r/homeoffice

My wife and I are starting to do a weekly meeting with family members over Teams. We are sitting on a couch about 10-15 feet away from the desk where the computer is. I am looking for a good webcam that will pick us both us sitting on the couch and has decent quality mic so people can hear us both. Any suggestions on something I can get at say Walmart or best buy or something?

Hello,

I’m new to the Macbook world and need your advice.

I am aware that this question has already been asked several times, and yet my need is not as complex as the other posts. I will not connect 4k monitors or play games either. I have already read quite a few posts and yet they are multiple monitor and computer posts.

I work from home and recently upgraded to a MacBook Pro M4. My current hub/dock station is unstable and not working well with my Mac.

I need to connect an Asus TUF gaming monitor, an iPad Air (for drawings & designing), external drives (I’ve got a Samsung T7 based on the recommendations here) a mouse, a keyboard etc.

Also, with my Asus laptop when I have Zoom meetings, I can work on 2 screens and do different tasks and yet with Mac I could not figure it out. I tried not mirroring thing and it still is the same screens 😒 does anyone know a solution?

Based on what I described, I was recommended here to get a Thunderbolt, what should I get under that doesn’t cost $500?

Thank you in advance. 😊

Looking to build an office in my yard. New home doesn’t have a dedicated office space so I need to create one. I have been researching them online but they are so drastically overpriced I am curious to see what anyone else is doing. I’d like to stay under $5k so I am considering buying/converting a shed rather than going to prefab office route. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

I work from home and somehow my entire week has turned into zoom calls, so I’m finally replacing the terrible webcam built into my laptop.

I don’t need anything crazy for streaming or content creation. I just want a sharp picture, decent colors and autofocus that doesn’t randomly hunt around while I’m talking. Good performance in average room lighting would be nice too.

Trying to stay around $100-$150 if possible. I’ve seen Logitech, Insta360, Emeet and a few others recommended, but I’m not sure how much difference there really is between them for regular meetings.

What webcam are you guys using for zoom? Anything you bought that just works without constantly messing with settings?

I have a dining room table that doubles as my office space. I’m looking for ways to upgrade it to make it easier to put away when I have guests over.

Maybe wireless peripherals would give me the most bang for the buck in terms of ease of setting up and putting away?

Is a keyboard tray worth it? Are there ones that double as storage?

Are there monitors that are larger than the portable ones but take up less space than the standard ones?

Hi everyone! This is my first Reddit post, and I'm hoping to get some honest advice from people working in IT or recruitment in the UK.

I recently moved to the UK, so all of my professional experience was gained in my home country. I have a degree in IT and around 3 years of experience as a Customer Support Analyst for an international IT services company.

Before that, I worked in customer service for a large logistics company. I believe that experience actually helped me get my IT position, because I was already using a CRM/ticketing system, dealing with customer cases, investigating problems, documenting information and following processes.

I also had experience in customer service, administration, reception and teaching/training IT, so my CV is quite varied. I know that might not necessarily be a bad thing, but I'm wondering if it makes my profile look unfocused.

I joined the IT company as a trainee and, after about a year, I became a Customer Support Analyst.

My role was mainly focused on supporting a large corporate account with mobile devices and services. My work was more focused on customer support, troubleshooting, processes and ticket management rather than software development or advanced technical support.

My day-to-day responsibilities included:

• Managing incidents and service requests through a ticketing system
• Providing first-line troubleshooting for mobile devices and services
• Supporting users by email, phone and chat
• Explaining processes and providing documentation to users
• Managing and updating tickets and following SLAs
• Escalating issues when necessary
• Assigning tickets within the team
• Maintaining device and service records
• Monitoring mobile data usage and contacting users when necessary
• Supporting requests such as new devices, replacements, lost devices, cancellations and number transfers
• Working with different internal teams and an external telecommunications provider

I used ServiceNow and other internal systems.

I really enjoyed this job. I worked from home for a significant amount of time and later had a hybrid arrangement, and I found that I was comfortable and productive in that type of environment.

I left my job when I moved to the UK after getting married. I expected finding another job to be easier because I had worked for an international company, but it has been much harder than I expected.

I have applied for quite a few jobs and have received very few responses. Some applications seem to be rejected almost immediately, and I haven't been able to get many interviews.

This has made me wonder whether my experience is simply not translating well to the UK market, whether I'm applying for the wrong roles, or whether my CV is presenting my experience badly.

I do have full right to work in the UK and don't require sponsorship.

Another thing I'm trying to improve is my English. Most of my professional English came from working in my previous job. I have a good vocabulary and can understand work-related English quite well, but I'm quite shy and speaking is still much harder for me than writing. Since moving to the UK, I feel that my everyday English has improved, but I still need to work on my confidence and grammar.

I'm also currently pregnant, with my baby due in January. I don't see this as something negative, but realistically it affects the timing of my job search. My plan is to use the next few months to prepare rather than simply wait.

Ideally, I would like to return to work around March, preferably in a hybrid or remote IT/customer support role. I really enjoyed working from home before, and I feel that this type of role would also work well for me in the future.

From now until January, I would like to focus on:

• Improving my spoken English and confidence
• Refreshing my IT knowledge
• Learning useful skills without spending a lot of money
• Improving my CV
• Understanding which roles I should realistically target
• Starting to apply more strategically

I'm also wondering whether I should broaden my search beyond UK-based companies. For example, should I look for remote positions with companies based in other countries, as long as they legally employ people who are resident in the UK?

So this is where I would really appreciate some advice.

If you were in my position, how would you use the next 5–6 months?

Based on the experience I've described:

1. What roles would you target? Service Desk, IT Support, Customer Support, Application Support, Technical Support, or something else?
2. Does my experience as a Customer Support Analyst sound transferable to UK IT support roles?
3. Does my previous customer service experience strengthen my profile, or does my overall CV look too scattered?
4. Is having all my previous experience from another country likely to be a major disadvantage?
5. What skills would you recommend I refresh or learn?
6. Are there any genuinely free courses or certifications worth doing?
7. Would you focus on ITIL, Microsoft/Azure, networking, or something else?
8. Where would you look for hybrid/remote roles in the UK?
9. Are there good job boards or companies for finding remote IT roles where the employer is based outside the UK but hires people who are legally resident in the UK?
10. Is there anything obvious in my situation that I might be missing?

I'm especially interested in hearing from UK recruiters, hiring managers, or people who moved into the UK job market from another country.

I would really appreciate honest and constructive feedback. I'm trying to understand where I might be going wrong and what I could improve. If there is something wrong with my CV, my experience or the way I'm applying, I'd genuinely rather know so I can work on it.

Thank you for reading! :)

I’m currently setting up my home office, and one decision I’ve pretty much made is no traditional overhead light. 

I want the room to feel bright, but not too bright. I’m trying to create something closer to natural daylight: soft, evenly distributed, and relaxing enough. 

I’ve looked at a lot of home office setups, but I keep running into two extremes: 

Super bright ceiling lights that make the room feel like a doctor’s office 

RGB everywhere that makes the whole thing look like a gaming battle station 

(Neither is really what I want.) 

I’ve been looking into indirect lighting and fixtures that bounce light off the ceiling first. The idea is to illuminate the whole room rather than create one particularly bright focal point. I’m currently trying out a portable Homelist indirect lighting desk lamp. The light points upward, so when I’m sitting at my desk, I barely notice a bright light source in my peripheral vision. The ceiling basically becomes the light diffuser. 

For those of you who don’t use an overhead light in your home office, what kind of lighting setup are you using? So far, I like the effect. The room is bright enough to work in, and feels more comfortable than a traditional office. I’m still experimenting with the rest of the setup, though.