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NB: Looking for job fair details? Find them here.
The number of people working remotely has grown by 44% in the last five years and I’m sure that has increased with the advent of COVID-19, quarantines, and social distancing. More and more companies are realizing the benefits of hiring a remote worker including fewer overheads, more productive employees, and the ability to hire workers who can work from anywhere.
This is what my former employer found out in 2013 when they decided to close their local offshore call center on the island. Since the Barbados application development department (we called ourselves BADD 😁) was employed by and only did work for the head office in Houston, we were told that we would be allowed to continue working as normal from home until they found a smaller office space for us.
After about a year they stopped looking.
With all of us working from our individual homes, they realized that they suddenly had little to no overheads and we were just as productive working from home as we had been in the physical office.
We had no complaints either. I mean who would complain about not having to face rush hour traffic in the morning and being able to roll out of bed at 7:25 to start work at 7:30 🤷🏽♀️. I ended up working remotely for almost 7 years until the team eventually dwindled and they closed the office last September(2019).
When the office closed, I couldn’t imagine working from anywhere other than home. I hyperventilate at the thought of going into an office and working nine to five again. So I started to look around and found that there were more than a few opportunities for working remotely.
If you’ve recently lost your job, working shorter hours, or just tired of the nine to five, you should consider looking for work online. While it’s true that many of the online opportunities cater specifically to those in the USA, more and more opportunities are opening up for remote work worldwide.
What is Remote Work?
A person who is employed by a company, but works outside the office, whether as a full-time employee or a freelancer is doing remote work. Outside the office could mean working from your actual home, a coffee shop, or even on the beach.
During the recent Covid-19 lockdowns many companies were forced to implement measures to allow their employees to work from home. Many of them have continued to do so after realizing that in addition to having fewer overheads, employees are just as (or even more) productive when they are working remotely.
What are the Most Popular Remote Jobs
If you’ve never worked remotely, you might be surprised to find that you already have skills that you can use to earn income online. Let’s take a look at five of the most popular work from anywhere jobs.
Online ESL Teacher
Online ESL teachers teach English to non-native English speakers who want to learn English as a second language (ESL). You may also see this referred to as TEFL or Teaching English as a foreign language.
The most well-known recruiter of online ESL teachers is VIPKids. They hire native English speakers to teach online English classes to children in China. Unfortunately, you must be a US or Canadian resident to sign up with these sites (so if you meet these requirements, go for it)
I did a bit of research though and found iTutorGroup. From what I can see, they hire globally and their requirements are standard for most TEFL platforms.
To become an online ESL teacher you need to be a native English speaker, have TEFL (or similar) certification. Some places require a Bachelor’s degree and teaching experience, but not all of them. TEFL certification takes two to six months, and there are a number of places you can get TEFL certified online.
Social Media Manager
If you spend a lot of time on social media and enjoy engaging and encouraging others with your posts, you might want to consider becoming a social media manager.
Social media managers help businesses and entrepreneurs build brand awareness by engaging their online communities on social media networks like Facebook and Instagram. They are often in charge of creating a business’ online marketing strategy which might include goals like increasing website traffic and sales.
Besides having good communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills, a good social media manager should also be familiar with multiple social media platforms, SEO and data analytics. Becoming a social media manager doesn’t mean that you have to spend all day at the computer. There are various apps available to help you schedule social media content for weeks and even months at a time.
Software or Web Developer
As you can see from my own experience, being a software/web developer or designer is one of the easiest jobs to transition to working remotely. We spend all day working in front of a computer so it really doesn’t matter if we do it from a physical office, from home, or the nearest coffee shop.
Typically, software or web developer doesn’t interface regularly with clients and work is often self-paced so this field has always been a good candidate for remote work. Remote work in this area isn’t strictly related to web development either. Additional tech-related jobs that allow you to work from anywhere include software engineering, computer maintenance and app development.
Virtual Assistant
What exactly does a virtual assistant do? Virtual assistants can provide a wide range of services. As a virtual assistant, you can do anything from organizing meetings and clearing email inboxes to managing blogs and providing website maintenance (check out this list of 150 things you can do as a virtual assistant).
Many businesses and entrepreneurs these days have remote teams and hire multiple virtual assistants for different tasks. You have the option of working for an agency or finding your own jobs through a job board.
The rate for a virtual assistant starts around $20 USD per hour but can go as high as $100 USD depending on your skills.
Freelance Writer
Freelance writing is one of the most popular remote jobs you can do. More and more businesses are hiring freelance writers to write engaging content to inform and attract their ideal clients. As a freelance writer, you can get paid for creating various types of content like blog posts, web articles, user guides, case studies, and white papers.
The best thing about freelance writing is that it takes zero to little money to get started, and you don’t even need to be an excellent writer. There’s a lot of free and paid content on the internet to help you get started as a freelance writer. The recommended starting rate for a beginner freelance writer is $0.07 to $0.10 per word.
One thing to note though. If you want to make a living from freelance writing, avoid content mills like the plague. Their rates are usually around $0.03 to $0.05 per word. You’ll spend all day working for peanuts and have nothing to show for it.
Other Popular Work From Anywhere Jobs
These are just five of the most popular work from anywhere jobs that you can do but here are a few more:
- Transcriptionist
- Bookkeeper
- Proofreader/Editor
- Customer Service Representative
- Recruiter
Where can you Find Remote Work
While Upwork and Fiverr are good places to look for remote work when you’re just starting out, it will take you a while to move up the ranks and earn a good income. And even though they have some security mechanisms in place, you still need to be on the lookout for scammers.
One of the first things I did when I lost my full-time job was to sign up at FlexJobs. FlexJobs has been in operation since 2007 and is considered the number one job site for finding remote work. You can use the site for free to look for jobs but paid members have access to more benefits like skills tests, matching job alerts, weekly Q&A sessions with a career coach, and job fairs.
The good news is that FlexJobs is having a remote work virtual job fair this week, on Thursday Sept 16th. It starts from 10 a.m until 5 p.m. EST.
At the job fair, you can view and apply for jobs from top remote companies. You’ll have the opportunity to chat with representatives from the organizations to find out a bit about their companies and open remote jobs. Employers and recruiters also have the ability to interview you via chat and audio conference.
These companies will be participating in tomorrow’s job fair. Also, check out this list of companies that hire for work-from-anywhere positions.
This job fair is only available to registered FlexJobs users so make sure you sign up. You can register for as little as a week for $6.95 USD, but why not sign up for a month for $14.95 USD (use code JOBFAIR to get up to 30% off) and challenge yourself to find a job in the next 30 days? If you do, it would be well worth the money spent.
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