Remote work is becoming increasingly popular — as it should be. People want to achieve true work-life balance and perks like extravagant offices, free coffee, and other things traditional offices provide are no longer enough to bury the truth. People want real flexibility. 🙅🏾‍♀️

What most people won’t tell you though, is that it’s not easy to get a remote job. You’ll be competing for a single role alongside hundreds, or even thousands, of applicants from across the world.

How do you stand out? What are the mistakes to avoid? These are the things we’re discussing in today’s article. Let’s go 🚀

HELPFUL TIPS ON LANDING A REMOTE JOB

#1 — Quality over Quantity
It can be tempting to submit your resume for every single remote job that fits your experience but please don’t do that. It’ll only result in you submitting many low-quality applications, which will of course end in tears. 😭
Instead, shortlist a few jobs you’re absolutely qualified for and spend time putting together unique applications for each of them. Tailor your resume to highlight your experience that’s most relevant to each of the roles and write detailed cover letters for each application.

#2 — Show me your research!
A good remote recruiter can instantly tell an application from a candidate who has done thorough research on the company and role apart from a candidate who hasn’t.
You should find out the company’s values, mission, goals, origin story, culture, etc. It is also helpful to find out who the hiring manager for the role you’ve applied to is, and see how you can add a personal touch that’ll resonate with them to your application.
You can find some of these things by digging deep into a company’s social media, blog and website.
Websites like Glassdoor can also help you see what current and former employees at a company like and dislike about working there. Apps like Blind can provide insights into a company’s culture as well as their recruiting and interview process.

#3 — Where’s your cover letter?
Many remote companies ask for a cover letter during job applications as it gives the recruiter an opportunity to learn more about the applicant. Why should they trust you? What will you do for the company when you join? A cover letter is a good place to share this information. Not including a cover letter can also send a message that you’ve not spent any time learning about the company you’re applying for.
Make sure your cover letter is not too short, too general or too long. The best way to approach this is to answer the questions you expect to be asked in a live interview in your cover letter.

#4 — Ok ok, you hate traffic. We’ve heard.
There’s no denying the appeal and benefits of working remotely. It’s okay to acknowledge that you enjoy remote work, but there’s a fine line between doing this and making it clear that your main motivation is to “work from home” or “travel the world”. Remember, at the end of the day you’re still applying for a job; it just happens to be remote.
This tweet from Doist summarizes everything we have to say on this one.

That’s it for today! We wish you the best of luck with your remote job search. 💪🏾