I personally have a perception that remote workers in companies like this have capped 'upside' in their long-term careers with the companies they work at remotely.
What's your experience or perception here?
One thing to consider is that you probably also have capped upside in the first place, when you are constrained to working in the Midwest, because most of those companies have lesser engineering quality and a corresponding lesser reputation. It is better to be working remote for a top-tier company than be working in person for a medium company.
It really depends on the remote culture of the company. I worked for a big company (about 1000 people) where individual contributors and line managers were mostly remote. So being remote and getting a lead or line level manager was not an issue. Directors could be at a satellite office and travel to a big office in a major city. VPs and above tended to all live where the headquarters were.
I've also worked in a company where 95% of the people were in office and they started to offer remote as an option. Forget about getting promoted - it was basically impossible to maintain a positive image as a remote employee.
If you are in a remote first company, obviously you can go much higher. But I suspect that even with remote first companies, the top leadership will tend to gravitate to be closer to each other.
This is OK by me. It is balanced by being able to afford a home that is far more than I would afford in a coastal city and having a living space I love brings joy to my life. Not to mention all the other benefits - no commute, etc.
WFH is definitely a balance - it is not for everyone, and each person needs to decide for themselves whether the benefits it brings matches their own goals.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-next-wave-in-remote-work-fl...
The type of company you work for has a big impact on whether you can rise up and how fast and I have had personal experience where I was a rockstar developer to begin with and things changed as soon as I asked for remote working setups for our team and the management wasn't kind to us remote professionals. Things seem to have changed though and I see a lot of people doing well remotely working and succeeding in their roles.
My 2 pennies...
I've been remote for a couple of years and for last year, I got an extremely good performance rating - which gets harder the more senior you are. I also made sure my manager knew of my efforts, did lots of demos throughout the year, and led efforts with visibility.
Part of this is just knowing the management system, knowing your own manager, and saying the right stuff. The soft skills.
It may also be helpful if the company you work for is already distributed across the globe. It increases the chance that everyone is remote to each other, especially due to the pandemic.
It can work if remote is part of the company DNA. As in most communication happens online. Even then, I've noticed a certain bias; you're just bound to be closer friends with people you see literally every day, who are in the same room and not multitasking while on a zoom call.
It's not bad for a while, or to use it selfishishly, e.g. avoid high cost of living and assets.
But you do lose out on maximizing potential.