Digital Nomad Tips

5 Tips on How to Find Remote Work [2023]

If you’re looking for a remote job, who could blame you? For many people, including us, remote work offers a unique blend of freedom and flexibility that traditional jobs can’t match. And you know what? This is the perfect time to be searching for a remote job.

The remote job market is booming, and there are plenty of great opportunities out there to be found. According to a report created by North One on the growth of remote work, remote job opportunities have increased by 44% in the past five years, 91% in the last ten years and 159% in the previous 12 years.

These figures are HUGE and show no sign of remote work slowing down. However, truly remote roles can be challenging to find, so we’ve put together this guide with five tips we’ve used to find remote work that help you hit the road whilst making a living. Let’s dive in!

You might find interesting:

1. Background Research Into Different Industries

Many sectors, particularly after COVID-19, support remote work. However, many still don’t, so its important to do your research.

Lau, for example, was previously a nurse. Unfortunately, remote nursing isn’t yet a viable career, but luckily for Lau and many people like her, there are many remote roles that can be learned without prior experience. Some of the most well-known industries for remote work include...

Information Technology: This industry was one of the first to embrace remote work, as many IT tasks can be quickly completed from anywhere with an internet connection.

Customer Service: Many customer service jobs can now be done remotely, thanks to online chat software and other tools.

Sales: Salespeople can now make calls and close deals from anywhere using their laptops or smartphones.

Marketing: With the rise of social media and content marketing, many marketing tasks can be completed remotely.

Human Resources: Human resources professionals can often find remote jobs that involve recruiting, training, and managing employees from a distance.

Accounting: Many accounting tasks can be completed remotely using online software and tooling.

2. Know the Difference Between “Work from Home” and “Remote”

When searching for remote jobs, it’s essential to know the difference between “remote” and “work from home.” While both types of positions allow you to work from a location other than a traditional office, there are some key differences.

Remote jobs typically allow you to work from anywhere, either within a country or worldwide. In most cases, you’ll be working with a team of other remote employees and will need to be available during regular business hours.

On the other hand, work-from-home jobs generally involve the expectation that you’re in the same city and available to come into the office from time to time. Although they provide much more flexibility than regular office jobs, they generally offer less flexibility than a remote job as they limit your ability to work from different locations.

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When searching for remote jobs, specify whether you’re looking for a remote position or a work-from-home job. This will help you focus your search and find the best possible opportunity.

Lau working on her laptop with the sea and mountain in the background, lots of greenery. Located in Koh Chang, Thailand. — Rasta View, Koh Chang, Thailand

3. Remote-only job boards

Many job boards out there promote vacancies, and many offer hybrid office jobs where you work some days at home and other days at the office.

However, it’s more efficient to use job boards that focus specifically on remote positions when working remotely is a crucial criterion.

This will help to ensure that you only see openings that can be done remotely and that you are not wasting your time applying for jobs that require you to be in a specific location. We recommend the following remote job boards to help facilitate your search...

Remote OK Find a career where you can work remotely from anywhere.

We work remotely is the largest remote hub in the world. WWR is the perfect place to find and list remote jobs, with over 4.5 million monthly visitors.

Remote.co is a resource for companies that view remote work as an advantage. They specialise in giving expert insight, excellent practices, and valuable support to those considering or already mainly working with a remote team.

Working Nomads curates lists of the most interesting remote job offers in many professional career areas. They connect professionals who want to work remotely with innovative companies providing independent positions.

4. Research companies to figure out their remote work policies

Even if you discover a job post from a remote-only job board, we always do some further research into the company before applying.

We do this for the general reasons of learning about the company’s mission, values, growth amongst other things, but it's also to discover how they support their remote workers and whether there is a formal structure to do so.

This will be typically outlined in a formal “Remote work policy” drafted by HR, authorized by management, and outlines the company’s overall position to remote work.

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Before spending the time and effort to craft a resume and cover letter that may take you some hours, it’s a good idea to do some further digging.

Apple MacBook laptop with an Anker powerbank on a wooden table on the beach. Ocean in the background with a tree and a hammock. Hua Kati Cafe, Koh Samui, Thailand — Hua Kati Cafe, Koh Samui, Thailand

5. Search for Remote or distributed companies specifically

One way to increase the chance of the company being set up for remote workers is to seek out companies that were founded as “fully remote” or as “distributed” company.

These companies have built their business model around the idea of a completely remote organization and will typically have employees worldwide.

Therefore, these organizations will have better infrastructure to support remote workers than companies that are adjusting to the new reality after the pandemic. By searching for these companies, you can narrow your search and focus on finding that perfect remote job.

Make sure you're set up for remote work:

Concluding remarks

As you can see from the tips above, there are several different ways to narrow your search when looking for your dream remote role.

Whether it's doing some background research into remote-friendly industries, leveraging remote-specific job boards or focusing your search amongst fully distributed companies, you can employ various strategies.

There’s never been a better moment than today to start searching, so what are you waiting for? Good luck, and drop us a message on Instagram if you found this article useful or you have a question for us - @remotevagabond