With its great potential for improving employee flexibility and productivity, the work-from-home (WFH) setup has gained a lot of fans among professionals seeking a more progressive way of earning a living. Unlike the traditional office environment, the WFH setup gives employees the opportunity to work comfortably in their own homes and skip the grueling daily commute. With this promise of heightened comfort and freedom to work from anywhere, more professionals are opting to transition out of the office-based corporate environment and go hybrid or fully remote.
However, some workers are hindered from seeking WFH opportunities due to a lack of experience in remote work. The truth is, the competition can get tough considering that a large number of Filipinos have already done freelance work or telecommute-heavy jobs. Still, it’s not impossible to land a WFH job even if you’re not used to clocking in at home and working in your PJs. To help you out, here are some tips and tricks you should consider if you want to impress employers and land that WFH opportunity of your dreams.
Familiarize Yourself with Online Collaboration Tools
Because you’re going to work virtually, you need to have adequate knowledge of all the tools you’ll be using to communicate and collaborate with your team. As such, you need to build a solid understanding of popular messaging and communication apps, as well as project management tools. Your interviewer will most likely ask about your experience with these tools, so you must show that you at least know your way around them.
On a related note, it may help to reassess your tech arsenal to see if your gadgets can sufficiently handle these collaboration tools. Video messaging, for example, is required for most remote jobs but eats up a lot of bandwidth. Before applying for a WFH gig, you need to make sure that your internet connection and devices can keep up with the demands of daily remote work.
Apply Through Legitimate Job Portals
A large volume of WFH opportunities can be found online, but you need to have a discerning eye when sifting through your options. Be wary of suspicious job ads that offer too-good-to-be-true benefits, ask for a lot of personal details, and have little to no traces of an online footprint. It may also help to explore opportunities at trusted job portals and do your due diligence when researching potential employers and gigs.
Whether you’re job-hunting in Metro Manila, looking for a Davao online job hiring, or seeking employment elsewhere in the Philippines, searching through a legitimate portal helps ensure a safe application process—especially for jobs that may require you to attend periodic meetings at the office or undergo an in-person interview.
Upgrade Your Online Resume
If you haven’t touched your resume since getting your last job, maybe it’s time to take a quick look at what aspects of it you may need to improve. To refresh your resume, you can choose to upgrade its layout or add more comprehensive details to your job descriptions. You can use free online design tools that often have pre-designed templates to make the layouting part a lot easier. Most of the time, hiring managers and employers won’t skip over resumes that are eye-catching yet clean and simple enough to fully encapsulate your work experience so far.
Be Specific in Your Work Achievements
One of the biggest barriers to remote work is not being able to physically show your chops as a member of the team. Thus, during the interview process, you may need to be specific about the results you were able to deliver in your past jobs. Instead of merely listing down your skills, you may want to mention specific projects and mention key details and statistics. For instance, you can mention the percentage of sales your team was able to boost under your leadership. Citing examples that employers can easily visualize gives them a good idea of what you can bring to the team.
Identify Skills You Need to Work On
A lot of lucrative WFH positions require candidates who have a lot of skills and subject-matter expertise up their sleeves. So when exploring remote work opportunities, be sure to snoop around your industry to know the specific skills that are in demand. Nowadays, a lot of remote jobs require broad skill sets that involve ever-changing technologies and industry landscapes. If you’ve only held office jobs your entire professional life, you may have some skill gaps to fill before applying for a stable remote job.
Aside from checking out job openings, you may want to join social media groups or forums where you can learn industry-specific tips from those with extensive experience. Take note of the most relevant skills to have in your arsenal, but keep in mind the minor ones as well. There’s nothing wrong with dipping your toes in as many skills as possible, but you can also check out remote jobs that offer training or aren’t as strict when it comes to experience requirements.
Sign Up for Online Courses
After identifying your skill gaps, you should now take the time to upskill yourself. There are plenty of online courses available on a broad range of topics, often for a very low price. These courses only take a slice of your time, but gaining these skills is sure to benefit you in the long run when applying for future jobs. If you plan to register for online courses, take note of the highly profitable skills in your industry. It may be useful to sign up for courses that offer certification, which legitimizes your skills and allows you to showcase them on your resume.
Don’t Be Afraid to Take the Plunge
The modern-day workplace is an ever-changing landscape, and these days, it’s all about having the freedom to ditch the corporate dress code and work in your most comfortable space. While it’s true that competing with an oversaturated pool of WFH applicants can be tough, you don’t have to give up on remote work if you’re used to an office job. With the right skills and strategies, you can make WFH work for you by landing good opportunities that offer competitive benefits. Even if you have little experience with remote work, that doesn’t mean you have to skip on a more worker-centric way of making ends meet.
