Computer Programming

[Lordtariq83]

I was was wondering have any expats done any computer programming for their home countries while they are living in the Philippines

[Old55]

I know of several individuals who were able to work online while living in Philippines. If anyone here is doing this they may be reluctant to speak out because although not exactly unlawful it may be a gray area.

If you have programing ability then you should easily know or find out who employs digital nomads. 

[hk blues]

9 hours ago, Old55 said:

I know of several individuals who were able to work online while living in Philippines. If anyone here is doing this they may be reluctant to speak out because although not exactly unlawful it may be a gray area.

If you have programing ability then you should easily know or find out who employs digital nomads. 

Indeed. I guess they could explain how a "friend" of theirs does things!

[Snowy79]

I'd hazard a guess that anyone making money to live on might not be the best source of information. 

[Mike J]

I wrote much of the code for a large transportation company in the USA where I worked for many years.  When I retired they ask that I continue to offer remote support for six months while a new coder got up to speed.  The six months actually worked out to 2 1/2 years.  I was able to offer support and write some minimal tweaks to the programs that I had written but development on new projects basically came to a standstill.

Challenges (at least for myself and the company);

The time difference was a bitch for me.  The west coast of the USA was 16 hours behind the Philippines.  I would have to be available midnight to 9 am to offer "real time" support.  The sixteen hour difference also put them on a different day schedule as Friday for them was Saturday for me.

Personal interaction was very limited.  Much of my interaction with staff who used my programs was face to face either in my office or at their desks.  The one on one face time occured from initial planning, development, testing, training, rollout, and fixing bugs.  The poor internet speed here was a challenge for remote access to their computers, audio conference could also be problematic, and video conference never did work.  By the end of the 2 1/2 years I was relieved when they felt confident enough to go it on their own.  

If you want to work remotely you will definitely need high speed internet as well as backup internet provider.  You should also have an emergency power backup in case of brownout.  There are a number of websites that offer piece work for coders.  These sites will give you an idea of what is available, prices paid, and also which program language is currently in demand.

I hope you achieve your goal of writing code.   For me there was always the feeling of tremendous accomplishment as I went from blank screen to a fully proven and  tested program that made people work more efficiently and with greater accuracy.    There even came a time when I started to dream snippets of code and kept a pad on the nightstand to make notes.  If you have the mentality and desire to be a coder I just cannot imagine a more fulfilling and exciting career and I was blessed to have that life for many years.