Dj: The person who recommended me to Tech Elevator has worked at a couple of bootcamps, and he had a glowing recommendation of Tech Elevator. 

Shane: I looked into a bunch of bootcamps, too. I had a friend who was a data science engineer, and he knew someone who used to work at Tech Elevator. She advocated that Tech Elevator was one of the better bootcamps to go to. 

When you enrolled at Tech Elevator, did you have a preference for working remotely or in-person?

Shane: I got the opposite of what I wanted! I was looking for an in-person situation for my first job because I think that's much more beneficial for a new developer. It's a lot easier to stop by someone's desk with your questions, whereas remotely, especially in the beginning, it was hard to get to know people. I would try to connect with them on Microsoft Teams or Zoom Meetings. 

Working remotely was also very different from my background in the police and military, which were very in-person careers. I came into my remote software engineer career with little background in Zoom or digital communication, so that was a curveball. I would have preferred to be in the office initially, but as I developed my skills and learned how to code and debug things, there were a lot of benefits to being remote.

Dj: At the time, I wanted to work remotely because that was kind of a glorified thing. Now, I'm really happy that I'm working in person.

What did you learn at Tech Elevator?

Shane: The coding part is important, but the bigger thing you learn at Tech Elevator is how to problem-solve and research. It’s said that the real difference between a junior developer and a senior developer isn't that they won't come to the same conclusion or find the same answer. It's that the senior developer will find it in 5 minutes, and the junior developer might take 5 hours or 5 days to find the same solution. 

It's not necessarily that the senior developer is smarter than the junior developer. They just know how to find the answer faster. That is a skill that Tech Elevator helped me with. I did the three-month, full-time bootcamp, which was very compressed and meant they pushed you more towards that mindset of finding the answers for yourself.

Were there any specific skills or projects from Tech Elevator that directly helped you land your current job?

Dj: Networking! I have met so many people in the last several months through networking skills that I did not have before I started at Tech Elevator. Tech Elevator pushes you to meet other people in your cohort and do practice interviews — things like that improve your social skills to the point where networking becomes a lot easier. 

Another thing that helped was my final capstone. For the capstone project, we worked in a scrum group, which is a great simulation of what it’s like to work on an engineering team. 

A Day in the Life of Working Remotely vs In-Person

What teams are you both working with? What kinds of projects are you working on?

Shane: I am with the operational data store (ODS) team. We use IBM for the back end, so we have a lot of very slow services that create a bottleneck. The more websites and applications, the more demand is put on those systems. My team built a cache system where all the information that you want to get from the IBM servers is accessible from something that is much quicker. We use Java with Spring Boot. 

Dj: JPMorgan is split into different lines of business, and I work in a line of business called employee platforms. The role of employee platforms is to support other JPMorgan employees through our products, like the internal things that other team members can use. My team operates a content management system (CMS) based on Adobe Experience Manager. We enable user permissions and rules about how people interact with our CMS. We also run a Java-based API that allows our end user to retrieve data from that CMS. It took me about three months to understand what my team's product was because I had absolutely zero background in content management systems.

What does a typical day look like for you as an in-person software engineer, Dj?

Dj: I have a daily call with my team at 9 o'clock, and I’ll take that first meeting either in the office or from home and then go into the office. I am able to work remotely — it's just that I try to be in the office. After that, I have a couple of hours to work on projects. I take lunch, and then sometimes we'll have an Agile ceremony, or meetings like a backlog refinement, sprint, or retrospective. I tend to devote the last hour of my day to personal development. Right now I'm working on an Adobe Experience Manager certification because it relates to the CMS we're working with.

Shane, what does a day look like for you as a remote developer?

Shane: The structure of my day is similar to Dj’s. We have a stand-up in the morning, but being remote is great because I don't have a commute. I usually get up early and work out or play pickleball. When I get home, I cook breakfast, and then check on my garden. I log into work and check my emails. Since my main team works out of Omaha, Nebraska, they're an hour behind, so my standup happens later in the morning. When that’s over, I connect with team members to work on projects. A benefit of working from home is that I don't have to bring or buy lunch. I can go to my fridge and make myself something. 

Every other Friday, we have two hours dedicated to improving our skills, and you can use this time to work on a certification. I just finished my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification, and now I'm working on the AWS Cloud Developer certification. Since I work on a team that puts things into production, sometimes I have to work late to do a deployment at night because we don’t want to impact our customers.

Dj, what are the benefits of working in person?

Dj: The benefits of being in-office are that if I have a question, my teammate is there to help me. It’s more efficient than pinging them on Teams and hoping they see it and don't just leave me on read. In-person interaction makes communicating about your project much more efficient. You can make much stronger connections with your team when you're working in the office. I have lunch with my team at least once a week, and that builds a relationship that you don't necessarily build when you're only communicating with each other over Zoom. 

Networking is so important and easier to do in person. I have two mentors at my company, and every two weeks we meet for about 45 minutes. If I need to use a connection like that in the future for either a job switch or changing lines of business within the company, I think it would be easier with those in-person connections.

Even though I work in person, I don't feel any external pressure from my team. I have enough motivation to get my work done. It’s a very relaxed environment. If I want to leave two hours early for an event, it’s not a big deal. 

Shane, what are some of your favorite parts of working remotely as a software engineer?

Shane: The lack of commute is hard to undersell. The flexibility is also nice. If you have a hybrid role, I think that gives you a little bit of both of those benefits, too. I have a great manager who is focused on getting a job done and not on me being online from 9-5 every day. I have a lot of flexibility where I can work hard for three days, then spend another day studying for my certification. I don't have a manager over my chair or babysitting software keeping tabs on me, which makes it my responsibility to get my work done.

My remote setup is much better than my in-office setup. When I do work in person at the Omaha office, I do have multiple monitors, but they’re 21 inches. In my home office, I have multiple 32-inch monitors, which makes work so much easier. I can also customize my home office to whatever desk or chair. I also like that if I have to leave early for a vacation, I don't have to drive from the office back to my house to get my stuff ready and leave. I'm already here, so I can log off and go! 

I want to reinforce that there is a huge benefit to working in person, especially when you’re a junior developer. If you have a choice, I suggest working in person because as a junior developer, it will give you more interaction and networking.

Shane, how were you mentored and supported as a junior software engineer in your first remote job?

Shane: I started at FNBO as an intern, and my team was awesome and helpful. Everyone was willing to show me how things work with that team, and how their services and their stack worked. The second team I was put on was difficult because there was a lot of constant work and not enough people to bring me up to speed. It was frustrating for everyone. I spoke to my manager and got moved to the ODS, which I’m still on. I have a phenomenal team of mid-level and senior developers who are very helpful and willing to walk me through things. 

How are you both communicating with your teams at work?

Dj: We primarily do Zoom Meetings because my team’s managing director doesn’t live in Chicago. We try to do at least one meeting in person every week. In the office, we have rooms that essentially act like Zoom conference rooms. We also do a lot of meetings on Microsoft Teams. If I have a quick question that I need to ask someone, I'll usually just send them a Teams message or find them in person. 

Shane: We use Microsoft Teams and Zoom because we have people from all over the country. We don’t use Slack because, like Dj, most Fortune 500 or other companies use more traditional software like Microsoft. Our policy at FNBO has recently changed, so even remote employees come into the office at least four times a year. FNBO pays for your flight and food while you're on-site. 

The Future of Remote Work

Do you feel that software engineering is moving towards more in-person or hybrid work? Or will remote work continue to stick around?

Dj: JPMorgan made a big deal about return-to-office this year and going back to full in-person work. We were recently more of a hybrid company, but I think that right now, big companies are moving towards in-person. Startups are still doing whatever works best for them. It's honestly hard to say that there's a trend because it is changing so much.

Shane: For our bank, remote work will still be around. They do encourage people who are local to Omaha to be more on a hybrid schedule and come into the office a couple of times a week. There's a benefit to that, but there is a benefit to remote work, too. I think hybrid work is the best schedule for everyone. 

Do you think applying for remote jobs versus in-person jobs requires a different approach? 

Dj: I'd say it's pretty similar. If you are applying for a remote job, an employer might ask you more questions about your self-motivation because I imagine that’s important when working remotely.

Shane: When you're applying for remote roles, it helps if you have projects that you've done yourself to prove that you are motivated and self-directed. Projects are good when applying for in-person roles, but maybe not as pressing because there will be someone in the office who can help you. Keep in mind that when you’re starting out, you want to get in the door as a developer, so take the first developing job you get, no matter what. Once you have that experience, companies will be interested in you. 

The work environment and company culture are important, so when you’re looking for your second job, research a company’s work culture and talk to people who work there to see how they treat their employees.

At this point in your careers, was going to Tech Elevator worth it for you? 

Dj: Absolutely. I tell people all the time that Tech Elevator did a great job of setting me up for success in my interviews. The technical education and teaching me how to network alone made Tech Elevator worth it. It’s a brutal career market right now, but if you have the drive and the motivation to make it happen, I think Tech Elevator is a good investment.

Shane: Definitely. Tech Elevator not only gives you the technical skills, but they have people there who will help you interview. When you’re becoming a software engineer, it’s not just about coding — It's about developing soft skills like communication. Tech Elevator does a great job of preparing you for that. We have an alumni group, so once you're done with Tech Elevator, you can still contact people that you went to bootcamp with or that came after you. You can also still go to classes at Tech Elevator. Dj and I have been out of the bootcamp for two years, but we could still check out a free React class at Tech Elevator, which is great for brushing up on things. 

Find out more and read Tech Elevator reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with Tech Elevator.