Hello everyone, I need some guidance. I'm new to freelancing. I recently got connected with a potential client (US Texas based). They want me to work full time with them, and want me to sign an NDA and W8 tax form. I have not even discussed the kind of work I will be doing but the person at the other ends insists on signing it and then he'll brief me about it. What dou you guys think? Please guide me

Tribe has anyone ordered a macbook from the apple india store? Had few questions regarding the delivery if someone could help

I am planning to buy a monitor I am thinking of buying either the LG’s 29” ultrawide monitor, or the second option is to buy one 24" monitor( Dell P Series 24-inch) now and later add another one for dual monitor setup. I am not sure what would be better ultarwide or dual monitor setup. What would you guys suggest

Hey Tribe, anyone has experienced frustrating but also funny interview moments? 1. The Stout beer I once interviewed with a popular company in Bangalore. They asked me to solve a hackerrank question. I did that at home, they said it looks good and they want me to go visit them. After going there at 11am, they asked me to solve another bunch of hackerrank problems. I really don't like solving competitive questions in 30minutes. You see, if you give me few days, I would build you an MVP version of a simple database or a distributed queue system for you but I simply don't like inverting a binary tree in 15 minutes on a web browser. So I got frustrated there itself, anyhow I solved the problems. Then they didn't know where I would fit in, so I had 6 rounds of interview with backend team, product pod team, product manager, SRE team, devops team etc. Where the product manager asked me to solve something on paper, when I did, he asked me "why didn't you use bit shifting operator or bit manipulation?", I said "Why should I use bit manipulation", he couldn't reply because the plain reason was it's what he expected. While I was thinking he's really technical for a mangement guy doing bit manipulation and all but then I realized he might have seen that question on internet and asked me, that's why he's expecting same bit shifting way of solving it. After all this, time was 6:30pm, I was really drained out. They sounded positive and said there is one final round, it will take upto 8:30pm(minimum), I said f*ck this (inside my mind) and said I need to meet someone, its already scheduled, we will take rest of the interview tomorrow over a video call. Then I went to Toit, had my favourite Stout beer. They never got back to me after making me to spend a whole day with them. --- 2. Why not use 80C benefits? This also happened last year. I almost got conviced and started the process to relocate. The role was new to me, they wanted me to hire and build their backend engineering team for a Bangalore based startup. But the pay was average, I thought if they could push a little bit more I would relocate, because few Chennai startups gave me offers with good payment, what's the point of increasing my expenses and relocating. I would relocate for beer but I don't like the traffic. Anyhoo, here comes the best part. I talked to the founder about it. I said, "hey what I "take home" is not enough, I need X amount on top of that" and pitched about all values I could bring to the table. The founder said they will get back to me after discussing with their team. Then this is how they negotiated back, "I see you are getting X amount, and you pay some amount fully for TDS, instead invest 1.5 Lakhs in 80C you would take home more because of tax benefits" I was really awestruck, I didn't know whether I conveyed what I want in a wrong way or they were lowballing me or they geniunely replied leverage 80C benefits to counter negotiate salary. Anyhoo I didn't sign the offer. --- 3. Show your Aadhar Card This is a very popular consulting/services company, they are everywhere, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. The interview went for half a day, I kind of liked the process but didn't like the part where I had to submit a solution for Data Engineer take home problem for a Backend Engineer position, most likely because they want some solution for the HR record. But I can't complain, because I loved the discussions I had with their tech team. But.. After half a day of interview, I met the Engineering Director of the company, he talked about salary, I said, I am expecting X amount, he said what you are under selling yourself, here I will give you X + 3Lakhs. I was like, man I like you, I guess I will be happy here working with you folks. After a day, HR sent an email about finalizing the offer. The draft showed the amount X - 4 Lakhs. I was like what the f*ck, X is the number I wanted, X + 3L is finalized with your engineering director and now you send me an offer for X - 4L? I thought that could be a miscommunication from their side and I conveyed the same. Then they said that they need my passport, Aadhar ID and Bank statements(don't remember exactly) to process the offer further and Aadhar is mandatory. I replied along the lines "I guess this is not worth, I am not taking your lowballed offer by showing my Aadhar card." --- 4. Hi I am a Backend Engineer. Sorry you are not fit for an Android role This is also a Bangalore based Product company. They are really really popular, sponsors many tech conferences. In 2017 I interviewed with them, they sent me a problem to solve at home. I took 2 full days and solved it for them, they liked the solution and they wanted me to fly to their office for face to face. But their number seemd very low, I got better offers at Chennai itself, so I said I will opt out of the process, I don't want to fly there. Again I was like why should I go through the whole relocation process if I am going to spend only more. You can counter my argument saying "life style" but it's Bangalore, come on, it's not SFO. Anyhoo, I applied to same company in 2019, here's what happened... This time I went through a reference as I know many folks working there. They gave me same problem they gave in 2017, same words. I could've sent 2017's solution but mind you, I referred my previous solution, spent 2 full days again, solved the problem from scratch which is cleaner and optimized than my 2017 solution, then sent it. The HR replied that "You are not fit for an Android role". I said, I am a backend engineer, my resume says I am one. I applied for backend engineering role. The HR again emailed saying, "You are not fit for a full stack role". I never replied back. I had two questions in mind, 1. You selected my 2017's solution, but rejected my improvised solution. Why? 2. I applied for backend role clearly, you got back to me twice saying I am not fit for some random roles. WTF? The guy who referred me literally said, dude if they said that, it is what it is... I lost respect for guy who referred me, this company, as well as everyone working there. This is the most frustrating experience I ever had in my interviewing journey. Even when I write this it makes me feel so bad because I kind of loved this company. Now, it has become an ex from a toxic relationship. Personally this experience fuels me so far to stay Independent/self employed. For every interview story you add below, I will add one more here 😂 P.S: Don't spread hate, I want to know how many people had similar frustrated experience because of broken interview processes across the tech industry.

What monitor arms do y’all use? I’m thinking about getting one from Rife.

Does anyone here using AmazonBasics Laptop stand for Macbook Pro 16-inch?

I am looking for some advice for eye care and in buying spectacles, I have spherical, cylindrical and axial powers. 1. How often you get your eye powers checked? 2. What things you take care while buying spectacles? 3. Online sites like lenskart or coolwinks are good to buy eye products? 4. Any other things like distance between screen and eyes or usage hours, which needs to be taken care of? I knew these questions needs to be answered by doctor but still looking for learning your thoughts on this.

Hi, fellow Remote Indians! I am excited to share a personal milestone with you all. My new startup - a venture production studio - has finally been incorporated in the US! 😃 We are currently in stealth mode and have a small revenue stream going. Still dealing with some compliance issues as I write this. You folks will be among the first to know once I can share more. Also, we will be hiring soon! I plan to set up a small remote team here in India. Keep an eye on #work-opportunities 🙂

Hey, has anyone read “Practical Home Office Solutions”? I am thinking of cleaning up my store room and converting it to a home office, but before that, I want some fundamentals on workspace design. If you’d have any other suggestions (preferably, books), please do tell!

Anyone working through Turing https://www.turing.com? Wanted to check how are the rates there.

Got 45k off on flipkart for MacBook Pro 16 inch i9 1tb during the big billion sale. Did anyone else grab it? Now looking for suggestions on usb hub Any recommendations? https://www.flipkart.com/apple-macbook-pro-core-i9-9th-gen-16-gb-1-tb-ssd-mac-os-catalina-4-gb-graphics-mvvk2hn-a/p/itm1fc58c7ecac1c?pid=COMFMGKPK82CHJZ4&lid=LSTCOMFMGKPK82CHJZ4CR92AA

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd is the first major non IT company in India that has announced permanent #workfromhome for its Indian employees 🌟 Indrajeet Sengupta added that the company will not only allow the employees to #wfh but will also provide allowances to set up home offices including power back up equipment and cater to their mental and physical health. The move is led by empathy and flexibility and will help employees and their dependents lead a safe life.

Hi tribe, so I got the 2019 16 inch MBP from the apple store. It seems to have image retention, screen flickering and other display issues in just 2 days. Apple says refund isn't available in India, the replacement will take a month. Anyone has any experience in such situations with apple? Or any thoughts/suggestions? Thinking to get a mac mini or a windows/linux laptop rather

All new MBP designs after 2015 seem to be loaded with issues!

Does anyone use Expensify for expense reporting to their employer?

Hey Everyone, I have a MBP Air 2015 model. Lately is behaving wierd and running at 90% cpu even after a clean swipe. Activity monitor suggests that system takes up ~70% CPU. Since its a fresh install, there aren't any apps installed that should take up this much of memory. Any pointers here?

I got myself a used Steelcase Think from https://chaircycle.in/ Haven't used in earnest or in anger yet, but so far so good. The delivery took a while but that's because they are not set up to deliver outside of Bangalore now and had to jump through some hoops. Really pleased with it and would gladly recommend them to anyone looking for a new chair.

If anyone is looking to buy a solid, built-like-tank sit-to-stand desk in Bangalore, let me know. I just commissioned one from the white-label desk that Haworth sells (meaning I am buying the same desk, but without the Haworth tag). Pricey, but comes with 10 year warranty on metal and wood parts and 2 year warranty on electric parts. A 5ft x 2.5feet table would come to around Rs 55k including GST. Sample image in thread.

How would you go about buying a brand new desktop today? I am seeing All-in-One PCs which aren't very exciting. Lenovo's website makes it really difficult to discover PCs that would serve your needs. Looking for i5 and above, 8GB and above, 128GB SSD, and Windows 10.

Hey Tribe, I have been reading the Essentialism book lately, and I realized the community's purpose is pretty vague and is not actually a falsifiable goal.

 Help Indian engineering and product professionals passionate about building their careers as remote talent to share proven strategies, best practices and the paths that each of us are navigating in building our careers, so that we can each pursue a less travelled path without anxiety, reach our financial goals and live our lives to the fullest.

I have no ways to measure if this project is a success or not (other than the NPS survey). I have been thinking hard about this and couldn’t figure much 😕 Could you help me out here by sharing statements of purpose which are both Inspirational + Concrete 📝

Has anyone bought a non-Logitech webcam lately? The good Logitech ones don’t seem to come down in price ever since April. I’m looking for a 1080p cam.

Which day is the best to host the Social Mixer calls?

Setup update: The only thing missing is the keyboard 🐣

Anybody interested in Nanowrimo next month? https://nanowrimo.org/about-nano

Anyone switched to Roam Research? Curious as I find it impossible to do so after using Evernote heavily for last 3 years.

Channel suggestion: How about a channel for side projects/ volunteer work/ looking for a team types, the types of jobs which 90% unpaid which also are not sort of open source completely, which may turn into a founding team later, or get monetized later, or increase experience, or make do for social good, type of scenarios, Since it is a community driven by gig workers mostly, I do not feel it right to put up such requests in looking for work for any channel Any thoughts!?

Looking for recommendations for best anti-glare glasses to use while working long hours. Anything good out there?

Icebreaker event was refreshing. Thanks for organising this @calm-grass-85557 🙏