The increasing prevalence of work at home and remote work models has entirely changed our traditional understanding of working, offering advantages such as flexibility and new opportunities to corporations and employees.
In this sense, there are various factors individuals should consider, including which platforms to find jobs, how to transition to a remote working model, and how to achieve success in the long term.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of remote work, the best platforms and popular sectors for work-at-home positions, and effective tips on how employees can succeed at job applications.
What is the Home Office Working Model?
Home office or remote working refers to a working practice that allows employees to work from their own environments.
Unlike traditional office spaces, employees can work from their houses or the places they are currently located in, as long as they have the necessary tools and equipment, including a stable internet connection and a computer.
With remote work, individuals can choose their workspace if they can fulfill their responsibilities and complete their work according to the provided deadlines or within set working hours.
As remote working provides various advantages for both employees and employers, it has been increasingly adapted as the primary working model of organizations due to high demand from employees, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advantages of Home Office Working
Advantages of remote work include:
- Increased Flexibility: Having the freedom of working in any location and even time zone, employees can complete and deliver their work completely remotely, adopting a flexible and result-oriented approach.
- Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency: As employees work from their own environments, they can benefit from increased motivation and fulfill their tasks entirely remotely while working in a more productive, efficient, and successful manner.
- Better Work-Life Balance: Remote working employees do not waste time on daily commutes and have better and more flexible time management. Hence, they can spare more time for themselves and their loved ones.
- Cost-effectiveness: With remote work, both employees and employers can cut their expenses. Employees do not need daily commutes and corporations can reduce their operational costs, as they do not need physical offices, and manage their resources effectively.
Best Platforms Offering Jobs: How to Apply for Work-at-Home Positions
LinkedIn is among the most popular job-hunting sites for remote positions. Employees can directly contact hiring teams and establish networks with other employees and employers.
On the platform, employees can apply for suitable job offers, as well as create their own services page to provide freelances services and work on short and long-term projects in a flexible way.
While LinkedIn is free to use, premium subscriptions may be required to access more advanced features.
Indeed
As a platform offering work-at-home positions around the globe, Indeed allows employees to find remote jobs by filtering the offers based on their criteria.
They can share their skills, relevant sectors, and resumes with employers, and they are notified when suitable openings are available, and corporations can also directly send them job offers.
Upwork
Upwork is a platform focusing on remote freelance job opportunities, offering short and long-term projects in various sectors.
Payments can be made based on project milestones or hourly rates, and although there are many job offerings, the platform is quite competitive as employees have to “bid” and offer their rates to get jobs.
Fiverr
A marketplace for freelancers, Fiverr offers one-time or short-term projects in different sectors such as IT, graphic design, blog writing, and editing voice-over.
Unlike other job-hunting pages, employees have to create their profile pages and “gigs” and set their rates based on the project.
Freelancer.com
Freelancer.com offers various flexible projects and remote job opportunities around the globe. Among the popular sectors, are software development, copywriting and editing, graphic design, video editing, and data entry. Employees can choose project-based or hourly rates.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor offers a detailed platform to employees looking for work-at-home jobs with a job filtering feature. Additionally, former and current employees can add comments and reviews about their corporations and sectors to provide support to other employees.
We Work Remotely
We Work Remotely offers a remote work-focused platform in which employees can find work-at-home jobs in various sectors, including IT, graphic design, customer services, sales, marketing, and education.
The platform has both freelance and full-time positions and employees can directly send their applications to the employers.
Remote. co
Remote. co, as its name suggests, only offers remote-based job opportunities. Additionally, employees can find resources such as detailed blog articles about remote work, best practices, and the latest trends.
The platform offers work-at-home positions including sales, customer services, education, human resources (HR), data entry, and IT.
Points to Consider During Job Applications
While applying for job openings on these platforms we mentioned, remote working individuals should consider these points to increase their chances of getting hired:
- Targeting Relevant Job Openings: While applying for jobs, individuals must check job offer descriptions carefully and ensure that they have the required experience and skills. Otherwise, their applications may be rejected.
- Check Work Arrangement: Some positions may be only hybrid or only remote. Hence, individuals should check the arrangement of the position before submitting their applications.
- Crafting a Strong Resume: When creating a well-structured resume in remote work, individuals should highlight relevant skills and experiences to prove that they are suitable for the position.
- Preparing a Compelling Cover Letter: Including a cover letter explaining motivation and suitability for the remote position on top of a resume may boost the chances of landing on a job.
Popular Sectors for Work-at-Home Positions
Information Technology (IT)
Jobs in IT require high proficiency in tech skills such as programming, coding, and data analysis. Positions include software developer, web designer, data analyst, IT support specialist, and product manager.
Digital Marketing
Employees should be familiar with social media platforms, advertising, copywriting and design skills, and SEO. Positions include content writer, copywriter, video editor, SEO specialist, and email marketing specialist.
Customer Services
Employees should have communication, problem-solving, and time management skills, and technical knowledge. Positions include customer support representative, technical support specialist, virtual assistant, and customer success manager.
Education
Employees should be proficient in their subjects and educational technology and have curriculum development and presentation skills. Positions include online tutor, language instructor, curriculum developer, and instructional designer.
Finance and Accounting
Jobs in finance require skills such as data analysis and reporting, proficiency in accounting software, and familiarity with legal regulations. Positions include financial analyst, accountant, and financial planner.
Strategies for Transitioning to Remote Work
A gradual and planned transition and effective strategies are crucial for employees to be successful in remote work.
These strategies include creating a dedicated workspace, establishing a consistent routine, upgrading technological skills, and getting familiar with collaboration tools.
Creating a Dedicated Workspace
Although remote work refers to working from anywhere, remote-working individuals need to have their appropriate home office spaces.
Hence, they should have the right equipment such as an ergonomic desk and chair, a computer, a separate monitor, a stable internet connection, and a quiet and suitable environment without distractions to work remotely comfortably and efficiently.
Some companies also provide stipends for home office equipment, which can provide financial support to employees and ease their transition to remote working.
They can also prefer coworking spaces if they do not have the necessary tools or would like to have a cost-effective office space on their own.
Establishing a Consistent Routine
While working at home, individuals may be less time-conscious than working in physical offices. Therefore, creating a routine for their remote workday will enable them to focus better on their work and create boundaries between work time and their personal life.
In this sense, by having a structured daily schedule, setting specific working hours, and having a to-do list of their tasks, individuals can work consistently, avoiding procrastination and potential interruptions during work.
Upgrading Technological Skills
Working in an office can support career growth with training, educational conferences, and seminars, allowing employees to stay connected with talented and experienced colleagues and learn skills from them.
Although remote working may not directly provide such opportunities, it is important to continue developing skills for further improving technical and practical abilities (hard skills).
In this sense, remotely working individuals can benefit from online education platforms that offer tutorials, educational videos, content, webinars, workshops, and certification programs.
Some companies also offer their employees these benefits and training to support them during their transition to remote work.
Getting Familiar with Collaboration Tools
As the use of collaboration tools is crucial for healthy communication at work at home, remote working individuals, whether they are freelancers or not, must be familiar with such tools to stay connected with their colleagues, managers, and clients in real time.
In this sense, having prior knowledge about instant messaging and video conferencing software such as OctaMeet will provide various advantages to employees.
These include showing corporations that they are familiar with remote work culture, have the necessary skills for communication, increasing their chances of getting hired.
Tips for Long-Term Success in Work at Home
Here are some important tips for employees wanting to achieve success in remote work:
Honing Digital Skills
Honing digital skills is important for long-term success in remote work. Hence, individuals should continuously improve their existing skills and learn new skills, tools, and technologies relevant to their sectors to stay updated with the latest trends and stay competitive.
They can benefit from online courses and certifications that are recognized by their employers to prove their proficiency in their skills and abilities.
Networking Virtually
Similar to working in an office, individuals should maintain their connections with former colleagues and connect with other talented people.
To do so, they can join job-hunting websites such as LinkedIn, professional online communities, and forums for their industries. They can also attend virtual events, webinars, and conferences to meet professionals in their field of work.
Tracking Achievements
Individuals may struggle with remote work at times. By regularly keeping a record of their achievements and positive feedback, they can determine points for improvement and learn from both the challenges and successes.
They can gather and use this information for performance reviews and future job opportunities.
Staying Organized
Proper planning and time management are crucial in remote workflow. Remote workers can use project management tools to track tasks and deadlines and create daily and weekly schedules to prioritize their tasks.
They can also set realistic goals that they can accomplish and break larger projects into smaller pieces for easier management.
Establishing Work and Personal Life Balance
Struggling to draw boundaries between work and personal life, remote employees may experience burnout which can lower their efficiency and productivity.
Hence, having a suitable schedule, having enough flexibility, and making rearrangements, can reduce stress, prioritize their physical and mental well-being, and ensure long-term success in remote work.
Having Clear Communication
Communicating with colleagues and clients sufficiently and clearly, providing further clarifications, if necessary, being available during working hours, and responding on time are important factors in remote work.
This way, remote workers can eliminate potential misunderstandings ensure that everyone is on the same page, and allow workflow to be conducted seamlessly.
Seeking and Implementing Feedback
To achieve long-term success and improve their skills continuously, employees should ask and be open to constructive feedback from their managers and colleagues.
This way, they can determine their potential mistakes and implement solutions to solve them accordingly.
Preparing for challenges
Employees may face various remote working challenges that may affect their well-being and workflow, including feeling stressed and demotivated, issues regarding tools, distractions, time management, and social isolation.
Hence, they should implement strategies to cope with demotivation and isolation, minimize distractions, and have backup plans for technological issues. They also should not hesitate to ask for help from their employers and colleagues if they need it.
OctaMeet Facilitates Remote Work Processes
OctaMeet offers remote working employees and businesses a secure and robust solution for their video conferencing and communication needs.
With its reliable and fast infrastructure and security measures such as end-to-end encryption and Single Sign-On (SSO), workflow can be securely conducted in complete remote settings, regardless of remote teams’ locations.
With its high-quality video and voice calling capabilities along with advanced sharing tools such as whiteboard and annotations, remote teams plan and make one-on-one and group video calls with ease, share documents, screens, and meeting notes, and make presentations.
With its built-in recording and cloud storage features, OctaMeet eliminates the need for external software. In-app messaging and file sharing allow for task tracking and real-time communication.
OctaMeet offers free and unlimited one-on-one video calls. If you would like to learn more about its advantages and licenses, you can schedule a demo meeting with our product team.
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