Ask HN: What's your strategy to land fully remote jobs?

[alterneesh]

There are so many interesting companies out there offering remote/distributed roles, but I'm not sure how to approach them.

Do you apply directly on their careers page? Do you find recruiters on linkedin and connect with them? Do you cold email founders?

What's your strategy? How did you land your fully remote job?

[coderholic]

I can share some thoughts from a hiring perspective. For context I'm the founder & CEO at https://ipinfo.io - we're a fully remote team of around 30 people, and we've hired at least 10 of those this year, many via the monthly HN Who's Hiring posts, eg. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33076376

The best way to stand out is to put some effort into the application. We get many applications that just include a resume, and no additional details. We also get a lot that include some very generic details that could relate to any job post (eg. "I'd like a remote job for reason X"). Applications that include even the smallest bit of customization will put you way ahead of many candidates (eg. "I saw your post on HN and it caught my eye for reason X and I think it'd be a fit for me because of Y").

Cold outreach direclty to me (email or LinkedIn) is usually a good sign, but again those vary greatly in quality. The worst ones don't give me any information about the candidate (eg. "Saw your post on HN, can you give me more details?"). The very best ones demonstrate that you're proactive, and a great communicator (eg. "Hey Ben, just submitted my application for the role I saw you posted to HN. I'm excited about the role for reason X, and think it could be a great fit because of Y. You can found out more about me at 1, 2 or 3. If there's anything you think I could improve on my application please let me know. And here are a few thoughts I had about your company/product from a quick glance: Z. Hope to hear back from you or the team soon, thanks!")

A really important part of fully remote work is communication, and the application process is a great way to desmonatate that, but it's something people often miss.

Best of luck on your job hunt!

[jameshush]

I second this both as a manager and as someone who cold out reached to a careers page for my current remote gig.

There’s not a shortage of engineers. There IS a shortage of engineers who care enough to spend an extra 15 minutes on a task to finish it. Spending 15 minutes on a short note with your resume is the best way to show you have this trait.

[alterneesh]

Thanks, that's very useful. Have been trying to customize my applications. Will definitely continue to do so! :)

[joemanaco]

When I was looking for remote contract work as a freelancer a few years ago, I had the problem that most of the offers I found online were through HR agencies. This was pretty frustrating because the people I talked to weren't part of the company who were looking for people and often didn't have any technical knowledge, so they were just checking resumes for matching keywords. They also wanted ~15% commission for life (!!), which felt like a big rip-off.

So I changed my strategy. I searched for companies I found interesting that were looking for permanent employees. And I approached them with my resume and a nice mail that I wanted to work as a freelancer, not an employee, and offered to meet - even if they weren't interested in freelancers. Simply to get to know each other.

In the weeks that followed, I had many meetings and found some very good companies to freelance for over the years.

Of course, this might not work for larger companies because the HR department doesn't have the power to decide whether to work with a freelancer or not. But I found it very satisfying to work with smaller companies, and it also resulted in some friendships/contacts that went beyond the collaboration.

(Note: As of today I no longer doing contract work because I started to work full time on my own projects)

[madamelic]

I hope this isn't too drive-by or basic but did companies ever ask "why should I hire you as a freelancer rather than a W2?" or is the trade-off an easy sell since freelancers don't come with as much baggage as an employee does?

I've seen others do exactly what you are describing and am wondering if this kind of pitch on a W2 job posting is an easy layup or if there is something you encountered that you would be willing to pass along.

Let me know if this ask of you is too much. :)

[pacerier]

re "many meetings", You mean online right?

[mikedelago]

Posting in the monthly Hacker News "Who wants to be hired?" is the best interviewing/hiring experience that I've had, and you can say pretty up front that you want a remote job.

[alterneesh]

Thanks! Didn't know this existed

[nottorp]

Tbh the answer is the same as for a non remote position. Networking.

It helps if you're noticeable on job sites, but there's a lot of bad signal/noise ratio there. I answered 2 queries in the last 2 months because they were interesting, but both positions turned out to not be really remote when I started talking.

Also, it helps to be already employed so you can be picky and take your time :)

[rozenmd]

Have a network.

Complain to your friends that you want to be making more of an impact.

Get referred to the jobs they suggest.

---

If you have to, maybe email a CV to HR so that it's on file.

If you're using the careers site you're going to have a bad time.

[ttymck]

This is it. Have a network that recognizes you as a high impact contributor. It's no more complicated, and no more simple than that.

What you're asking is more likely "how do you do that". Talent, luck, hard work, or nepotism. One or more of those.

[alterneesh]

Fair, fair. I do have a decent network locally. It's just that I'm interested in landing a fully remote role at some of these global distributed startups where I can't leverage my network.

[fm2606]

I used Indeed to find both of my jobs. You can filter jobs by Remote.

When I was working full time in a completely different career field I found a part time remote job through Dice. I think I found that one by doing a Google search and not actually on Dice.

I'm assuming you are talking about developer roles. As others have said most developer roles seem to be remote friendly these days.

[kif]

I'm guessing you mean "work from anywhere" jobs? In the US there are plenty of remote jobs, but few companies allow you to work from almost any country.

[spearingthehead]

For me it sort of fell on my lap as I wasn't really going out of my way to find a remote job. I was just in need of more work. It was 2013 and was still using Craigslist for job hunting, mind you. I was looking for a better opportunity as I was "benched" a lot with an agency that didn't provide constant weekly work.

The key was probably that they were a small startup with some degree of desperation because they were ghosted by a previous developer and needed a replacement quick. I also had fit the tech skills they needed (experience in a particular PHP framework, CodeIgniter). The founder was pretty flexible and forward thinking, as, probably from being a former developer himself, let all his developers work remote. The pay wasn't that good but the work was comfortable and got me familiar with web app development in a company that actually uses their tech product to make money for them.

[nonameiguess]

I currently work for a fully-remote company. Pretty good guarantee you won't be asked to come back to the office when the closest thing they have can seat maybe 10 people, is thousands of miles from 95% of the employees, and basically exists just so official company mail doesn't have to go to someone's personal mailing address.

[UchihaX]

When you have no prior job experience but have been developing for quite some time say 2 years, how do you secure your first job? I have built projects that show my skills and outlined them in my resume and portfolio but still a lot of rejections to proceed to the interview stage.

[parroteal]

Do you have something that you can show us? Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you with a jobsearch, but I'm interested in what you have achieved in 2 years.

Did you focus on it full-time or besides work?

[shyn3]

Put it on GitHub. Have nice code commenting. Structure. Contribute to open source projects that are popular. Link to GitHub.

Post on who is hiring.

Haven't tried any of these BB it have seen others mention that it works.

[ipaddr]

Apply to an ad you like that says remote. Or apply to a position in some location you can't get to.

[devoutsalsa]

As a developer, almost all the positions people contact me about are remote. Some are hybrid. Very few are physically on-site anymore. Just one person’s observation.

Are you being contacted for positions? If not, maybe your challenge is being noticed by the people who would want to hire you.

[noloman]

Hi! First time user here! I’ve been trying to land remote jobs since before COVID but I could never do it. A difficult part was knowing where to search for those jobs, and how to keep updated about new jobs. That’s why during the pandemic, I decided to create an iOS and an Android app that searches in several very known remote jobs boards, groups them all together in a list and let’s the candidate apply in the original job board where the job is posted. This way I can make sure that only refreshing the list in my app, I get the latest jobs posted in 5 different jobs boards. I’m not sure if it’s allowed but if somebody wants I can write the link to the apps here (they’re both free)

[em-bee]

please do share the links to the apps

[noloman]

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/remoti-remote-work/id156790223... Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.manulorenzo...

[muzani]

The average job seems to be remote since covid. There are a few recruiters who specialize in them; they're usually "millennial friendly" and such. They can save some time.

[mickotron]

Look for jobs with certain keywords like “remote” or “wfh”. Remove location filters. Only engage with recruiters or companies that offer remote jobs.

I did these things and landed a fully remote job.

[barelysapient]

Be amazing. Put in the extra work. Communicate delicately but with candor. Then ask for referrals from past roles and colleagues.

[ilovhn]

Most positions I see online are fully remote mate.

[joanfihu]

Yeah try to find someone internally who can give you a referral

[animitronix]

Have a good track record and interview well?