I used to think that to get ahead, I just had to work harder. I was stuck in a cycle of hitting deadlines, feeling stressed, and seeing colleagues who seemed to be playing a different game entirely.

Then i figured it out. They weren't just working harder; they were working smarter. They found companies that value efficiency over the appearance of being busy.

This discovery was a game-changer. I used this strategy to find a role so efficient that I was able to work a second full-time job for six months, spending a combined six hours a day on both.

It’s not about being lazy. It’s about finding a high-trust, low-process environment that lets you do your actual work. Here are the five green flags i look for.

1. Fully Remote

This is non-negotiable. I once juggled two hybrid jobs, and it was a nightmare. I had to take sick days just to go to the other office. I even had to run out of meetings claiming "toilet problems" just to take a call for my other job. Trust me, you want a fully remote role.

2. Big Teams, Small Responsibility

It's easy to get lost in a good way when there are many developers. At one job, we had 20 people in the department. I could disappear for weeks to work on something, and nobody would notice. Compare that to another job where there were only two of us, and I had to report my progress three times a day. It was hell.

3. Broken (or No) Processes

Slow processes can be your friend. In a big company, it can take forever just to get your laptop and all the necessary access. That means you can sit and chill for a while. My onboarding at one place took a few months. At the stressful job with the small team? It took a few days. Guess where i had to work more?

4. Lots of Research Tasks

Always try to get the research or "architecture" tasks. Management usually thinks these are complex and hard, so they get estimated with a lot of time. When I get a task like this, I can disappear for weeks, scroll Stack Overflow for a few hours a day, and then deliver a report. Everyone is always happy.

5. Established, Boring Projects

Startups and new "greenfield" projects require constant development and collaboration. That means more meetings. I worked on a project that was mostly in maintenance mode. We had 5-minute daily stand-ups. At the startup? I'd sit in meetings for four hours a day. There’s no energy left for coding after that.

I share the exact questions to ask in an interview to find these green flags in my full video.

Go watch it before your next meeting that could have been an email.

5 things i look for in companies as overemployed