I Work Super Closely With People I’ve Never Met in Person

Every day when Joe Ciesla would commute to work during his first project as an Associate Analyst at EY, he knew where he’d buy lunch, how many meetings he’d have, and where he’d park his car.

He also knew that he wouldn’t see a single one of the colleagues he worked most closely with. Not that day, not any day.

That’s because his co-workers were based in EY’s Bangalore, India, office—more than 9,000 miles away from his desk in Jacksonville, Florida. Yet aside from some conference calls scheduled at odd hours to account for the half-day time difference, it didn’t feel too out-of-the-ordinary.

Joe’s experience is representative of a new professional paradigm. Companies are increasingly—and rapidly—redefining how their employees interact and operate in a digital, hyper-connected world. According to a 2015 Gallup Poll, more than 37 percent of U.S. employees have worked on a virtual team. EY is at the forefront of this trend.

Surprised? You’re probably not the only one.

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For many people, a consulting job with professional services organization Ernst & Young LLP (EY) likely conjures images of constant travel. (Like, LOTS of travel.) And to be fair, most of the time that is the case.

But for EY employees like Joe who work at the company’s Service Delivery Centers—located in Jacksonville Florida; San Antonio, Texas; and Alpharetta, Georgia—the day-to-day is markedly different. They swap a life on the road for a career spent working virtually with international teams that drive results for EY’s clients.

Sound appealing? Unsure? Here are a few tips to help you decide if a virtual job is a match for your personality.

1. Understand Your Communication Style

Do you pride yourself on communicating clearly, whether by chat app, email, or phone call? Or do you thrive only when you’re in the same room as your co-workers?

Working on a virtual team means being constantly aware of how you communicate, especially when that communication is written. It’s easy for a joke to be misinterpreted or a technical description to get lost in translation. But with a little time, you’ll get into the practice of being extra clear with your new co-workers.  

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2. Think About How You Learn and Grow Professionally

Are you self-motivated, or do you need an extra push to keep improving? Depending on the structure of your virtual team, you may not have a manager on-site to give you constant feedback, so the onus would be on you to advocate for yourself when you want to take on new challenges.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll be left to your own devices. At EY’s Jacksonville Service Delivery Center, for example, there’s a dedicated “learning leader” who’s in charge of developing curriculum to help employees continually grow. They’ve even flown in trainers from other offices to teach classes on specific skills.

3. Decide How Much You Value Structure

No matter how much you plan, different teams across different time zones can lead to some unpredictable days. Working on a virtual team often requires a lot of flexibility, particularly at EY, where your clients are the ones you’re being held accountable to.

If you’re okay with being flexible and enjoy variability, then great! But if you thrive when you’re able to plan out your entire day (or even week) and still want to work on a virtual team, you’ll want to ask plenty of questions during your interview to make sure the work culture is a fit.

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4. Consider How You’ll Connect with Your Teammates

At EY’s Jacksonville Service Delivery Center, you won’t be the only employee in the office, but you may be the only employee in that office working on a specific project. That means you’ll need to put in some extra effort to connect with your co-workers.

As luck would have it, all new EY employees there are matched with a peer advisor who can answer basic questions about navigating this environment and working successfully with a virtual team. SDC employees also make an effort to connect outside of work, which helps create camaraderie among colleagues. In Jacksonville, there’s a kickball team, a basketball team, and a running club. These kinds of activities help build a sense of community—even if your direct teammates are thousands of miles away.

So, what do you think? Would you love having teammates on the other side of the world, or do you prefer being in the same room as (most) of your co-workers?

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See yourself joining EY’s Service Delivery Center? They’re hiring now for roles in data and analytics, QA testing, and financial crimes compliance.   

EY’s broader Service Delivery Center group focuses on connecting business and technology to provide solutions that improve their client’s technology architecture and systems, and address complex issues, IT strategy, and performance.