Remote Work

Hi Talberly,

Yes it is completely possible with the help of websites that offer freelance work i.e. upwork.com.

I personally have used upwork and have had as you put it "100% telecommute" work. This was mainly iOS development work that I picked up off the site, slowly to start with I must point out.

Where your question becomes semi-complicated is "learned from Treehouse? Is this possible?". What you learn here on Treehouse (I started on Treehouse, a newbie with iOS development, now working at an international law firm as software engineer) will go a long way towards preparing you and getting you started on a programming career path, but not far enough to go take on work.

Remember that you are learning by following, and to take on work you must lead (especially telecommute/remote work). There are a lot of areas you wont learn about and a lot of general life skills that if you haven't already learnt, you will need to.

Time management, communication skills, presentation skills, are a few general skills needed but think about it, who would hire you with nothing really to show except Treehouse points. Treehouse points are great to prove you have spent time learning but not enough to show off your capabilities.

I would suggest go ahead and learn from Treehouse, its great! but then take the time and explore your own interests and build your own programs (this is so much easier if you find something that interests you, or a genuine problem that could help you or others and solve it). Building your own apps, using the internet to troubleshoot will build skills you simply cant just learn from listening to the teachers here on Treehouse (no disrespect to the teachers).

The benefit of this is now not only will you have a great understanding of a language from Treehouse, you will have a couple of programs to go in your portfolio. At this point if you are comfortable with your skills you have developed, you can start trying to take on entry-level work.

This work is great for you in a couple of ways, it builds up more skills in more areas, it builds up other general skills and it builds up your freelance profile. This is especially important for getting future work, people who hire freelancers prefer to see a good record on your profile. (NOTE: do not make the newbie mistake and go chasing money at this stage, if anything do work for free, take compensation as a complete bonus).

To summaries, don't take Treehouse as the golden ticket to a career in programming but a Oxford standard start. It falls on you to use your imagination and build with your skills you learn from here, and its on you to learn communication and professionalism, two huge parts of what is effectively working for yourself. It is possible, it just takes time, interest and determination, I have done it so I can vouch for it.

At this point I must point out this is all based on remote work through freelancing, it is possible to get remote work not as a freelancer (employee of a company), however I would say you would struggle to find this kind of opportunity, let alone get it over everyone else that would want it.

Good Luck Dom