MY STYLE OF WORK

REMOTELY JOBS

As you wait impatiently in line for your mislabeled coffee cup (you’re already going to be 20 minutes late to the office), take a step back and think: THIS could be your office. You could skip the commute, bring your laptop and charger, and power through your to do list from anywhere, wherever you are.

Working remotely – whether from home, Starbucks, or another creative place – is booming. A Virgin Media Business survey recently predicted that 60% of office-based employees will regularly work from home by 2022. And a separate survey featured in The Guardian found that ⅓ of employees think commuting will be unheard of by 2036.

But, that’s the future and this is today, you say to yourself. You don’t have the skills or the resources to find a gig that would give you that kind of flexibility. That’s for 20-somethings working on a startup who code in hoodies, or stay-at-home moms who work as part-time assistants.

Wrong! In fact, completely wrong. The typical remote employee is a 40-something college graduate earning nearly $60,000 a year at a company with 100+ employees, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.

If working remotely tickles your fancy, check out this list of 25 great sites for finding remote work.

Remote-Work Specific

1. FlexJobs

FlexJobs has over 50 career categories, with jobs ranging from freelance to full-time, entry-level to executive. The best part? They screen the jobs before posting, so you don’t have to dig through shady opportunities. The site currently hosts more than 20K job listings including part-time and freelance opportunities! 

2. We Work Remotely

Sponsored by Remote, the book by famed 37Signals founders, this job board is a catch-all of remote jobs from customer service to web design to programming. With the catchy subtag “Office not required,” and the cache of the 37Signals brand behind it, this site is sure to host remote opportunities at some of the hottest tech companies.

3. Working Nomads

WorkingNomads (formerly goRemotely) delivers a curated list of remote jobs right to your inbox. Choose daily or weekly emails to make the remote job search come to you.

4. Staff.com

Instead of focusing on contract jobs, Staff.com features primarily long-term telecommuting jobs in a range of industries from persional assistants to programming. Choose to work either 80 hours a month (part-time) or 160 hours a month (full-time), and the site recruiters start matching you with employers!

5. Skip The Drive

With a great name, a great resources tab (listing authors to follow and sites to check for help in the remote job world), and a decent listing of remote jobs, this site is true to its eponymous mission. Use what the site provides, you can completely skip that ugly morning commute.

6. Virtual Vocations

This job board features only telecommuting jobs from technical writers to paralegals. Started by a stay-at-home mom frustrated with the job search for legitimate remote jobs, the company is still run by an entirely remote team. Plus, the blog has great tips, such as a recent article on how to take on a remote gig for the holiday season.

Tech

7. Authentic Jobs

The job board for web professionals. Just click the “wireless logo” (you’ll recognize it) and filter by remote jobs. Beautifully designed and easy to use, as you’d expect from a job board for creatives and developers!

8. Dribble

Dribble is a great site for designers to find their next gig. There’s a location tab right on top where you can click “remote / anywhere” and be off to the races finding your next work-from-home gig.

9. AngelList

Always dreamed of working for a startup, but don’t live in a startup city hub? Head over to AngelList, a top site for startup jobs. When you search for a job on AngelList, click on “Job Type” and choose “Remote OK.”

10. Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is a go-to jobs board for many top tech talent, especially web developers. Type in “remote” in the location field and you’ll bring up a list of more than 2,000 jobs that fit the bill.

11. Ruby Now

A job board entirely dedicated to Ruby developers. Once you graduate from the Web Developer Blueprint, and watch Adda’s video on how to get hired as a Ruby Developer, head on over and get to work landing a remote gig here.

Freelance and Contract

12. SkillBridge

Focused on connecting top-tier former consultants with short-term engagements for high impact corporations, the SkillBridge model is taking the traditional consulting world by storm. As a consultant, you can focus on only remote work and only on projects (and with clients) you are passionate about. Whether you bring e-mail marketing expertise or are a whiz at building financial models, the SkillBridge site and model is a remote-worker-dream-come-true.

13. Fiverr

With jobs starting at just $5 a pop, Fiverr is an amazing site to find your first gigs and build up a portfolio FAST. The site focuses on “gigs” or “micro-jobs,” such as editing an image in photoshop, designing a Facebook ad, or brainstorming SEO-rank-worthy article titles.

14. oDesk

oDesk features remote jobs in a suite of categories: from virtual assistants to mobile app developers. A little something extra to sweeten the deal: oDesk claims that more than 1 million companies, from Pinterest to OpenTable, use the site to hire remote freelancers.

15. Guru

With the tagline “Work Your Way,” Guru allows freelancers to build profiles with portfolios of work. Employers find your profile, or search/apply for jobs. The homepage features a wide range of roles from WordPress Developers to  Logo Designers.

16. Elance

More than 300K programmers and more than 200K designers use Elance to connect with remote job opportunities. Microsoft, Cisco, and Mozilla are just a few of the companies hiring contract workers on Elance.

17. Freelancer.com

Claiming to be “The World’s Largest Outsourcing Marketplace,” Freelancer.com is chock full of remote freelancing gigs. With over 13 million users, it features jobs for PHP developers, content writers, and web designers alike. Make a profile and start bidding on jobs!

18. Freelancermap.com

Search thousands of IT projects that are remote, and almost always contract. This site has a global reach with projects at companies from Holland to Spain to Ohio!

General

19. The Muse

With a gorgeous user interface and fun-to-explore information about all the companies and jobs they feature, The Muse makes the job search easy. Search for the content features on the site that highlight remote opportunities, such as 7 Companies That Let You Work From Home.

20. Indeed

One of the most robust job boards you can find, Indeed pulls data from around the internet and around the world to bring together jobs. From Product Marketers to a “Technology Productivity Consultant,” Indeed’s 2K+ remote jobs run the gamut.

21. Idealist

For those who have always wanted to work on public health in Africa, or economic development in India, but weren’t willing to uproot from your friends, family, and country, Idealist.org has the opportunities for you.  You can filter all of your searches by selecting “remote” in the location category.

22. Career Builder

The Career Builder jobs site is the largest online employment website in the United States! Type in “telecommute” or “remote” as a keyword and find more than 9K part-time, contract, and full-time jobs from brands like Forever 21 Inc, Xerox, and Univision. 

23. Monster

The first name you think of when you hear the words “job board,” Monster does indeed host a plethora of remote jobs. From remote customer service opportunities to remote user experience designers, there are plenty of options if you’re willing to sift.

Direct Selling

Note: I’d be remiss not to mention the amazing opportunities afforded by direct selling, also known as multi-level marketing. There is real opportunity with these types of jobs to work from home (or anywhere) and make an income. These companies often require upfront buy-in, so be sure to properly evaluate the opportunity before you jump in.

A few of my favorites:

24. Beauty: Avon

Perhaps the best-known and most-storied of the direct-selling opportunities, Avon has built an incredible business on the “Avon Lady Model.” Sell Avon beauty products, from lotion to lip gloss, to your friends and neighbors in exchange for the freedom of setting your own hours and working from home. Mary Kay is another skincare and makeup company that offers the opportunity to build your own business in this way.

25. Jewelry: Stella & Dot

This jewelry company has a “flexible entrepreneurship” model for stylists: host in-home or online trunk shows to display jewelry to friends. Flexibility and stye in one! If this doesn’t fit your style, there are several jewelry companies providing this type of remote job opportunity including Chloe & Isabel andTrend Tribe.

Bonus!

26. PowerToFly

This new (but fast up-and-coming) site is a Skillcrush dream come true. PowerToFly is focused on matching women in tech with work-from-anywhere jobs. Join the talent database, go through the vetting process, and get matched for a “paid trial,” a 2-4 week test period to make sure it’s a good fit for both you and the employer. Started by two moms with serious tech chops, this company is perfectly poised to make your remote job dream a reality!

Inspired, but not sure what skills you bring to the table? Check out the 10 top-paying tech jobs you can do from home, read the 5 common myths about working from home, and bulk up on your skills with aSkillcrush Career Blueprint!

INPUT OUTPUT DB2 TRY & REMOTE:OFFICE NOT REQUIRED JASON FRIED

n’t have time to read? Here’s a quick but comprehensive summary of  “Remote: Office Not Required” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, released on October 29, 2013.

Who should read this: Companies or employees who are considering remote work or already doing it.

Elevator pitch: Remote lays out the argument for remote work and teaches you how to maximize productivity and happiness as an employee and an employer.

Author: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are the cofounders of37signals and authors of Rework. Heinemeier Hansson is also the creator of the popular Ruby on Rails framework.

Benefits 

Advances in technology – like file and screen sharing, to-do lists, and instant messaging – have made remote work more feasible than ever.

For employers: Employers may find that employees (especially creatives) are more productive when they aren’t subject to in-the-office interruptions. While remote work has its interruptions, most of them are voluntary – you choose to check Facebook or get a snack.

Although not the main goal, remote work allows employers to cut down on office space costs. You don’t have to worry about whole offices being struck by natural disasters or power outages; employees who might take time off for various reasons can work from home instead.

Remote work exposes bad workers: it’s easy to see who’s not performing without the obscuring fog of in-person charisma.

For employees: Employees get judged on their results, not their input (hours worked) or other irrelevant factors. Remote work cuts back on commuting and gives employees the freedom and time to pursue passions that they might otherwise put off until retirement. It allows people to work whatever hours they want, from whatever part of the country they want. Employees save money on gas and can spend more time with family.

Drawbacks and critiques

Remote work does have its drawbacks: no face-to-face interaction, the temptation to procrastinate is higher, and family members can be distracting.

Employers worry that remote work means less frequent brainstorming and slower communication, but that may actually be beneficial. As for worries of employees slacking off and being distracted, the solutions is to hire people you trust.

Employers worry that remote work will harm culture, but culture is more about values and actions rather than social activities.

Employers worry about security, but there are simple steps to take to secure employees’ personal computers.

Employers worry about having customer service agents available during business hours, and this is a valid question. Customer service staff can stagger their hours so 9-5 is covered, but even if they don’t, that doesn’t mean the whole company must go 9-5. Different roles call for different responsibilities.

Employers claim that big corporations don’t have remote work, which is only partly true. And even so, corporations aren’t exactly bastions of efficiency.

Finally, employers give a variety of silly excuses that are easily refuted by facts and common sense: it doesn’t work for our industry, managers will lose control, and the office cost a lot of money. The gains in productivity from remote work across many industries should be response enough.

Tips for collaborating remotely

• Try to make sure that employees on different time zones have about four hours of overlap in working hours.
• Use screenshots or screencasts to communicate information.
• Share information openly on work schedules, to-do’s, calendars, and files.
• Create a “virtual water cooler,” a chat forum for fun and social stuff.
• Share progress with each other to fuel that sense of achievement and momentum.
• Consider a hybrid strategy, with some employees working in the office and some at home. (37signals has a Chicago office with about 10 people, while the other 26 are spread across the world.)
• Don’t only try one remote worker – try at least a team.

Handling common issues

Employees: To deal with cabin fever, make sure to take time to go out and socialize, or consider working from a coworking space. To avoid hurting yourself, set up a work area according to proper ergonomics. To avoid a sedentary lifestyle, take time to exercise and eat well.

Employers: To convince clients to work with you remotely, be honest up front about your location, offer references, share progress often, respond promptly, and get the client involved. To make sure you’re complying with the law, consult a lawyer or accountant about out-of-state workers. For international employees, you’ll have to either establish an office in that country or hire them as consultants.

Hiring remote employees

To find the best people, look internationally. Favor real work over resumes to evaluate candidates. Meet top candidates in person to check for personality fit.

Pay employees equally across geographies to improve retention and show you value them. To keep morale up, everyone has to work extra hard on communicating well in writing and not offending others.

To make up for the distance, get to know your employees as individuals and experiment with creative ways to support their hobbies and interests.

Managing remote workers

To set up remote work, start it as early as possible in the life of your company; if you’re already in business, offer the remote work option to current employees. As a manager, you’ll have to be comfortable with giving employees more access to information and more decision-making ability, and focus on leading, guiding, and helping with problems that come up. Face-to-face and in-person meetups will become more scarce but more valuable: try a few yearly in-person meetups, and one-on-one check-ins every few months. Watch out for remote workers feeling inferior or underserved, and for them overworking and burning out.

Life of a remote worker

To prevent overwork, try creating separation between work and play with different clothes, spaces, or times. Experiment with different setups: working remotely only in the morning, working at public places like coffee shops, or renting a desk at a local office. Speak up if you’re feeling unmotivated, and get attention by being productive.

Grade: A-

In 37signals style, Remote is incredibly digestible – more a collection of short blog posts than a series of thick chapters. If you’re a remote worker, you’ve probably already figured out many of the insights in the book, but you’ll undoubtedly be able to find a few takeaways. (I myself realized I had an email addiction and forced myself to get out of my inbox for one evening – it’s a start.) The value may be even greater for employees considering remote work, or employers who are trying to manage it. One of the biggest lessons is how important communication becomes – staying positive in your emails, being honest about a lack of motivation or burnout, and making sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing – and that’s something we could all use a refresher on.

DB2 SCRIPT DATABASE

INPUT:

-- *****************************************************************
--                                                                
-- Licensed Materials - Property of IBM                            
--                                                                
-- 5724-U69                                                        
--                                                                
-- Copyright IBM Corp. 2012  All Rights Reserved.                  
--                                                                
-- US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or    
-- disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with        
-- IBM Corp.                                                      
--                                                                
-- *****************************************************************
--
-- IBM Content Navigator configuration table creation script
-- for DB2 LUW
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create a schema for the application to use
CREATE SCHEMA ECM_SC;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create buffer pools and tablespaces for the application to use
CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K;
CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSTEMPBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K;
CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ECM_TS PAGESIZE 32 K
MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE AUTORESIZE YES INITIALSIZE 20 M
INCREASESIZE 20 M BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSBP;
CREATE USER TEMPORARY TABLESPACE ECM_TSTEMP PAGESIZE 32K
MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSTEMPBP;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create the configuration table for the application to use
SET CURRENT SQLID = ECM_SC;
CREATE TABLE CONFIGURATION (
        ID VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL,
        ATTRIBUTES DBCLOB(32k),
 PRIMARY KEY(ID)
    )
    DATA CAPTURE NONE IN ECM_TS;
ALTER TABLE CONFIGURATION VOLATILE;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Grant privileges on the table to the JDBC connection user
GRANT INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, SELECT, INDEX ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;
GRANT CONTROL ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Load the initial application configuration into the table
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('application.navigator', 'locales=ar,he,en,zh_CN,zh_TW,cs,hr,da,nl,fi,fr,de,el,hu,it,ja,ko,nb,pl,pt,pt_BR,ru,sk,sl,es,sv,th,tr,ro;threadSleepTime=5;plugins=;menus=;repositories=;desktops=admin;viewers=default;servers=cm,od,p8,cmis;key=871bf66c911f811fd48a6cc97aea40a4;objectExpiration=10;desktop=default');
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('settings.navigator.default', 'mobileAccess=true;logging.level=2;logging.excludes=com.ibm.ecm.configuration;iconStatus=docHold,docNotes,docMinorVersions,docDeclaredRecord,docBookmarks,docCheckedOut,workItemSuspended,workItemDeadlineImportance,workItemDeadlineReminderSent,workItemLocked,workItemCheckedOut;adminUsers=svc-fn1d01');
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('desktop.navigator.admin', 'authenticationType=1;workflowNotification=false;fileIntoFolder=false;showSecurity=false;viewer=default;theme=;name=Admin Desktop;isDefault=Yes;menuPrefix=Default;applicationName=IBM Content Navigator;configInfo=;layout=ecm.widget.layout.NavigatorMainLayout;defaultFeature=ecmClientAdmin;actionHandler=ecm.widget.layout.CommonActionsHandler;servers=cm,od,ci,p8,cmis;repositories=');

OUTPUT:
------------------------------ Commands Entered ------------------------------
connect to ECMDB user ADMINISTRATOR using ********;
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
connect to ECMDB user ADMINISTRATOR using        

   Database Connection Information

 Database server        = DB2/NT64 9.7.10
 SQL authorization ID   = ADMINIST...
 Local database alias   = ECMDB


A JDBC connection to the target has succeeded.
------------------------------ Commands Entered ------------------------------
-- *****************************************************************
--                                                                
-- Licensed Materials - Property of IBM                            
--                                                                
-- 5724-U69                                                        
--                                                                
-- Copyright IBM Corp. 2012  All Rights Reserved.                  
--                                                                
-- US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or    
-- disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with        
-- IBM Corp.                                                      
--                                                                
-- *****************************************************************
--
-- IBM Content Navigator configuration table creation script
-- for DB2 LUW
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create a schema for the application to use
CREATE SCHEMA ECM_SC;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create buffer pools and tablespaces for the application to use
CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K;
CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSTEMPBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K;
CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ECM_TS PAGESIZE 32 K
MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE AUTORESIZE YES INITIALSIZE 20 M
INCREASESIZE 20 M BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSBP;
CREATE USER TEMPORARY TABLESPACE ECM_TSTEMP PAGESIZE 32K
MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSTEMPBP;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Create the configuration table for the application to use
SET CURRENT SQLID = ECM_SC;
CREATE TABLE CONFIGURATION (
        ID VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL,
        ATTRIBUTES DBCLOB(32k),
 PRIMARY KEY(ID)
    )
    DATA CAPTURE NONE IN ECM_TS;
ALTER TABLE CONFIGURATION VOLATILE;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Grant privileges on the table to the JDBC connection user
GRANT INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, SELECT, INDEX ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION;
GRANT CONTROL ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR;
-- *****************************************************************
--  Load the initial application configuration into the table
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('application.navigator', 'locales=ar,he,en,zh_CN,zh_TW,cs,hr,da,nl,fi,fr,de,el,hu,it,ja,ko,nb,pl,pt,pt_BR,ru,sk,sl,es,sv,th,tr,ro;threadSleepTime=5;plugins=;menus=;repositories=;desktops=admin;viewers=default;servers=cm,od,p8,cmis;key=871bf66c911f811fd48a6cc97aea40a4;objectExpiration=10;desktop=default');
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('settings.navigator.default', 'mobileAccess=true;logging.level=2;logging.excludes=com.ibm.ecm.configuration;iconStatus=docHold,docNotes,docMinorVersions,docDeclaredRecord,docBookmarks,docCheckedOut,workItemSuspended,workItemDeadlineImportance,workItemDeadlineReminderSent,workItemLocked,workItemCheckedOut;adminUsers=svc-fn1d01');
INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('desktop.navigator.admin', 'authenticationType=1;workflowNotification=false;fileIntoFolder=false;showSecurity=false;viewer=default;theme=;name=Admin Desktop;isDefault=Yes;menuPrefix=Default;applicationName=IBM Content Navigator;configInfo=;layout=ecm.widget.layout.NavigatorMainLayout;defaultFeature=ecmClientAdmin;actionHandler=ecm.widget.layout.CommonActionsHandler;servers=cm,od,ci,p8,cmis;repositories=');
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CREATE SCHEMA ECM_SC
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

CREATE Bufferpool ECM_TSTEMPBP IMMEDIATE SIZE 200 PAGESIZE 32K
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ECM_TS PAGESIZE 32 K MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE AUTORESIZE YES INITIALSIZE 20 M INCREASESIZE 20 M BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSBP
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

CREATE USER TEMPORARY TABLESPACE ECM_TSTEMP PAGESIZE 32K MANAGED BY AUTOMATIC STORAGE BUFFERPOOL ECM_TSTEMPBP
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

SET CURRENT SQLID = ECM_SC
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

CREATE TABLE CONFIGURATION ( ID VARCHAR(256) NOT NULL, ATTRIBUTES DBCLOB(32k), PRIMARY KEY(ID) ) DATA CAPTURE NONE IN ECM_TS
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

ALTER TABLE CONFIGURATION VOLATILE
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

GRANT INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, SELECT, INDEX ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR WITH GRANT OPTION
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

GRANT CONTROL ON TABLE CONFIGURATION TO USER ADMINISTRATOR
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('application.navigator', 'locales=ar,he,en,zh_CN,zh_TW,cs,hr,da,nl,fi,fr,de,el,hu,it,ja,ko,nb,pl,pt,pt_BR,ru,sk,sl,es,sv,th,tr,ro;threadSleepTime=5;plugins=;menus=;repositories=;desktops=admin;viewers=default;servers=cm,od,p8,cmis;key=871bf66c911f811fd48a6cc97aea40a4;objectExpiration=10;desktop=default')
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('settings.navigator.default', 'mobileAccess=true;logging.level=2;logging.excludes=com.ibm.ecm.configuration;iconStatus=docHold,docNotes,docMinorVersions,docDeclaredRecord,docBookmarks,docCheckedOut,workItemSuspended,workItemDeadlineImportance,workItemDeadlineReminderSent,workItemLocked,workItemCheckedOut;adminUsers=svc-fn1d01')
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.

INSERT INTO ECM_SC.CONFIGURATION VALUES ('desktop.navigator.admin', 'authenticationType=1;workflowNotification=false;fileIntoFolder=false;showSecurity=false;viewer=default;theme=;name=Admin Desktop;isDefault=Yes;menuPrefix=Default;applicationName=IBM Content Navigator;configInfo=;layout=ecm.widget.layout.NavigatorMainLayout;defaultFeature=ecmClientAdmin;actionHandler=ecm.widget.layout.CommonActionsHandler;servers=cm,od,ci,p8,cmis;repositories=')
DB20000I  The SQL command completed successfully.