Some people run their own businesses. Some telecommute to regular jobs, ones that normally would be done in an office — they’re traditional employment in every sense but location. Among digital nomads, many produce content, are influencers and such. Many such folks hustle, creating their own opportunities and income from advertising, partnerships, endorsements, etc. Freelancers tend to always be on the lookout for new assignments.
If you want to explore full-time remote jobs, there are a huge variety. Tech tends to have the most as an industry, though you don’t necessarily have to be technical. Check out LinkedIn or Indeed, for example. You can filter for remote openings. Like the last four companies I’ve worked at have had remote roles in administrative / executive assistance, analytics, business, BizOps, design, engineering, executive roles, accounting or finance, HR, marketing, PR/comms, product, sales, customer service and more, spread across various countries.
Having hired for many years for remote roles, I’d say they’re much more competitive. For every job, there are way more applicants than for onsite roles. And there typically are higher expectations.
Remote work is not for everyone, because for many such jobs, there are higher demands for communicating, building trust, managing your own time, etc. And that’s even more so if you work with people from various countries and cultures. Time zones can also require extra effort to juggle. If you have examples that highlight ability to do such things well, that can help land remote jobs.
Landing your first telecommunicating role can be the most challenging, depending on what you do. That’s because it’s unproven whether you can work effectively remotely.
My husband has had remote roles for decades, either by applying for them directly or having employers offer to change them to remote work when he tried to quit. He develops software.
Personally, I started building remote content teams more than a decade ago and eventually convinced our CEO to let me turn my role remote. Nowadays, I get recruited for roles that are already remote or employers will offer to make an exception for me.
Some folks who telecommute piece together different work and income, doing freelancing, advising or consulting. My husband and I have always preferred to work for companies with robust benefits, including insurance, 401(k)s, equity and perks. I also do startup advising on the side.
Most folks I know who work remotely earn six figures or more, often with equity. We tend to work at remote-first companies, meaning that our ways of working are built to favor remote work or at least make it equal to in-office work.
For legit remote jobs, some suck, because many managers don’t know how to manage or train remotely. That can hurt your career, if you work for such folks. Some remote folks have a tough time getting promoted. And if tough labor markets and economies come, people who work remotely can end up laid off first, often because their companies have a second-class culture when it comes to telecommuting.
For folks without strong employment backgrounds, some of the easier remote roles to break into can involve customer service or sales.
Be careful, though, because there are scammers out there who pretend to have remote job openings and will bait and switch folks. Never give anyone your bank account info, social security card number and other personal info unless you’ve vetted to make sure they’re legit. There are many work from home scams. Some involve asking you to front money for computer equipment or such. No legit remote employer should ask employees to buy their own gear.
There are loads of virtual jobs, for almost every industry. Lots of folks also try “Upwork” for virtual gigs (mostly admin type work.)
. We rent our house out as another income stream. Ideas to make it work could be a VA role, a marketing or customer service support role, lots of things out there but really key to work with people who trust you to deliver your commitments from anywhere. Search digital nomad roles and there’s a thread on here with 50 sites to look at (quite a few are USA based though) Maybe try & set something up before you start your house sitting journey?