Remote Work At Rock: Travel, Surf & Volcanoes
I joined Rock in 2020 as a business development working student. A lot has changed since then. I now find myself traveling around the world as a digital nomad while managing a wide variety of marketing activities at Rock.
What does working full-time at Rock look like for you?
There are a lot of things I love about my job at Rock: ownership of awesome projects, a hands-on learning experience, and seeing direct results from my efforts.
My day-to-day looks completely different compared to two years ago. When I joined we were working on officially releasing Rock to the public, with a product hunt launch, listing Rock on different sites, and other business development activities. Now, 2 years and thousands of signups later, I find myself leading content, growth and analytical activities across channels.
A lot of my workday is planned around individual deep work: managing content, changes in our branding across channels, and other less-defined growth activities. With only 4-5 meetings on a weekly basis, I find my schedule to be open and flexible to focus on important tasks instead of being stuck in meetings that could have been emails – or as we like to say, meetings that could have been a task or topic.
Having only a few meetings does not mean I’m not connected to everyone in the team though. With constant updates in different 1:1 and group spaces, I often chat to team members, partners and users from across the world (and occasionally share some GIFs now that they are finally available everywhere!).
Only a few meetings a week and asynchronous-first work means I often don’t work a 9-5 (this doesn’t mean I’m being lazy though!). Splitting my time throughout the day allows me to go surfing in the morning, to the gym at 2pm or leave early on a Friday to go travel for the weekend every now and then.
Because we organize our work with tasks, performance is not connected to when I’m online. Instead, we focus on what is being accomplished in every sprint or week-over-week period.
What does remote work look like for you?
I decided to go fully remote in January 2022, leaving Rotterdam (which had been my home for 5 years) behind. Leaving behind great friends and a city that had given me so much wasn’t easy. But the idea of getting to travel the world while taking my career forward at the same time was an opportunity I did not want to skip.
For my first solo location I found accommodation in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua and decided to spend the next two months remote working there.
What is Nicaragua like?
I was scared of the idea of booking an Airbnb and spending large amounts of time working by myself in a holiday home. Thus, I booked a coliving space, which has an awesome view by the way!
Coliving spaces bring together remote workers and digital nomads from around the world. This makes them a great place to meet like-minded people. Another perk is that they often offer a fast internet connection, a must-have when working remotely. Or as Kenzo likes to call it, the base of the Maslov pyramid for remote workers’ needs.
A definite highlight of my stay was the opportunity to meet amazing people from all over the world with different careers, goals, and dreams. From consultants to freelance copywriters and nutrition & health experts, I shared my ‘office’ (the living room) and free time with people of different trades, backgrounds, and life goals.
Two months in Nicaragua also allowed me to visit places all over the country. I had the chance to visit typical backpacker destinations such as Ometepe, Granada, and León. I also got to surf a handful of times during work days and weekends, do short hikes around town, and check out most of the local bars and restaurants.
Oh, I also got to slide down a volcano which is definitely one of the highlights of my stay here. How does that work you ask? A Breaking Bad jumpsuit, a makeshift wooden board, and some goggles are all one needs.
What’s next?
We have great things coming up for Rock. Now that our help center and blog were recently updated, you can expect to see some rockin’ content across those and some new channels throughout the next few weeks.
My two-month journey in Nicaragua has come to an end by the time you read this article. My next travels are fully confirmed already though. After spending a month visiting friends and family I’m excited to visit Lisbon for 3 months and learn more about Portuguese culture and a new language. Portugal also has plenty of surf and a lot of interesting people to meet for sure.
No more volcanoes though, I think I scratched that itch for the time being by summiting San Cristóbal, the highest volcano in Nicaragua (allow me some bragging rights, it’s a 12-hour hike that starts at 2:30 am).
Will you be in Lisbon or are you interested in e-meeting? You can open a Quick Connect space with me through this link space.new/nicolaas. :)
