It’s 3pm on Friday and you just got a text from your friend.
Friend: “When are you headed to the beach?”
You: “I’m leaving the office soon and will be headed straight to the beach. What’s your ETA?”
Friend: “I’ve been at the beach all week. I told you, I landed a new job and can work remotely from anywhere.”
Most of us have a friend that somehow landed a job where they can work-from-home. All of a sudden having the corner office isn’t so great anymore and your hunt for a better work-life balance begins.
You climbed the corporate ladder, negotiated a six-figure salary and landed the corner office. You realize that you would trade it all and take a pay cut to be able to work from anywhere! You come to the conclusion you need to figure out how to land a job where you can work remotely, but don’t know where to start. Here are 6 tips to help you with that mission.
Tip 1 – Learn the Terms. First, let’s go over the terms, so that you know how to search for these jobs. Remote work may also be listed on job boards as:
- Home-Based Work
- Virtual Work
- Telecommuting Work
- Work-From-Home
Tip 2 – Prep Your Resume. If you never had a remote job before, the hiring managers are going to be looking for signs that you’re a self-starter and self-motivated. Let’s add the buzz words that give the impression you need very little supervision.
Tip 3 – Find the Best Remote Job Resources. Swing by FlexJobs first. They have a surplus of remote jobs. They did the work for you; they scrapped hundreds of online job boards to find legitimate telecommuting, part-time or flextime schedules, or freelance contracts. Then jump over to Angel.co, they have thousands of cool startups that offer remote work, but may also provide equity in their company.
Now for our last stop. Maybe you want to go the freelance route and signup with UpWork or Fiverr. Just an FYI…UpWork has a time clock that knows when you take a long “coffee break” and it alerts the client of your idle time via computer screen shots.
Tip 4 – Prepare for the Skype Interview. Be prepared for the hiring manager to ask you:
Hiring Manager: “I see from your resume you never worked from home before. Do you think you’ll be successful working from home?”
You need to convey that, even though you worked from an office your entire career, maybe your boss was always out of the office on sales calls and you worked with very little oversight. Maybe you supported a team of people or clients that were distributed all over the US. You need the hiring manager to feel confident that you’re disciplined, organized and deadline driven. Then they’ll ask:
Hiring Manager: “Do you have a quiet home office setup with a printer, shredder, high-speed internet and your own laptop?” Of course you do. If you don’t, a quick trip to BestBuy will solve the problem.
And make sure you NEVER tell the hiring manager you’re looking for remote work to avoid paying steep daycare costs. They will picture you on conference calls with screaming kids in the background.
Tip 5 – Stage Your Home Office. The hiring manager will want to Skype with you for many reasons, but the main reason is to see if you conduct yourself professionally via Skype. That means dressed professionally, not sitting in your bedroom with a large pile of dirty clothes spilling out of your laundry basket. Try to prevent any type of interruption… like your dog barking at the mailman walking by or your cat who all of a sudden decided to pounce on the keyboard.
Tip 6 – Test Skype and Google Hangouts. Your hiring manager will most likely use one of those two. Make sure your handle is professional and not something like sunbather247. Call a friend via Skype and Google Hangouts to make sure your internet is fast enough; the camera is working, and the audio works fine.
Now you’re ready to become a location independent!
When you finally land that remote job, you may need to invest in some adult onesies from Jumpin Jammerz. Just don’t forget to throw the suit jacket over top of the onesie, when your boss wants to have a Skype call.
Once they verbally extend the remote job offer – drop the questions about internet and cell phone reimbursements.
And then add “attend a Home Base Global trip” to your to-do list after you find your new remote job. This cool company coordinates trips for people who work remotely. Who doesn’t want to travel the world while still making money?
Good luck with your search!
This article on how to find a job where you can work remotely is a post by Julie Clark, PHR, SHRM-CP. Julie is the founder of Capa , an HR consulting company that specializes in social recruiting. Capa helps businesses by reducing the time and cost it takes to fill vacant job positions, as well as helping HR departments scale remotely. Before Capa, Julie worked remotely in an HR capacity for several tech startups. You can follow her on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.