<p>Well, more like two questions actually. First question - I remember reading somewhere on the internet that software devs have a lot of flexibility in their work schedule, in the sense that they can work from home if they need to, take days off and make it up later, etc. Is that true? My friend's mother is a database developer and it seems that she has a lot of control over her schedule, so it seems like it might be true, but I don't know. Second question - in most scenarios, if a software dev is working for one specific company, can he also have his own separate company doing completely unrelated work on the side? For example, if he is working for a defense company, can he run an app company on the side?</p>
<p>(1) Depends on the company and the job, but, in general, sure, flexible hours and working from home should be on the table for plenty of jobs in software. As a skilled professional, you can typically expect companies to be a bit more lenient towards you than towards unskilled, minimum-wage workers (who may have to punch in and out, record breaks, and complete some stipulated number of tasks per shift). The flip side is that you will be expected to stay nights and weekends to finish your work during crunch time, which shouldn’t happen often, but don’t expect overtime pay when it does.</p>
<p>(2) Generally, this will require an arrangement be made between you and your employer; you have to be careful and restrictions are common. For instance, you can’t use time or resources from your employer towards your business, or let your business impact (or seem to impact) the quality or quantity of your work. The business can’t typically be related to your work with the company in any way, and it definitely can’t compete with your company’s business. I’m not a lawyer, but this sort of thing sounds like a bad idea in most (>50% of) cases.</p>
<p>Depends on whether you need a ton of specialized equipment or brain dead licensed software to do your job.</p>
<p>I would say in some companies work from home is the norm (my wife works from home, standard practice for her company, a very major IT and business process consulting and other stuff company). In my case I have flex schedule but not likely to work from home full time. </p>
<p>Business on the side is asking for trouble, big time. You can get away teaching part time in a college (I’ve been asked a couple times) but more than that, not likely. Depends on the company but no good way to ask.</p>
<p>I pretty much agree with the others.</p>
<p>Where I’m working now, most people work from home one day a week. Out of a group of about 100 people in my department, maybe 15-20 show up at the office on Friday. Here in the SF/Silicon Valley area, that’s relatively common. There are other companies where everyone comes in every day, and there are a few companies where workers only come in once or twice a week. If you need to stay at home and wait for the delivery guy or plumber, most companies here will accommodate that.</p>
<p>A lot of people abuse the privilege of working at home, and if you do it and it looks like you’re not producing anything on those days, your managers and co-workers will notice. It’s really annoying when you need to ask a co-worker who’s supposedly working from home a question, and they don’t answer their emails or messages.</p>
<p>If you run a business on the side, make sure it doesn’t interfere with your “real” job. Again, if your managers and co-workers think you’re not pulling your weight because you’re dealing with a second job, they’ll get irritated.</p>
<p>I’ve seen many more people laid-off or fired because co-workers were ticked at them for reasons like the ones above, than because of incompetence.</p>
<p>Ok, no business on the side. Got it. About working from home - I wouldn’t want to work from home full time, but having extra flex time is always convenient. Something else - is the flex time applicable to all software jobs, or just those with software-only companies? I can imaging if you’re working for a government contractor rather than a software company, you’d have less flex time because you’re on government deadlines, but I don’t know.</p>