In today's day and age, the way of work is changing. More companies are allowing people to work from home and live anywhere they want to. Now, not all companies do this, and some won't let you live in certain places for fear it can create a "tax jurisdiction" for that company.
I suggest, if you are talking to a company about working abroad, be honest with your intentions. If you are planning on going to a country and working from there, make sure they are okay with that. Trying to be sneaky and not telling them might work for a bit, but chances are it will catch up with you and not turn out well.
Countries are changing quickly these days, and some are working hard to attract more digital nomads by offering specific Digital Nomad Visas. Depending on the country, these can allow workers to reside in the country and work with very minimal requirements. Be sure to check the latest news on which countries are offering these.
Watch Out for Scams
I will warn you, there are a lot of "fake" work-from-home remote jobs that are pretty much just scams. As you start researching, keep your guard up and your BS detector on. No one will charge you for a job or require a fee, so be cautious of anyone asking for money upfront. Common scams are fees for applications, training kits, or other fees to get materials and equipment.
Watch out for employers using generic emails like Gmail or Yahoo instead of a corporate domain email. Be careful with providing too much personal detail right away. Quick Google searches can often help you sniff out these scams.
Job Boards
Here are a few places you can start with:
- We Work Remotely
- Remote.co
- Flexjobs
- Wellfound (formerly AngelList)
- Indeed (use filters like "remote" or "work from home")
I like sites that charge employers to post a job. That is a barrier to scammers. It means employers are pulling out their wallets to try to hire people. This would incline us to believe they should be a little more serious than a free job posting site.
Freelance Marketplaces
Sites like Upwork and Fiverr have lots of people posting services, but also people looking for specific help. If you are not sure what you could offer, just start looking through services that people offer now. Anything you can do similar? See something that might trigger some ideas to offer similar services? It always amazes me what types of services people offer on some of these marketplaces and how others can do the same.
Company Career Pages
Figure out which companies have a culture of remote work and just go straight to their websites and look for opportunities.
Yes, it is more than just a place to post your work experience. Optimize your profile for keywords including remote, virtual, and telecommute. Post content about current roles, learnings, and engagement with people who are working at places who do remote work. Join some groups and follow other remote-working creators. Start to go down the remote work rabbit hole and see where it can take you.
Facebook Groups and Other Social Network Communities
There are a lot of remote work or digital nomad communities. These can give you some ideas as well, but be cautious as they are highly unmoderated and can attract scammers.
The more places you are looking, and the more frequently you do look, the higher the chance of finding a remote job.
What's Next
Finding the income is one piece. Knowing how to manage that income across different countries, currencies, and economic environments is another. In the next post I'll dig into why financial literacy is essential for the nomad life and what it really means when you are no longer earning, spending, and saving in just one place.