Remote work is a seemingly unstoppable trend. It only differs from work in the home office in that it can take place anywhere. An online connection is sufficient. Find out here what consequences this has for our working world.
How is remote work defined?
The essential feature of this work model is that the employee is not tied to the company office. He can work at home, while traveling, on a park bench, or the beach. Contact with the company takes place online and by telephone. The work tasks must be able to be done entirely online. This is not the case with some homework jobs because due to strict internal company and legal data protection regulations, some data must be processed offline. Such employees are then connected to their company via a very secure VPN or even transfer the data to an external data carrier. At least with the VPN, they are usually tied to their home PC. With complete remoting, you can log into the company server from wherever. In principle, you do not have to be present in the company. Some freelancers have never seen their clients and rarely spoke to them on the phone. This definition must be observed because a teleworking or home office often means something else. The companies expect these employees to come to meetings from time to time. So if you are looking for a remote job, you have to read job descriptions advertisements correctly.
Is remote work already very common?
The model is booming, and the trend is rising. In extreme cases, some of these employees no longer leave the house for professional reasons; in the USA, this is said to affect 5.3% of all employed people. But there are many more remote jobs. The urge for them is fueled by the desire of millennials to work entirely independently. But not only this generation has this wish. Older employees, in particular, have recognized the advantages of the work model. In the US, 22.5% of people over 55 work this way full-time or part-time. Some of them do more demanding jobs in management. If possible, many more people would probably like to switch to this model.
Advantages and disadvantages of working remotely
Better time management favors the work-life balance, which is the most significant advantage. All professions that can be carried out on the PC and online are predestined for this work model. Web design, marketing images and videos, programming tasks, and text creation are among other things. A disadvantage is sometimes poor pay for the jobs and the associated tendency towards self-exploitation.
Another disadvantage arises from the sometimes more inadequate efficiency when orders are only done online, and personal arrangements do not seem worthwhile due to the price structure. This disadvantage has caused remote working to decline in some areas. This applies, for example, to the maintenance of software programs. This can be done remotely, but many companies now prefer to bring IT specialists, back into their rooms. They assume from experience that there can only be an efficient transfer of knowledge between external specialists and your experts on site. Remote work can also slow down processes. Because of specific organizational structures, contractors in the freelance sector can choose between so many orders that they cannot process the orders quickly and with enough focus for a customer. In the worst case, with such an order situation, even the quality suffers.
Another disadvantage is that working in the home office is not for everyone. It takes a lot of discipline. Otherwise, the employee has an outstanding work-life balance in the end but earns far too little. However, there are more advantages to this work format than disadvantages:
- Higher productivity
- Less stress
- Relief of the commute and work clothes
- Health benefits
- Great family friendliness
- Higher employee satisfaction
- Cost savings for companies
How do you land a remote job?
The fact remains: if you are looking for such jobs, you have to read the job advertisements correctly. If, for example, it says that the employee can also work at home, then it is not a real remote job. Employment is more like teleworking. The type of activity also plays a significant role. For this, we refer again to the definition above. The job has to be done from anywhere in the world. In their job advertisements, however, companies tend towards euphemisms (glossing over), which is why they also like to use popular keywords such as homework or remote jobs. Don’t let that fool you. Analyze the job profile carefully, and you will know where you are.
Competitive selection for a vacancy with a remote work format presupposes an appropriate approach when filling out application documents. This concerns, first of all, the design of your resume. It should be designed following modern labor market trends. That is why, today, we are sharing with you our best practices, namely this сombination resume template for remote work.
