Telecommuting has long been touted as the future of work but, until recently, few companies have been willing to take it seriously. Now, however, there are a growing number of fully distributed (a fancy way of saying they have no office - everyone works remotely) companies out there in different parts of the world, employing people worldwide. Even some long-established companies are getting into it. The opportunities are still improving, and perhaps it'll be a good opportunity for you.
CAN I TELECOMMUTE?
Now, not all jobs can be done remotely, so if you're planning to do warehouse or factory work, you're probably out of luck unless you're getting into retail or online arbitrage, which is buying stuff at a really low price and selling it again for a profit. Some people scour Walmart, others look at charity stores and garage sales, while still others only look at cheap prices online. A popular place to resell what they found is Amazon and there are TONS of tools out there to help you get started, and a lot are free. Keep in mind, you'll need to have ready access to the post office, the ability to store stuff in your home, repackage stuff, and a computer. A barcode/UPC scanner is a definite plus, but there are phone apps you can use that will not only scan the code for you but they'll also tell you that items rank on Amazon and how much it'll get you. Buying a product for $1 when you can only sell it for $1.10 on Amazon isn't worth it - but what if it's worth $10? Arbitrage can be lucrative if you're smart and diligent, so you can start looking for resources (but you don't need to pay them anything) at the Selling Family's website. Using Amazon to sell, you have two options: ship it directly to the buyer or send it to Amazon and they'll ship it. Some people are VERY good at this and not only earn huge incomes but got so big they had to get a warehouse and hire people to help them!
Aside from arbitrage, however, most remote jobs tend to be tech, and they all require a computer with specific software installed; some require a telephone, too. Here are some categories that you can definitely find remote work for: Chief ____ Officer, VP, director, founder, manager, supervisor, team lead, customer service, tech support, graphic design, programming, executive assistant, administrative assistant, sales, marketing, research, QA, testing, education, training, escalations, scheduling, and pretty much any other job that can be done with a computer and telephone. Do you work at a company and you feel like: "Why do I come in? I could do this at home!"? If so, remote work may be for you!
SCAMS
But there are still scams out there, and mail-sorting/package handling has long been an area where this happens. So, do your homework by searching the net for reviews, or use the Better Business Bureau, Indeed & Glassdoor to check out companies - although not all companies are listed on them. If you can't find a company listed, it may be that no employee ever wrote a review or filed a complaint, or the company is new ...or it's a scam. Again, do your homework. If a website looks too simple, it may be a scam, or they may suck at web page design. Look for non-affiliated information on the company and look on reputable sites.
HIRING PRACTICES
Some of the companies have learned the hard way that remote hiring requires new tactics in interviewing to screen out the riffraff, so you may find yourself having to complete tests (Crossover gives you a battery of them, including recording your voice and answering IT questions I didn't usually know the answer to that weren't relevant to what I was applying for - go figure), answering unusual questions, and even telling them about you. Some companies take 4-6 weeks just to make up their mind if they want to offer you a job, while other companies have a mandatory, 3-months, at-will, probationary period to make sure you're a good match for each other. Some companies (like [How-To Geek](How-To Geek)), though, will accept your resume even if they're not currently hiring - just in case you're a good match for them! There are some companies that ONLY hire through recruiters, while others only offer actual employment if you're in the country they're based in, and everyone else is a consultant.
SALARY LIMITATIONS
Keep in mind that companies based in countries with currency that is weaker than the value of your currency may not be able to offer you a salary you can accept - I had a Malaysian company admit that to me. Other companies, however, must be on the US$ standard despite where the founders are, because they can offer good salaries. Still other companies may be pretty stingy, even with programmers, despite being 100% remote and being in the US or Europe.
Crossover is a recruiter that is not always one of those companies that is generous with salaries - although it depends. They offer a flat salary to everyone - no matter where you are from, your marital status, how many children you have or anything else. Customer service (L1) earns $30,000/year, which is a ton of money for Indonesians, and even a fair salary for Canadians, but it's hard to feed a family of 4 on that in the US. L2 will get you $60,000/year, but they do expect some pretty wicked technical skills for that pricetag. Programmers and managers will see even more than that. So, if you're in a country with a weak currency, Crossover may make you rich, but not all employees think it's a great place. Unfortunately, as it's a recruiter, it's hard to know which reviews are for Crossover and which are for its clientele. Also, Crossover claims that they're very fussy about who they'll accept for placement, and the tests I took seem to indicate this is probably true.
BENEFITS
Some (like Automattic and Zapier) offer some pretty amazing benefits, such as required vacation time, flexible hours, yearly expenses-paid company get-togethers, gym allowance, home-office allowance, new computer, and more, while others (such as Crossover) are still fairly traditional and not so competitive. Because a fully-distributed company has no physical office, it doesn't have all the overhead costs, and should be able to offer better than usual salary and benefits, but if they're selling their services and products at a local price, they won't necessarily be able to!
RECRUITERS
As a side-note, be careful to note the difference between a company hiring you and a recruiting/headhunting agency. The latter takes a chunk of your income for themselves, some don't give any benefits, and some fleece you with sky-high promises and fees while giving you the shaft (ECP seems to have a bad history in that regard). Unfortunately, some of the remote-only jobs are ONLY available through these recruiting agencies.
Other recruiters include Toptal and Hubstaff Talent. The former has very high standards (top 3%) for freelancers they'll help, and the latter tends to focus on technical work.
TRAVEL
Maybe you'd like to travel the world, instead of working remotely - believe it or not, you can (although most countries will require a bachelor's degree to do so and, if you're teaching a language, you'll probably need both a related degree AND a teaching certificate)! Jobbatical helps you find placements around the world, so you can work and explore!
FREELANCING
If you're the type that likes to make projects and then find companies who want to use them, you should look at Side Projectors: "It’s a marketplace for side projects: You submit your finished website, mobile application, desktop program, or hardware product, set a minimum price, and wait for interested buyers to contact you."
REMOTE JOB SITES
It's not the largest job market, in terms of careers and availability, but there are opportunities. You can search on tradition job sites for "telecommute", "remote", "fully distributed", "work at home" and similar. Who knows? ONET, Indeed, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, JobsThatServe (non-profit specialist), LinkedIn and many more probably have some.
- Here are a list of websites: Hubstaff's 25+ Resources That Will Help You Land Your Dream Remote Job. It's 3 years old, so some of the info is not entirely correct, and I can tell you right now that Bitwage, Arctic Startup and Inbound are all dead. However, it's a good resource.
- Zapier's 25+ Fully Remote Companies That Let You Work From Anywhere is another old article, but it does list several remote companies that you can hit up for a job.
- Rodolphe, founder of Remotive.io, has a list of 900+ Startups hiring Remotely in 2019 you can try, too.
- This is a much shorter article from Pete of Skip the Drive of choice remote companies, with a brief description and rating.
You could also try Working Mother, Remote, Zip Recruiter, Working Nomads, Nerdy Hire and Remotees. Flexjobs isn't free, but they're pretty good, or so I've heard. If you run through all of those, just search for more sites! :)
Here's an article of ZipJob's Top 11 Sites to Post Your Resume To and CareerCloud's The 10 Best Sites to Post Your Resume Online.
RESUMES / CVs
Do you need help with your resume? I know of a nice lady on 65th & Forest Home Ave in Milwaukee, WI, who'll do your resume for $80 and help you for a year with it. (414) 321-1370 I don't know if she does anything through the Internet, but you can ask.
Here's a review of some resume-making services: Reviews of 9 Resume Writers...and resume writing services, which has links to local services and executive-level resume services.
I took a look at the resume builder that LinkedIn offers if you pay for their pro membership but it is entirely dependent on your profile so, if your profile sucks, so will your resume. It uses a very basic format that LinkedIn claims is popular.
A couple of years ago, I used Resume Hero's service. It takes in your info, allows multiple resumes, and has a few different templates to choose from. That might be something for you to try.
A lot of websites now offer this service, including Indeed.
Please note that if you upload your existing resume to a site, or import it from LinkedIn, you'll probably need to edit it because some websites don't parse the information correctly and your resume on their site will be wrong, while others will be looking for data you didn't provide. For example, when I used my LinkedIn resume on certain employers websites, it was expecting to see the starting and ending months for former employers and, quite frankly, I can't remember that far back so it's empty on LinkedIn. And, as always, these automatic resume accepters cannot work magic - garbage in means garbage out no matter how nice their formatting is. So, after you upload your resume, make sure to check all the data!
There are professional resume services out there that charge hundreds of dollars and guarantee results. If you're not good at making a resume and don't have any HR experts as friends, you might want to shell out that money but, otherwise, I'm not sure if it'll be worth it, especially if you're looking at jobs with salaries that are fairly low. Also, keep in mind that, as with companies you want to work at, you should carefully research these resume services to make sure that they're not fraudulent!
I hope that this article helps you to find work - it's based on my own - current - job search for remote work. If you appreciate it, upvote and resteem please!
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