I'd like to give a thumbs up to both AngelList and my favorite former co-worker.
When things went south at our workplace, a coworker and I were kvetching about how hard it would be to find a good job locally, and how great it would be to work remote. But I had no clue how to get started with finding good remote jobs, and didn't do anything other than distribute my resume to local positions.
Instead she went through AngelList open jobs looking specifically for remote positions. She immediately got an interview, but midway through it she told them she was under-qualified for what they needed, and told them, "But I know someone who would be perfect for you", and a few weeks later they hired me. I'm very humbly grateful to her for changing my life immensely for the better.
And the even better news is she got her own remote job, again through AngelList, a couple weeks later. Not only did we both get substantial raises, but more importantly we are getting to work on much more interesting projects and on teams that are really supportive of us.
I've been working from home for twelve years now. I didn't set out to WFH, I stumbled into it.
Here's what worked for me, it might work for you:
I was contacted by a recruiter. They wanted to hire me, but the job was 5000km away and I didn't want to move. I politely declined the offer.
Ten minutes later, they call back, and offer to let me do it remotely.
I worked there for six years.
The thing that I've found, is that it's generally easier to work remotely if they already want to hire you for some other reason. For instance, this particular employer was interested in filling a role that required a skillset that was very unusual. Basically they had two options; they could hire me and let me WFH, or they could hire someone local and invest the time and effort 'bringing them up to speed.'
I've generally avoided jobs that were advertised as "work remote", because a lot of those recruiters are just BURIED in resumes. I've found that it's better to use the "work from home" option as part of the bargaining process. No different than bargaining over salary or title.
this particular employer was interested in filling a role that required a skillset that was very unusual
So, first, it helps to have unusual skills they need.
I'm not trying to be snarky. People tend to have blind spots about their own value position and often focus on some detail of negotiating that feels like a big deal to them and end up somewhat glossing over the fundamental value position that caused them to be in a strong negotiating position to begin with.
Negotiating tactics are vastly less useful if no one wants what you have to offer, or if others like you are a dime a dozen.
You’re right, I think its that we all want to see a tight cause effect loop in our success, but reality is more like the reason I’m successful in my career is a single blog post I randomly found ten years ago which sent me off in an experimental direction that later became my niche and then, unforeseeable to anyone, least of all me, that niche became suddenly in demand. Five years from now it may disappear just as suddenly. But the reality is a little unsettling to we attribute success to something we can control.
We all prefer to feel like we have control over our lives. People also like to take personal credit for their success rather than chalking it up to luck or circumstance.
This often leads to bad advice.
When I had a corporate job, one of my coworkers with a lavish lifestyle was giving a lot of financial advice to another coworker with chronic financial stress. It wasn't necessarily bad advice per se. But it kind of glossed over the fact that the one with money was childless and her husband made scads of money. The other woman had four children and an ordinary Joe of a husband.
I always felt the advice should have started with "First, go back in time and marry well. Second, go back in time and don't have four kids."
It's vastly easier to do things like pay off your credit cards in full every month and only pay cash for a new car when you have lots more income and fewer obligations. These were the sorts of things she bragged about as if she were some financial genius, glossing over the huge income difference that allowed her to implement these ever so wise financial choices.
If there's a job you find interesting, you can always ask the recruiter if remote is an option (even if it's not explicitly listed). Most companies are on some sort of chat system, so making it work and is becoming less and less of an issue.
Most places will flat out say no, but every once in a while a recruiter responds "let me check" and there's your opening..
I've written up details on how to do this in a couple of threads :
This is right on the money. I think the 'trick' to getting a satisfying remote position is to use WFH as a bargaining chip. For instance, I was living in Seattle and I wanted to live in Portland, where it's more affordable. When I started WFH, I traded a pay cut for the opportunity to WFH. It all worked out; my place in Oregon was about 70% as expensive as what I would've paid to live in Seattle.
It was a win-win; they were able to hire me at a discount, I was able to move to where I wanted to.
Agreed. I think one of the reasons that my employer wound up retiring their WFH program was because the value of the real estate cratered.
IE, if your plan was to let people WFH, then sell the buildings they used to occupy, that plan is going to go south if the value of the building drops by half.
When things went south at our workplace, a coworker and I were kvetching about how hard it would be to find a good job locally, and how great it would be to work remote. But I had no clue how to get started with finding good remote jobs, and didn't do anything other than distribute my resume to local positions.
Instead she went through AngelList open jobs looking specifically for remote positions. She immediately got an interview, but midway through it she told them she was under-qualified for what they needed, and told them, "But I know someone who would be perfect for you", and a few weeks later they hired me. I'm very humbly grateful to her for changing my life immensely for the better.
And the even better news is she got her own remote job, again through AngelList, a couple weeks later. Not only did we both get substantial raises, but more importantly we are getting to work on much more interesting projects and on teams that are really supportive of us.