Summary Sunday: Issue #527

As a 20-year career coaching veteran who used to be in staffing and recruiting industry, I know exactly what companies are thinking about right now. And you need to pay attention because a lot of the remote jobs you see aren’t going to stay remote.

If you want to stay remote or if you want to get a remote job now, you need to know these three things…

1. Startups & Lifestyle Companies Will Likely Stay Remote

@j.t.odonnell 3 Things You Need To Know To Get Remote Work. #remotework #remote #work #remotejobs #remotejobs2022 #careermode #careertok #edutok #careerchange #jobsearch #jobsearchtips #careeradvice #careertips #jobs #careers ♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

The first thing you need to understand is that startups and lifestyle companies are the ones that will most likely keep jobs remote. Startup companies are trying to save money, so if they don’t have to rent space and have all that overhead, it gives them more opportunity to spend money to build the business. So they’re going to be more inclined to allow you to work remotely.

Lifestyle companies are ones where the executive team wants to work remotely, so if they want to work remotely, then they have to let their employees work remotely too. This is one of the reasons why remote work is here to stay.

2. You Can Usually Work Remotely As An Independent Contractor

The second thing you should consider is being an IC (independent contractor) versus an FTE (full-time employee). It’s much easier to be remote when you’re in IC. That’s because as an independent contractor, a company can’t legally dictate where you work and the hours you work. So if a company hires you as an IC, you often can do the work wherever and whenever you want.

As a full-time employee, though, the company you work for can dictate where you work. Therefore, they could let you work remotely now, but then change their mind and bring you back in. So being an IC has advantages. However, if the company ever has to cut costs, ICs are the first ones to go because there aren’t any ramifications. There’s no impact on their unemployment insurance and other things like that. So you have to be careful because you’re easier to fire.

3. If You Work On A Laptop, There’s A Higher Chance You’ll Get To Work From Home

The last thing I want you to think about is that the work that can mostly be done remotely is tech work or computer work—something where you can take a laptop or a cell phone and do the majority of your work. And so staying in that kind of work can increase the chances that you can do it remotely from anywhere in the world.

However, one thing that’s happening now is companies are figuring out they can pay people less money because they want to work remotely. So salaries are going down. And on top of that, they’re saying, “Well, if I can hire people remotely, I can hire people in other countries. They’ll take a third of what people here in the U.S. want.” So competition is going to increase for these remote jobs, which means these salaries are going to decrease. So you’ve got to be prepared for that. You need to be thinking about these three things and the pros and cons of each one.

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