5 Ways to Find Your Remote Job
5 Ways to Find Your Remote Job
A remote job is not a company. There is no such thing as an entry level job. There is no best job to become a digital nomad (DN). It all depends on who you are and what your skills and personal preferences are.
Secondly, it’s not like at school where they tell you to be a fireman, a builder, an accountant or a doctor, for example. To be honest, there are so many possibilities, and most of them are irregular. The trick with being a DN is finding a niche, something in growing demand which isn’t yet a flooded market.
The good news is, the range of options is endless. What you can do as a remote job is limited only by your imagination. The obvious biggies are in IT and financial management, and these are the answers I mostly get when I meet people. But here are a few more interesting ones that I’ve come across:
Managing an online dating site
Sex therapist
Cam corder
Tarot reader
Voice actor
Lego master builder
Life coach
Mystery shopper
Yoga and fitness classes
The online yoga instructor I know personally is legally blind!- ie, anyone can be a DN. You are limited only by your imagination.
If you decide to set up a remote business, this can take a little while to be generating enough income to be sustainable. But if you are like me and impatient, there are ways to survive on a limited budget. There are programs which can supplement your costs, as well as ways to economise and make your money go a lot further.
But how in all this do you find a remote job that suits you? Perhaps the question should be, how in all this do you create a remote job that suits you?
Here are 5 ways you can approach this.
1 Your CV
This is the obvious way to look for your digital job, the same old standard way we have been taught to look. But being a DN is not a company with entry level jobs, or a one best fit for all. Being a digital nomad is a lifestyle, and it is outside the “normal” boxes, so looking for an option this way is a very limited approach. But let’s start here since that will be the easiest one to understand.
Some are very lucky and have a skill that translates easily, a company which wants you to work remotely. There are also sites listing remote work. But htey are being swamped. So, this is not the most effective way to search.
However, some standard jobs can be adjusted to work via zoom as remote jobs. It seems contrary to logic that face-to-face jobs, but these might include such as:
A therapist
Yoga or fitness instructor
Realtor
Nutritionist
Nurse
All of these were made into online jobs during covid. All can be adapted to a remote
Yoga and fitness instructors and therapists can build up a client base to coach via zoom.
As a realtor with a healthy business, get someone to do the footwork of taking clients to apartments and facilitating the rental leases. Your business is your list of contacts which you have already built up, and ongoing ones through advertising.
A nurse, or a nutritionist? Clearly as a nurse you can’t take a temperature or fix a bandage. But there are other ways of applying these skills, such as:
· Setting up an advice page or blog
· Selling products as a middleman (source them, then have the wholesaler send direct to buyer)
· Write courses on how to take care of various health or dietary issues
· Create health or meal plans to follow
· As a nutritionist, find and post recipes in collections, each focuses on a different dietary need
· Give food options for DNs – eg where to get gluten-free products in a bread-based cuisine
· Consulting via zoom
· Coaching
As well as this, if you’re the slomad sort, a nurse and a teacher can get location-based jobs in many countries. As a nurse, extending your language skills would massively increase opportunities.
Even if you are not a teacher already, if you are a native English speaker, this is an easy digital job option. There are many online English teaching companies, and for most of them the teaching is prescriptive. They will include training in their platform, and they pretty much tell you what to say at every point. Just grab yourself a certificate.
2 Oustide Your CV
But now, let go of your CV and traditional job seeking methods – especially considering you are leaping into a non-traditional lifestyle – and your remote jobs options explode exponentially. Just get creative and start thinking outside the box.
As a digital nomad, your CV is mostly irrelevant. Start thinking about the things you like to do, even in your spare time. What are you good at – even if it seems mundane.
You’ve done yoga your whole life, or love fitness, think about how you can sell that – online lessons via zoom classes, courses, coaching, information…
You’ve a hobby making mini origami cranes – turn them into earrings, market and sell them. Very small amount of gear to carry, and you can send them from almost anywhere.
You like writing? There are endless variations – ghostwriting, erotic fiction, articles, proofreading, essay help, blogging…
Even if all you’ve done is got yourself through a university or college degree. If you are good at exam skills – sell what you know: set up a coaching service.
Being sexy? Reading tarot or runes? You are good at organizing your time at home. Have particular tricks as a mum? As a single dad? Or you’re very good at building model kits? Make videos on DIY tips.
Almost anything sells. Often it’s about the marketing.
3 Getting Ideas – Fiverr and Upworks
Are you starting to be overwhelmed at the possibilities? Wondering how to pin down a remote job that works for you? Struggling with how to turn your passion or hobby into a job?
Check out Fiverr and Upworks.
These are casual job forums and excellent ways of exploring ideas. Use them to help you hone down possibilities. The platform allows members to both advertise their skills, or to look for help.
Check out the categories which appeal to you, and look at what is being advertised – what is on offer, and more importantly, what people are looking for. Let your imagination get to work for you about how you might be able to sell something that you are good at or like doing.
The key is not to pin yourself to what’s most popular, but find a niche with good demand but fewer people offering the help. IT is now hugely popular with an over-flooded availability of people. But it all depends on the area – there are areas which do pay well with a limited number of skilled workers available. That is the sort of spot you want to fit into.
4 Develop Your Skills
If you haven’t got skills you’re happy to use, explore Fiverr and Upworks for inspiration. If there’s something you like the idea of, something you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time, now is your opportunity. Especially if you can spot a gap in the market.
Having made your decision, get busy and learn how to. Enroll in a course, troll the net, check out YouTube, ask on help sites and social media pages, and develop the skills you need. Even pick up an extra language to expand your marketability.
5 Passive Income
This is the ideal way if you have the resources. Passive income is income derived without having to work. The biggest option is by investment – owning houses, or flats, or shops, and renting them out. This of course requires an input of funds, so you will need to have some capital behind you.
However, if you already have your own home, in downsizing for a nomadic life, don’t sell it. Rent it out. Or rebuy into the same market something that is a good rental property, even downsizing to decrease any payments you may have left on your mortgage.
Like everything, do your homework. Find out what makes a good rental property. Cities with big universities, or are popular holiday places, will have a certain market. But these are also seasonal, so take that into account.
You want a house in good condition. You need to set aside 10% of the rental income for repairs and emergencies. And it’s a good idea to have an agency take care of the property on your behalf – a fee which is generally well worth it.
This isn’t the only type of passive income, but it is one of the biggest ones. You can also set up a course. This takes a lot of work, but once finished it can become a passive income, needing little maintenance.
Surviving While you Build Your Funds
Many feel they need a decent amount of funds before they leave. This is entirely a personal choice. For myself, impatience always over-rides. I invariably decide that my 2-year savings plan has had enough of a headway at 6 months, head out, then find a job.
My first steps doing this were decades before digital was a part of our lives. Nomading is not a new concept. I came across the trail in Europe where the English especially would follow the seasonal farming demands – oranges in Spain, apples in France, olives in Italy, greenhouses in Greece… being a golf caddy in Japan, jackeroo in Australia, scuba dive instructor in the Philippines or Egypt…
Some more location-based options can be a good way of stretching your funds while you get your business plan building to self-sustainable levels. They are also a way to get a much greater insight into a particular country and its culture.
For me as a slomad, and having started long before digital, I love these ways and will use them just as happily as the more mobile options of online jobs.
Ways to cut costs while you build your remote business might include:
· Working holiday visas
· Workaways
· Pet and Housesitting
· Yacht and ship crews with and without experience
· Teaching, nursing, cheffing, waitering and other short term casual labour jobs.
What your options are will depend on your passport, your visa, age and some other factors. For more on these options, check out the related article.