Re: Telecommuting

[Chris Despopoulos <cud -at- telecable -dot- es>]

In a sense, offshoring is not telecommuting.  In *every aspect*, it is.  
I remember maybe 6 or 7 years ago when people used to talk about setting 
up satelite offices that would be telecommute centers - as a compromise 
to lure management into accepting telecommutes.  This was California, 
where I used to spend 3 hours a day commuting.  (Don't get me started on 
how the tech industry offloaded the vast majority of materials transport 
to the tax-payer, given that the "material" is people, and roads & 
gasoline are highly subsidized - as is the internet.  Without this 
transport subsidy, the tech boom may have never happened.  Note that 
other industries have to pay to transport their materials and 
commodities - yes, tech workers are becoming commodities.)

I digress...  Actually, I'm guilty of offshoring - I live outside of the 
US, and I can afford to charge less than my peers in the US.  OTOH, I 
*have* to charge less to account for the perceived difficulties of 
telecommuting.  Still, I can't compete with $6,000.00 a year. 

As to the original question, I believe you will have to work as a 
contractor.  And it is *very* hard to land a contract cold.  Either you 
get work through networks that you originally established before we went 
online, or you stand out enough in the field that customers come to 
you.  That's my experience.  So the advice is the same for telecommuting 
as it is for contracting in general...  Network, network, network.