How to Find Remote-First Companies (+ Remote Jobs From My Network)

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Last week in my newsletter I talked about why a distinction between "Remote-First" and "Remote-Friendly," exists, which if you haven't read, ya ought to. This is important stuff ya'll! Because so many different people and platforms use the word "remote," differently, your ability to sift through the needles to find the hay will keep you from getting poked.

This week I'm diving a step deeper. I'm going to empower you with real-world examples and action steps you can use to identify, and then qualify remote-first companies. Being armed with this knowledge will allow you to do your own research to best know what you're getting yourself into when evaluating companies you want to *potentially* work for.

Qualities to Identify in a Remote-First Company Culture

In doing research to find specific examples that distinguish remote-first cultures, I found an article on the Doist website by Fadeke Adegbuyi, called "How to Be Remote-First When You Still Have an Office."

Being friends with the legend, Chase Warrington (LinkedIn Top Voice for Remote Work and Head of Remote at Doist), I've been familiar with Doist for years, and consistently look to their teams' content as a source of truth and thought leadership in the remotosphere.

One of my favorite quotes from the article resides below:

"When companies become remote-first, they naturally become people-first. When flexibility and consideration is given to remote workers it’s afforded to all."

Simple, it seems. But what a transformational way it changes a company culture when it manifests into reality. Namely, in the way expectations of each individual starting from the top default to making life easier for remote workers. Below is a chart that compares "Remote-First" vs. "Remote-Friendly," to give more precise context:

Using this chart from the Doist article, you can get a sense of the importance that's placed on virtual communication, workflows, accessible information, and inclusion in a remote-first environment. Even if a company has an office, these particular qualities are accessible, but only if the proper expectations, policy, and culture are aligned to allow them. These are the qualities to look for in a company culture when determining if it's remote-first.

How to Identify a Remote-First Culture From the Outside

Now that we have these internal qualities of company culture as our criteria, how do we go about confirming these as someone from the "outside?" I talk extensively about Finding Your Target Remote Company in a newsletter I wrote about three weeks ago.

But from a high level, you can:

• Use job boards and remote company databases (The Remote Job Club, FlexJobs, WeWorkRemotely, Remotive, and Dynamite Jobs are my favorites).
• Once you know of a good remote-first company (like Doist), look at their company profile on LinkedIn and check "similar companies" on the right-hand side.
• Find round-ups or award lists online, like this "All Remote List and Remote-First Companies List" from GitLab which identifies companies with remote culture.
• Check the company's job descriptions, websites, and LinkedIn profiles... do they talk about remote work, flexibility, asynchronous work, or any other criteria listed above?
• See what their own people say, either on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or other communities they own where you can get a sentiment of how their companies feel.

Take the Extra Steps

Things online are not always as they seem (who would’ve thought!?).

Don't just take my word or any company's word for it. You'll never truly experience a company's culture until you're actually in it. The closest you can get is with conversations with real, live humans who work for, and previously worked for a specific company you're interested in.

The reason it can be really useful to find someone who previously worked at a company is that they'll have much less to lose by telling you the truth. Note, they could be jaded, too, so you always want to round out your experience with multiple informational interviews if possible. To find them, you can search on LinkedIn by "previous company." I'll get into more specifics on how to do that next week!

This week's newsletter is sponsored by Clipboard Health, a globally distributed remote-first company! They are hiring for all sorts of fully remote roles here. Shoot me a DM if any of them stand out to you!

Next Week's Newsletter

Ok, we've defined remote-first and remote-friendly, and you've decided you want to talk to people at these companies... what should you do?! Next week we'll talk about informational interviews and how to secure them with peeps at remote companies.

*Remember to subscribe to this newsletter and share it with at least one friend who can gain value from it!*

Preview of Exclusive Jobs this Week!

As always, enjoy this free preview of remote jobs directly from my network! For the full list of remote jobs, find the link to my Exclusive Job board at the bottom of the preview.

𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐰 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

• Collections Analyst @ Gong (USA) ⭐️

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• Customer Support Manager @ Bach (Anywhere) ⭐️

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

• Inbound Sales Representative @ Surf Office (Global except for Asia) ⭐️

𝐖𝐅𝐇 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

• Full Stack Developer @ Toric (USA) ⭐️

That was just a preview! Check out the full list of jobs in my network here and join my Remote Talent Collective.

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Candidates Seeking Remote Employment

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Companies Seeking Remote Candidates

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