How did you get started with remote work?
Interview with Leon, a journalist teaching the world to play chess
Working remotely came completely out of the blue for me. I was a journalist working long hours at The Telegraph in London. Then one day I was offered a new job by one of my contacts that combined one of my big passions, choosing my own hours and a complete change in career.
I decided to roll the dice and take it, to give up my solid established job working for a big internationally-recognized newspaper and join a tiny team working on Chessable, a start-up chess learning platform.
One year on and I find myself working from home, seeing lots more of my toddler and having a far better work-life balance. It has made an incredible difference in my life.
Leon James Watson is a former journalist who has found the intrinsic value of remote work while teaching the masses to play chess.
Read full interview from Interview with Leon, a journalist teaching the world to play chess.
Interview with Steven Wade, a software engineer working on a remote team
I live in an ok-sized metropolitan area but there isn't much opportunity for PHP software engineers outside of marketing agencies and I wanted to write software, not websites.
I started looking for remote jobs so I could stay near friends and family but enjoy working on something I loved.
I applied for a few places that I found on We Work Remotely, Indeed, and LaraJobs, but none of them panned out.
A friend of mine in town had been recruited by my now company, but he was uninterested. He knew I was looking and thought I'd be a good fit so he sent me the job posting. I applied, had an interview a few days later, and an offer a week after that.
Sometimes work finds you. It's good to stay connected in the community.
Learn more about how Steven works remotely, including his work routine, habits and how he found his remote job
Read full interview from Interview with Steven Wade, a software engineer working on a remote team.
Interview with Tara, a remote director of research and administration
In 2006, my now-husband started a job with a commute of two hours. He stayed near work and came home when he could, but in 2010, we decided that we needed to move closer to his job, for the well-being of both of us.
I approached my managing partner with the situation, and we decided that I could be just as effective working remotely.
We worked out a plan, and then we tried it out for six months while I was still in the city, just to work out any glitches while my husband and I built our home. In late 2011 we made the move, and now we are a 100% remote company.
A move to be closer to a spouse's job led Tara to remote work—see her tips for staying productive and organized as a full-time remote director.
Read full interview from Interview with Tara, a remote director of research and administration.
Interview with Deborah, a remote entrepreneur changing perceptions about remote work
This interview was conducted before the COVID-19 outbreak, so the answers convey travels and events that happened prior to lockdowns and travel changes.
I started my own consumer insight business almost seven years ago, so in a sense, I've been working remotely (part-time) since then, but I feel like my true 'remote' journey started three years ago when I spent just over a year living as a digital nomad with Remote Year.
Deborah has traveled the world sharing her research about the pros of remote work. See how she is helping companies and clients understand the importance of location independence.
Read full interview from Interview with Deborah, a remote entrepreneur changing perceptions about remote work.
Interview with Sarah Archer, a content marketing manager & remote work techie
The company that I work for, Siege Media, has always supported employees who want to work from home at least once per week, but I took it a step further and pitched my CEO on transitioning to working remotely full time.
We worked together to come up with a plan that would benefit the company and keep me productive, and now I’ve been working remotely for over a year.
From noise-canceling headphones to Basecamp—content marketer Sarah shares her must-have remote work tools & essential productivity tips.
Read full interview from Interview with Sarah Archer, a content marketing manager & remote work techie.
Interview with Celine, a VP of People Ops and remote team member
Remote work is not (yet) common practice in Europe. And it is even less common in my line of work (People Ops).
After two years of experience being remote, I can say that you work very differently whether you are in a fully distributed organization or whether you are one of the very few remote employees and everyone else commuting to an office.
In a fully remote organization, you thrive with the same tools as everyone else. That helps a lot.
You feel much more isolated, and you are not part of the working culture when you are remote with everyone else at the office. So you adopt a project management type of work, and you constantly ask questions to ensure you are not missing an important piece of information.
Celine has experienced the highs and lows of working with remote and hybrid teams—see her tips for thriving as a member of a remote team.
Read full interview from Interview with Celine, a VP of People Ops and remote team member.
Interview with Mehmet, a nomadic digital maker and entrepreneur
My last formal tech startup business I was running five years ago was in transition to take client work. We were lucky to land a very large fashion retailer client managing luxury fashion brands, and their tech stack required a new set of team members.
We started working with a lot of remote work professionals. This started a shift in our team management model, communication framework, and eventually ignited the adaptation of a workspace free mindset.
We were also traveling more often both for business purposes as well as casual house swaps and month-long tryouts in different cities in the US. It was a weird period, but we went through it to redefine a lot of things in how we work.
Mehmet has embraced his remote team leadership style. Hear about his most helpful productivity trick and why he has "quiet" days for his staff.
Read full interview from Interview with Mehmet, a nomadic digital maker and entrepreneur .
Interview with Emma, a freelance marketing consultant
I’ve actually been pretty lucky with a few jobs I’ve had over the years as I’ve worked on ‘global,’ dispersed teams and invariably then been able to work remotely. I worked for HP a while back and actually most of my team were based in San Francisco!
It certainly made for interesting working hours what with me being in the UK. More recently though, since November of 2018, I’ve been working as a freelance marketing consultant across a number of different clients, and so I’m able to do that fully as a remote worker.
Emma is thriving as a freelance marketing consultant—see her tips on managing client demands & making yourself marketable as a freelancer.
Read full interview from Interview with Emma, a freelance marketing consultant.
Interview with Cecilia, a content writer managing her remote career in Dubai
I started working remotely in 2016, but I tried to work as a freelancer for several years before that.
In 2010, around the time I graduated from university, I set up a simple website to promote my proofreading services. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to promote myself and was too shy to put myself out there.
In 2015, after completing my master's degree and returning to my country to find work, I joined a few marketplaces to start finding freelance jobs. And I did! The jobs weren't very well-paid, but I did have the chance to work with good clients, and the workload was light enough that I could combine it with my office job at an advertising agency.
I started translating blog posts for a small real estate company in Spain, as well as writing blog posts about lots of different topics—from nutrition to rugs!
The next year, I found a remote position as a moderator for a client in Belgium.
Since then, I've worked with more clients to the point I was able to quit my office job in 2018 to go fully remote.
Cecilia got her start translating blog posts, and in 2018 she went fully remote. See her tips for managing an international remote work career.
Read full interview from Interview with Cecilia, a content writer managing her remote career in Dubai.
Interview with Audrey, a military wife thriving as a marketing manager
I started looking into remote work options when I married my husband - who was an active-duty Army officer at the time.
I was moving from Louisville, KY to Colorado at the time with many more moves in our future, and I knew in order to really establish a career and advance within one position, I needed it to travel with me wherever the Army took us.
Luckily, the opportunities for remote work in marketing are pretty vast—and always growing.
Honestly, when I found a position with my current company Boldly it was not a difficult transition for me to leave office jobs behind.
I am a natural introvert, and I focus better in my own environment — so I found remote work very conducive to my preferred work style.
The company has a very inclusive culture, so even though I am working on my own, I never feel 'alone.'
I've been working remotely with Boldly for five years now, been promoted and genuinely enjoy what I'm doing — so it's literally a dream realized.
Marrying an active-duty army officer sent Audrey on the search for a remote work position—see how she has established her career while staying on the move.
Read full interview from Interview with Audrey, a military wife thriving as a marketing manager .