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In this episode, I talk about 4 of the biggest reasons why you are not landing a remote job and tips on how to overcome these mistakes.

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Transcription:

Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of My Offbeat Journey on The Offbeat Life!

I’m so excited to talk to you today about this topic, which is, the 4 biggest mistakes I see people make that prevent them from landing a remote job.

I have seen a lot of people complain about not landing a remote job and there’s always an excuse, whether it’s you know, they don’t have the right skills or “I don’t know what’s happening because I am applying to all of these jobs but I just don’t hear back from them.”. 

And I see this a lot from many people and it leads to frustration, not knowing what to do and then just wanting to give up. So, I do want to talk to you about the 4 mistakes and the reasons why you’re not landing a remote job.

So, the first one that I want to discuss is that you are not applying to enough jobs. I see people all the time saying, “Hey, I don’t know why I can’t land this job, I applied to one or two”, and I’m like, “Oh, did you apply to one or two a week? Or is it a day?”, and then they’ll be like, “Yeah, I applied to one or two every two weeks, maybe.”. So, that could be one of the reasons why you’re not landing the job. 

So, when I started to freelance and I started to do contract work, what I would actually do, personally, is look at job boards and places online every single day, multiple times a day and just look at what is available online and just apply to pretty much everything that I knew I could personally do and some even that I didn’t even didn’t really know, but I just wanted to kind of put my feet in and just see what happens and what ended up happening is, yes maybe, 60 to 80% of them will not respond but the 20 to 30% that do respond means that you have more chances to land that online job.

So, if you’re only applying to one job, once a week or even one job, every two weeks, and you’re only applying to maybe two jobs or three or even five jobs a month that means that’s less likely for you to get a job or find a job and you’re also, remember this, you’re also missing out on jobs that are being placed out there, it could be your dream job, it could be a job that is perfect for you but because you didn’t look for it that day, it was taken, right?

And now, you missed out on something that you could’ve had. And I’m sure that you are listening to this and saying to yourself, “Oh yeah, when I went online the other day, I found this job, but it was posted 30 days ago and they already found somebody and at that time I wasn’t looking actively for remote work.”.

And I do have to say, even now that I have contract jobs, I do work with several companies, I’m always looking for more clients, so even if my, say, calendar is full, I’m always looking for opportunities, because, 1) it could be a job that I know somebody that I personally know will want or maybe 2) it would just be at my interest to apply to it and see where it goes especially if it’s a company that is really good, it aligns with you, so, I don’t know, I guess for me, I just find it fun to look for opportunities because you never know what’s going to come of it.

I can speak personally, recently, I ended up looking for another contract work, even though I don’t really need it and what ended up happening is they reached out to me but because my, you know, my calendar is full, I actually ended up, you know, telling them about another person that I know and they were like, “Yeah, we really appreciate it.”, and now, you know, I pushed them towards that other person. 

So, that’s also an opportunity for you to help out. I guess, I don’t know, I guess for me it’s just really fun to see what’s out there, what the opportunities are and if you have that type of mindset you will never, you know, look at trying to find a job or a client the same way again because now, instead of making it seem like not enough, now there’s going to be like an abundance of opportunities for you, because everyday you’re looking you’re always going to find a new opportunity. If it’s not today, it’s going to be tomorrow or it’s going to be within that week, so just have that type of mindset, “Hey, if I can’t find something today, this week, there’s always going to be something the next day or the after that.”. And apply to as many as possible because that’s super important. 

Now, the next thing that you may be doing that is not allowing you to land that remote job is that you’re applying to jobs that you are not skilled for. So, I did mention before that sometimes I would apply to jobs that maybe, you know, I know a little bit of, but it’s not really what I’m 100%, you know, skilled in. 

And I, personally, I do that because I just want to try it out. It’s kind of like an experiment for me, to see if I can actually get an interview, and also learn what the company wants, so it’s not necessarily for me to land that job or land that contract, but it’s just to find out what these companies are looking for which is super, super helpful if you want to understand what they’re looking for and you want to get to a point where you can have that job, where you can land that job because talking to a recruiter, talking to an HR person, getting on an interview and understanding what it is that they need and want will help you in the long run, but if you are actively pursuing jobs that you just not have skills for and it’s not on your resume, obviously you want to be truthful on your resume. 

Most of these companies are not going to reach out to you, because, first of all, they do look at keywords on your resume and if you don’t have them, if you don’t have experience in them most of the time, they just won’t even bother because they probably get so many applicants and they can’t run through every single person and say, “Hey, maybe we’ll take a chance on you.”, so just make sure that you’re either learning these skills before you apply to them or you have the skills before you actually go for applying to them and again if you want to do what I do sometimes, which is just apply to jobs that maybe you have a little bit of skills that will interest them but not enough, you could do that, just to see what happens, but I wouldn’t say, “Hey, it’s going to get you to that process, unless you learn a lot from that.”, which I’m always for, I think it’s always good to kind of experiment and see what happens.

Now, the next thing that I would say that may stop you from landing a job is that your resume needs a touch up. I’ve had a few people actually reach out to me and I looked at their resume and it was, most of the time it was not up to par, meaning that you’re including information that is not valid to the job that you are applying for, you’re including information that doesn’t contribute to the company and what they want from you, for example you’re including your hobbies that they don’t really care about. 

Honestly, they will ask you that during the interview process but I don’t think you really need to take up space on your resume to include all of that, unless, of course it has some sort of skill that will help you with the job, but just remember, your resume is just a very short overview of who you are as a person in terms of your capabilities to get that job, so if you’re putting a lot of unnecessary things and you have pages and pages of information, that is just going over their head and they’re not even going to care, so I would just put the most valid information that you have that is going to grab their attention right away, you’re putting the right keywords in that they need and want because that’s who they’re going to try to get into their companies and you don’t want to just fill information that they don’t care about, you know, you don’t want to over stuff information there that doesn’t really apply to the job. 

You know, a few other things is like the places that you worked for 10 years ago, they don’t really care about that, not including technical skills that you have, apps that you use that allows you to communicate well to them because that’s super important especially as a remote worker. 

So, make sure you do an overhaul of your resume before you start applying to these jobs because it is extremely, extremely important to do that and also, I do have to remind you, make sure when you are including information in there, personal information such as your email or maybe your social media accounts, even if you don’t include your social media accounts, I would either set it to private and if your social media accounts are public, be very careful of what you include because employers will search you and if they see anything really weird, not professional that will most likely take you off the table. 

I had somebody apply to me several years ago and we looked them up and they had drugs and guns on their social media, so that was not really something, you know, us, we didn’t want to associate with that and obviously, most companies don’t associate with that unless that’s the kind of products that they sell, so just be very careful with how you’re presenting yourself, not just on your resume but also on your social media and online presence because most employers definitely search you out to make sure that obviously you’re legit, you are who you say you are and you are capable of doing your job and also you’re somebody who can represent their company and their name properly, right? Because now, you know, somebody can see that and they can automatically say, “Hey, you’re associated with that company so that company is associated with you.”, just be aware of that.

Now, the 4th mistake that I see is that you are not prepared for the interview, if you’re lucky enough to get an interview with a company that you really love, one of the things that I see is that you get really nervous because you’re unprepared, you’re not ready to answer certain questions right on the spot, because maybe these questions you’ve never heard of before and that’s totally understandable and you may sound unsure and not answering the questions correctly, this is why, preparing for this, really looking at certain questions that are pretty basic, like:

Why do you want this job? 

Why, if you currently have a job right now, why do you want to leave your current job? 

How are you able to communicate properly as a remote worker?

What is your best and worst strengths?

And also making sure you have questions for the company as well because not only are they interviewing you, this is an opportunity for you to interview them as well and to learn if they are really the right company for you and making sure that you’re confident in your abilities, you know what you’re doing and this is why having the right skills will really stand out because somebody who is confident in the knowledge that they have for this specific job that will really show with the way you talk, even if you’re nervous but if you know exactly how to do what you do, they are going to see that and hear that from you. 

And again just make sure how you present yourself, obviously, the clothes that you wear, you don’t want to wear anything that is going to be inappropriate for a virtual interview because just like an in-person interview, your virtual interview, they can also see you, right? So, you  don’t want to put yourself out there and you’re not properly attired, you’re not properly dressed. Also, make sure that you look at your background and there’s not a lot of noise, make sure you are in a room where there is privacy so no one can distract you or could be a distraction during your interview. 

Now, one of the biggest ways that I have actually done super well with interviews myself when I have looked for online jobs and jobs in general is what I typically do is when I said to you, I would look for jobs consistently and I would look for jobs that I was skilled for and sometimes a little bit unskilled for, and then I would just go on as many interviews as I possibly could and then I would write down all of the questions they had and usually all of these jobs had similar questions and I would practice over and over again, right? And it allowed me to be quick on my feet, it allowed me to already know most of the questions that they’re going to ask me, especially if it’s for a specific type of job because most companies will ask you similar questions, maybe they’ll also ask some personal questions like, “What’s your favorite hobby?”, like, “What do you like to do?”, “Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?”, right? 

So, make sure that you’re able to answer those questions, make sure to go on as many interviews as possible, I know this is really nerve wracking for most people but the more you do it, the better you’re going to be and when you are really good at interviews, you are going to get and land the job, 90% or more of the time and that has happened to me every time I go to an interview, unless I wasn’t skilled for it, I didn’t get the job but when I’m skilled for it and it was something that I could do, I almost a 100% of the time got the job because I just knew how to answer the questions, I’m confident in my abilities and that’s what I want you to do, don’t be afraid to go on interviews. Go on as many as you possibly could because that’s going to allow you to be so much more confident in yourself, right? 

So, these practices that you do is great personally on your own, maybe you could practice with your partner, maybe you could practice with friends, you could even hire somebody to do this but the number one thing you can do is not be afraid to go on as many interviews as possible and don’t look at it, if somebody doesn’t hire you, as a failure, look at it as a learning experience because now, you will know how to answer the questions correctly.

And one of the things that I’ve also done was, if I didn’t get hired for the job, I would actually email the HR person or the person who interviewed me and ask them what it is that I need to do better so I can become better in my next interview and that usually sets you apart, first of all, because most people don’t ask that and second of all, they will, you know, give you answers that will maybe it will surprise you and maybe it’s not surprising but it’s another learning experience for you, so again, the more you learn, the more you are able to do this and you will eventually get that dream remote job that you want.

So, hopefully this has helped, these are the 4 biggest mistakes that I see people make that prevents them from landing a remote job, so if you just tweak a few things, apply a bit more, get on as many interviews as possible, touch up your resume and apply to jobs that you are skilled for and obviously you’re going to find a job there but also, just apply to as many because again, practice makes perfect, well not practice makes perfect, practice makes you prepared, right? It’s not going to make you perfect, but it’ll allow you to be prepared and to really understand what these companies want.

So, that’s it for now, everyone, I hope this helps you out. If you have any other questions for me regarding any of these tips that I have or if you have more, make sure to send me an email at hello@theofbeatlife.com. I will talk to you soon, bye!