If the pandemic taught us anything about the workforce, it’s that working remotely is not the horrible scenario most employers fear. While COVID-19 forced many companies to quickly change their tune on remote work, the reality is that momentum was already starting to swing in that direction, and there is no shortage of companies looking for new team members. The only question is how do you locate these coveted work-from-home roles. Keep reading to find some of the best job search sites for remote work.
Why Work Remotely?
After years of resisting, the pandemic forced many companies to rethink remote work. What they have learned is that not only are employees happier, but productivity has stayed steady, and work-life balances have improved dramatically. All of the data points to one thing: employees and employers alike are recognizing that the flexibility that comes with remote work has additional benefits like removing non-essential meetings.
As commuting to work is minimized, employees are able to better utilize their time to be more productive or take care of their personal errands they might have otherwise needed to do during work hours. Remote work has shown itself to be a big win for everyone involved.
Read on to discover some of the best sites to search for remote work.
1. We Work Remotely
This minimalist site has been around for years and does a great job of putting remote jobs in front of you without any superfluous information. WeWorkRemotely (or WWR for short) receives job listings from potential employers, then splits them into various categories, including sales and marketing roles, product jobs, programming and design.
Roles that don’t fit perfectly into one of the above categories are also shown. Jobs are sorted by date, and when you click on a job, it will show a brief explanation about the company, role, job requirements, benefits/pay, etc. Add to that lists of the best employers for remote work, blogs and a podcast, and you have a complete job site at your disposal.
2. Working Nomads
Working remotely can also means working anywhere in the world. For this, Working Nomads is a great resource. There are a host of job roles available, including legal experts, marketers, designers, developers, writers and more. Categories are listed on the side so that you can quickly go right to a specific job type or search by the most recent job listing.
Each listing is tagged by salary, company, nature of the work and whether a specific language requirement exists. Once inside a role, you’ll be able to apply and read a quick description on the role, company and job requirements.
3. Upwork
Whereas most job sites are about directly applying for a role, Upwork functions a little differently. On this site, you are able to submit proposals and apply for a role that is full time, hourly, or part-time/freelance. Clients can also come to you based on reputation and rating. Upwork is all about flexibility. These are non-traditional roles that start with you creating a profile with your portfolio, setting your ideal pay rate and then listing all of your available skills.
Work can be found in development, design, finance/accounting, sales/marketing and freelance writing. Job searches aside, Upwork also provides success stories and plenty of tips/blog posts to help you level up your search and skillset.
4. Remote OK
Claiming to have a reach of more than one million remote workers, Remote OK is a great job aggregator. You can look at jobs worldwide or add a filter to make the list of jobs more geographically friendly. Within each filter, you can then break down by the type of work you wish to pursue, including various development roles (Ruby, Full Stack, Javascript, etc.).
5. NoDesk
NoDesk is a beautiful and fantastic site for finding remote work in a variety of fields. There aren’t a ton of results compared to some larger sites (704 jobs as of November 2021), but the quality is absolutely there. Jobs encompass customer support, marketing, operations, sales, engineering and a host of other roles.
Some of the roles include salary ranges that can vary wildly, but each role includes a company overview, responsibilities, and perks and benefits. Follow NoDesk on Twitter for immediate updates on new postings.
6. Jobspresso
Jobspresso specializes in specific areas like tech, marketing and customer support. What sets Jobspresso apart is that its reputation is trusted by some big names in tech: Airtable, GitLab, Ubuntu, Indeed, Trello, Zapier and more.
Not only can you search jobs, but you can also post your resumé and wait for employers to contact you should you meet a job description. The site claims more than 100,000 workers are looking for work across all of the available job listings at any given time.
7. FlexJobs
Undoubtedly one of the better-known names in the remote workspace, FlexJobs is the self-proclaimed number one site to find remote work. However, that claim comes at a price, as FlexJobs is one of the few sites to charge for the ability to view new job opportunities. Plans start as low as $6.95 per week with one month, three months, and one-year plans also available.
Once you pay the entry fee, you will find jobs in nearly every career corner, which makes it an ideal choice for anyone in medical and health, administrative, human resources, insurance, retail, or a call center job. FlexJobs also offers an iOS app for job hunting on the go.
8. Remote Work Hub
Another site making its own claims, Remote Work Hub promises better filters to help you locate the ideal remote position for you. It also claims 10 times more jobs than the “#1 remote job board” but doesn’t specify what job board it’s referencing. Wild claims notwithstanding, the site does work well to help you identify all types of remote roles.
Like FlexJobs, it offers positions outside of the more traditional marketing and development, including accounting, human resources, quality assurance and legal. Jobs are listed by the date they were published, and you can use the various site filters to search in your specific field as well.
9. Fiverr
If you’re on the hunt for freelance work, Fiverr is one of the better-known options. Originally, the site was designed as part of the “gig” economy where any service started at $5 and above, hence the name. Nowadays, you can pay as much as you want for any of the thousands of types of services offered, making this an ideal location for logo and website designers, video explainers, social media writers and support, and the like to find work.
If you are looking to not only sharpen your skills but build a portfolio for future work, Fiverr is one of the best places on the Web to start. You’ll need to figure out how to stand apart from other creators, but if you do, the sky’s the limit. Apple iPhone and Android apps make it easy to work or find work on the go.
10. ProBlogger
Let’s assume writing is your specific field of choice. If so, ProBlogger’s job boards is one of the best job search locations around. You can choose from contract, freelance, full time or part-time work with new listings posted daily. There is not a huge number of new postings every day, but new opportunities are available weekly.
Unlike most sites that offer fairly or very detailed job descriptions, ProBlogger’s results are often limited in scope, asking you to apply to learn more. If you can overlook that nuance, ProBlogger has been around for years and has helped freelancers find remote work the world over.
11. Virtual Locations
Virtual Locations claims to have one of the largest databases of remote work positions. Job searchers can hunt by category, remote level (fully or partially remote) as well as narrow their search by state, employment status and career level.
If time zone is an important factor in your search, you can also filter results by time zone as well. Along with costs starting at $15.99 per month, Virtual Locations does a great job of providing up-to-date tips and resource articles to help you on your job hunt.
12. Remote.co
One of the best aspects of Remote.co is that it offers career coaching resources alongside its remote job boards. There are 35 separate questions related to remote work with answers from 144 different companies that can help you better filter your search and expectations. Add to that popular articles with tips on how to stay focused remotely, how to work while your children are home, etc., and Remote.co is far more than just your average job board.
At its heart, it is still a job board. There are remote jobs posted every day across a variety of fields and companies. Design, human resources, IT, virtual assistant and online teaching jobs are just a few of the available categories.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why do some of these sites have a cost and others do not?
This is a fantastic question without an easy answer. It’s easy to think that it might be a reflection of the jobs being offered or the quality of the employers, but that’s not a realistic response. It likely comes down to supporting backend work and other areas of a site outside of just job postings. For example, FlexJobs is far more than just a job board. It hosts events, webinars, career coaching and resumé reviews, which all speak to the costs involved.
2. Are most of the job listings the same on each of these sites?
There is undoubtedly going to be some repetition between sites. As a potential employee, you will want to reach as many potential candidates as possible, so the more sites the merrier. However, there will not be any shortage of site-specific job postings, so don’t limit yourself to just one or two sites as you begin your job hunt.
Remote work has always been around and is here to stay. If you are a Mac user, you can make use of these macOS tips to improve your work-from-home experience.
David is a freelance tech writer with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. He loves all things Nintendo.
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