How can parents looking for remote jobs improve their job search outcomes? Using the results of Virtual Vocations’ Parent Remote Job Search Survey report, we developed a five-point actionable steps guide to help work-eligible parents find remote job openings that align with their professional goals and desire for a flexible lifestyle.
Parent Remote Job Search Survey Overview
In October 2021, Virtual Vocations conducted a Parent Remote Job Search Survey as part of our sixth annual National Work and Family Month celebration. More than 250 parents looking for remote jobs responded to the survey.
At the time of the survey, all respondents confirmed they were at least 18 years of age and verified that they were the parent to at least one child aged 18 or younger who lives with them in their home. Survey questions were distributed based on respondents’ work status. Among Parent Remote Job Search Survey respondents, the majority were actively employed but interested in pursuing a different line of work.
Actionable Steps for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
Published December 13, 2021, our parent survey results report provided key remote job search insights into the professional motivations and goals of work-eligible parents, including the following:
- What parents need from a remote job,
- How the COVID-19 pandemic affected parents’ careers, and
- What parents want from their remote job searches and work-at-home jobs.
Parents should not have to choose between caring for their children and keeping their jobs. Our goal with this actionable steps guide was to translate the feedback and opinions of parents looking for remote jobs into actionable steps work-eligible parents can take to complete a successful remote job search. At Virtual Vocations, we understand the pain points so many parents encounter while working to balance or integrate their lives and work in meaningful ways. In fact, I co-founded Virtual Vocations as a working mom of three. This is why it’s so important to us that parents find remote jobs that not only provide them with sufficient income and job security but also enrich their lives and reflect their values.
Use Your Personal Values: Actionable Step 1
After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents want greater job security as well as more control over their schedules and how they spend their time.
Personal values are a set of principles that govern our decisions and actions; they guide us through life and help us remember what is important. Knowing your values will help you be more successful in your remote job search.
Apply Your Core Personal Values to Your Remote Job Search
Pursuing a remote job that matches your values is the difference between a job that’s ‘just a job’ and an occupation that can grow into a rewarding career. Follow these steps to find employers that support and reinforce your personal values:
- Start with Company Lists: Look to ‘top employer’ and ‘best places to work’ lists to find reputable, highly ranked companies known for prioritizing strong company values and culture at every level of the organization. Lists and annual rankings from Forbes, Fortune, Glassdoor, and Virtual Vocations are great starting points for your company values research.
- Network for Answers: Networking is a hands-on strategy to discover employers that match your values. Look to your LinkedIn connections and professional organizations for individuals who work for the top company leads you researched. Network by asking questions about what a company is like, what it values, and whether it actually adheres to its mission statement.
- Ask in Interviews: When you’re selected to interview for one of the companies you’ve researched, continue your values investigation by asking employers and hiring managers questions like these: What are the company’s core values? What initiatives does the company have to provide influence and expand its core values? How does the company embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion?
Honor Your Shifting Personal Values When Looking for Work
In the same way that your hobbies, tastes, and goals will change over time, so will your values. Be open to periodic values assessments to ensure you are on the right track. This list of suggestions will help you recognize when it’s time to reassess your values:
- If you experience a major milestone…
- If you are unmotivated or bored…
- If you feel pessimistic…
- If you become overly self-critical…
- If you are indecisive…
- If you are trying too hard to be perfect…
- If you are acting impulsively…
Value-Based Remote Job Search Resource for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
Utilize these worksheets to help you discover your current core values and apply them when searching for your next remote job.
Access the Hidden Job Market: Actionable Step 2
One in three parents search for jobs via a basic web search conducted through Google or another search engine.
The hidden job market refers to job openings that employers do not advertise or post online. As many as 70% of job openings are never advertised. Networking successfully will give you access to these hidden job postings. Since these secret job openings are not publicly posted, employers fill these vacancies internally or through employee referrals of external job applicants.
Use LinkedIn to Network
LinkedIn is one of the best (and free) resources for networking during a job search. This professional social media platform can help you cultivate business relationships as well as unlock new job opportunities in the hidden job market. Every network connection as the potential to offer you career advice, a recommendation or referral, or an introduction to the person who will help you land the remote job you want.
- Connect with People You Know: Search for family, friends, and colleagues. Use LinkedIn’s “People You May Know” and “My Network” features to help you make connections.
- Reach Out to Contacts from the Past: Reconnect by sending a message, liking and commenting their posts, or congratulating them when they post achievements.
- Post Your Insights and Anecdotes: Share your ideas and experiences through your own original content or by sharing others’ posts and offering your takeaways.
- Ask for Help from Your New Network: You may notice that members of your network have familial or work connections that could help you in your job search. Don’t be afraid to ask for an introduction.
Participate in Informational Interviews
Informational interviewing is an informal, conversational interview style in which a jobseeker asks real-world questions of a professional employed by the company they hope to work for, doing the job they hope to land, or working within their ideal industry. Follow these six tips to gather valuable career information with this unique interview style:
- Identify Interviewees: Research 10-20 interviewees based on your goals; most pros are willing to sit for a brief, informal meeting.
- Do Your Research: Make a good impression and optimize your time by asking knowledgeable, targeted questions.
- Be Courteous: Offer a variety of scheduling options and ensure all aspects are convenient for each interviewee.
- Act Professional: Proofread your materials, dress appropriately, and double-check your tech for virtual meet-ups.
- Keep It Brief: Interviews should take 30 minutes, or you could arrange multiple meetings if the interviewee agrees.
- Stay in Touch: Send a thank you email after the meeting and keep in touch with your new contact.
Hidden Remote Job Market Resource for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
Once you unlock the hidden job market, these worksheets will help you decide what you want in the next company you work for, including finding employers that align with your personal values and learning ways you can establish evaluation criteria for companies you want to target for remote jobs.
Upskill for a Remote Job: Actionable Step 3
Most parents are employed but would prefer a different job that offers work from home options.
Upskilling is one of the most impactful ways parents looking for remote jobs can achieve better outcomes. Through upskilling programs and resources like Khan Academy, Skill Success, Coursera, and HubSpot Academy, parents can enhance their lives with a promotion, raise, better job satisfaction, career pivot, greater personal growth, or lock in their dream career.
How to Easily Upskill
Upskilling helps employees remain competitive and more easily meet the needs of an organization. These six simple steps form the foundation for parents to create an upskilling plan for a remote job search:
- Set Your Goals: Evaluate where you are then decide what you want to achieve in your career.
- Determine Your Skills Gaps: Browse job descriptions for the position you want to nail down the skills you’re missing.
- Develop an Upskilling Plan: Choose your methods, budget, and time frame for learning new skills.
- Learn New Skills: Begin the learning process and remember to have fun!
- Practice Your New Skills: Put your new skills into action by contributing to a meeting or helping a team member.
- Stop Learning and Adapting: Follow industry trends and always be open to learning new skills.
Top Areas for Upskilling
Data analytics, information technology, and executive management are the business areas with the greatest need to address skills gaps, according to a McKinsey study. As many as 87% of organizations report they are currently experiencing employee skills gaps or expect to within five years. These are four key knowledge areas to consider when making an upskilling strategy:
1. TECHNICAL SKILLS
Technical upskilling is more important than ever, especially for jobseekers interested in remote careers that rely on being plugged-in. These are the top technical areas to upskill:
- Social Media
- Information Technology Support
- Digital Literacy
- Web / Software Development
- UX / UI Design
- Programming
2. SOFT SKILLS
Soft skills are necessary in all career fields. They help workers interact with colleagues and remain productive. These are the top soft skills to upskill:
- Creativity
- Emotional Intelligence
- Listening Skills
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Positivity
3. LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Cultivating good leadership qualities will make jobseekers more attractive to hiring managers while also diversifying their job options. These are the top leadership areas to upskill::
- Delegation
- Honesty
- Risk-taking
- Decision-making
- Giving Feedback
- Resilience
4. ANALYTICS SKILLS
Analytics skills are valuable because they are the gateway to finding solutions and making informed decisions in every job. These are the top analytics areas to upskill:
- Forecasting
- Problem-solving
- Data Science
- Business Analytics
- Critical Thinking
- Research
Upskilling Remote Job Search Resource for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
Our fillable upskilling worksheets will help you create your own personalized plan for improving your skill set and hireability by identifying your skills gaps and focusing your upskilling efforts to core areas for improvement.
Make Time to Job Search While Avoiding Burnout: Actionable Step 4
More than half of parents have been out of work for at least six months.
Job search burnout refers to mental and emotional fatigue and stress associated with looking for a job. Signs of job burnout include feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, especially by simple tasks, a lack of social interaction, and persistent irritability. One of the best ways to avoid burnout while searching for a remote job is to manage your time with intention and focus.
Set Your Job Search Targets
Use these four strategies to focus your remote job search efforts for success:
- Complete a Resume & Cover Letter Refresh: In addition to adding details of your most recent position, focus on your transferable skills, like project management, critical thinking, and integrity.
- Research Remote Companies: Create a target list of 10-12 companies you want to join, then use the free Virtual Vocations Remote Companies Database to research them.
- Prioritize Job Satisfaction: When engaging in a job search while working full-time, make sure any new job you apply to is one that’s worth you leaving your current role.
- Utilize Your Network: Most job openings are filled through personal and professional connections. Be discrete, but let your network know you’re in the market for a job.
Maximize the Time You Spend Searching for Remote Jobs
Follow these 10 tips to make time for a remote job search, even when you’re busy:
- Save Your Docs: Apply with ease by saving your resumes and cover letters to your Virtual Vocations account.
- Set Email Alerts: Virtual Vocations email alerts ensure remote jobs that match your skills are delivered to your inbox.
- Be Intentional: Aimless scrolling is a waste of time. Target quality jobs with Virtual Vocations search filters.
- Apply When Inspired: Search and apply for jobs when you naturally feel motivated to engage in the process.
- Schedule Search Time: It’s also important to make searches part of your daily routine. Start with an hour a day.
- Refresh Your Profiles: Before searching, update your profiles with your newest career info. so you can apply in a snap.
- Prioritize LinkedIn: Swap time spent looking at Facebook or TikTok for time spent networking and posting on LinkedIn.
- Be Selective: Don’t apply to every job opening that crosses your path. Instead, apply discriminately.
- Stick to Your Goals: Know where you want to go in your remote job search and use your goal targets as the road map.
- Track Your Progress: With a Virtual Vocations account, members can track which jobs they’ve applied to.
Time-Saving Remote Job Search Resource for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
This fillable workbook is an action plan with goal targets and checklists for 30, 60, and 90 days of job searching, plus additional tips and resources for completing a successful remote job search.
Stand Out During a Remote Job Search: Actionable Step 5
Nearly half of working-age parents interested in remote jobs are experienced professionals with years of valuable work history they can emphasize to employers.
The remote job market is saturated with highly qualified applicants representative of the distributed and diverse nature of virtual employment. Employers have the luxury of choosing the best candidates no matter which time zone they call home. To stand out, parents looking for remote jobs must carefully consider how they will capture an employer’s attention. Below, we show you how to stand out at every step of the remote hiring process, from searching and applying to remote jobs to contacting employers and conducting virtual job interviews.
1. Search for Remote Jobs
Don’t Apply to Every Company with a Remote Job Opening
- Self-assess to identify priorities regarding employee values and employer conditions that must be met in any remote job.
- Once needs have been established, create a list of potential companies that could match those criteria.
- Next, research those companies, including exploring their brand presence on social media, to evaluate how they align with your targeted criteria for a remote job.
- Then, narrow the list of companies to a select few to contact during your remote job search.
- Finally, engage with the shortlisted businesses via professional social media sites, industry contacts, and networks to let the companies get to know you and your desire to work remotely for them.
Discover New Work from Home Careers
- Consider why a career change is appealing and answer questions like the following: What inspired the career change? Would the same job still be appealing with a different company? What feelings would arise if working in the same industry were not an option?
- Evaluate your skills and resources by examining career goals, transferable skills that could be used in a new career, skills that need to be retrained or learned, and your level of income security. As needed, pursue professional development opportunities in order to be successful in a new career.
- Develop a vision for your new career target by learning more about the industry, researching employers hiring in that field, determining work environment criteria, and ensuring any potential new role reinforces your career goals and values.
2. Apply for Remote Jobs
Stand Out Among Other Remote Job Candidates
With so many talented professionals swimming in the remote talent pool, deciding how to stand out among the other applicants can be challenging. Start with this list of suggestions to boost your skills and develop your professional persona:
- Build a professional website or digital portfolio.
- Revise social media profiles to clean up and modernize them.
- Evaluate and retool employment documents like resumes, cover letters, and work samples.
- Earn an online certification or other industry credentials to bolster industry credibility and expand professional networks.
Write an ATS Compliant Resume
- Use traditional resume section headings to ensure ATS programs correctly extract and structure your resume information.
- Include consistent work history descriptors—ranked in reverse chronological order—that order job information in the following way: company, title, city, state, and date.
- Strategically include keywords throughout the resume that also appear in the job posting. For example, a remote jobseeker applying for a development position should incorporate ATS-friendly keywords like HTML, PHP, and CSS into their resume.
- Keep your LinkedIn profile current and ensure it matches the resume work histories submitted to remote employers.
- Research companies before applying and use their websites to find keywords that match relevant soft skills and achievements.
- Use SEO keywording techniques to optimize and tailor a resume for each job description.
3. Contact Remote-Enabled Employers
Check in with an Employer During the Hiring Process
Following up with an employer during the hiring process is warranted in these scenarios: seeking more information like the start date for the role, as a formality when implementing best job search practices, when confirming that human resources received the application without errors, and while inquiring about your application status, especially if it has been weeks since the final interview.
When following up, complete these actionable steps to ensure the communication helps, rather than hurts, your hireability:
- Contact the hiring manager directly rather than making generic outreach to the human resources department.
- Opt for a follow-up email before placing a phone call.
- Keep communications concise while reiterating your continued interest in the position.
Reach Out to an Employer About a Promotion
- Before pitching the promotion, determine job priorities and goals.
- Become more visible within the company by requesting meetings, participating in team building activities, promptly replying to emails, and giving meaningful feedback when asked.
- Establish your presence as an innovator by bringing fresh ideas and perspectives to the table.
- Strengthen industry expertise and company knowledge by attending workshops or seminars and taking advantage of opportunities for professional development.
- Determine and rehearse your value proposition so that your career confidence is apparent when making the pitch.
- Connect with co-workers or network contacts who have earned internal promotions and ask for advice on best practices.
4. Interview for Remote Jobs
Inspire Interview Requests from Employers
To improve their application to interview ratios, successful remote jobseekers should ensure they complete the following actionable steps, some of which may appear obvious but can be easily overlooked in a high-pressure situation like applying to virtual jobs:
- Before pitching the promotion, determine job priorities and goals.
- Check your spam folder to make sure emails from hiring managers did not land there.
- Ensure the accuracy of contact information you provided to employers and hiring managers.
- Review job posting application instructions to verify that all instructions were properly followed and that mindless errors did not automatically end the hiring process.
- Confirm that all attachments were properly uploaded in the appropriate file formats.
Succeed When Participating in Video Interviews
Virtual job interviews allow employers to have more personal interactions with distributed candidates and better gauge how remote employees will adapt to the company’s culture and policies. These actionable steps for virtual interviewing are easy suggestions for better results:
- Design a professional work environment that is quiet, free from distractions, and includes well-functioning equipment and an appropriate background.
- Dress for success by wearing business attire fitting the position.
- Prepare to answer interview questions including, “Why do you want this job?” while also knowing which questions to avoid asking in the virtual job interview, as well as which questions jobseekers should ask employers to prove they are engaged and knowledgeable.
Remote Job Search Planning Resource for Parents Looking for Remote Jobs
Use this 15-page fillable, remote job search plan to help identify your remote career goals, plan next steps for your job search, refine your resume and LinkedIn profile, research your digital footprint, and much more.
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Image credits: Kimberly Back; Canva
