Have you been thinking about getting a remote job? Remote work is the dream for a lot of people. It allows you to eliminate the dreaded daily commute, have a more flexible schedule, and gives you the opportunity to spend more time at home with family. Remote work can even lower your stress. According to Remote.co, 82% of telecommuters reported lower stress levels.
If you don’t have any previous experience in remote work though, it can sometimes be hard to break into. Because remote work is on the rise, there are tons of other experienced candidates you have to compete against. But, don’t worry. With just a few tips, you can impress any remote employer.
Here’s how to land a remote job without experience.
Boost your confidence
The first, and most important, step to landing a remote job without experience is to boost your confidence. Because you don’t have experience with remote work, it can be hard not to compare yourself to others. You might think “Of course I’m not going to get hired, everyone else will have more experience than me!” But, you can’t think that way. If you do let self-doubt and your insecurities take over, you can ruin your chances of getting hired even before you land an interview.
Confidence makes all the difference when applying for a new position. So, if you’re not feeling confident, how can you fix it?
Don’t worry, there are a number of easy ways to boost your confidence, here are a few:
- Positive Affirmations – Positive affirmations are statements we say to ourselves and they can do wonders for our confidence. For instance, tell yourself that you’re smart and talented every day.
- Dress for Success – Dressing smartly (yes, even if you’re working from home) can give you a big boost in confidence and can even change the way you think. A study found that dressing professionally increases abstract thinking and gives people a broader perspective.
- Accomplish Goals – Setting goals for yourself and accomplishing them will make you feel like a winner. Even if it’s a small goal, like going to a yoga class once a week, the feeling of meeting your goal will help you feel like you can take on anything.
Set yourself up for success by believing in yourself. By practicing these tips daily, soon you’ll have the confidence to conquer anything you put your mind to.
Develop a personal brand online
To make yourself stand out from the other candidates with more experience, you need to start building a personal brand. A personal brand will make you appear like a professional, not just someone looking for a job.
What is a personal brand? Well, it’s basically the image that people see of you. In the case of remote job searching, it’s mainly how people view you from the information they find about you online.
Most employers these days are checking out candidates online, especially remote companies. So, it’s important that you create a professional online presence that lets potential employers get to know you. This can include making a website, creating a LinkedIn profile, sharing relevant content on social media, and more. In fact, if you really want to stand out from other candidates, you should do all three.
Plus, by creating a personal brand and online presence, you may even get direct job offers from industry leaders who stumble across your professional profiles.
Build up your portfolio
A portfolio showcasing your previous work is a great way to show potential employers your skills in action. But don’t worry, you don’t need to have any clients or previous experience to show potential remote employers what you can do. You can build up your portfolio on your own!
For instance, if you’re looking for remote writing jobs, write some relevant blog posts to demonstrate your way with words. You could save these examples as PDFs and add them to an online portfolio or write them on the blog of your own website.
Graphic designers could create some sample logos, web designers can create mockup sites, and so on.
By showing up with a portfolio of your own, you can show potential employers that you possess the skills as well as the initiative to succeed.
Know what remote employers are looking for
Employers don’t only pay attention to technical skills. They’re also looking for certain soft skills that show that a candidate would be a good fit for a remote team. And even if you don’t have previous remote work experience, you probably do possess soft skills that can help you land the job. So, pay attention to what remote companies are looking for, which is usually stated in job descriptions.
The most important soft skills that make for an awesome remote employee include:
- Communication
- Time Management
- Trustworthiness
- Independent and Self-Motivated
When you know what remote employers are looking for, then you can easily demonstrate that you have those skills either in your online application, resume, or video interview.
Aside from the soft skills remote employers are looking for, you should also get familiar with remote working tools. Remote working tools such as Asana, Slack, Help Scout, and Google Docs are vital for collaboration and communication. By learning about what these types of tools do and how to use them, you can give yourself a head start.
Don’t let lack of experience hold you back
Even if you don’t have any experience with remote work, don’t let it hold you back from landing your dream job. With these tips, you can stand out from even the most experienced candidates. Remember, you might not get the first job you apply to, but keep trying. Any remote company would be lucky to have you on their team.