Remote working is going to be the future. It is going to be the norm of the Digital Economy. Almost all major tech companies have decided to go Full Remote.
At the time of writing this ( 25th August 2020), we are all going through difficult times due to COVID-19.
In India, Since April 2020, we have lost more than 18.9 Million Jobs, approximately 2cr. Twice the size of the population of Mumbai. Scary stuff.
But don’t worry. In this blog, I am going to share with you the exact process I followed to secure a US-Based Remote Job & How I got a 425% hike (From $3287/year to $14,000/year) amidst all the circumstances. Yes, a whopping 425% hike. Btw, from Indian Standard of living this is super comfortable ( in case you are from the US & wondering this is so low)
Background
Let me share some background before actually going through the process. I am an Engineer Turned Marketer, Author of Quorific & Blogger. I was previously working in a Digital Marketing Company until June 2020. After finishing 1 year of my work, I decided to quit.
Since I wanted to grow personally & professionally, it was imminent of me to quit the job. No matter what the situation was during that time ( COVID-19).
That was indeed a daring step. But I was adamant. I worked for myself for the next couple of months trying to give myself a break.
What did I do in this couple of months?
Well, as I said, I have written a book on Quora Marketing named Quorific. I decided to promote it on social media, mainly Twitter.
Within 3-4 months ( Including April, May), I generated more than $1300 & grew my Twitter following from 300 to 1000. But the income was not steady & I was not going to do this permanently until I have some cash in my hand to be more stable.
That was the time, I decided to start searching for a job. REMOTE JOB.
The Search Process
So when I started searching, I decided that I won’t search for Indian companies first. I will first try my luck on International Remote Jobs. I created a threshold time of 1-1.5 months. If I don’t get any positive reply in 1-1.5 months, I will start searching for Indian Jobs ( which were mostly remote due to COVID but will start resuming in office after COVID finishes).
This is what I did next.
I started searching on Google, the Top Remote Job Sites in the world & started listing down in a Google Sheet one by one.
I also came across this post where I got a list of all the Remote Companies in the world. I used an IMPORTHTML formula & got the entire tabular content into my Google Worksheet. That was pretty handy.
You can access this Google Sheet Here.
What does this sheet contain?
This sheet has all the remote job sites in the world. You need to sign up on each one of them & update your profile.
How to use this?
Sign up on each site. Update your profile. Keep your LinkedIn profile handy. I will talk about Resumes, Cover Letters & Applications in the next section of this blog. Scroll down to learn.
So your daily job will be to explore this job sites/job boards daily & apply for relevant job openings. My favorite site is Angel.co. This is the site where I got the remote job.
Note:- The more you apply, the more chance you will have, to get the remote job. Don’t stop applying until you get one.
You will also find a worksheet of all the Full Remote Companies in the world.
How to use this?
It’s manual & tedious work. But you should do it if you want to have a Remote Job.
Every day, search 4-5 companies on Google. Go to their website & explore their career section. If they have an opening, that’s a great sign. I will talk about how you can apply effectively using your Resume & Cover letter in the next section of this blog.
So you need to repeat this process until you find the career section of each of their websites & apply it manually. Yes, it will take time but it is worth the effort.
You will also find a worksheet of Avg Salary. This is just for information. It contains the average salary of a Marketer & working schedule from 9-5 as per different countries corrected to your time-zone.
So, if you stay in India, you might want to apply for European & South Asian Countries first. There is not much time difference. But again, there’s no hard & fast rule. It all depends on you.
Also, check out this job search site – Jobtensor Powered by AI. Quite helpful in job search.
The Search Operator Job Search Process
There are thousands of companies that use ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to recruit candidates. So their job openings can be found under the website that ATS uses.
These are some ATS Softwares:-
- Greenhouse
- BambooHR
- Lever.co
You can use search operators to find jobs that are using ATS as the job opening opportunities page.
Here’s what I mean:-
Try searching for this on Google:-
- inurl:bamboohr.com/jobs + intext:seo
- site:https://boards.greenhouse.io/ + intitle:seo
- site:https://jobs.lever.co/ + intitle:seo
Now in place of SEO, you can change to your keyword that you are looking for.
Suppose you are looking for a Python Jobs, then just replace SEO with python.
After you search using these search operators, you will find all the job openings on that particular keyword.
Notice there are 678 results for this search. Also, you can filter according to the freshness. Under Tools, choose Past week & you will get all the fresh job openings.
So with the help of Search Operators, you can easily find more opportunities. Just replace the term with the jobs you are looking for.
Using LinkedIn
On LinkedIn too, you can find remote jobs. Just search your position & under location search for work from home (Remote).
Then start applying. Again, I would highly recommend optimizing your resume for ATS. You will find more details on ATS in the section below.
How to Optimize & Customize Your Resume, Cover Letter & Application
Let’s talk about your Resume first.
It should be simple. No fancy stuff. You should optimize your resume as per ATS.
What is ATS compliant Resume?
An ATS resume is a document created in a way that lets the applicant tracking system parse the application with ease. The formatting is simple and easy to scan. ATS-friendly resumes also contain keywords that match the job ad, highlight relevant work experience and professional skills- Zety.com
Nowadays, your resume will be scanned via the Applicant Tracking system & not manually. Any remote application will receive more than 1000 or 2000 applications ( of course there are exceptions & not every company uses ATS).
But to be on the safer side, build an ATS-Compliant Resume.
Here is some ATS Templates that you can use:- ATS Compliant Resume Templates
Next, comes your Cover Letter/Application
Don’t follow the traditional advice. Here’s what traditional advice on a cover letter is:-
- Include Remote Working Experience
- Your Communication Skills
- Your Work Experience.
You will find some traditional advice here.
But I won’t recommend you to do this. The Employer might be getting 1000-1500 such cover letters in a span of 7-10 days. You need to stand out from those applications.
Here’s what you should do instead:-
Note:- This applies to all Marketers. I am not sure how a developer can apply this. But you will get the point I want to make.
- First, Analyze the Company’s website. Explore their products, features, etc.
- If you are applying for an SEO job, then do a complete SEO Audit & try to write 4-5 major points that you might recommend to their website.
- Now, this is what you should write in your cover letter/application.
- Don’t write a 1000-1500 word essay. Just be crisp & clear. Add 4-5 points & try to tell this is what I found missing on your website.
- The best tool for SEO Audit? Go with Ahrefs. Purchase the $7 ( 7 Day Trial) or ask your friend to give access.
- The same thing goes for any job opening in Marketing. Looking for a job in Paid Ads? Create a competitor analysis, full budget calendar for the month, Strategies that you can recommend for their company, etc.
See what is happening here?
You will automatically stand out of the competition if you include these points in your cover letter or your application.
I personally did a full SEO Audit Presentation in my Interview with the help of Ahrefs ( I bought the tool the day before the Interview).
Yes, it takes a lot of effort & time. But guess what? Without putting these efforts, you can’t impress your Interviewer.
Your aim should be to impress the Interviewer by standing out of the competition. Try to bring in value & tell them what you can bring on the table.
There are some companies that will ask you to write an Email Application for the job opening. This is where you can do it.
I did it for many companies. On Angel.co, you do get a window to customize your application. Write a value-driven application the same way I discussed above.
It is the only way to stand out from the competition. Just think out of the box & do something different.
Final Thoughts
Job search is a draining process but with better & targeted strategies & smart methods, you can easily find some good jobs & stand out from the competition.
Remember, your job is to stand out from the competition. So think of ways on how you can achieve that & you will be good to go.
Do follow me on Twitter for more updates & check out my other articles on SEO, Marketing stuff.
