jobs are increasingly competitive,” Sutton says. “I encourage job seekers to put out fewer applications, but for jobs they really feel strongly about. Instead of doing 100 applications, do 10 for the ones you really, really want. Thoroughly investigate the company. Write in the cover letter that you admire x, y, z things they are doing. You can find these newsy items on their website press page or company culture page. This is your first impression, and you want to show you care. And if you know someone who works at the firm, toss out their name there, too.”
Watch out for scams. There are a variety and abundance of jobs that are all career categories from entry level to executive. “But for every legitimate work-from-home job, there are dozens of job scams. Google the company name and the word “scam” and see what comes up, Sutton advises. “That's not proof, but you will see if there is chatter about the quality of the company.”
Some States Actively Promote Remote Work
Fed up with living in an expensive city or community? Eager to bring your stress level down? Interested in working hours you prefer and from your home? That may sound like a TV infomercial, but the fact is that working remotely in a low-cost area is becoming easier at a time when it's also becoming more appealing.
New programs in Savannah, Georgia, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Vermont have been rolling out to lure new residents who'd work from there remotely. Also, new and growing websites are helping people find jobs where they can work from home, wherever that may be, as I mentioned above.
“Advances in technology such as high-speed internet and Wi-Fi over the last ten to fifteen years definitely make it easier to work outside of the office,” says Sutton. “And more people are knowledge workers, meaning that they work with ideas and information, rather than with machinery. The knowledge economy naturally supports jobs that can be done from home.”
Offering workplace flexibility through remote work is one way that employers can retain and attract skilled workers, and also “keep the trains running” as we all navigate the rapid shift toward telecommuting during the pandemic and its aftermath. Plus, there's the bottom-line payback: By letting more workers work from home, businesses and nonprofits can reduce the cost of office space and equipment and see productivity improvements.
The payback is often more than money. “A study we conducted in the IT division of a Fortune 500 company shows that a shift to more flexible work practices—those that give employees more control over when and where they work and convey support for employees' personal lives—benefits workers without hurting business performance,” says Phyllis Moen, whom I interviewed for an article in the AARP Bulletin. Moen is a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and co-author of Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It. “Instead,” she explains, “employees we studied describe feeling less stressed, more energized, and more satisfied with their jobs. The company benefits, too, because employees are less likely to experience burnout and less likely to look for other jobs, quit, or retire early.”
“Companies who want to keep talent are accommodating them,” says Emek, of WAHVE (Work at Home Vintage Experts). “And often they can't find talent within driving distance to their office.”
The explosion of remote jobs means that many workers have more options in choosing where they live, how they commute, and which profession to follow. “The most notable change we've seen over the past year is not so much the growth in the sheer volume of remote job listings, but the growth in the variety of remote job titles these companies are seeking to hire,” says Sutton. “Companies are expanding the range of professional positions they're allowing to work from home.”
Some cities and states are also finding that the lure of remote work (plus new initiatives offering cash grants) entices people of all ages to move there. FlexJobs is partnering with economic development groups in Kentucky, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Florida to help residents get remote jobs.
Tulsa, rolled out its Tulsa Remote initiative to lure new residents by offering them $10,000 grants for a year to work from there remotely, plus other benefits.
The enterprise provides co-working space for the year at 36 Degrees North, Tulsa's basecamp for entrepreneurs, and offers monthly meetups and workshops to develop skills and strategies for working remotely effectively. Program participants also have the option of living in a new, fully furnished apartment for a discounted rent, plus free utilities for the first three months.
Backed by the Tulsa-based nonprofit George Kaiser Family Foundation, the goal is to bring in people who'll stick around, get involved in the community, strengthen the local economy, and maybe ultimately launch businesses locally.
Tulsa Remote received nearly 1,000 applications the first day it opened in 2019 and capped the total at 10,000, a number the program received within 10 weeks. In 2020, the program was scheduled to triple in size to welcome between 250 and 300 new Tulsans.
Vermont launched a Remote Worker Grant Program, paying about 100 people $10,000 each over two years to cover expenses for moving to the state and working remotely. Qualifying expenses include the cost of relocation, computer software or hardware, broadband access or upgrade, and membership in a co-working or similar space.
A bill introduced by neighboring Massachusetts Governor Charles D. Baker includes a tax credit of up to $2,000 per employee for companies that support employees who work from home or remote locations ($50 million annually has been allocated for the credit).
These initiatives started for several reasons, including bolstering the local economies, bringing jobs to rural or economically disadvantaged areas, or in the case of new initiatives in Massachusetts, for example, addressing the infrastructure and productivity problems caused by excessive commuter traffic.
Sometimes, new remote-work opportunities come out of frustration, like April Goettle's new website for Nebraskans, remoter.tech. “Personal pain is a great motivator to find good solutions,” she says.
Goettle had been weary of driving three hours a day, five days a week from her home in Lyons, Nebraska, to her job as a website graphic designer in Omaha, 75 miles away. “I needed a tech job, and that is just the way it was,” she says. She wanted to work for a local company and be part of the Omaha tech boom.
When she began looking for Nebraska companies who'd hire rural workers looking for remote-work tech jobs, Goettle was shocked that none of the Omaha job boards offered such links.
So she created Remoter.tech, and began a campaign to convince smaller start-up tech firms in Omaha and surrounding rural areas to post open remote positions there. Remoter.tech aims to be a bulletin board for web designers, graphic designers, engineers, project managers, data analytic experts, and content creators.
“My focus is on providing resources for people who are trying to have a lower cost of living and work/life balance in a small community and have good-paying jobs in the Omaha area,” Goettle says. “In the Midwest, and where I am from in Montana, communities are struggling to keep the population. On the other end of the spectrum, we have towns like Omaha struggling with their hiring needs. But it's not a common practice to hire remote. It seemed to me like two problems that had a related solution.”
How to Use This Book
Working from home is here, and it's real. In Great Pajama Jobs, I show you:
How to find a great remote job and a great employer
How to create a great remote worker résumé
Great ways to showcase your skills
How to get past the electronic screeners when applying for a position online
Best practices to avoid scams
Great Pajama Jobs is your playbook to inspire you to find the freedom of working remotely and earn a paycheck doing work you love and are skilled at doing. The range of opportunities