5 Simple Yet Effective Tips to Strengthen Your Remote Job Search
Remote Job Hunting
These remote job search strategies will help you stand out as the perfect candidate, impress hiring teams, and land an interview with a remote company you love.
Be honest — are you struggling with your remote job search?
Maybe you’re having a hard time finding remote jobs in your industry. Or maybe you’ve already applied to a few virtual roles but haven’t heard back.
So what gives? Are you doing something wrong?
While it’s true that remote jobs have been growing in popularity for the last few years, they’re especially in demand thanks to COVID-19. And that means your remote job search must be on-point if you hope to land your dream gig.
Fortunately, today’s guide has all the insider tips you’re looking for. You’ll learn how to improve your remote job search in five easy steps starting today.
5 Tips to Strengthen Your Remote Job Search
Follow these five tips, and you’ll be so much closer to landing your dream role:
1. Know Where to Apply (and Where to Avoid)
When you first start job hunting, the remote role you envision may seem more like an elusive unicorn. But that’s not actually the case.
There are more remote jobs — and remote companies — popping up each day. However, you have to know where to look for them. And that’s where many job seekers get stuck.
If you’re going to traditional job boards hoping for a remote position or two, you’re going to have a bad time. In-house positions are the norm here. And if you happen to find a stray virtual job, you’ll be competing with hundreds of other applicants who also can’t believe their luck.
The same goes for trying to find work on giant freelance sites. While you may see more remote jobs, the competition will be just as high for them. Plus, there’s a greater likelihood that those “jobs” are actually just temporary, one-off gigs or posts for contract work versus a full-time role.
So follow what pro-level remote workers do: find a remote-specific job board.
Remote job boards only advertise positions intended for a virtual workforce. These companies are looking for full-time remote employees, so you’ll find far fewer freelance or temporary gigs.
Plus, you may face less competition since only remote workers (i.e., not everyone looking for a job) know these special places exist.
2. Create an Online Brand to Stand Out
To give hiring teams an idea of what they bring to the table, most candidates spend the majority of their time on their resume and cover letter. While these are definitely two critical areas to get right, you shouldn’t stop there.
Go the extra mile and create a personal brand.
A strong personal brand helps you make the best first impression when hiring managers or potential employers Google you (which they will, head’s up).
To set up your online brand:
- Update your social media profiles
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile and career history with industry keywords
- Share published articles, code, or achievements you’ve earned
- Create a website to share your story, showcase your skills and accomplishments, or display your portfolio of experience
Yes, these are extra steps that involve some more work on your end.
But they will pay off immensely when you give a hiring manager an unforgettable first impression. You’ll stand out from the rest of your competition, gain attention for all the right reasons, and position yourself as the right choice.
Further, building out your personal brand with industry-specific keywords may create more networking opportunities. Recruiters and hiring teams often search LinkedIn for candidates who may be ideal for positions they’re trying to fill. Use the right keywords, and you’ll always show up in their searches.
If you need help in this area, we encourage you to try our a resume builder like CVStep to help you create the best resume!
3. Follow the Top Remote Companies and Interact with Them
To pinpoint the remote companies you actually want to work for, spend some time researching the top remote companies in your niche/industry. Then, start following and interacting with them on social media so you can stay up-to-date with what they’re doing.
You’ll be the first to hear about new jobs, company news, community outreach efforts, and more. You’ll not only gain a deeper understanding of what the company stands for (and if you really want to work with them), but score a leg up on your competition.
These company insights will help you tailor your resume and cover letter for the company’s mission/values and prepare you with questions/comments for your interview.
Thoughtfully interacting with or sharing the company’s social media posts may even score you a connection that later turns into a potential interview.
4. Super Organize Your Remote Job Search
To go along with step #3, create a spreadsheet of the top remote companies you’re interested in during your research phase.
You’ll want organized columns for the:
- Name of the company
- Position you applied for
- Date you applied
- How you applied (on the website, from a job board, etc.)
- Follow-up date
- Point of contact (if you have one)
- Notes/comments
As you start following more companies, you may see new positions with different titles you can apply for, or a new hiring manager to connect with. This wealth of recorded intel will help you keep track of your job search so you can follow up appropriately.
Keep updating this spreadsheet so it always includes your most current efforts.
Most people often skip this extra step, despite it being so beneficial. And that’s also what happens with our final tip:
5. Always Send Follow-Ups
Many remote job seekers take a “send-it-and-forget-it” approach to their job search. They fill out an application, don’t hear back, get frustrated, and move on.
While it’s true that you’re not going to hear back from every company you send a resume to, that doesn’t mean you should give up completely when things go silent on the other end.
Hiring teams are incredibly busy. Most hiring managers receive an average of 250 applications per job post. So give them some time to screen candidates and schedule interviews before you ghost them.
An even better idea is to reach out to the companies you applied to and send a quick follow-up to see what they say.
Follow-ups are crucial after each stage of the hiring process. They differentiate you from your competitors because this effort shows you’re hungry for the role, not just sending out resumes to anything available.
Doing this may also pique their interest in you. Anyone who goes the extra mile to connect here is sure to leave a good impression.
Even if they don’t agree to a virtual interview, you can bet they’ll pull up your resume or Google you to see who you are before they reply. And that’s another chance to get your name and personal brand out there for consideration.
You’d be surprised by how many remote job seekers skip this step and miss out on great opportunities as a result.
Get Started On these 5 Insider Tips Today
You now have five expert-level tips to help strengthen your remote job search and, hopefully, land that dream role you’ve been eyeing.
The key is to follow all these tips and put them into practice ASAP rather than only choosing the ones you feel the most comfortable doing.
Tackling the whole lot together ensures that you stand out from the pack and show remote companies that you’re not afraid of hard work — two traits all hiring teams look for in remote candidates.
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