Learn about remote work opportunities, where to find them, and how to enhance your work-from-home skill set.
In recent years, more employees prefer jobs that enable them to work from home full- or part-time. A 2023 survey from McKinsey & Company found that 10 percent of office workers worldwide would quit their jobs if they were required to give up remote work. This cohort is so passionate about remote work they would be willing to trade up to 20 percent of their salary to work from home [1].
Although remote work has become increasingly common across many industries, flexible work options tend to be most common in occupations that rely on digital innovation, like computer-related fields, business and financial operations, and engineering.
In this article, we’ll discuss how you can structure your job search to find a remote job that aligns with your skills and goals.
Remote work is the concept that you can complete your work in a location other than a central office or company location. For many people, remote work means working from their homes. However, you can often complete remote work anywhere you have an internet connection.
Getting a job that allows you to work from home is similar to how you’d get any job. However, for remote work, you may need to tailor your job search further, highlight remote-friendly skills, or consider alternative job functions or fields. Here are four steps for getting started:
One way to focus your job search is by centering it on your career goals. When your job enables you to live in alignment with your values, you may find that you feel more fulfilled and happier across all areas of your life.
Think about the type of life you want and how your next job can impact your ability to live that life. In addition to a flexible work environment, you may consider skills, specific functions, or long-term achievements.
In addition to what you want, think about what you already have. Regardless of your experience level, chances are you already have a solid transferable skill set that encompasses both technical skills (sometimes referred to as “hard skills”) and workplace skills (also known as “soft skills”).
List out the skills you feel most confident in and that you enjoy using in your daily role. In particular, consider your skills that translate well to remote work, such as effective communication, time management, and other interpersonal skills. Along with your goals, this list can help guide your remote job search.
Since remote work is available across a wide range of fields, narrowing your job search to specific roles of interest can help you find the right job quicker than you might with a broad “remote work” search.
With your goals and skills in mind, consider the types of remote jobs you are interested in. Here are some fields to consider as you begin your remote job search:
Sales
Marketing
Project management
Finance
Design
Writing and editing
Data analytics
As you research your roles of interest, update your resume to showcase your relevant skill set and consider filling any skill gaps by taking an online course or earning a certification.
Read more: Upskilling: What It Means and How It Can Help Your Career
With clarity about your desired roles and your updated resume in hand, you are ready to apply for jobs. Most online job boards will allow you to search for remote positions—simply select the search option for “remote only” or write “remote” into the location. Some websites to search for remote jobs online include:
Indeed
ZipRecruiter
Monster
FlexJobs
Remote.co
If you are interested in working for a specific company, you can often search for open positions via the ‘career’ tab on the company's website. Many large companies enable you to tailor your search by location.
As you search for remote work, you’ll notice a range of opportunities available. Here are 10 examples of remote work-from-home jobs that tend to pay well, along with average US salary data, according to Glassdoor as of March 2025:
Computer support specialist: $57,708
Social media marketer $64,416
Project manager: $90,839
Data analyst: $86,382
Information security analyst: $113,653
Web developer: $82,825
UX designer: $84,798
Sales representative: $76,209
Data scientist: $119,193
Translator or interpreter: $52,660
For specialized remote work options, take a look at these additional resources:
Prepare for a remote job in data analytics, project management, social media marketing, cybersecurity, and more with a Professional Certificate from industry leaders like Google, Meta, and IBM. Here are a few recommendations to get you started:
Earn a Professional Certificate in project management from an industry leader in technology with Google's Project Management Professional Certificate. This self-paced, beginner-friendly online program focuses on fundamental project management concepts such as strategic thinking, organizational culture, and project execution.
Become a software developer certificate holder in just four months with IBM's Full Stack Software Developer Professional Certificate program. Designed to equip you with job-ready skills, this course series exposes you to industry-standard technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and GitHub.
Become data science job-ready in just six months with Google's Data Analytics Professional Certificate program. Concepts you'll master include data visualization, cleansing, and aggregation with tools like SQL and R Markdown.
McKinsey & Company. “How Hybrid Work Has Changed Society, https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/empty-spaces-and-hybrid-places-chapter-1.” Accessed May 5, 2025.
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