When I tell people I work remotely, I have to mentally prepare myself for their response, “So, you don’t have a real job.” But as I became more accustomed to the telecommuting lifestyle (and realized there was a large community of freelancers like me) I started taking pride in my free-spirit, free-lance identity “Yeah, I work for myself and I’m a boss at it” became my professional mantra.
Remote Trends
Whoever spread the rumor around the classroom growing up that you can’t money without a 9-5 career, was, to put it nicely, stuck in a time machine. Not too long ago, remote workers or telecommuters comprised 10% to 15% of the workforce. A study by Virgin Media Business Report now estimates that by 2020 more than 60% of the workforce will be telecommuters. Today it is estimated that 30% to 45% of most US companies are composed of telecommuters, the majority of these are startups.
The trend towards remote work is expected to continue well into the next 5 to 10 years. An increasing number of companies are acknowledging the power of digital technology and the influence of the Internet to bridge oceans and find the best talent in the world. However, with globalization and bending the rules of corporate structure comes the challenges of uncertainty, ambiguity and potential volatility for remote-professionals, especially as a single woman who does not automatically have the security of full coverage health insurance.
Choosing Remote Work
Working in an office every day for 8 hours and braving the rush-hour commute seemed like an impediment to the lifestyle I wanted to live. If being a successful professional is about making myself happy in the end, why not make myself happy now? This is why I made the decision to only work remotely, and today I am a full-time remote worker. That’s not to say I didn’t have to work in an office from time to time while I was starting my career, this balance allowed me to to keep a roof over my head while establishing a network for myself.
Finding Remote Jobs
My number one choice is Angel List: Angel List is a U.S. website for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups. I find this site especially awesome, because you can narrow your search to only view startups who have listed “Remote OK” as well as select your preferred salary range. In reality, most startups can’t afford to fun a full-time staff and office, so remote workers actually play a key stakeholder in business development.
Here are some other websites useful for finding remote work:
Remotive. Remotive helps 25,000+ remote workers and was founded by the former COO of Buffer. As far as I can tell, it is the largest and most comprehensive job listings especially for remote workers.
CloudPeeps. Launched in 2015, CloudPeeps is a community, marketplace and platform that empowers freelancers and businesses to do their best work. They connect freelancers and professional service providers with top clients, in a seamless platform that makes it easy to manage relationships, payments and more.
GitHub. This is a community where developers can access more than 24 million projects. GitHub encourages people to work wherever and however they want to produce the needed results.
FlexJobs. There are over 50 career categories to choose from; freelance, full time, executive or entry level. The best part of FlexJobs is they qualify all job openings to make sure there are no risks in applying. There are more than 20,000 job openings to choose from.
Skip The Drive. With a name that summarizes why it’s great to work remotely, Skip The Drive provides a good listing of remote jobs to choose from.
Guru. Another fast-growing work community that allows you to create an online portfolio with your profile.
My favorite part about working remotely is that it allows me to work while exploring and pushing my comfort zones of adventure. Companies like The Solo Female Traveler Network and SafetyWing provide me with the community and support I need to stay confident and safe as a female digital nomad.
about the author
Annie Brown
Annie Brown an entrepreneur, cartoonist and history nerd. She is also the social media director for SafetyWing, the first travel insurance provider made for digital nomads, by digital nomads with coverage plans starting at $37/month. At SafetyWing, we are building a global safety net for digital nomads which includes our first product – affordable, reliable travel medical insurance.
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