How To Find A Remote Job

Ep #63: The 9 Steps to Get a Remote Job

00:00 / 12:32

So what exactly do you need to do to get a remote job? Well, there are 5 things you can do to create a great job search foundation, and then 4 daily steps that lead up to a great application. That is of course if your remote job search is your priority. Maybe you’re searching on Saturdays, or Wednesday evenings, but whatever your flow, having a system in place that helps you sort the wheat from the chaff will save you a lot of time. We talk:

The critical first step you might not realise is integral to your success
The 5 steps that set you up with a great job search foundation
The daily 4-step system to find the right remote job for you

Get the Podcast Study Pack 3 and receive a worksheet, guide or checklist workbook for every episode, so you can make your remote career & transition a reality ASAP.

In the last 10 episodes I hope you’ve been getting the true picture of the scale of the opportunities for you when it comes to remote work. The opportunity is growing, more and more companies consider it a strategic imperative that’s a win: win on both sides, and it will continue. It’s not a fad, and most of all, they are actively scouring the globe for YOU and your skillset!

So let’s help you get a remote job!

There are 9 steps, the first 5 are set and forget steps, and the last 4 are the regular/daily jobs search steps. I’ll go into more detail about some of these steps over the coming episodes so you know exactly how to do what I’m going to share.

If you’re listening to this episode and at any point thing OMG how do I apply this to me, don’t worry, you can work with one 1:1. I offer 30-min remote career consults, just head over to https://stephanieholland.co/careerconsult for more information and to book!

How long does the remote job search take?

It’s a piece of string. I think it depends on the quantity of quality applications you do daily. When I’m looking seriously, at the end of a creative project like this one, I’ll be doing 2-4 quality applications a day, and I’ll find a role within 2-4 weeks.

It depends on what you’re looking for, and mostly, on how fast you get your application in. A word of warning, some roles will receive upwards of 3000+ applications, but don’t let this put you off. People who are on the ball and ready to hire will be watching the applications role in and switching off the job post before it gets out of control.

These quality employers WILL send you an email confirmation that your application has been received and WILL follow up with you. If they don’t, you don’t want to work with them anyway.

If they don’t have a formal process and workflow in place for their hiring, other parts of their business will be disorganised, too. More on that in a future episode about RED FLAGS!!

STEP 1: Believe in yourself

The most important ingredient of the remote job search is that you believe in yourself and what you can bring to a role and company. But this is the key to achieving everything, isn’t it? This goes so much further than your skills and qualifications alone. This will affect the roles you apply for, the quality of your application, and how you show up for the hiring process. When you know you have the 6 ideal traits of a remote worker (ep 54), the most important skill (ep 60), and the essential characteristics (ep 61), then you’re off to a great start, and that should make you feel confident alone. Your professional skills & experience will be the icing on the cake, and you’ll start strong.

STEP 2: Know what you’re looking for

It’s really good to have 3-4 different search criteria so that you can unearth more opportunities, but you really need to know exactly what you’re looking for first. If you have the podcast pack you crafted a vision for your lifestyle and work style, and then in worksheet 3 you compiled your dream company criteria, and in episode 56 we talked about the 5 different remote work contracts. So based on all of that, plus your skills, experience and career trajectory, you’ll have all this covered. If you haven’t got your copy of the podcast pack head over to the show notes at https://stephanieholland.co/63 so grab your copy.

STEP 3: Set up your CV or Resume

This is true for any job, but your CV should be tailored to each role you’re applying for. Now, I’m from the UK where it’s ok to have a 2-3 page CV, but in the US not matter your experience you have to use a one-page. I find a one page really useful because it forces me to think of the 4-5 most relevant roles for each application. It’ simplifies the process for me, forces me to think about my alignment with the role, and makes it so easy for employers to scan and make an instant decision. We’ll talk about this in more detail in an episode soon, and in the podcast pack I’ll share my exact CV format that you can use, too.

STEP 4: Revamp your LinkedIn profile

This is so important because everyone seems to check LinkedIn for your headline, profile, testimonials and …. Your activity! It really helps to have thoughtful comments & posts written about your areas of interests, as well as posts & articles that demonstrate your expertise and personality. Your who-what-why headline can help employers connect with you instantly. This topic will be a future episode so watch this space.

STEP 5: Search in the right places

This is the final step you need do only once, then when all these 5 are set up you’re good to go! Finding the right 3-5 job boards or platforms for you can help you to targeted searches and set up alerts without overwhelming yourself and scattering yourself too thin. You can either check-in 10 mins a day to see what the latest offerings are (this is what I do) or when you work with me one on one for a remote career consult I recommend the top 3-5 job boards that yield the greatest breadth of opportunities for your expertise. Just head over to https://stephanieholland.co/careerconsult to find out more and book.

STEP 6: Assess the job posting

Right, now you can start your daily job search. This is something I’ll do a whole episode on for sure! Being able to deconstruct the job post, suss out their company culture, their remote culture, and assess the culture fit and opportunity for you. This includes how to research the CEO or C-Suite.Yes, this is important! There are several things to look for, like whether it’s written in the first person or third person, or whether they include the salary bracket, which speaks a lot to transparency. This will be such a cool episode.

STEP 7: Do you research

Before applying it’s important to do a little more research about the company to make sure you really want to help them achieve their vision and mission. It will benefit you to really care about their cause, or motivated by the goals when there’s no one looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re showing up for work! Check their website, try out their product if possible, look at customer reviews, read their blog, check out their social media and what other people say about them.

STEP 8: Avoid the scams

Do a quick scam check. Hopefully the previous step will help confirm this, but there are also other things to look out for, like spelling errors, gmail addresses, and no public website. Because FYI legit companies that haven’t launched yet SHOULD have a landing page.

STEP 9: Create a really great application

This goes so far beyond clicking ‘apply now’ and sending a cover letter. I’ll share my tricks with you to help you stand out from the crowd, even if it’s a crowd of 3000+. Including how to demonstrate your tech skills without even specifying them in your CV or cover letter. So many of you are worried about not having the right tech skills, but if you do a few things I’m going to share with you, you can show them you’ve got what it takes without having to tell them. (And besides, we covered tech skills in ep 62!)

Those are the 9 steps, only 4 of which are daily job search steps.

I think it’s important to know that whether this process takes you 2 weeks or 2 months, if you do your due diligence, commit to the process above, keep creating qualities applications with your heart and soul, your intentions will shine through. You will find something at some point, you just have to stay in the game until you get the results you’re looking for.

I hope this episode has whet your appetite for upcoming episodes, and that knowing what to consider as part of the job search will help you ramp up your current applications. I look forward to diving deep into these areas so you can creaking cracking applications and get your first remote job in 2020!

As always, there’s a cheatsheet for this episode. It’s worksheet 9 in the podcast pack.

If you don’t have the worksheet yet don’t worry, head over here to get your copy there.