How To Find A Remote Job
How To Find A Remote Job
Ep #53: Why You Should Find A Remote Job Now
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The remote work style is not something that’s going to happen. It’s not the future, it’s already here, and has been for a while, right under your nose. And now happens to be the very best time to find a remote job.

The work style is growing like wildfire, and soon it will be the norm for most knowledge workers, with 50% of US employees predicted to be working remotely by 2020, and already 52% of the global workforce already working from home. This is not a US phenomenon, this is a global phenomenon. Hundreds of companies are actively scouring the globe for highly skilled humans with a strong work ethic, and there are over 100 dedicated remote job boards with thousands of remote jobs to prove it.

To kickstart episode #1 of this season of the thriving empire podcast: How to find a remote job, we’ll be talking about…

  1. What is remote work and why it’s not just about working from home
  2. The real size of the remote career opportunity awaiting you
  3. If this podcast is right for you, because I don’t like to waste your time!

 

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 trailer I said that working remotely is the fastest growing work style on the planet, and that if you’re a highly skilled human with a strong work ethic, you already have thousands of opportunities at your fingertips. So in my mind that makes it the perfect time to do some critical thinking about how you want to live and work, and then find a remote job. Now! 

But I want to help you envision the size of the opportunity in front of you, so you have no doubt in your mind that this is a reality. But first quickly, what exactly is a remote job?

What Is A Remote Job?

“Remote jobs meaning” is a highly searched term on Google. So let’s clarify: what is a remote job? It’s a job you can do outside of a traditional office, from home, from a co-working space, or anywhere with a reliable high-speed internet connection, with a team either in the same city as you, or with a team separated by geographies, time zones and cultures. If you can achieve everything required by your job from anywhere without being in the same office as your team, you are considered a knowledge worker and could, in theory if your company supports it, work remotely. 

But don’t think just because you work from home one day a week you work remotely. If you do only solo focused work at home when you need quiet time to think, but you need to or have to be with your team in person to collaborate on projects, then you’re not working remotely. You’re just doing solo, focused work away from your team. That’s a whole different kettle of fish, like sneaking off to a cafe for a couple of hours to finish a presentation. 

When I worked at Microsoft in 2004 I did everything I did at the office from home – all my meetings, project collaborations with people in the city as me as well as my team of European strategists across 5 countries. I could do my whole job from my kitchen table.

When you can do your job brilliantly from Brazil while your team is in London, then you, my friend, are a bonafide remote worker! Welcome to the club!

Why You Should Get A Remote Job Now

Back to the sheer size of the opportunity, so many prolific national brands, like British Telecom in the UK, or JetBlue in the US, already offer flexible working opportunities, with a written commitment to increasing flexible working opportunities by certain dates; because even they realise the benefits to their bottom line.  I learned some brilliant company stats to share with you from one of the most up to date books on the subject called Distributed Teams by John O’Duinn which I recommend you DEVOUR!

The ‘Distributed-Team’ Remote job

Distributed teams have a mix of co-located (in an office) and remote employees. JetBlue, the US airline, have roughly 8K reservation agents and 75% of them work from home. In 2017 Dell, global tech giant, reported 140K global employees and a goal to have half of them working remotely by 2020. So far 18% are formally working remotely, and 54% informally. 

“We are pushing for a culture where it simply doesn’t matter where you work from.” — Mohammed Chahdi, Global Director of HR, Dell

As if Dell could predict the future, it’s predicted that 50% of workers in the US will be working remotely in 2020. And according to Owl Labs, 52% of people globally already work from home at least one day a week. So you can see where the trend is heading!

So don’t think it’s all startups, small business and digital nomads dominating the scene. It’s for you, too, across all industries, company size, skill sets, job titles and experience. In fact Owl Labs also say that small companies are twice as likely to hire full-time remote workers. This might surprise you… the top three industries for remote work includes transportation alongside IT, and digital media. (Gallup, 2019).

And a new wave of distributed (no central HQ) and remote companies creating our favourite digital apps, and digital platforms serving the online business community like CleverTech, HotJar, Aha!, ConvertKit and Zapier are ushering in unlimited work style opportunities to anyone living anywhere and everywhere; from single parents working from home and nationals living in far-flung locations relative to the founders or HQ, to digital nomads who change location every 2 weeks.  

Github has over 400 employees globally, and 50% work from home. Mozilla, makers of Firefox, have over 1,100 employees globally. 40% work from home full-time. The rest are distributed across 12 offices.

The ‘No-Office’ Remote Job

Then you have the no office tribe. Automattic (the team that gifted us with WordPress) are the ultimate remote company blueprint, have over 700 Automatticians distributed across 62% and 100% of them are remote. No office. If you’re a UX’er, you’ll know InVision who have 500 employees globally. And no office. Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of remote jobs online. Well, doh! of course they are!

“One day, offices will be a thing of the past.” — Richard Branson

This is not something that’s going to happen. It’s not the future. It’s the present! It’s growing, and soon it will be the norm for most knowledge workers. All of these companies are actively scouring the globe for highly skilled humans with a strong work ethic, and there are over 100 remote job boards with thousands of remote jobs to prove it. 

So if you acknowledge & seize the opportunity NOW, while remote experience isn’t a criteria – and we’ll talk in detail about the skills & characteristics required of remote workers in an episode coming up soon — then you’ll be a sought after candidate before thousands more people catch on, and more so you can really help shape the future of work, too. 

This is not something you want to procrastinate over! But most importantly…

Is This Podcast Right For You?

So, are you in the right place? Because if you’re been listening to the podcast so far, you’ll know I’m deeply passionate about investing your time strategically. So you’re in the right place if:

  1. You love your career & job, but want to ditch the office and commute.
  2. You’re interested in working remotely but currently think a well-paid, legitimate remote job is like a Unicorn, a scam or a pipe dream.
  3. You’re currently working remotely, or you’ve had a few remote gigs, but it’s just not working out for you, and you’re wondering why.
  4. You’ve gone from employee to running your own business, but it hasn’t worked out, and you want to return to a regular paycheck without giving up your freedom & lifestyle

It’s also for you if you have a vision of a different way of living and working.

Maybe you dream of working from home, having daytime hours to do what you want while you work according to your natural rhythms, saving money & time & stress by not commuting, eating healthy meals made at home, sipping on delicious warm tea of coffee at your kitchen table or home office, and being able to stay cosy inside during cold winter days.

Maybe you dream of a greater number of career opportunities that aren’t restricted to your location or time zone, with companies doing amazing things around the world, offering limitless professional career development opportunities, tapping into to industries and learning new skills.

Maybe your dream of being truly location independent so you have more freedom and flexibility in your life, greater work-life balance, spending more time with your family, traveling the world, moving to a different country, or out of the city!, learning how to surf, or simply, spending more time reading in your hammock, quality time with your honey, and watching the butterflies on your balcony. That might be me!

Listen, it’s no coincidence that The number of people who work from home has increased by 140% since 2005. (Source: Global Workplace Analytics). Figures from OWLLabs in 2019 show that people who work from home at least once a month are 24% more likely to report feeling happier and more productive at their jobs. And since 73% of all teams will have remote workers by 2028, according to a report called The Future of Work commissions by Upwork, you have an increasing chance of being one of them!

Now is for sure the best time to find a remote job. Coming up in this Season I’ll share exactly how to find the best remote jobs online, the best remote jobs websites, and how to find remote jobs in Europe. Because this isn’t just a US phenomenon, as mentioned.

So crack open the worksheet 1 in podcast pack 3, where I guide you through the critical questions you can ask to form a crystal clear vision of your life and work that will help you refine your remote job search. 

If you don’t have a copy yet, head over to https://stephanieholland.co/podcastpack3 and get your copy.

Until then, keep living and working on your own terms, so you can build your career and the life you really want simultaneously.

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Photo by Candice Picard on Unsplash