The 8 Best Jobs For Remote Work

Few bouts of anxiety are more dreaded than waking up just a few minutes late and rushing through the Monday morning traffic only to still end up at work late.

The aggravation that bubbles when an overbearing co-worker just can’t keep their nose out of your business during the workday is palpable. It can feel incredibly smothering to be contained to the same strict schedule week after week.

These are all common struggles that employees from various industries encounter in a traditional in-person working environment. Though most people chuck these things up to being an inevitability of having a job, professionals who embrace remote work typically avoid the vast majority of these hassles.

Many different avenues can be taken towards working remotely, but some professions are the best-suited for this lifestyle. Here you’ll find the eight best jobs for remote work.

1. Substance Abuse Counselor Jobs (Overview)

2. Mortgage Underwriter Jobs (Overview)

3. User Experience Designer Jobs (Overview)

4. Email Marketing Specialist Jobs (Overview)

5. Travel Agent Jobs (Overview)

6. Recruiter Jobs (Overview)

7. Life Coach Jobs (Overview)

The 8 Best Jobs For Remote Work

1. Substance Abuse Counselor

   Average Annual Salary: $42,000

   Everyone has their own set of challenges in life. For 165 million Americans aged 12 and over who currently abuse drugs, including tobacco and alcohol, this is one of the central struggles that they have to make it through.

   This grueling journey is one that requires assistance from an entire support system that often involves a substance abuse counselor.

   A substance abuse counselor evaluates their patient’s physical and mental behaviors to support them as they navigate the bumpy terrain of drug dependence. This involves things like:

   • Developing a treatment plan and schedule

   • Identifying behaviors and thinking patterns harmful to a patient’s recovery

   • Running therapy sessions individually or in a group setting

   • Monitoring patient progress over time

   • Coordinating with other medical staff like

   While being a counselor for substance abuse isn’t always a job that’s worked remotely, it’s a position that’s simple to transfer into a virtual setting. The support that a substance abuse counselor provides can be supplied via video chats, text chats, or over the phone.

   The guidance that they give is equally as valuable, even if it’s not given during an in-person meeting. Oftentimes, working remotely as a substance abuse counselor can allow for the flexible schedule and comfortable distance that a person in recovery needs.

   Find Substance Abuse Counselor jobs near me

2. Mortgage Underwriter

   Average Annual Salary: $68,000

   There is a long and tedious process that goes into securing a mortgage for a home or property. A big part of that process is applicants being evaluated for eligibility on the loan they’re seeking. It’s the responsibility of a mortgage underwriter to conduct this analysis into loan applications.

   Based on their thorough analysis, they determine whether the evidence and documentation provided are suitable to appease the lender’s regulations. This involves:

   • Reviewing loan applications and supporting documents in detail

   • Evaluating a loan’s risk

   • Requesting additional information from applicants when needed

   • Preparing reports on the findings made during their analysis

   • Complying with all company policies

   • Documenting communication with loan applicants

   • Eventually approving or rejecting loan applications

   Though many mortgage underwriters work on-site at banks and other lending establishments, it’s possible for this job to be worked remotely.

   If you already have a background in finance or banking and a bit of experience with loan underwriting, these skills can be used to analyze applications without needing to meet with every applicant in person.

   Find Mortgage Underwriter jobs near me

3. Resume Writer

   Average Annual Salary: N/A

   A resume is a deciding factor in whether a job candidate will make it to the next stage of a company’s hiring process. While the premise is seemingly simple, there are a lot of little details in a resume that takes it from bad and average to eye-catching and impressive.

   Writing a resume that dazzles the employer is an art form. That’s why a lot of job seekers hire an experienced resume writer to help them with this feat.

   A resume writer excels in their command of the English language and is familiar with the hiring process enough to know what a company is looking for in a new employee. They also have the top-notch communication skills that are needed to pull relevant information from their clients to highlight on their resumes.

   The responsibilities of a resume writer include:

   • Discussing with client’s to understand their resume goals, experience, and skills

   • Reviewing their current resume to see where improvements can be made

   • Editing or rewriting a resume to enhance readability and clarity

   • Determining the best layout for a client’s needs

   • Proofreading resume content for spelling and grammar errors

   • Tailoring the resume to their client’s industry

   Many resume writers provide their services on a freelance basis, which makes it one of the best jobs for remote work. Being a resume writer gives you the freedom to take on as much work as you can handle, accomplish all of your responsibilities virtually and submit your finished work to clients using your computer.

4. User experience (UX) designer

   Average Annual Salary: $93,000

   While using a perfectly constructed software or platform might feel effortless as a user, there is an enormous amount of work that goes into crafting this seamless experience.

   One of the professionals who assists in the creation of this software and platforms is a user experience (UX) designer. A UX designer thinks analytically to understand the needs of a software’s users and fix problems that arise.

   The responsibilities of a UX designer include:

   • Having a deep understanding of user psychology and their product

   • Conducting testing on both concept and usability to gather useful feedback

   • Communicating design ideas to developers

   • Defining the proper interaction model and analyzing its success

   • Solving UX problems creatively

   • Working cohesively with UI designers

   As with many technologically-dependent positions, being a UX designer is a perfect job for remote work. Although the position requires a lot of communication with various people, this can all take place over video or text chat. UX designers can also do their research from anywhere, and the role leaves a lot of room for flexibility.

   Find User experience (UX) designer jobs near me

5. Email marketing specialists

   Average Annual Salary: $56,000

   The world of advertising has long expanded past simply running commercials and putting billboards up along the highway. Today, advertisements and marketing seep into nearly every aspect of the internet, including emails.

   Companies know how powerful email marketing can be, hence why they hire effective email marketers to handle this aspect of their business.

   An email marketer does things like:

   • Conducting market research to gauge user and buyer habits

   • Analyzing past email marketing campaigns to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses

   • Designing email marketing campaigns in an effort to meet specific goals

   • Writing and editing email copy

   • Collaborating with graphic designers on email layouts

   • Monitoring email marketing campaigns for success and making revisions when needed

   The marketing research, writing, and collaboration that an email marketer requires can all be accomplished with a fully charged laptop and some WiFi. There is also a great deal of remote email marketer positions available online. It’s an excellent choice for tech-savvy people who want to take on remote work with some writing chops.

   Find Email marketing specialists jobs near me

6. Travel Agent

   Average Annual Salary: $34,000

   When it finally comes time to take that long-awaited two-weeks paid vacation, many people can become overwhelmed with the tasks involved in planning an actual trip.

   From researching the ideal destination to booking flights and accommodations, it can be time-consuming for the average person to put in all the necessary work to make their dream vacation happen.

   To assist them with these tiring tasks, many vacation-goers work with a travel agent to make their jet setting a breeze. Travel agents can work independently or for travel-related businesses like cruise lines, tour groups, and holiday package operators.

   The responsibilities of a travel agent include:

   • Speaking with clients to better understand their travel needs and wants

   • Selling particular accommodations, transportation, insurance, etc. in accordance with a client’s desires

   • Planning out full trips or specific activities for clients

   • Providing all necessary information about travel details and additional recommendations to clients

   A large percentage of travel agents do their job remotely. It’s another position that doesn’t inherently demand face time, which makes it an easy role to fulfill through virtual means.

   Find Travel Agent jobs near me

7. Recruiter

   Average Annual Salary: $44,000

   Finding the perfect job candidate to fulfill a job opening is no easy feat for large and small businesses alike. It costs an average of $4,000 to hire a single new employee in the United States.

   The longer the hiring process drags on, the more costly the endeavor becomes. To avoid incurring extra costs by having sloppy hiring procedures, a lot of companies utilize the keen eye of recruiters to help them find their next employee.

   A recruiter works with a company to assist them on the journey towards meeting their hiring goals. Using their wealth of experience in the hiring process and knowledge of their client company’s needs, a recruiter vets the overflow of job applicants to discover the top contenders.

   The role of a recruiter involves:

   • Using various different methods to find high potential job candidates

   • Reviewing the resumes and cover letters of job applicants

   • Screening promising candidates with interviews or test projects

   • Checking references to develop an accurate applicant profile

   • Facilitating job offers on behalf of the client company

   • Managing the new hire’s onboarding process when required

   It’s becoming increasingly more common for recruiters to work remotely. Their responsibilities of sourcing and screening job applicants are tasks that already take place online, making it an exemplary role for remote work.

   Find Recruiter jobs near me

8. Life Coach

   Average Annual Salary: $38,000

   It’s confusing to be a human being. Easy to feel aimless, lost, or stuck. Managing one’s life is a project that needs continual self-evolution and education. At least a few times over the course of existing, everyone needs a burst of guidance or an extra push towards a nagging goal.

   A life coach provides relevant wisdom and advice to steer their clients when they’re stumbling.

   The responsibilities of a life coach include:

   • Having in-depth discussions with clients to identify their personal goals

   • Teaching clients strategies for developing their objectives and creating a plan of action

   • Providing continual support on their journey towards reaching their goals

   • Giving more advice when challenges arise and keeping track of their progress

   • Congratulating clients when they reach their short and long-term goals

   Find Life Coach jobs near me

The Pros of Remote Work

By 2025, it’s expected that there will be 36.2 million remote workers in the United States. This would mean that the percentage of Americans who work remotely would increase by a massive 87% since before the pandemic. People who have transitioned into remote work following the pandemic have been enlightened to the many pros of the situation.

1. Eliminates your commute. Driving, walking, or taking public transportation to work every day might seem like a slight annoyance in the face of needing income, but it’s actually a much bigger deal than most employees realize. Besides taking up time and effort, commuting costs a lot of money.

   The daily roundtrip commute to work costs Americans an average of $5,679 annually or nearly $500 a month. That’s a huge chunk of change to spend on simply getting to work.

   One of the benefits of remote work is that it completely eliminates the need for commuting. Remote workers incur the benefit of waking up in the morning, making their cup of coffee and opening up their laptops to clock in for the workday. The longest commute that they’re required to make is from the bed to the living room or home office.

2. More flexibility. When the requirement for working in person falls away, the job automatically has more flexibility. There is a huge amount of freedom that comes with being able to work anywhere, from a quaint cafe in Paris to your couch.

   When considering all the great things about remote work, the extra flexibility that comes with it is one of the best parts.

3. Levels out your work-life balance. It’s easy for the lines to get blurred between your professional world and your life at home.

   However, the struggle to balance out these two aspects of life is a little less burdensome for remote workers. When employees have the freedom to work from anywhere they want, it allows them the flexibility to push and pull from their personal life.

   On days when their family needs a little additional attention, they can put their work to the side and spend time with them. When there’s a big project that requires a few extra hours in the middle of the night, they have the choice to put that time in. Remote work often levels out an employee’s work-life balance.

The Cons of Remote Work

While there are many great things about working remotely, not everything is purely sunshine and rainbows. There are also quite a few difficulties that tend to arise in this type of job. Below you’ll find some of the most cited cons of remote work.

1. Limits relationships with co-workers. When a team works together in person for years and years, they build up a unique and productive bond. Employees in traditional settings typically spend a minimum of eight hours per day, five days per week in each other’s company.

   That forms quite the rapport, and oftentimes the same level of comfortability isn’t reached when working a remote job.

   The whole definition of remote work puts a distance between co-workers. While a professional team might communicate on a regular basis or even video chat daily, it isn’t the same as sharing good mornings and sitting in the break room for lunch together daily.

   It makes the relationship completely about work, as opposed to also fostering a deeper bond on a more personal level.

   While this is the dream for some employees, others tend to feel that this aspect of remote work diminishes their sense of professional community.

2. Potential for loneliness. Many people underestimate the potential for loneliness when working remotely by themselves every day. There is a lot of socialization that goes along with a traditional working environment. You see a few friendly faces on a daily or weekly basis and get to interact with different people throughout that time.

   When you’re completing all your professional duties from a laptop, there’s no need to make a face-to-face appearance. Often, communication turns to back-and-forth emails, and before you know it, you’ve gone days without hearing another human being’s actual voice.

   It’s easier than you might think to slip into a life of solitude and become plagued with hovering loneliness.

3. The need for self-motivation. Another aspect of remote work that can manifest as a gleaming con is the absolute need for self-motivation. At a traditional job, there is a litany of motivations to keep you plowing along through your workday.

   Your supervisor comes over to your desk once a day to measure your productivity or other co-workers waiting in the wings for you to finish a task they need to be done. Even just being in a location that you associate with work creates an eternal motivation for you to succeed.

   However, when you get hired for a job that’s worked remotely, these types of external motivation are no longer available. You’re surrounded by the comforts of your home and the distractions of your family throughout the workday.

   There’s nobody around to supply that little extra push of motivation. For people who have trouble with self-motivation, remote work can be a huge challenge.

Tips for Finding Remote Work

1. Consider the remote company culture you’re looking for. Not every job that’s worked remotely is created equal. It’s important to consider the details of a remote job to figure out if the company culture is what you’re hoping to find.

   Some jobs that are worked remotely require minimal interaction with co-workers. For instance, a copywriter might receive a list of assignments at the top of the week and not have any additional communication with their supervisor beyond turning the completed work in.

   There isn’t a definitive schedule for exactly when the copywriter has to do their work besides the eventual deadline.

   On the other hand, other remote positions require a more demanding schedule. A telehealth nurse may be asked to make themselves available virtually on a strict Monday to Friday schedule because their employer needs someone to fill every open hour. While the job is still flexible, there is a specific schedule that must be adhered to.

   It all depends on the industry, position, and company that you’re working for remotely. Before signing on wholeheartedly for remote work, take a long think about the remote company culture you’re looking for.

2. Take some online courses in your field to sharpen your skills.

   The remote job market is competitive. People want to find lucrative professional opportunities that allow them the freedom to complete their work remotely. That means landing a position for yourself demands a touch of extra effort to show potential remote employers that you’re qualified and serious.

   A great way to stand out from the crowd when applying for remote work is by taking an online course or two to sharpen your relevant industry skills. There are a wide variety of online courses available that can make your resume leaps and bounds more impressive.

   If you’re hoping to find a remote job as a social media marketer, take a course in that focus. If you’ve spent years working at a bank and want to become a remote mortgage underwriter, get certified in this skill by a trustworthy organization.

   Taking the time to solidify the skills that you’ll be using in your new remote job can completely shift the way that a hiring manager views your application.

3. Search for positions on remote job boards.

   The best place to go in search of remote work is online job boards that focus on these types of jobs, and there are quite a few options with thousands of listings.

   Some of the most popular job boards for remote work are:

   • We Work Remotely

   • Remote.co

   • FlexJobs

   • Jobspresso

   • NoDesk

   • Remotive

   • AngelList

   While some of these websites cater primarily to a particular type of job, like IT or marketing, they all have an abundance of remote opportunities to peruse.

4. Refine your job search with relevant keywords.

   The key to a remote job search is narrowing down the thousands of listings to the few perfect potential opportunities. One way to do this is by refining your job search with relevant keywords. This is a great technique for finding remote positions on regular job boards too.

   Some top keywords to use when searching for remote roles include:

   • Work from home

   • Telecommute/telework

   • Virtual

   • Remote

   • Freelance/contract

   • Home-based position

   Use these anchor phrases to find positions that you can work remotely in every corner of the internet.

5. Tailor your resume for a remote position.

   Hiring managers and recruiters that are searching to fill remote positions are looking for very specific qualities in potential candidates. When you’re applying for these types of positions, you should aim to highlight the skills and attributes that will be especially useful in the remote job you’re applying for.

   Some qualities that entice recruiters hiring for remote jobs include:

   • Communication and listening skills

   • Independence

   • Experience with technology and industry-relevant programs

   • Reliability

   • Adaptability

   When you’re going back to your resume to make some tweaks and edits, make sure that you mention skills or qualities that are relevant to a remote position, specifically.

References

1. CNBC. “1 in 4 Americans will be working remotely in 2021, Upwork survey reveals”. Accessed on December 21, 2021

2. Fortune.“Americans will lose the equivalent of $5,679 a year when they resume daily commutes”. Accessed on December 21, 2021

3. NCDAS. “Drug Abuse Statistics”. Accessed on December 21, 2021

4. TogglHire. “The True Cost of Hiring an Employee in 2021”. Accessed on December 21, 2021

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.