141 - No Experience? How To Find Remote Jobs, Anyway

Hello, Connectors 😎

Today in 7 minutes or less, you'll learn a framework to land a remote job with limited (or no) experience.

Plus:

• 🧑‍💻 Open remote jobs

• 🎙️ Remote communication done right

• 🔍 How to go from office worker to globe trotter earning 5x your salary

Let’s jump in:

🕵️ How To Find Remote Jobs (Even With Little Experience)

Here's a question I got on LinkedIn:

There are an unlimited number of tactics to land your first remote job or land a tech job early in your career.

Today, I'll walk you through a framework if you have a little experience and want to transition to remote work.

The problem is most people go through tactics like a laundry list. They don’t prioritize (or even understand) what's important to remote companies.

Once you know where to invest your calories, this gets a lot easier.

What "Not A Lot Of Experience" Looks Like

Let's look deeper at the LinkedIn profile of the original poster (OP):

My observations:

1. 452 connections

2. Good profile picture

3. Used to work in in real estate

4. One year of engineer experience at a tech company

5. Likely transitioned to tech after completing a coding bootcamp

Here's what I'd recommend to help them land their next remote job:

1/ Focus On What You Can Control (Prioritize Network Building)

When it comes to our careers, we tend to fixate on what we don't have:

• Brand name companies

• Years of experience

• Skills

Focusing on the negative is what we do. It's human nature.

If you're in a similar position as OP, here's where you should focus:

Prioritize adding more connections.

Why?

1. Behind every remote job is a remote company. Behind every company, is a person. People are the path to new opportunities… so connect with more people.

2. You have 100% control over the number of connections you send out.

3. Building your network is a long game. The sooner you start, the sooner you reap the rewards.

As a general rule, aim for 1,000+ connections in your industry ASAP.

2/ Uncover What Remote Companies Really Want

"Here's why I hire people from big-name companies," a recruiter told me:

In other words, a brand name (like Google, Facebook, etc.) is an imperfect shortcut to answering the question:

"Can this person solve the problem at this company?"

That’s it.

So what does that mean for us?

If you don't have a lot of experience...

If you don't have brand names...

Then for each remote company you're interested in, it's your job to uncover the following:

1. “What problem is this role solving in this company..?" e.g. More leads, more sales, customers can't figure out the product

2. “Under what specific market conditions..?” e.g. $250,000 ad spend budget, strong macro headwinds, with an engineering constrained team)

3. “While fitting into a remote-first, async culture?”

The best way to answer these questions is with Deep Research:

• Talk to current and past employees

• Review social media accounts

• Read news articles and PRs

• Find employee reviews on Glassdoor

• Explore the company mission to identify repeated phrases (e.g. data-driven, customer-centric, etc.)

3/ Experience Is The Wrong Vector (Start Here Instead)

Spicy take: companies (remote or otherwise) are not looking for experience in their new hires.

They are looking for someone who can solve their problem.

(Experience is just one signal, just like having a brand name on your resume.)

If you don't have experience, find a different vector to highlight your competitive advantage. Some example vectors:

• Industry (you're the fitness fanatic who's uses every new app)

• Business model (you love to break down digital and physical b2c subscription businesses)

• Stage (you're a generalist thriving in the chaos of early-stage companies)

Of these three, I prefer competing on the industry vector. IMO, it’s:

• The best way to double down on personal interests

• The simplest way to do apples-to-apples comps with competitors

• The easiest way to demonstrate enthusiasm for a company or role

Conclusion

At some point in everyone's career, we have less experience than we'd like.

That's only a limiting factor in our remote job search if we let it. You can take "years of experience" out of the equation with:

• A better network

• Understanding what remote companies really want

• Leveraging a vector where you have a competitive advantage

🔎 Remote Spotlight: The Office Worker From Latvia Who 5x'ed His Salary While Traveling The World

When you're building a remote life, it's easy to get fixated on the wrong things: you live in the wrong place, work in the wrong industry, don't have the right experience, etc.

That's what I love about Emils Veveris's story: he focused on what he could control and iterated toward his version of a remote life.

Here's Emils:

Tell us about your remote work journey.

I set my eyes on remote work about 12 years ago. I had a dull office job that looked solid on paper but was making me miserable. I found it too boring and had no desire to develop a corporate career at this company.

The job was 60-80% automated (I worked in procurement for a large global brewer). And I didn't need to be in the office all the time but I had to. This made me question the future of work.

I discovered the world of tech, startups, and online businesses. I saw some entrepreneurs building cool products, living in Bali, and surfing every day. Instantly I knew that’s what I wanted.

Cliche now, but back then it was novel.

It took a while to get there:

• Failed products

• Freelancing

• Agency

• Consulting

• Remote startup

But that's not the unique part.

I come from Latvia, a small country in Europe. It has a small job market and thus limited options.

About 3 years ago I joined an early-stage startup (Lokalise) in my country. It was successful already (doing about $2m ARR) and there was a huge potential to grow rapidly. However, they struggled to find talent in the local market that had the necessary skills and experience. Remote work removed that barrier.

And we grew 10x over the next 3 years.

That's why I see remote work as a vehicle for prosperity. You can scale a company from anywhere today. And seeing humans collaborate globally is a beautiful thing.

What's your number one piece of advice for someone currently looking for remote work?

Something that gives you negotiating power and more options to generate revenue (freelance, your own business, or a full-time remote position).

Tell us about any tradeoffs you've made in order to live this lifestyle?

Good job offers that don’t support remote work.

Romantic relationships that didn’t want this lifestyle.

Being okay with discomfort from time to time and not having a home (you’re technically champagne homeless).

Being okay with being misunderstood and not following social conventions.

How do you manage your work/life balance?

Don’t chase the dopamine. Established normal routines. Travel slowly.

Go to places with specific goals (e.g learn a new language). You'll have a reason to stay longer and it will be easier to establish a routine and do something outside of work that will help you balance things.

For me it was surfing. I lived in Portugal for almost a year with this goal in mind. Then I traveled and lived in more places where I could continue to develop my skills: Río de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Lima, Montañita and more.

How has remote work changed your life?

Access to a lot more work opportunities and earning potential.

Made me more disciplined, flexible, decisive, and resourceful (increased my own agency).

More cultural as you get to know other cultures on a deeper level.

I don’t have to experience winters anymore.

Looking back, if there's one thing you could have done differently, what would that be? 

Quit that office job much earlier.

Where can people go to learn more about you and your work?

Atom 8 Leads. This is a new business I'm working on. It's a sales and marketing automation service. We apply an engineering mindset to outbound sales powered by UX research and creative copywriting.

LinkedIn. I post about growth, marketing, startups, demand gen and more. Often memes and sarcastic jokes.

Em-v.com. My personal site and playground. Where I plan to write more and reflect on my journey (learnings, growing startups, remote work, travelling and more). Now it has some in-depth articles on growth marketing.

What’s your favorite movie?

Conclusion

That’s a wrap.

Next week, we'll cover whether you're looking in the wrong place for your next job (and where you should be looking instead).

See you next week 👋

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Here are 3 more ways I can help you with remote work: