How to Land a Remote Job: Resume and Application Tips 2020

2020 has been full of surprises, to put it kindly. For many, this means looking at new jobs, but also new ways of working - specifically working remote or working from home. Remote jobs are far from new, but now more than ever, more traditional companies are transitioning more roles out of the cubicle and into your living room (or beachside cafe in Bali, whichever suits your life).

If you’re new to the remote job search, be sure to check out this post on where to find remote work. If you already have a shortlist going, keep reading for the top four tips for getting an interview and landing the remote job of your digital nomad dreams.

1. Refresh Your Linkedin Profile. These days it’s pretty safe to assume that if your resume makes it into human hands, that human is going to Google you. Immediately. The first thing that comes up? Your LinkedIn page. Make sure that your profile is up-to-date (current profile picture, job title and experience), professional looking and accurately represents the job you are going after. Need some help? Download this free LinkedIn Refresh worksheet.

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2. Craft a remote work-friendly resume. Hiring managers and recruiters look for slightly different content on remote worker resumes compared to traditional roles. Instead of listing your ‘duties’ for each role, speak their language and make sure your previous role descriptions focus on:

• Your achievements. For example: “grew the email subscriber list from 0 to 4000 in three months”

• Statistics. For example: “increased team productivity by 20% YoY”

• Your skills. For example: software you can use, coding and/or programming languages, project management, social media, database management, audio/photo/video editing, technical writing and big data & analytics. Demonstrate soft skills in your cover letter.

Instead of your address include your website or LinkedIn URL. If you are applying with companies based in the US, you may want to include a line indicating that you have legal rights to work there.

3. Make your resume ATS-friendly. Most companies now use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to automatically screen resumes as they are submitted. The ATS software scans resumes for keywords provided by the recruited. No keywords found? Your resume is automatically rejected and will never get into the hands of a human recruiter or hiring manager. Fortunately, there are two ways that you can make your resume ATS-searchable:

1. Manually look for keywords in the job posting and making sure the relevant ones appear verbatim in your resume.

2. Use a website like JobScan.co (not sponsored) to optimize your resume.

4. Create a professional looking resume (for $0). While you should save your ATS optimized resume as .docx to make it easily searchable, it’s still good to have a PDF version of your resume handy for when a human gets around to reviewing your application. While you can pay for a professionally assembled resume using UpWork or Fiverr, you can also whip one up for free yourself using one of the templates on Canva. I recommend the Minimalist templates, but depending on your desired role you can go for ones with more color and flair.

Good luck!

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How to Become a Stronger Candidate For Your Dream Job in 2020

2020 has thrown us some curveballs and for one reason or another many of us are now tasked with finding a new job, and possibly a whole new career. In this post I cover the step-by-step process for making sure you are going after the right kind of job and then making you the best candidate for the role.

This blog post covers:

• Evaluating you skill-job fit

• Refreshing your LinkedIn

• Getting a professional resume (for $0)

• Starting a job application tracker

• Building an interview prep research list

• Preparing interview questions

Evaluate Your Skill-Job Fit

Research job posting for your dream job (or at least the dream job you are applying for right now). Make a running list of the required skills and experience. Do you possess those skills and experiences? The job market is evolving at an ever-increasing rate, so the job title you might have applied for two years ago, could be called something completely different now. The required skills (hi, ‘remote work!’) may have changed as well.

Next, look up people with the your desired job on LinkedIn and see what skills, accomplishments and experience they have on their profile. Sometimes there are gaps between what a hiring manager thinks they need and what it actually takes to do the job. Capitalize on identifying that difference and use it to your advantage.

Now that you have a solid list of attributes, which ones do you have? Are they clearly identified on your resume and LinkedIn profile? Also ask yourself if you are applying for the right job for your current skills and adjust your search accordingly.

No LinkedIn profile or resume? No problem, keep reading.

Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is usually the first thing that comes up when someone Googles you, so while job hunting, you want to make sure it’s up-to-date and tailored to the type of job you are after. Even if you haven’t logged into LinkedIn since 2008 you can get your profile refreshed in under an hour. Download this free LinkedIn Profile Checklist to get started.

Bonus: once or twice a week share an article you find interesting, helpful or insightful in your target industry. Add a line or two of your thoughts (and a hashtag or two if you are comfortable using those on LinkedIn).

Get a Professional Resume (for $0)

In a pinch a Word document resume will do, but if you want to stand out and make your application look that much more professional, use a Canva resume template. Canva is completely free to use (they do have a paid tier, but also plenty of free resume templates). Take a look here. Remember to use a template that is industry-appropriate and when in doubt, minimal is always better.

Start a Job Application Tracker

What isn’t measured, isn’t managed. If you are going to start on a job application campaign, or even if you are just casually applying for jobs it helps to keep track of where you have applied, when and the outcome. You can also use a tracker to list any warm introductions that your network can make for you. And trackers don’t need to be fancy! A table in Google Sheets or Excel is all you need.

Interview Prep Research List

Prior to each interview you will need to research the company and the hiring manager. This is critical in demonstrating that you are prepared and are interested in the company you could be working for. While each company is different, there’s a common set of questions you can research for every job and company. Compile your own list or use the one below as a starting point:

• What is the general history of the company? Are they new? Been around a while?

• How is the company doing right now?

• Why might they be hiring for the role?

• What are the current challenges faced by the hiring company?

• Is the company publicly traded or private? Does this impact the role?

• What does the company say they value? Usually core values are listed somewhere online. These sometimes are very generic, but may give you insight to things like their stance on diversity.

Prepare Interview Questions

Write out and/or print a set of role-relevant questions to ask during your interview. Don’t forget to ask about soft-skill and company culture questions as well.

One bonus question that can help you stand out - ask: a year from now will you know the candidate you selected was the right one? This question has two effects: 1) it helps you stand out as this is not a typical interviewee question, and 2) it forces the interviewer to list all the desirable attributes and associate them with you - even though you’ve haven’t actually done any work for them yet.

Now you’re ready to start applying and interviewing. Some of the best places to start? LinkedIn job boards, Indeed, theMuse, WeWorkRemotely and Greenhouse.io. Happy hunting!