OPINION: Remote Work IS NOT easy to find despite it being THE FUTURE OF WORK.
Having a 100% remote company ensures our future as a successful startup, many companies NEED remote workers but there isn’t enough out…
Having a 100% remote company ensures our future as a successful startup, many companies NEED remote workers but there isn’t enough out there for the candidates to find their perfect job.
Picture this, you have heard about the future of work and you know that you have all the qualities to be a perfect candidate for a remote job.
You search the internet for the right opportunity in the perfect role for your skillset and it comes to no avail.
It’s frustrating, especially when all you read about is how the majority of jobs in the future will be remote.
You scroll through blog posts about how it is imperative that companies go remote or they will die, you see on social media the wonderful expeditions from the digital nomads who have found this work and you know that you have the diligence, self control and productivity to perform any task from the comfort of your own home.
You know the jobs exist, you know the jobs are coming but you are really struggling to find anything.
You are not alone. Stop chewing your pencils and understand that the recruitment advertising sector has failed to recognise the importance of ‘the future of work’.
Indiez is a 100% remote working community of engineers, developers, designers etc and we receive 100+ applications a week. We are fortunate to be in a position where we hire the best of the best and we have to — we work on projects for enormous companies such as Uber and Domino’s.
We will always consider everyone who applies for our community and welcome these applications even though we will only hire the right candidates for the jobs.
We have focused our business model on helping other startups, filling remote jobs and delivering 100% quality in everything that we do.
Our focus will remain on ensuring that remote work is recognised as the future and encourage the importance of it for ALL businesses.
Companies are listening, even the likes of Amazon and AirBNB are transitioning to allow more and more remote workers in their workplace.
So you have the world at your feet but why can’t you find all the opportunities?
As briefly mentioned, I personally believe that this is because the recruitment advertising world hasn’t noticed this market.
Yes, there are niche job boards that specialise in remote recruitment. These include remote.com, remote ok and Flexjobs — specialising in the opportunities globally available for telecommuters everywhere.
They are great platforms to start your job search but you will notice the same trait among them all. There are not an enormous amount of jobs available for each department.
Obviously, the technology sector is the most popular for remote work but the trend we are seeing in the business world is the rise in remote jobs for other departments — sales, marketing, accounts etc. All the remote job boards out there have limited roles in this area and it is NOT because the jobs are not out there.
It is because these remote specialist job boards are new.
With any startup, new businesses need new clients. Recruitment has a tough reputation and finding the companies as a job board can be affected with the crossover between them and recruitment consultants.
It is very tough for even the biggest names in the recruitment advertising sector to generate new business which is why they have enormous teams working for them cold calling companies to try and generate new clients on a daily basis.
Imagine how tough it would be for a brand new job board?
Let’s take the UK as an example. Totaljobs.com is an established business owned by the German giants Stepstone. They have an incredible reputation and they are fantastic value for money for anyone looking to employ new team members.
They have account managers with decades of experience in their sales teams who will need to generate new business. There are struggles in the recruitment sector due to the uncertainty of Brexit and they will have suffered as a result.
Enter RemoteUK (a new job board that I have just made up), joining the market because they have recognised that the future of work is remote working. They also know that many companies across the United Kingdom are employing remote staff. They set up their job board and approach the same companies.
If a company isn’t willing to pay Totaljobs.com for a job advert despite knowing they will get fantastic value for their money with the candidate traffic available…why would they pay RemoteUK who they haven’t even heard of?
It is an incredibly tough industry and even harder if employers do not know who you are.
So for the candidate, they find themselves back in a school canteen with only one choice on the menu.
While the market is as it is. I would always advise that you do use the specialist remote job boards and this is a market that Indiez will be exploring for ourselves but now you know why there aren’t as many jobs advertised as you would expect.
So why don’t you go for the big names like Indeed?
Well, Indeed.com, Adzuna and Glassdoor are NOT job boards.
They are job aggregators. They are in essence ‘a google for jobs’ — they crawl the internet for available jobs and this is why they are ‘free’ for direct employers. Their role is to combine all the jobs into one place. When you find a job you click onto it and it will take you to the source.
This is why you find yourself redirected to another website when you click ‘apply’.
It’s a super handy place to go to if you don’t want to search several different sites but it still has its flaws and in particular with remote workers.
You go on Indeed and regardless of your country — you HAVE to enter the country in which you are located.
Therefore, there is NO option to search ‘Worldwide’ or ‘Remote’.
So here’s a little hack…
If you want to use Indeed.com or the other aggregators for finding a remote job. Enter ‘Remote’ in the job title that you are searching for. It will then search for any jobs where ‘remote’ is mentioned in the job description. You would now be able to find a few jobs that you would not have previously by using this tactic.
And this is the same problem with ALL major job boards…
The above hack is only going to be possible with Indeed and other aggregators. The job boards themselves are location specific and do not have an option to search away from your area.
So if you are British and you use Jobsite, Reed.co.uk and Totaljobs — you are only going to be able to search for jobs in your 50 mile radius.
Due to these limitations by the job boards, the companies who hire remote workers will recognise this and also not put their remote jobs available on these sites. They will save them for the people who regularly search directly on the careers section of their own websites.
Crazy isn’t it?
It’s a big circle that needs to be broken. Job boards aren’t thinking about remote work so don’t open themselves to giving candidates this option, the companies have the jobs there but don’t put them on the job boards due to this and as a result, all the amazing candidates aren’t able to find their perfect remote job.
If job boards changed their location specific restrictions we would see only benefits:
They’d get more advertising sales
More companies would advertise remote jobs
More remote jobs would receive more applications
Candidates don’t need to go elsewhere for their remote job search
Traffic remains high on the job boards
The big players in the recruitment advertising world needs to focus on a worldwide product. A worldwide place for remote workers to connect with potential future employers.
Isn’t that is why companies choose to higher remotely?
My FAVORITE benefit of hiring remotely — You have the world in the palm of your hands.
This is exactly why Indiez is 100% remote! We have community members in 40+ countries across 5 continents!
I have recruited the best of the best WORLDWIDE.
If we have a project that needs an awesome UX designer and we weren’t remote. I’d have to search a very limited radius of where I live to find this person with all the qualities I need. Yes, of course, it IS possible but it’s much more beneficial having people from 4,416 cities in the world to choose from!
So what needs to be done?
Well, this is not just a prediction. The fact is: the future of work is remote.
I propose the following:
Help educate all businesses to understand the benefits of remote work
Help new niche remote job boards get the right jobs on their sites
Advise job aggregators to allow a ‘remote’ option in their location
Advise established job boards to focus on the remote work market
Support candidates in their search and educate them on potential freelancing opportunities
Maybe I am just inpatient.
This is my opinion and these are my conclusions to what I have seen in the recruitment advertising sector regarding remote work.
When you are regularly helping businesses with their growth and success through preaching about the future of work, it is impossible to not think about the candidate.
Putting myself in a candidates shoes has made me open my eyes and see that resources to help finding their perfect job is not at a level I want it to be.
So I am going to assess what I can do to focus on improving candidate experience for remote jobs and I hope that others will be follow.
In the meantime, our 100% remote community will continue delivering quality projects for a range of clients.
If you are looking for a tech remote job, I am always looking for new quality community members. Don’t be deterred by our high standards — if you have the self-belief and experience then you can apply here today.
Need help building your product? Indiez will be here for you when you need something building. Our remote community will help you on your way and build you a product very fast. We have the top 1% startup talent in the world and we will guarantee to hit your deadlines.
Let’s build awesome. 🙌
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