You should have first defined what "Remote" means.
A company could be willing to hire remote, but to them remote could mean somebody within the area who can drop by the office from time to time.
Still, I am very impressed by your efforts.
Employers - please take this in count in HN Who is Hiring threads as well.
I did ask a few details about how they accommodated remote work (most had teams on IRC, Slack, or Hipchat and only one said they used Jabber) but I didn't standardize as much so I didn't write down all that data. I only had about 2 hours to collect all this so I had to make some sacrifices somewhere. As it was I missed a couple of companies that folded their tables up before I could get to them.
You could collect the data through some hosted form from all the companies at the same time.
We are looking for solid python and django devs and we are actively trying to fill several positions. I am a python dev who has been with Cox for almost a year and can answer any questions.
Check out the job description here: http://cmgd-jobs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/developer.html
But boy it takes some work to get a remote worker as productive and plugged in as an onsite worker.
But the very minute the whole company is not on one site, remote is the only way to go. Got two sites and no remote ethos - congratulations you now have two companies. Got two floors on the same building and no remote ethos - hooray, two companies.
it's a management and cultural shift - measuring by results, good upfront grooming, in estment in tools, reducing schedule pressure, quality above all else - the list is long
In fact, sometimes very remotely like the far flung islands of Scotland, though we tend to want to pop in! :)
The hiring process seemed so brutal/intense to me.
Then again, hiring remote gives you every reason to scrutinize someone who may never set foot in your offices.
I imagine you're talking about the workalong for a day? We think it's a good way for everyone to meet face to face, not just for us to get to know you but for you to get to know us. Changing jobs and hiring someone are mutually big commitments.
Something like triple interviews, cut-throat competition for the position (which shouldn't actually count as brutal on your side, but it is brutal) and because it was a while back... I cannot recall the other parts.
Kudos to Olark for treating the business like a family though. I saw the link and the get-togethers look pretty awesome :-)
I actually wasn't told about the "workalong for a day". That step in the hiring phase seems okay though.