www.fastcompany.com: When it comes to job interviews, there are certain actions you want to avoid. For example, it’s usually a bad idea to bring up salary during an interview unless you’re specifically asked to share your thoughts on the matter. Similarly, you’ll want to avoid badmouthing your former (or current) employer during an interview, as doing so will make you look petty and unprofessional.
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Remote working is becoming more and more common in workplaces everywhere, and it’s already pretty established for theatrical designers. Since most designers work freelance, they might be accepting jobs across the country and video calling in to production meetings, maybe visiting only for a few days once the tech process has begun. Personally, I really like being around for the production process, but that’s mostly just a habit, since most productions that I’ve designed I’ve also engineered, and I’m used to having tight control over the exact execution of my design. With larger companies, I will likely need to get used to taking a step back. This article is helpful because it is not just applicable to asking for remote working privileges, but it is more generally applicable to asking for particular arrangements with potential employers. Since the theatre industry is so amorphous and fluid, this is an important skill to have.
My class has had a lot of discussion about interviews, so I was curious what this article had to say. Many of my classmates have applied for internships and have had some complications regarding their start time. Many of the internships require you to start working before our school ends or four times that are inconvenient for a lot of my classmates. In an interview, asking about working from home could be challenging or as the article referred to it as a “gray area”. Working from home seems like a luxury and a big requesting to ask a company especially an interview and this article answers the question of how to ask to work from home. The article breaks in down in multiple ways and starts off by roles. Depending on the position you are offered depends on the likelihood of you being able to work from home. But the article goes on to say that this shouldn’t hinder you going in for the interview and getting a feel for the company and their flexibility.
I was surprised when I read the title of this article. I’ve never really had the desire to work from home, as I’m the kind of person who needs a dedicated productive environment separate from my home environment. But I know the trend of working from home is becoming more and more common. And it seems like companies are either really for it or really against it. But it just occurred to me that this might be something people would want to ask about in job interviews, and that asking that could be a delicate thing. It’s good that this article is telling people to be cautious in their approach of this subject. It can really easily come off as being lazy. In my experience, most places that allow work from home will state that very clearly. They usually use that as a bragging fact, or a reason someone would want to join their company.
I see this as in the category of questions you ask after you’ve been offered the job. I’d just worry that this question would give off the impression that you don’t want to come in to work, even though working from home is still working. I feel like it shouldn’t be the case that you have to avoid questions that are about the things you’d want from the company (ex: salary, vacation, flexible hours) but functionally it just feels like asking those things will leave a bad impression. There is no real reason they should leave a bad impression, it isn’t as if it is a secret that people are looking to be paid for their work or want a certain type of work environment, but for we’ve all decided that we shouldn’t talk about it. I feel like a lot of job hunting involves this dance where both people know what the other person is after but neither person is supposed to say it.
This article still leaves me a little confused on the VR experience of the final created piece, however the architectural artwork as well as the other rooms seemed intriguing. Hearing about people visiting Yosemite via Virtual Reality amused me, however I think I would have an idea of how I would feel seeing this. What worries me, is that although it will never replace travel, VR will make us less excited about the world. Now, when I travel, some horrible part of me feels unsurprised. The landscape is something I’ve seen before, in some film or something or another. I feel as though more engulfing virtual experiences of things partially teaches our brain what locations are. In our heads, we collect data about our locations. Paths we take over and over again feel shorter and shorter, as our brains are collecting less data. Similarly, although I believe VR will never fully replace any natural phenomena, it will teach our brains to be less attentive if we are not meticulous in our being present.
Working from home has always been a difficult concept for me to grasp. One thing I've learned while in college is how difficult it can be to find the motivation to work while in the comfort of your own home. When it comes to productivity, I have always found success while being in an office where I can focus 100% on the task at hand.
That being said I understand that a lot of people have different reasons for working from home. Whatever the idea may be I think it is crucial for an employer to recognize an employee needs when applying for a job. In my personal opinion, as long as working from home does not affect the output there is no problem. Do you ask this question during the interview or wait until you've settled into the position and have established a relationship that would allow for this type of arrangement to be successful.
What I found most interesting about this article is that it mostly focused on tone and phrasing in an interview. Interview are putting our best face on to show we should be hired but what’s curious is that why we have to invent a whole new language to create the right tone in an interview. Why can’t we say “this is what I’m looking for”. It seems kinda trivial. Additionally having clear expectations about a job seems quite important to the interview process. I would hope an interviewee would have already researched the job by the time they interview. I felt the article did touch on some really good points given this game of the “right tone” probably isn’t going to change. Generally I have always assumed working from home in theatre depended on your career path I.E. a designer could but a job lead may not have that same freedom.
Though I feel this scene is not the most likely occurrence in my job interview in the future, it still showed me many good tips of asking what I want in the first meeting with future managers and company I want to work with. The method of throwing a more general question to the employer to see how the things are usually considered in the company is a great move. Not necessary get the precise answer, the question like "Is remote working a common practice?" is good enough to establish some kind of basic understanding for the upcoming conversations. Pushing too hard into the expectations might sometimes backfire to you, since not only the conditions we are looking for is the focus, interview is all about get some hold of how well the people, both employer and employee can get along. My best practice so far is to phrase my need in a way that is firm but not aggressive to get what I am looking for.
Working from home is a concept that has always seemed alien to me, only because I do not think I would be able to work with 100% efficiency when I am in the comfort of my home. For me, being in the place of work or some place which is not super comfortable has always resulted in the creation of better quality work.
But I am aware of how important and accepted the concept of working of home has become. And it makes sense in a lot of ways. For one, it is a great way for people to continue working when they cannot commute for a variety of reasons. In scenarios like that, working from home is a great option.
What I like about this article is the fact that t deals with this trend being brought up in interviews, which I believe could be an extremely gray area to dwell in, just because people might not know how the interviewer might react to a proposition like this, for fears of coming off as lazy. I feel like the article does a good job in terms of grappling with this situation.
In our industry, I could see there being a lot of possible work that could be done from home, rather than at the place of work. Things like designing, paperwork, technical drawings, etc. could easily be done from home, and depending on the situation it could be more practical. For me, I’ve never really wanted to work from home since I enjoy having separate spaces between where I go to sleep and relax, and where I go to be productive. Another thing is that a lot of the work I’ll probably be doing is shop work or fabrication, which really doesn’t seem like something I could ask about doing from home. In terms of the advice the article gives, I think it does a good job mentioning how you need to choose the right things to say, and avoid certain things that’ll make you appear undesirable. And doing research about a company beforehand is always beneficial, regardless of whether or not you want to ask about remote work arrangements. It never hurts to understand more about what you’re trying to apply to.
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