There’s perhaps nothing new and Earth shattering in this post, but I thought it might help others. Fair warning, it’s very long.
Some context for my situation
· I live in Canada
· I wanted a fully remote job because it’s been a long-term aspiration, I’ve loved it during COVID, and my local job market remained quite depressed
· I started looking mid-Aug 2020
· Received job offer June 1, 2021
Here’s what I learned and my tips for others.
- When you’re just starting your search for remote jobs, half the battle is knowing where to look. You want to check out sites dedicated to remote work, such as We Work Remotely, Remotive, Remote.co, etc. There’s also AngelList and VentureLoop, but they’re focused much more on early stage start-ups (YMMV on whether that interests you).
I do not recommend Indeed, GlassDoor, or LinkedIn. There might be the odd one that pops up, but those sites were never terribly fruitful for me.
- Once you find an interesting job, be a detective. This is perhaps not relevant if you live in the USA. However, I realized after spinning my wheels for a few months that, despite many companies being all remote and theoretically being able to hire globally, many are not able or willing to put in the effort of hiring international candidates.
So what do I really mean by be a detective? First, you can’t take it on faith that the region or country that (might be) listed on the job ad is accurate. I’ve seen plenty labelled international, and upon going to the company’s site, it’s clear they’re US only.
Scrutinize the company’s About and Career pages. Look for explicit wording like “global team” or “teammates in x countries or time zones.” If the company lists benefits and talks about US-based employees vs international, that’s a great sign.
If you can’t find any info on the company’s site, look the company up on LinkedIn. Check out the “People” page to see what countries employees are in.
Either spend time doing this research to be confident you’re applying to a company that’s actually open to hiring you, or spend time on an application that might end up being fruitless. I definitely wasted tons of time the first couple months applying to places that were never going to hire a Canadian.
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Apply directly on the company’s website. Regardless of where you find the job posting, I recommend ALWAYS going to the company’s site and applying there. If the job isn’t there, I wouldn’t waste time applying on the other sites because in my experience and opinion, you’re wasting your time. There’s so many people interested in remote jobs, I’m convinced within only a few days of being posted they get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Which brings me to….
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Apply to fresh job openings. I never tracked it in great detail, but my sense is I got a much higher response rate when I applied within a couple days of the job being posted.
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Apply with a one-page resume. I initially had a two-page resume. I resisted cutting it down because with almost a decade of experience at a few different companies, I didn’t think it would be possible to trim it. But I finally did. Again, I did not track it in great detail, but I feel like I started getting more responses (however, my transition to a one-pager coincided with my epiphany in point 2).
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Customize your resume for every job. I know this is old and tired advice, but it’s necessary. You should have a strong base resume for the type of position, and then look for ways to customize it. You don’t have to start from scratch with each job, but rather change out bullet points and verbs. For example, I applied to writing-related jobs; some ads talk about writing vs authoring vs creating; or copy vs content vs publications.
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Save a copy of the job posting. I had a dedicated folder where I kept these. If you’re applying to a lot, you’re going to need these to refer to when you get interviews. Do not count on the job ad still being available online to refer to.
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Be prepared for an insanely long hiring process. Maybe these 6-stage+ processes are totally normal in the US no matter the type of company, but to me it was new (and in my opinion unnecessary, but that’s a different topic). Prep for each stage accordingly.
The first HR interviews are almost like a verbal resume, be prepared to say why you’re interested in the job and company, why you’re looking to leave your current job, and to talk about relevant experience. At this stage, demonstrate your passion.
Do ask questions at every stage. I initially struggled with what kind of questions were “appropriate” at the initial HR stage. My go-tos were to ask the interviewer what they liked about working at the company, the culture, why the role was open, how big the team is.
- You will be asked about salary expectations. Think about this is advance and know what you’re going to say. I never fooled around with not giving an answer or making them give an answer first. Your comfort level will depend. But I know what I’m willing and able to work for, and if they weren’t willing to pay it, I didn’t want to waste time.
An important note again for Canadians or other international folks. Before answering, ask if the company has a legal entity in your country. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. If they have an entity, you’ll be an employee with benefits, the company will handle deductions etc. If they don’t have an entity, you’ll be an independent contract and responsible for all your own deductions, won’t have benefits, etc. If you would be hired as a contractor you should absolutely ask for MORE money than if you were an employee. I developed a couple different ranges for each scenario so I could answer quickly and easily.
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Be prepared to be ghosted. I was ghosted 6 times. Each company told me they would get back to me in x time and never did. They ignored my follow-ups. It’s unprofessional and disrespectful, but it’s going to happen.
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Be prepared for rejection. Remote positions are so competitive. You’re going to be rejected a lot. Most if not all of the time, it's not going to be anything you did “wrong”, but rather someone else had some kind of skill or experience you didn’t (and perhaps that was never communicated to you as desirable).
The best way to handle the rejection and remain resilient is to not care. It’s a dichotomy, I know, because every time you interview they’re going to want to see that you DO care and you’re passionate about the position and company (try to leverage passion for your work or field to show excitement about the company). But you have to basically apply and forget; interview and forget; the only way I managed it was to expect rejection after every stage, and then when it didn’t come, it was a pleasant surprise rather than a crushing disappointment.
Sometimes you’ll need to take a break from job searching. Do it. Yes, it will mean a gap of not hearing from companies and not interviewing, but your own mental health is more important.
You can try asking for feedback when you’re rejected, but I’ve done this my whole career and never been told anything relevant or specific enough to be actionable.
I think that’s it. I hope anyone who read this far found something to help them. Hang in there, you can do it!
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