Even as pandemic restrictions ease and more companies require their employees return to the office full-time, flexible and remote jobs are still hot commodities amongst the workforce.
Google searches for “remote jobs” have reached an all-time high since the Covid-19 pandemic first hit in early 2020, with 32% of people affirming that they prefer an exclusively remote work arrangement, according to a June 2022 Gallup survey of 8,090 U.S. employees.
Although demand for remote opportunities remains high, the number of remote job openings is starting to drop: In July, about 17% of paid job postings in the U.S. on LinkedIn were remote, the Wall Street Journal reports, down from a high of about 20% in March 2022.
True remote jobs are hard to come by, too: About 95% of remote jobs have geographic requirements, whether it’s a specific region, country, state or city, according to FlexJobs.
In a work-from-anywhere job, however, employees work “100% remotely, are independent of location and, in many cases, are also independent of a specific time zone,” FlexJobs career coach Toni Frana tells CNBC Make It.
She expects such jobs to become more popular — and the competition for them to grow — in the coming months as more companies require employees to return to in-person work.
If you’re hoping to land a remote job that will let you work from anywhere in the world, adding these skills to your resume can help you stand out from the crowd in your search, according to two remote job experts:
1. Communication
Communication is a universally in-demand job skill no matter what kind of role you’re applying for, but it’s especially important to have for a work-from-anywhere job, Frana says. That’s because you’ll likely be working with people in different time zones and you’ll rarely (or never) be in the same room as your colleagues, so you’ll need to be proactive about telling your team what you’re working on and when you’re available to help. Effective, proactive communication can also build trust and enhance collaboration between remote teammates.
2. Tech platform experience
Being familiar with popular online tools that companies use to communicate and coordinate work will give you a “huge leg up” in your work-from-anywhere job search, remote career coach Kate Smith says. Slack, Trello, Zoom, Notion and Google Workspace are some of the more popular tools for remote workers, she adds.
