We’re rounding out our 10-year Virtual Vocations anniversary celebration with a special post from Virtual Vocations co-founders Laura Spawn and Adam Stevenson. This sibling duo is spilling Virtual Vocations secrets in the form of 10 fun facts you didn’t know about the company’s founders!
Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at Laura and Adam, who have spent the last 10 years creating and curating the largest online telecommute-only niche job board.
1. They come from a BIG family
Adam and Laura are children number four and five from a family of eight children—four boys and four girls! They are separated in age by only 19 months, making it pretty natural for them to become great friends from the beginning.
2. They have 10 children between their two families
Keeping with the tradition of large families, Adam and Laura have a combined total of 10 kids between their two families! Their children range in age from four to 15, and are comprised of eight boys and two girls, including one set of twins. It’s definitely fun (and especially loud) when they all get together.
3. Working together and being family isn’t always smooth sailing
Living in two different states and time zones can be tricky when it comes to working together. When Laura is ready for a break, Adam is ready to work, and vice versa. At times, like true siblings, Laura and Adam don’t always agree on new site features or how to run Virtual Vocations. When this happens, they put their family ties above the business and don’t make any changes if they cannot agree.
4. Laura is a minimalist, and Adam isn’t
Four years ago Laura came across Joshua Becker and The Minimalists—gurus in the simple living and minimalist movements—and was hooked on the value of living with less. She and her husband got rid of over 70% of their stuff, and she even started her own blog about it, although she hasn’t had much time to devote to it. Laura just can’t get Adam to convert to the minimalist lifestyle though!
5. They backpacked Europe together
Being fairly spontaneous and always open to new, exciting ideas, in their early 20s they decided to backpack around Europe for a couple of weeks, sleeping on trains and showering in public train stations.
During the course of their journey, Adam and Laura became short on cash. So with their sleeping bags in tow they wriggled under a low bush beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris, stashed their backpacks under the bush with them, and slept for the night while hoping the security guards wouldn’t find them from the building a few meters away.
Thankfully, the daredevils made a clean break!
6. When possible, they take work breaks together
And speaking of breaks…
To avoid burnout, most days Adam and Laura take breaks and play Buggle and Chess with each other, and sometimes for too long a stretch! They also find reading crazy Amazon product reviews and watching Super Bowl Doritos commercials hilarious and a great way to relax if the work day has become stressful.
7. They love to indulge in Chicago’s Giordano’s pizza
While in his 20s, Adam lived in Chicago for two years and has been a loyal fan of Giordano’s pizza ever since. In fact, on their way to Europe, he and Laura stopped to grab a whole pizza during their layover in Chicago and take it on the plane with them! They actually almost missed their international flight because of it, but a missed flight would have been worth it.
Laura deemed the pizza worthy to hold a special spot in history, and each year they celebrate their Virtual Vocations anniversary with a Giordano’s pizza shipped to wherever they live. Adam’s favorite is the spinach, and Laura’s is the pepperoni.
8. Neither of them like to fly
Though they will brave the skies in spite of their fears, neither Adam nor Laura particularly like flying. Their high-flying hesitation is evidenced in the fact that they alternate flying to each other’s houses for business meetings and won’t let the other one “get out of” their turn!
Adam is known to desensitize himself by watching airplane crash videos on YouTube, and Laura has used the app Am I Going Down to help keep her cool when it’s her turn to fly.
9. Adam wrote his first computer program when he was 9!
Adam’s first program was completed in Basic using his dad’s Timex 1000 with 16kb of RAM and and a cassette tape drive backup that didn’t work. So, whenever the power went off he would have to start from scratch.
Adam eventually went on to earn a degree in computer science and worked for Fortune 500 companies before devoting himself to Virtual Vocations full-time. Today, Adam still programs using an old school mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX keys so he can enjoy a loud and satisfying programming experience.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!
10. They are amazed by Virtual Vocations’ success everyday
Initially, launching Virtual Vocations in 2007 was an experimental project to get their feet wet in the emerging world of working online. Neither Adam nor Laura anticipated it would become as successful as it has, or that they would be working on the site full-time within in a matter of years.
Ten years later, it is still exciting to wake up everyday and realize they get to work from home helping others find the same type of professional freedom they enjoy!
Thank you to all of our Virtual Vocations job seekers. Without you, our 10-year anniversary wouldn’t be possible!
Allow Virtual Vocations to Amaze You as Well!
You could be a seasoned telecommuter looking for new avenues to work from home or a first-time remote job seeker interested in the flexibility of telecommuting to improve both your personal and professional telecommuter relationships; either way, Virtual Vocations can help you find unique telecommute careers not only during our 10-year Virtual Vocations anniversary week, but also during any other time of the year!
Unlike other job boards, Virtual Vocations publishes hundreds of new telecommute job vacancies every day across 40+ telecommuting career fields, verifying that each job posting will allow you to work from home a minimum of 20% of the time.
It’s our mission to ensure Virtual Vocations members receive fast access to the most current and best virtual job listings anywhere.
We even provide Virtual Vocations members with options for customizable email alerts, giving job seekers instant access to newly published telecommute job openings curated based on their job search preferences.
In addition to complete access to our Telecommute Jobs Database, Virtual Vocations subscribers receive a variety of exclusive telecommute job resources designed to give job seekers the highest opportunity for success in their telecommute job searches.
Here’s a sampling of some of the exclusive telecommute job search benefits we offer for boosting your hireability and connecting you to the right telecommute jobs and employers:
- Telecommuting Handbook and Interview guide downloads
- A Telecommute Toolkit featuring e-courses like “Create a Winning Telecommute Resume” and “Telecommute Job Searching for Mid-Level and Professional Job Seekers”
- Action plans and downloadable resume templates
- Access to Industry Guides to help you navigate your search for a telecommute job in popular categories like Education and Nursing
- Free access to our Telecommute Companies Database filled with thousands of profiles of telecommute-friendly employers known for hiring qualified professionals to work remotely
- Search Filters that allow you to search for human-screened telecommute jobs by job category, type, telecommute status, travel requirements, and more—all to ensure you are applying to the most appropriate telecommute jobs for your experience level, skill set, and job flexibility needs
- A team of experienced customer service professionals ready to answer your questions about utilizing Virtual Vocations during your telecommute job search via phone at 1-800-379-5092, email at customerservice@virtualvocations.com, and Live Chat Support on our Homepage
Visit our Services Page for more information on how Virtual Vocations can be of benefit to you during your telecommute job search.
Which fun fact about Laura and Adam was most surprising to you? Share your answer when you connect with Virtual Vocations on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!
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