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3 lessons to frame your remote job search mindset

Search Remotely Job Search Mindset

Search Remotely presents 3 lessons to frame your remote job search mindset.  Our team of recruiters brainstormed to provide the remote job seeker with three tips on how to successfully get a remote job in a slowing economy.

Lesson 1: Companies hiring remote workers want to be profitable

Lesson One. Companies are in the business to provide a product or service profitably. This means that whatever is the output or the service, it must be produced cheaper than the price for which it is sold. With rampant inflation leading to rapidly rising costs, remote employers may think twice before adding to their headcount.

Therefore, if the company has an interest in investing in you (their new remote employee), they have to get their money back in some form or fashion. If you don’t quite yet have a remote job, let’s think about reframing your mindset before applying for a remote job and preparing for a remote job interview.

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You could re-frame your mindset to think about expressing in real terms with recent and real life examples, the following:

  • You are more productive than your colleagues (your output is higher)
  • You cost less, vis-à-vis:
    • lower salary than other candidates
    • lower training costs because you have earned a professional credential by top accreditation bodies, have more experience, and/or demonstrated performance relative to the job for which you are applying
    • lower acculturation costs because you are an internal candidate, or were referred by an internal employee
    • lower benefit costs because you don’t need a Cadillac benefit plan
    • higher replacement costs would be experienced if you were unexpectedly absent (because you are soooo industrious)
  • Your hire leads to these direct results
    • improvement in product or service quality
    • lower overall organizational costs
    • innovation
  • You can be depended upon to carryon extra duties
    • upstream; you are a technician or expert but can on occasion fill in for a supervisor or manager
    • downstream; you are a technician or expert but can fill in for a line worker or a complete backoffice functions when needed
  • You are not likely to cause problems, leading to more potential costs in comparison to their average worker
    • legal liability
    • health and benefits
    • disability, insurance and unemployment
  • Your presence in the company motivates your co-workers to
    • increase their individual production
    • callout less
    • increase their job satisfaction
    • increase their company loyalty
  • Your tribe’s awareness of your employ at the company leads to the following
    • increased sales
    • increased brand loyalty
    • increased goodwill
    • increased market share

Lesson 2: Remote job seeker and remote employers must have goal alignment

Lesson Two. The needs and desires of the job seeker and the employing company are interlocked. This means that the company wants to make money, stay in business, remain solvent with a reasonable amount of money left over to please its shareholders.

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So too, the employee wants to make enough money to earn a decent living without going into personal bankruptcy and have enough discretionary money left over to enjoy life.

Not recognizing that a company’s loss may eventually lead to loss of job, reduction in wages, fewer promotions, and lower cost of living increases and bonuses; some employees steal time, take office supplies home, fake illnesses, bad talk the company to colleagues and friends (potential buyers of products and services) and submit fraudulent expense reports. They fail to realize that they are in effect, working against themselves. When a large number of employees working for the same company have this attitude, the company can not survive.

So too, we find companies with cultures that seek to abuse employees. Workers who are overextended, forced to play two or three roles, given unrealistic deadlines and goals get burnt out very easily. They start to make mistakes, hold resentments leading to lower productivity, and passively search for other opportunities. Eventually they obtain work elsewhere. When a large number of top performing employees seek an escape hatch and head to competitors, the abusive company can not survive.

Lesson Three. The main driver of the availability of job opportunities is the health of the overall economy. The economy is cyclical, not static, so it changes. At times during different periods in the lifetime of your career, there will be buyer’s markets (with the advantage held by the prospective employer) and seller’s markets (with the advantage held by the job seeker).

If you are cynical like me, you may think that its always a buyer’s market because there are always more job seekers than companies. The market further dwindles when you take into account that not all companies have job openings for which you are interested, qualified or within your acceptable salary range.

Lesson 3: Remote working world may always be a buyer’s market

So we get back to square one. As the conditions for which we find ourselves, there will always be a buyer’s market, so to speak, how do we (as job seekers) get the upper hand?

The secret is in Lesson One. We’ve got to change our mindset and truly show in our job application, resume, work samples, list of accomplishments, and through the stories shared by our references that we are indeed the lowest cost, highest value applicant that will provide value.

You can probably imagine that remote first employers will say a lot about how they value work life balance of their employees. And generally, without a doubt this is true. But you gotta remember to change your mindset and reflect upon the items mentioned in lesson one.

The remote first company probably is most interested in its bottom line. Perhaps more so than non-remote first companies. So they really need to hear how you are most productive when working from anywhere,  tele-commuting or completing remote job tasks virtually. They need to hear also, how the lack of a commute adds more work time to your day and how you are more mentally available at home in comparison to a traditional in office arrangement.

Further, and perhaps more importantly, they need to understand that you revel in a work from home environment because you require less handholding, guidance and direction than in-office workers.

Once you have established these facts in their minds, you are unstoppable.

Free Search Remotely resources for you:
Remote Job Search Tool Kit
How to Work Remotely Guide
Remote Job Seeker Answer Box

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