Is it hard to get a remote job with no experience?
Companies are becoming more and more remote-friendly and new jobs are popping up every single day.
But Is it hard to get a remote job with no experience? Let’s find out.
We’re seeing more and more companies hiring remote workers
As more and more companies hire remote workers, the demand for them has increased. And in a survey we conducted, 97% of people said they’d be willing to work remotely so it’s safe to say this is a trend that will last.
They’re also much easier to find than they were a few years ago.
Do your research
To get a remote job that doesn’t require experience, you have to be strategic. Since you don’t have work experience, you can’t fall back on that when applying to remote jobs.
Instead, you should sell yourself based on your research into the company and industry. By showing the hiring manager that you’re knowledgeable about their company and industry, they’ll trust that even though you don’t have work experience in this field, you’re capable of doing the job.
Before applying to a specific job at a specific company, it’s helpful to do as much research as possible into the company and industry. You can do this by:
- Asking your network if they know someone who works there – use LinkedIn to see if anyone within two degrees of separation from you works there
- Reading the company’s website – look for mission statements and goals for how they want to change their industry
- Looking for open positions – look for open positions on both the company website and LinkedIn
Introduce yourself and Make a concrete proposal
If it feels like you’re more qualified for a job that requires experience, there are several ways to demonstrate why you’d be great anyway.
First, do research on the company. This will help you tailor your cover letter and resume in ways that will show why your skills would be a perfect fit for their needs.
Provide examples of how you specifically learned relevant skills or used them in prior work. You can also include links to any related projects or portfolios that demonstrate those abilities.
If you have no experience at all, try providing examples of any volunteer work that might show these skills in action (like volunteering to build websites for non-profits).
Finally, provide a specific proposal for what you would do if hired. For example: “If I were given this role, I’d take these three steps to start implementing my proposals.”
Sell your experience
If you have no experience, showing how you’ve worked in a variety of different roles can help prove that you’re the right person for the job.
This experience doesn’t have to be related to business: a server at a popular restaurant or a tour guide might be perfect, but make sure it’s something that demonstrates a wide range of tasks.
Conversely, if you’ve got work history already—whether it’s as an account manager or an executive assistant or whatever; make sure to hit on your strengths and highlight them when talking about previous work successes.
Employers will want someone who can handle whatever comes their way, so playing up your ability to deal with tough situations will help make you stand out from other applicants.
ways to start building your experience and learning the skills
If you’ve never worked remotely before, there are many ways to start building your experience and learning the skills you need to land your first remote role.
- Look for an entry-level role. There are many jobs that don’t require any remote work experience. Many times, these roles will be at smaller companies or startups that are okay with hiring new talent and training them on the job. Some examples of entry-level remote positions include customer service roles, social media managers, production assistants on blogs or vlogs, assistant bookkeepers, and more.
- Apply for an internship. Internships can provide great opportunities to gain experience in a particular field while working remotely. Internships often offer a flexible work schedule and can be a good way to dip your toes into the world of remote work before jumping into it full time.
- Volunteer. Volunteering is another great way to build up some remote working experience on your resume with little commitment involved. You can volunteer in many different areas from accounting services to graphic design—the possibilities are endless!
Most of the remote jobs that require no experience are customer service-related
Most remote jobs that don’t require any experience are customer service-related. You may have heard of live chat, phone, and email support before.
These are some of the most sought out remote-jobs, especially for beginners in the field.
If you’re a beginner at working remotely and/or getting into this job market, here’s why remote customer service work is a great place to start:
- it’s easy to find (there are tons of companies hiring)
- there’s a low upfront investment to get started (you probably already have a computer and reliable internet access)
- it’s easy to learn on the job (the training is usually provided by the company you work for)
- you’ll learn how to communicate with people remotely (since these types of jobs do require communication via a computer or phone)
Best remote job websites to apply
RemoteOK
RemoteOK is the biggest remote job site. With more than 10,000+ remote jobs posted every month. It’s also the best place to find remote startup jobs, as well as being the only site to list remote technical internships.
We Work Remotely
The most popular remote job website, We Work Remotely does a great job of letting you find the perfect remote job for you, as it provides specific categories for different types of jobs, such as marketing and programming.
FlexJobs
Founded in 2007, FlexJobs is one of the largest job boards that focuses on flexible, remote and part-time jobs. The company works directly with employers to list their available remote and flexible positions.
Virtual Vocations
It’s also worth noting that this is a great website overall for finding remote jobs in any field. Virtual Vocations has over 50,000 jobs posted on the site at given time and they tend to be well-paying positions.
Working Nomads
Working Nomads is the ‘#1 job board for digital nomads, remote workers, and location-independent professionals.’ The site posts a weekly list of remote jobs in fields like software development, marketing, and customer support.
Remotive
Remotive is a remote job board that has been around since 2014, with a strong focus on tech jobs. It has an extremely large community of talented people who connect to each other through its podcast, weekly newsletter, and the job board.
Instant Teams
If you’re looking for the quickest way to find remote work, Instant Teams is the place to go.
The best part about using Instant Teams is how fast they are at connecting remote job seekers with available jobs.
The best strategy that works if you don’t have any skill
One of the best strategies that work if you don’t have any skills is to create a Twitter account and start connecting with profiles in the sector you are targeting. Start commenting and sharing ideas.
Then, start to “Build in public.” This strategy is for beginners. Create a project and start documenting and sharing every learning step. When people see that you are starting from 0 and improving you will start to connect with people.
Being eager to learn from your experience and sharing your knowledge, tips, and mistakes are the best strategy if you want a remote job. That’s 100% sure you will attract an opportunity and will start to get messages to collaborate on other projects.
Show what you can do live. “Building in Public” is a very powerful strategy that has been used by indie makers to attract first loyal customers without an ads budget. For video, it can be Vlogging.
In the remote area, what matters is your portfolio — what can you do? And less about who you had worked with.
JUST START 🚀
