How to find remote jobs | 7 Tips for freshmen searching for a remote job

Are you a freshman looking for a remote job? Here are the 7 best tips and tricks to find remote jobs, especially if you’re a freshman.

After settling in, one of the first things most new college students do is look for a job. Part-time and summer jobs are beneficial to most students since it helps cover their tuition and living expenses. Safe to say, most students need to work in college to make ends meet.

One of the most understated impacts of the pandemic has been its effect on working students. Most workplaces have been forced to close and start operating remotely, forcing working students to adapt quickly or risk being left behind. 

In this article, we’ll go over some of the best tips and tricks for finding a remote job, especially if you’re a freshman. Without further ado, let’s cut to the chase.

1. Tap into the local market

Before looking outside for remote jobs, you should first check your local market. In this case, the local market is your fellow students. 

Many students these days outsource a significant proportion of their writing assignments to write my essay for me services. So, if you have any writing talent, you should try sorting out essays and projects for students for a fee.

Always try to keep an eye out for local jobs on and off-campus. Who knows, you might find a legit job that is right up your alley. Besides, some of these local jobs give you some invaluable working experience.

2. Try freelancing

Like normal jobs, remote employers will require you to have experience before you’re hired. Even if you can do the job correctly, you’ll have difficulty convincing someone to trust you if you can’t show them you’re experienced in your prospective field. 

Right now, the best way to get experience in any field is from freelancing sites. The most popular freelancing sites you could try are Fiverr and Upwork. The job sites have constant flows of projects from trusted companies to help you hone your professional skills.

The only disadvantage to freelancing is that you often get underpaid. However, if you choose ongoing or contract-based positions over one-time gigs, you will have a better chance of being well paid. 

If you perform well, you might even land a full-time job through freelancing. At worst, you’ll be well compensated and gain valuable experience working remotely.

3. Get the best out of LinkedIn

When it comes to job searches, LinkedIn is simply a fantastic resource. While it is not the most popular social media tool, LinkedIn is still one of the best platforms for job seekers. 

You can turn on job search alerts to search for remote positions listed within a specific period and location. LinkedIn also provides multiple ways to apply for jobs, including the “Easy Apply” feature. 

Your status as a freshman is a valuable asset that can help you on LinkedIn. With a polished CV, you can apply for internships and mentorship programs in top companies.

Besides, you can connect with alumni from your institution or apply for jobs in the same city as your college.

4. Connect with people online

Physical networking is great, but the internet is still the quickest way to meet and connect with new people today. Make the most of it.

According to research, networking fills 85 percent of all positions. We all know the power of networking. It opens doors to new opportunities. Besides, having a personal connection in a company always comes in handy during interviews. 

When searching for remote work, you can leverage your network by asking friends about opportunities. And if you are lucky, your network can vouch for you and help you land the job.

Reach out to people in your niche online when looking for a remote job. Join Facebook groups, follow industry influencers on Twitter, and engage in LinkedIn conversations. Connect with as many people as you can there, respond to posts, and socialize in general.

5. Craft an eye-catching resume

When applying for any job, make sure you’ve got a top-notch resume that’ll pass Applicants Tracking System (ATS) scans and land you that interview. 

ATS is software that scans resumes before the organization gets it, and it usually rejects most resumes, so if your resume can’t beat the ATS, you’re not getting that job.

To beat the ATS of any organization, you’ll have to customize your resume to fit the job you’re applying for. You also need to optimize your resume for search keywords for the field and input them into the resume. 

Those keywords are different for every role. So, make sure the skills and achievements in your resume are relevant to the job you’re applying for and keep everything on one page.

6. Take professional courses

There are numerous remote job opportunities available, ranging from programming to web design to writing. 

Taking professional courses will improve your chances of landing a remote job. Professional courses keep you up to date on new developments in your industry while also brushing up your skills.

Coursera and Udemy are some of the few reputable websites where you can take professional courses. These platforms offer a wide variety of courses for free, while professional certificates are available for a fee.

If you want to become a programmer, look for highly regarded coding boot camps and take a course there to add to your portfolio.

7. Use job boards to find remote jobs

Job boards are like search engines localized to job searches. The AI takes the search keywords and offers you a list of best-matching results. 

When looking for a job online, it’s essential to know what keywords to use so that the search engine returns results that are relevant to you. When looking for remote jobs, the best keywords to use are:

• virtual
• remote
• work at home
• freelance 
• telecommute position 
• home-based 
• independent

If you use these keywords to search for jobs, you will receive 100% remote jobs from all over the world.

Conclusion

If there’s one good thing the pandemic has done, it has created more remote jobs. There’s more opportunity to work from anywhere in the world, and for first-year students, this is excellent news. 

With a remote job and proper time management, students can balance work and academic life and still leave space for a healthy social life.

8 Traits Remote Companies Want in Job Candidates

 

Ever wonder which traits companies most desire their candidates to possess? Look no further! Over at Remote.co, remote companies have been providing answers to some of the most pressing questions related to remote work. One such question is specific to the types of traits remote companies want when hiring new staffers.

For anyone looking to be a remote worker, it’s important to have skills that help you shine in a remote situation. The skills listed below are considered soft skills but are essential to be able to conduct business in a remote setting. Check out eight of the most common traits remote companies want below!

1. Communication Skills

Working remotely you rely a lot on written communications. It is essential that you have the ability to communicate clearly in emails, texts, and chats. Even when you communicate verbally, it is important to be clear and effective. Without body language and visual cues, the messages you send can easily be perceived differently.

2. Critical Thinking

Team brainstorming happens in virtual settings, but when working alone, it’s important to be able to analyze issues on your own. Without the ability to walk down the hall to ask a coworker a question, being able to analyze the issues and find solutions on your own is a big help when dealing with minor snafus.

3. Discipline

Remote work can be full of distractions no matter where you do your work. Remote companies want employees who will be disciplined to stay on track, get their work completed, and meet expectations. Often these companies operate in a results-oriented environment, so being disciplined is essential to complete your job responsibilities.

4. Decisiveness

Being able to make decisions is important and desired by employers. Again, you won’t have coworkers at arm’s length to consult on decisions. While the bigger ones will probably require some input from supervisors, the smaller, more individual job decisions will need to be made by you.

5. Outside Interests

For some people, remote work can be lonelier than being in an office, and finding ways to feel connected to your colleagues is important. But it’s also helpful to be active in your life outside of work. Sometimes fully remote companies even look for candidates who have a healthy work-life balance and interests outside of their professions, such as volunteer activities or other hobbies, which may help balance out their social interaction.

6. Time Management Skills

Along the same lines of discipline, time management skills are a must. An effective remote worker will be able to organize their day and complete their work when it is due. Although it is easier to schedule appointments and other activities into your day, making sure to meet expectations and complete work is a must.

7. Sense of Humor

Stuff happens, people make mistakes, and lines of communication get crossed. How you handle these things is what matters the most. Many remote companies seek staffers who will share in their office sense of humor and culture. They want their teams to have the ability to be at ease when dealing with their coworkers. Company culture has a big impact on employees and operations, so being able to laugh at things makes a big difference.

8. Eagerness

Remote employers also look for candidates who show a sense of eagerness and enthusiasm about the company and the work. Many remote companies operate smaller, more connected teams, so being eager to help out others and get work done means there is less time for procrastination and better results.

No matter what you’re looking for in a job, a FlexJobs premium membership and Soft Skills courses can work wonders for your job search. Take the tour and learn more about how FlexJobs can power your job search.

The best (and worst) words to have on your resume

 

Employers don’t simply want to know what you think about yourself; they want to see results.

A recent CareerBuilder survey found there are some words hiring managers and human resources pros just don’t want to see on your resume. And if you’ve called yourself a go-to person, a team player or a strategic thinker, you’ll need to make a few changes before you send your resume to anyone else.

The deal-breakers
Unless you want to end up on an employer’s “Do not call” list, think twice before you put any of these empty words on your resume — they won’t accomplish as much as you might hope:

1. Best of breed: 38 percent
2. Go-getter: 27 percent
3. Think outside of the box: 26 percent
4. Synergy: 22 percent
5. Go-to person: 22 percent
6. Thought leadership: 16 percent
7. Value add: 16 percent
8. Results-driven: 16 percent
9. Team player: 15 percent
10. Bottom-line: 14 percent
11. Hard worker: 13 percent
12. Strategic thinker: 12 percent
13. Dynamic: 12 percent
14. Self-motivated: 12 percent
15. Detail-oriented: 11 percent
16. Proactively: 11 percent
17. Track record: 10 percent

You don’t have much time
Given the amount of time your resume has to make an impression, it should come as no surprise that your choice of words can be exactly the reason you aren’t brought in for an interview. In fact, if you get more than a couple minutes of attention, you should consider yourself lucky.

Sixty-eight percent of hiring managers and human resources pros will spend two minutes or less reviewing each resume they receive; 17 percent will actually spend 30 seconds or less.

“Hiring managers prefer strong action words that can be used to define specific experience, skills and accomplishments,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Subjective terms and clichés are seen as negative, because they don’t convey real information. For instance, don’t say you are ‘results-driven;’ show the employer your actual results.”

The words they actually want to see
If you felt like you really had something when you called yourself “hard-working,” there’s a lot of room for improvement. (Besides, that’s something almost everyone would say.) Employers don’t simply want to know what you think about yourself; they want to see results. If you really are a hard worker, prove it by backing up that claim with some data.

Rather than focusing on your previous duties to capture your relevant experience, focus on what you’ve been able to achieve using your relevant skills. The following terms — mostly verbs — should help you refocus your resume on what truly matters. As an added bonus, hiring managers would love to see these terms:

1. Achieved: 52 percent
2. Improved: 48 percent
3. Trained/mentored: 47 percent
4. Managed: 44 percent
5. Created: 43 percent
6. Resolved: 40 percent
7. Volunteered: 35 percent
8. Influenced: 29 percent
9. Increased/decreased: 28 percent
10. Ideas: 27 percent
11. Negotiated: 25 percent
12. Launched: 24 percent
13. Revenue/profits: 23 percent
14. Under budget: 16 percent
15. Won: 13 percent

The bottom line: You can’t afford to make a bad first impression, and you don’t have a lot of time to make a good first impression. With some hiring managers, you’ll have 30 seconds to make your case, and the numbers say you probably won’t make it past two minutes.

Highlight your accomplishments and sell just how important your skills have been. If you’ve received honors or awards, make sure to find room for them. Focus on what you think will cause hiring managers to stop and take a second look at your name — you can likely find more unique things to say about yourself than “I’m a hard worker.”

The 5 P's of job hunting

 

If you’re feeling directionless, mastering these key elements will help you get to your job-search destination.

Daniel Bortz,

Job hunting can feel like an epic journey with dozens of twists and turns that keep you awake at night. Enough of the roundabout—it’s time to put a stop to your on-again off-again job search and lay down some concrete steps that actually lead somewhere.

Marketing has what’s known as the 5 Ps—product, price, promotion, place, and people—that serve as a strategy. Job hunting is similar to a marketing project, only this time the P words are positioning, process, and persistence, followed closely by presentation and personality. The product, you, comprises of all of the above.

Let’s take a look at how to design and execute this job-search strategy.

5 P's of job hunting

1. Positioning

Before you start applying to jobs, you need to identify what makes you valuable to an employer. This means putting together a unique value proposition that distinguishes you from other job seekers in your field. That said, what value you bring depends on the job you’re applying for, says Atlanta career coach Hallie Crawford. Therefore, “pay close attention to the job requirements that are listed in the job posting,” says Crawford. Then, assess how your skills and professional experience make you a great fit for the position.

2. Process

Job hunting is strategic. Rather than applying to dozens of job postings, focus on openings at companies that you admire, advises Anne Marie Segal, a Stamford, Connecticut-based executive coach. “Applying to every single job posting you see can be a big time suck,” Segal says. Plus, the better the match between you and the company, the greater the likelihood of the employer showing an interest in you.

Create a list of your target employers and then do your homework. Find out what these companies specialize in, who their competitors are, and what their goals are. Doing so will give you the kind of intel you need to impress a hiring manager.

3. Persistence

This is a marathon—not a sprint. Indeed, even top talent can spend six months to a year job hunting (or longer, depending on how tight the industry is) before they land an offer. So, to power through a job search, you need stamina—a lot of it.

The trick to staying motivated? Set small, achievable goals in your job search that will give you a sense of progress. For example, attending at least one networking event a month is a realistic goal that would help you forge valuable relationships in your industry, and leveraging these relationships later on could help you land job interviews.

4. Presentation

One of the best ways to prove your worth to a prospective employer is by preparing an elevator pitch to deliver at job interviews. Unfortunately, many job seekers make the mistake of tooting their own horn without providing concrete examples of how they can apply their skills to improve the prospective employer’s business.

For instance, “if you’re in marketing, don’t just say one of your biggest skills is content marketing,” says Hannah Wright, founder of SaaS Design. “Instead, say that you can grow their website’s blog traffic, explain how you’d do that, and then tell them about that one time you doubled a company’s traffic in a year.” Pro tip: Use numbers to quantify your achievements.

Practice your pitch in front of mirror in order to get comfortable with delivery. Or, even better, record a video of yourself so that you can also assess your body language. Your nonverbal cues—mainly your eye contact, hand motions, posture, and tone of voice—are critical during a job interview.

5. Personality

While you're busy job hunting, remember also that companies are employee hunting. Make yourself an attractive target by showing job interviewers who you are as a person—not just a professional. After all, no one hires on the basis of credentials alone, which is why many employers ask job candidates to describe their personality. 

Try to relate some of your personality traits to the position that you’re interviewing for. So, for a customer service job, you might say, “I’m a problem-solver by nature. My immediate goal when I speak to a customer is to get their issue resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.” For an administrative assistant job, you might say, “I’ve always been an extremely organized person. That served me well in my last job, where my attention to detail helped save the company 10 percent on a major account.”

Power up your job search

Job hunting can feel like jumping on and off a series of hamster wheels. All due respect to hamsters, but you’re looking to actually get somewhere. Could you use some help? Join Monster for free today. As a member, you can upload up to five versions of your cover letter and resume—each tailored to different types of jobs that interest you. Recruiters search Monster every day looking to fill top jobs with qualified candidates, just like you. Additionally, you can sign up for job alerts so you’ll be notified whenever new positions are posted. Let Monster help you get focused and get hired.

The 20 best work from home jobs

 

You've got the skills, now find out how to make the switch to one of these 20 jobs best suited for working from home.

Remember when your home was just your home? Your kitchen table had food on it, not folders? Your dining chair didn’t have to provide lumbar support for eight hours a day? Across the globe, the pandemic brought offices into living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms, and that trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Boot the family or the cat off the sofa. It’s your workspace now.

The top 20 work at home jobs

If you’ve got the skills, working from home requires just a laptop and a good internet connection. But not all industries make it possible. We’ve ranked the top 20 based on how easy they are to do remotely, as well as giving you our top tips on how to land the job for yourself.

1. Web Developer

Web development can range from designing websites to building the code that makes them work. If you know how to do it, your skills are in high demand. The sector is expected to grow by 8% over the next decade, with almost every industry depending on it in some way.

It’s a job that really lends itself to the working from home lifestyle. When you’ve got the skills to bring websites to life, it doesn’t matter if you do it in your suit or your pajamas.

Check out all: Web Developer jobs and remote Web Developer jobs

2. IT support

Where would we be without IT support? Probably not on this blog, for a start. They’re the people who keep everything running, fixing big things like brand new system installations through to the more annoying things, like Keith in admin who’s forgotten his password for the third time this month.

It’s a great home working job. You’ll need skills in computer literacy, coding, mathematics and customer services to get in on the act, and probably a whole heap of patience. (No Keith, ‘password123’ isn’t strong enough).

Find all: 183,000 IT jobs and 26,000 work from home IT Support jobs

3. Virtual assistants

The job of a virtual assistant was designed to be done from home. It says it in the name. You could find yourself doing a little bit of everything, for one company or many at the same time.

Daily tasks might involve accountancy, administrative duties or even marketing, all of which can be done wherever you fancy.

Browse all: Virtual Assistant jobs and work from home Virtual Assistant jobs

4. Translators

Translate from your kitchen. Translate from the bath. Translate from the garden shed. So long as you know how to speak and write in two different languages, you can translate from pretty much anywhere.

Courts, hospitals, the police and schools are just some of the places that depend on translators to get their message across, and if you’ve got that certain je ne sais quoi (or ‘I do not know what’ if we were to translate it) you could provide an indispensable service.

Explore all: Translator and Interpreter jobs

5. Counselors

Zoom quizzes got old pretty quickly, but Zoom counseling sessions could be the future. Clients can now dial into sessions, meaning you can offer therapy and advice from the comfort of your home.

You’ll need various qualifications to become a counselor, but one thing you won’t need anymore is the relaxing leather sofa.

See all: Counselor jobs and Counselor work from home jobs

6. Legal assistant

Picture the scene: the Law & Order theme kicks in (it’s called "Dun Dun," if you’re wondering), you put your briefcase down, open it up and reveal the paperwork that will blow the case wide open. You’re a legal assistant, and you could be dealing with anything from criminal cases to copyright claims or corporate legal proceedings.

This job is often at the start of a legal career, and you’ll need qualifications or a law degree to get your foot in the door.

Browse all: Legal Assistant jobs and Remote Legal Assistant jobs

7. Teachers

Hail to the teachers. While many of us had to cope with working with our kids at home throughout lockdown, you guys do this for a living! As schools begin to open up again, there could be opportunities for a blended approach to working, with many universities and colleges continuing to deliver virtual lessons for the time being.

You’ll need teaching qualifications to get started, although higher education values career experience too.

Check out all: Education jobs or the 58,000 work from home Education jobs

8. Banking

Going to the bank no longer means heading out to a big building with marble floors. Now it often means heading online or tapping on an app, which has resulted in many of the jobs in the industry moving to remote.

Finance is packed with work from home opportunities for all kinds of backgrounds. Bank managers, loan officers, customer support teams and even app developers are all in high demand.

Explore all: Banking jobs and these remote Banking jobs

9. Social media managers

Whether you’re fond of Facebook, talented on Twitter or trending on TikTok, your skills could help businesses market to the masses and go viral for millions of people. Social media is big news. It’s how many brands speak to their customers, and how even more customers talk back to the brands. If you know how to use it well, you can work from home to conjure up campaigns, hashtags, gifs and more.

You’ll need a creative mind and a computer. An ability to perform TikTok dances is optional.

See all: Social Media jobs and Social Media work from home jobs

10. Insurance

We wouldn’t usually call insurance companies trend setters, but many of their employees were already working at home before the rest of the world was talking about it.

Most of their support teams are based remotely, and if you’re as good with numbers as you are with speaking to customers, you could be joining them. The field is predicted to grow by 5% in the next decade. You could grow with it.

Find all: 238,000 Insurance jobs and these 35,000 Insurance work from home jobs

11. Writers

Writing is a career that has long been done remotely. On an oak desk, in a library packed with leather-bound books, or in a coffee shop, ideally. We wrote this blog staring out across the ocean for inspiration. If you’re good with words, there’s a place for you in marketing, education, journalism and publishing, although it is a very competitive industry.

Entry level jobs can be gained with a relevant degree or some writing examples, but more senior positions need lots of experience and hefty portfolios. Get your pen out and start scribing.

Browse all: Writing jobs or the remote Writing jobs

12. Transcribers

When you work as a transcriber, it’s your job to take voice recordings from experts in either medicine, law or education and turn them into written reports. It’s ideal for working from home. In fact, the quiet your own home affords you makes it work even better.

A good understanding of industry language might be useful for this sort of role, as well as an excellent grasp of English.

Explore all: Transcriber jobs

13. Data entry specialists

There’s so much data in the world and someone needs to make sense of it. That someone could be you. Your role here would be to take things such as bills, medical records or legal forms and input them into the right systems.

If you understand IT and have clear communication skills, you can easily work from home in this field. It doesn’t matter where you do your data entry, just where your data is entered.

See all: Data Entry Specialist jobs and remote Data Entry jobs

14. Graphic designer

Can you make things look good? Can you specifically make things look good in Adobe software or online? Does the question of “Can you make the logo bigger?” send shivers down your spine? Then you could be a great graphic designer. There are plenty of graphic designer jobs in marketing and advertising sectors, and many of them can be done from home.

Polish off that portfolio and get applying.

Check out all: Graphic Designer jobs

15. Customer service

Whenever you call someone about a product, to place an order or to change your details, there’s a good chance you’re speaking to someone in their home office/kitchen/pajamas.

Customer service is key for most industries, and the main skills you’ll require are good people management and solid organization.

Find all: Customer Service jobs and remote Customer Service jobs

16. Software developers

Do you know your jQuery from your UmbrellaJS? Do you also know other types of coding language? You could be a software developer, working for creative start-ups, marketing agencies, big industries or anywhere else that produces digital content.

The area is expected to grow by a huge 22% (!) over the next decade, so if you know how to code, design and develop, you could have the skills to pay the bills.

See all: Software Developer jobs or remote Software Developer Jobs

17. Usability testing

All websites and apps need testing before they go live. That’s where you’ll come in. Your job will be to effectively try and break things online, something you can easily do from home. Break the internet in bed, break it over breakfast, break it wherever you like.

Training (and salary) for this role varies hugely. Some companies prefer ad hoc usability testers to work for a few hours, while others will offer full time work for constant checking.

See all: Usability Tester jobs

18. Nursing

Not all heroes wear capes, and the biggest heroes from the past year and a half wear stethoscopes. Remote healthcare has grown rapidly recently, with virtual appointments helping cut down waiting times and allow vulnerable patients to get the help they need from home.

If you’ve got medical training, a career in nursing (or any healthcare for that matter) could be hugely rewarding and truly invaluable.

Explore all: Nursing jobs and remote Nursing jobs

19. Event planner

If you have a background in hospitality or tourism, event planning could be the perfect career move. While you might have to visit potential sites, the majority of this job can be done from home, allowing you to plan conferences, parties, weddings and more without ever heading into an office.

As things gradually start to open up again, events will be on everyone’s agenda.

Browse all: Event Planning jobs

20. Accounting

If keeping accurate financial records is your bag, a remote role in accounting could be a great way for you to take your office home.

You’ll need a good grasp of accounting practices and a qualification to be considered. You’ll be the backbone of many companies, and responsible for everyone’s paycheck. No pressure.

Check out all: Accounting jobs and remote Accounting jobs