Today’s quick tip for getting a remote job:
Know what you want!
Here are 3 reasons why it matters:
You Can’t Do Everything
This is a hard pill to swallow, but the truth is you can’t do everything, and definitely not everything all at once. This is a mistake I see far too many people make. Here’s one such example, from the talent pool I am building:
This person is claiming they want to be 4 things, but imagine trying to do all those at once, well!
Creating posts and responding to posts on social media
Answering customer queries every day, perhaps 20+ per day
Tracking the progress of an ongoing project, or multiple projects, and messaging stakeholders to keep them updated
Upselling customers on new services
You are basically acting as an entrepreneur but working for someone else… 😅
Knowing what you want will help you eliminate a lot of options for remote jobs you really shouldn’t be trying to do. It will also keep you from taking on too many responsibilities and burning out.
People Won’t Take You Seriously
Sorry to say, but I’m not interested in hiring someone who can do everything. Chances are, if they can do everything, they probably can’t do anything well.
This ties back to the first point, and I want to expand on it by saying it’s a poorly-kept secret that it’s better to pay someone more for specialized work they do well than pay someone for one of many jobs they “can” do. The former person knows how to excel at their work.
The latter? They’s probably going to copy whatever the specialist does but poorly.
You’ll Be Happier
Believe it or not, doing what you want is a success hack. I have watched my fiancé say no to multiple projects for the past 2 years, despite being “good” at them. Today she has a high paying remote job doing what she loves, and she’s happier and more satisfied than ever.
It wasn’t easy for her, or me. We had to sacrifice on pursuing a more comfortable life, on reaching many of our personal goals. At times we struggled a lot financially. But I know we made the right choice for her.
But if you need a job more urgently, I recommend picking the job closest to what you think you want and then pushing for it. That way, even if what you want is out of reach, you can have a job and work your way to the role that best fits you. That’s what I’ve done, twice now, to land great product management jobs, despite being under-qualified when I started.
Reflect
Not sure what you want? Here’s an exercise to get a lot closer.
Make a list of 5 job roles you’ve done or considered before and might want to do again.
Now for each one, imagine you have the role again, for a new company that you like.
How do you feel after 3 months? 6 months? 1 year?
What’s been good? What’s been bad?
Try this. It sounds simple because it is. But the insights you get will be amazing. And getting closer to what you want is one of the fastest hacks for getting closer to getting a work from anywhere job.