Research assistant wanted

[Update: This position is closed. Do not apply. Thanks]

I’m hiring a research assistant to help with my current book about working for WordPress.com, a company where everyone works from anywhere around the world.

This is an experiment at finding a win/win for working on a book: lets see if it works.

The goal of the research is to find data, and good summaries, to answer questions about remote work across different industries and cultures. It’s a task I can do, but one of you folks who likes researching things might enjoy helping with a book, and getting paid for it.

Here’s the rundown:

  • The job starts ASAP
  • It’s probably a total of 10-20 hours of work over the next month
  • The tasks will be things like “find out what companies have trait X or Y” or “what evidence is there of V or Z”
  • You need basic statistics knowledge (how to poke holes in study claims and evaluate research quality)
  • You need to have google-fu and possibly fu for academic search engines
  • You need to write well enough to organize what you find so it’s easy for me to consume, with references
  • You’d get to help shape some of the book and chat with me about various book things
  • You can tell me what you think you should be paid

To apply: [Position now closed]

  1. Answer this question: “What % of companies allow telecommuting of any kind?”
  2. Write up a brief summary and cite your sources
  3. Include the words “inchoate” and “papaya” somewhere in your message
  4. I’d expect this would take an hour or less to complete
  5. You have until EOD Friday

There’s only one position and I will update here as soon as I’ve found someone (So check back before you do this work). I don’t want to waste your time.

Position closed.

2 Responses to “Research assistant wanted”

  1. Jon R.

    US companies or global companies?

    Reply
  2. Scott

    Thanks for asking :) You get a point for that.

    The answer is both. The U.S. is most important for most dimensions, but an ordered list by nations that have the highest % is also valuable.

    Bonus points for some indication of rates of change (+/-) over time (say the last decade).

    And the next assignment would be some breakdown by industry in the U.S. for the same questions.

    Reply

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