New Worker Mag » Remote Work » How to tailor your resume for remote work

by Chloe Bennet

Though working remotely is on the rise, most employers aren’t sold on it just yet. Some employers even believe that “remote work” means employees are lazy and less productive.

As a job seeker, this is a hurdle. It can be really hard to prove the strengths of remote work in a way that speaks to employers and their concerns. Here are some best practices for showing remote work on your resume.

Emphasize it in your career objective

If you have experience working remotely, your career summary or career objective is a great place to show it. Highlight your accomplishments and include some reasons why remote work helped you achieve them.

For example: “Experienced remote employee with more than 5 years of successful remote work in graphic design with [list the names of companies you worked for and some of your results].”

This is what I did in my resume. Later, my employer said that what impressed him right away is the amount of remote work experience I listed in my career summary.

If you want a remote role but don’t have any remote work experience, you should be explicit about your desire to work remotely in your career objective. Talk about the experience you have working in offices and highlight the ways it might translate to a remote role.

If the job you’re applying for is remote and you want to show that you are capable of doing it, make sure to polish the skills section of your resume. Make it easy for the hiring manager to see that you’re at the top of your game, remote or not.

Show it in your address

One of the best ways to show that you have worked remotely is to add it in the location of your employment. For example: “Graphic Designer, Tokyo, Japan.” It implies you were successful enough in your job that you were free to live where you wanted.

“Make sure that you state the location or address instead of just writing ‘remote.’ Just saying remote doesn’t say much, but a location does,” says Andrea Fuchs, resume editor at PaperFellows.

I always did this, and not just to brag about all of the places I’ve been to. But it manage to impress my employers and helped convey how competent I was.

Describe your home office and why it works

One of the biggest misgivings employers have about remote work and remote employees is their productivity and effectiveness. To allay their potential concerns, it can be helpful to describe your home office and explain why it boosts your productivity. Be clear about the details of how your process works.

This may not be obvious—at least it wasn’t to me. But it’s worth including in your resume. I always describe how my home office and arrangement helps me work better.

Use online tools to help you write accurately

Being able to write well in your resume and in email can be one of the decisive factors in getting a job. This is perhaps even more critical in remote work because remote relationships rely heavily on nonverbal communication. Employers are looking for someone that can execute business writing seamlessly. Grammar and spelling mistakes are definitely unacceptable here.

It’s worth using some online tools to make sure your writing is polished.

• Resumention is a resume service that can help you create the perfect resume and show your best features.
• Via Writing and MyWritingWay are grammar resources that can help you learn the most important grammar rules to follow.
• Academized and Boom Essays are editing tools praised in Boom Essays review. They can help you remove all of the fluff from your writing.
• Writing Populist and State Writing are blogs with useful suggestions on resume writing.
• Assignment Writer and Essayroo are online proofreading tools reviewed by Australians Reviewer. They can help catch your hard-to-spot spelling mistakes and typos.
• Study Demic and LetsGoLearn are career writing guides which can help specifically with business writing.

Show how well you work with other employees

Another key detail to describe in your resume is how well you can work with other people. Talk about some of your achievements in this area: how you communicate with your teammates, how your communication contributed to great results and so on. Don’t be afraid to list the tools you’ve used in the past—Slack, etc.

Show it in the skills section

Insofar as a company might prefer someone local over someone remote, it really comes down to your skills. You need to not only outshine other potential remote candidates, but candidates closer to company headquarters as well. Your skills section is the perfect place to do this. It’s also a great place to underscore just how well remote work suits you. Show how good you are at time management. Quantify how responsible you are and the size and scope of projects you’ve been in charge of. Remote work helps you build some amazing skills, most notably self-discipline and ability to work on your own without constant monitoring and management. These are worth reiterating.

Keep your online resume updated

Your online resume, possibly on LinkedIn or another niche resume or portfolio site, should always be updated to reflect your most recent employments as a remote worker. Employers usually like to take a look at these resumes as well as your social media profiles. Remote employers even more so, as social media is the way we know each other at a distance. Make sure that they are all updated and in line with your values.

Remote work translates to flexibility, autonomy, and often less time on the clock. However, not all work from home jobs are created equal. If you’re just getting started, it can be challenging to find a high paying one. Here is a comprehensive overview of high paying remote jobs that offer the standard benefits of working remotely as well as high pay.

Writing a resume is never easy. But a good resume pays off in getting a great job that matches your needs. Adding remote work can add a confusing layer to an already difficult process. Using these tips can help you stand out to remote employers in an effective way.

Image credit: Photo courtesy of Buro Millennial.