Five Strategies to Optimize Your Application for Remote Roles
Five Strategies to Optimize Your Application for Remote Roles
According to research from Statistics Canada, as of January 2021, 32% of Canadian employees worked most of their hours from home – that’s compared to just 4% in 2016!
The same research also showed that 80% of new remote workers wanted to work at least half of their hours from home once the pandemic is over. So, while widespread remote work may be relatively new, changes are that for many workers in Canada, it’s here to stay.
At Cenera, we’ve helped thousands of employees navigate the career transition process, and few other events have had such an enormous impact on the working lives of our clients like a global pandemic. Employees and employers alike have had to quickly adapt to the new normal of remote work – and that goes for a job search as well.
Whether you are navigating a career transition for temporarily remote roles or looking to find a new position that will be permanently remote, we’ve compiled some key strategies to optimize your application for remote roles and help navigate the hiring process.
1. Design Your Resume and Cover Letter to be Specific to Remote Roles
Identifying experience or skills that are relevant to remote roles is critical for helping your application stand out. If you have experience working remotely, you’ll want to note that clearly – don’t assume a hiring manager will know. Remote roles also require a number of skills in working collaboratively online. Demonstrating competencies with cloud-based tools like Slack, Google Docs, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, and video conferencing tools like Zoom, Teams, or Google Hangouts are important to highlight.
2. Identify the Soft Skills You’ll Need for Remote Work- and Showcase Them
Soft skills are the aspects of your personality and experiences that allow you to solve problems and collaborate with colleagues and clients. Soft skills employees need to succeed in remote roles play a key factor for hiring managers. Without a shared office space, things like time management, adaptability and accountability are crucial. It’s essential to spend some time reflecting on the soft skills you possess that can make you an asset in a remote role and strategically present them in your application and throughout the hiring process.
3. Research the Company and Understand Their Remote Work Culture
For dispersed teams, creating an organizational culture is difficult. That’s why it’s so important to hiring managers that new hires be a good fit for company culture – and that requires a candidate to understand and reflect the values and motivations of the organization.
Before applying, make sure you research a company’s website and social media accounts to understand not just what they do but also how they communicate. Check if they’ve distributed blogs or podcasts that can give you more insight into their company culture and match your cover letter’s tone and communication style to their online content.
4. Don’t Forget About Your Online Presence
In a remote interview process, it’s more difficult for hiring managers to get to know you. In many cases, they may be relying heavily on your online presence to get a better picture of who you are. Ensure your LinkedIn profile and any public social media accounts are professional and represent you well. You can research LinkedIn profiles of individuals whose careers you would like to emulate for inspiration. It’s also a good idea to optimize your LinkedIn profile so that recruiters can more easily find you by including industry keywords and hashtags.
5. Focus on What You Can Bring to a Remote Role
There are many reasons why a remote role might be ideal for you, but it’s important to remember that a job application is an opportunity to demonstrate to a potential employer the value that you would bring to a role. Yes, a good company will want to offer employee’s flexibility and work/life balance, and the interview process should also be about figuring out if a company is right for you.
But if you want to optimize your application for remote work, it’s essential to keep the focus of your application on what you can bring as an ideal candidate for a remote position – not why working remotely might be better for you.
At Cenera, we know that career transitions bring new challenges and exciting opportunities. Our team has helped thousands of transitioning employees navigate through their job search.
Reach out to the team at Cenera today to learn more about Career Transition Services.
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