If you want to work from home—or work from anywhere—but don’t know where to start, you’re probably encountered a lot of bad advice that’s only going to keep you stuck. Unfortunately, so much advice on the internet about how to get a remote job isn’t designed to actually help you—it’s designed to be clickbait that tells you what you want to hear instead of telling you what you need to know.
Getting a high-paying remote job is a long process, but it absolutely can be done. But first, if you want a high-paying remote job, you have to recognize one simple truth:
Effortless, high-paying remote jobs don’t exist.
You’ve probably seen articles that mention many of the following ways to make money online with little to no experience required:
- taking paid surveys
- getting paid to watch videos or play games
- starting your own blog
- selling e-printables
- selling online courses
- doing affiliate marketing
- being a virtual assistant
- doing data entry
- writing for a content mill
- doing audio transcription
These are often portrated as easy opportunities to work from anywhere. However, what is often left unsaid is that many of the remote jobs or gigs that require little to no experience pay poverty wages, turn out to be scams, or are a lure to entice you into buying a course on how to start your own online business.
Building a remote business is often portayed as an incredibly lucrative opportunity where you can make thousands of dollars a month from the comfort of your own home while only working minimal hours—for example, one woman claims to have built a $19,000 a month e-commerce business while only working 5–10 hours per week.
Contrary to what’s implied in articles like How to Make $30,000 a Month (18 Realistic Ideas), making tens of thousands of dollars a month from starting an online business like blogging is wildly unrealistic for almost everyone. Making that kind of money is the result of years of thankless struggle and thousands of hours of unpaid or underpaid work—and luck.
The truth is that effortless, lucrative “work-from-anywhere” opportunities simply don’t exist. There is no such thing as making easy money online.
The more you seek out easy “work from anywhere” jobs that require no experience, the more you’re going to delay putting in the work to build a remote career that actually pays well. Getting a high-paying remote job is very possible, but it’s not going to be quick and it’s not going to be easy.
The secret to getting a well-paying remote job
If you really want to work from home, here’s the secret: You have to stop looking for any work-from-home job and start building a career. The fact that the job you want is remote should be irrelevant. If you’re trying and failing to get a work-from-home job, what you need to do is stop trying to get any work-from-home job and start gaining the skills and qualifications for a specific career path that can be done remotely.
You can’t get a lucrative remote job without building a highly specialized skillset and becoming an expert in your field. The way to get a remote job is to stop listening to content that tries to sell you gimmicky, poverty-wage side hustles that can be done remotely and start creating an action plan for how to build a specific career.
Here’s your action plan:
How to get a real remote job
1. Make a list of careers that appeal to you and can be done remotely.
If you want a remote job, start by making a list of careers that appeal to you that also can be done remotely. Here are some examples:
- supply chain management
- IT support
- project management
- copyediting
- technical writing
- medical editing
- social media management
- SEO content strategy
- UX or UI design
- data analytics
- corporate communications
- HR generalist
Again, don’t just choose a career only because it’s remote-work friendly. There are so many remote-work friendly careers out there that you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something that matches your interests and talents, so only write down careers that you could really see yourself doing.
2. Research the salary trajectory for those careers.
Before you enter your desired career field, you need to know if you’re going to be happy with the salary for that position. Use job boards and job postings on company websites to identify salary ranges for entry-level, junior-level, and senior-level positions. You want to have a really solid idea of what the market rate is for these positions, so find at least 15 job postings that list the salary range for each career path.
Save this list for later: Once you start applying to jobs, this list will give you a really solid idea of how to negotiate your salary once you gain the skills that will qualify you for those roles.
3. Make a list of skills and qualifications for those career paths.
If you want the most detailed step-by-step plan for how to get a remote job in your field of choice, you need to know as much information as possible about what skills and qualifications you need in order to qualify for these roles.
Identify at least 10–15 job postings for entry-level and junior-level positions in your desired field(s). Write down a list of all of the items that appear in the Skills, Requirements, Education, and Qualifications sections in each of those 10–15 job postings.
Making this list is going to be really tedious, but don’t skip this step because this is going to give you the most important information you need to know if you want to get a high-paying remote job.
4. Research educational opportunities to help you learn the skills you need to know.
Now you need to find out what your options are in terms of education so that you can get the skills you need to enter your desired field. You’ll want to a comprehensive list of resources to help you gain each skill on that list that you just created. This list is going to be your blueprint for skyrocketing your earning potential.
Consider looking into these options:
- Community college courses
- Accredited online certificate programs
- Courses or webinars from professional associations
- Courses from Udemy, Skillshare, or Coursera
- Tutorials, blog posts, or books to learn more about your desired skillset
I highly recommend online accredited certificate programs for adults who are looking to make a career switch. There are many reasons why I love online accredited certificate programs:
- They are designed to give you the hard skills you need to enter a specific career path.
- They tend to be asynchronous (so you can study around your schedule).
- They’re flexible: There’s often a generous window of time for you to complete the certificate program, which is a low-income friendly option because you have time to save up for your next course.
- They’re much more affordable than a traditional 4-year degree—accredited certificate programs are often in the low-to-mid 4-figure range.
- They’re usually taught by someone with years of work experience in that field.
Courses and webinars from professional associations could be a good alternative if online accredited certificate programs are too expensive. And if that’s still not accessible enough, there are plently of free tutorials out there that teach a wide range of hard skills.
5. Narrow down your list to one career and start your learning journey.
Now that you’ve done your preliminary research on which careers paths you might want to pursue, it’s time to narrow down your career list. Pick one career track that you want to pursue.
It’s important to pick a single path because commitment and focus is how you make yourself a competitive candidate for remote roles. If you apply to any and every remote role no matter the field, then you’re not going to have the skills or qualifications you need to make yourself a competitive candidate.
If you want to skyrocket your changes of getting a high-paying remote job, you have to focus on one specific career path and you have to single-mindedly learn skills and pursue opportunities that align with that career path. The way that you get interviews is by creating a highly specific resume for a specific role.
Once you’ve narrowed down your career path, you can start your learning journey. Use the list you created of skills and educational resources to help you start learning. Don’t skip this step because putting in the hard work to learn a specialized skillset is what is going to give you those opportunities to work from home.
6. Start applying for jobs.
Once you’ve started to get some skills and qualifications under your belt, you can start applying to remote jobs in your field of choice.
Here are some tips to help you get on the right track:
Apply though the company’s website—and avoid “work from anywhere” platforms.
You’ll want to avoid platforms that are specifically advertised as “work from anywhere” job boards. Many “work from anywhere” job boards often attract far too many scams or low-wage gig work, so you’ll want to avoid those.
It’s best to use mainstream job boards as a search tool to identify open positions and then send in your application through the company’s website because this method reduces your chances of applying to positions that turn out to be scams.
Apply only to remote jobs that pay at or above the market rate.
Remember that list you made of the salary range for positions in your desired field? You can use that list to help you cut out any jobs that pay below the market rate.
One really empowering thing you can do as you look for remote work is to challenge yourself to apply only jobs that pay a thriving wage. Make it a rule for yourself that you’re only going to apply for jobs that pay at or above the market rate.
Consider working in W-2 roles before you move to freelance roles or build your own business.
Depending on your industry, if your ultimate goal is to work from anywhere, you might want to consider working in W-2 roles to build up experience and sharpen your skillset before moving to freelance roles or before starting your own business.
W-2 jobs often give you the opportunity to develop the varied skillset and industry knowledge you need to know to handle a variety of projects. W-2 jobs also give you the stability you need while you work on building up a client base to start your own business.
Make your job search consistent and sustainable.
People get stuck in a cycle of low-wage jobs when they get permanently burnt out from the job search and give up looking for a higher-paying job. That’s why making your job search consistent and sustainable is so important. If you can apply to at least 1–2 jobs a day no matter what, you’ll still get forward momentum in your job search while minimizing your risk of job search burnout.
Getting a high-paying remote job is a long, difficult process, but it absolutely is worth it. If you can focus on leveling up your skillset and building a specific career that’s able to be done remotely rather than focusing on finding any remote job, you’re going to set yourself up for success. Investing in yourself and your skillset is the best way to put yourself on the path to getting a great remote job.