What is Remote Work?
So I’m going to assume since you’re reading this article you’re at least somewhat familiar with the idea of remote work. While traditionally having a job meant going into an office, in recent years employers have seemingly become more open to the idea of having remote workers. Remote work is exactly what it sounds like, working remotely, as in not in an office with your fellow co-workers.
Remote work could mean living in a static location and working from home, but for many people the attraction of remote work is that it can be done from anywhere and thus allows them to travel and experience different places. If you want to go visit your sister in Seattle for a month you can do that and work from there. If you’d like to go live in Mexico for half the year and avoid the winters where you live, you can do that as well.
The people who seek out the these types of lifestyles are often referred to as “digital nomads” or people who are “location independent”. Essentially if they have a laptop and access to the internet they can do their job and earn a living.
The increased accessibility to remote work positions has enabled this type of lifestyle for not only entrepreneurs and people who are self employed, but now that companies are more open to remote workers and that technology has enabled remote work to be possible, many people are able to be employed by an employer, to get benefits, yet still be able to live this digital nomad lifestyle.
When I talk to people about remote work, as well as the digital nomad or location independent lifestyle, many people seem interested, and would find that lifestyle and that freedom attractive, but don’t have the first idea where to begin and how to seek it out. So for that reason I decided to put together a little guide on finding remote work opportunities.
Remote Companies
Years ago most “remote work” opportunities were more like work from home scams. These days however there are plenty of legitimate well known companies offering remote work opportunities. Some companies allow certain positions to work remotely, while other companies have 100% remote workers. I think you may be surprised by some of the large well known companies out there who use a workforce that’s entirely remote.
A few very well known examples, but hardly the only ones, are…
Automatic
Buffer
Zapier
Again, while only a small number of remote companies, these companies are well known as being industry leaders in the world of remote work. Acquiring a job with one of these companies not only means you’ll have the freedom to work remotely, but you’ll also have the support and understanding of your colleagues and your manager as they are also remote workers. Oftentimes even when someone manages to turn their current job into a remote work situation they have jealous or angry coworkers or supervisors because they were able to carve out some additional freedom for themsevles.
Again, the companies listed above are only a small fraction of the companies out there hiring remote workers. Forbes published an article featuring The Top 100 Companies Offering Remote Work last year. Another remote work site Remotive.io also put together a list of nearly 1,000 companies that hire remote workers.
While remote workers are still the minority, many companies are beginning to realize the idea that people have to come in to your office to work is somewhat antiquated, and furthermore, many companies actually discover their employees are happier and more productive not having to get dressed and spend as much as 3-4 hours a day in their car commuting, just to come into an office, when it’s not even necessary to do so.
While many of these companies offering remote work opportunities are small tech companies with just a few employees, there’s plenty of large corporate companies like Amazon, Dell, Hilton, Shopify, and many others who hire remote workers.
Remote Job Postings
The easiest way to really narrow down your list of places to search for remote work is to find a remote job posting site or remote job board. Some of the more popular ones I check which have a diverse listing of jobs and ones which don’t post non-sense 100% commission type jobs are these below…
https://www.flexjobs.com/ (Paid Site)
https://remoteok.io/
https://weworkremotely.com/
https://www.skipthedrive.com/
https://pangian.com/job-travel-remote/
https://remote.co/remote-jobs/
https://remotive.io/
https://dynamitejobs.co/
https://remote4me.com/
https://www.outsourcely.com/
Now between the above jobs boards there is a lot of overlap, you’ll see a lot of the same jobs posted across all the boards, however it’s still a good idea to check as many as possible. You will occasionally find a job posted on WeWorkRemotely, which isn’t posted on FlexJobs or vice versa. Typically you’ll want to avoid more traditional job boards like Indeed, Monster, and CareerBuilder, though on occasion searching “remote jobs” will yield some results. I also believe Indeed has a search function to search specifically for remote jobs, but the options are typically fairly limited.
Social Networks
Now when we think of Social Networks you probably think of sites like Instagram and Twitter, this isn’t what we’re talking about. There are some social networks like AngelCo a social network specifically for Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups, LinkedIn, and even Facebook which has groups for nearly everything. These are the places were talking about searching. My favorite being Angel.Co.
Angel.Co
Angel.Co is a startup focused site, part website, part social network that lists open jobs at startup companies, a good portion of which are marked “Remote OK”. Many of the jobs also offer equity in the company, although there is a fair bit of non-sense to sort through where there’s no pay or benefits, only equity.
You can also find some remote work opportunities on LinkedIn using their search function. Applying on a platform like LinkedIn or Angel.Co ties your application to your profile so it’s in many ways superior to just e-mailing a resume. Your profile can contain work samples, connections with others you’ve worked with, and a bit more insight into you as an individual and a worker.
Lastly Facebook. In general I’m not a huge fan of Facebook, but I bit the bullet and setup an account just to access Facebook ads as well as some Facebook Groups. There’s plenty of Remote Work Facebook Groups out there and some are job boards themselves, where as others just link out to other jobs. Some of these include…
Digital Nomad Jobs: Remote Job Opportunities
The Remote Work Group For Digital Nomads
REMOTE & TRAVEL JOBS & LIFE (Pangian ®)
Remote Jobs
Remote Work & Jobs for Digital Nomads
Digital Nomad Jobs – Work From Anywhere
Digital Nomad Jobs – Remote Jobs @ letsworkremotely
Remote Jobs Work From Home
If you have any suggestions for other remote work job boards or opportunities that I’ve failed to mention feel free to drop a comment down below. Also, if you are currently or have worked remotely in the past and have any advice or tips to share, feel free to leave a comment. I’m currently working on an even more extensive guide of places to seek remote work as well as tips on finding remote work so feel free to sign-up for my e-mail list to be made aware when I’ve completed it.