197: Remote Workers and Travel with Adda Birnir

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO FINDING AND DOING REMOTE WORK

The number of people that have come to us recently to have us help them find remote work that they can do from home or at least on their terms is huge!

Even right before I started writing this guide, I was on a coaching call where I was helping one of our Career Change Bootcamp students negotiate working remotely into her job offer. (BTW she sent me a note afterwards saying Negotiations had gone well!) #Woohoo

I think that it’s pretty safe to say that many of us want more flexibility in our life and work!

For this reason we brought Adda Birnir, the CEO of SkillCrush.com, to discuss remote work on the Happen to Your Career podcast. Not only does her company work entirely remotely but also they teach people (especially women) to code (which is one profession that is incredibly flexible) She’s a champion of remote work, diversity in tech, and getting women back into the workforce on their own terms.

You might be thinking, “An all-remote team? A place to work where I can be location independent? Surely that can’t be real.”

But we’ve been running a location independent team and business ever since the beginning of Happen to Your Career. Right now, we have team members living in Washington, New York, North Carolina, California, Ohio, and even Bali.  And earlier this year, my family and I worked from Portugal and then from France for 6 weeks. It was a huge challenge…and it was awesome!

Some people might look at that and be insanely jealous and say: “That must be nice FOR THEM. That could never happen for me. I’m not even totally sure where to find remote work.

After helping thousands of people get that fits the lifestyle they want to live, we’ve seen 3 common ways our students get remote or much more flexible work.

1. Make your current job much more flexible
2. Change to a company that allows (and values) working remotely
3. Get “mad skills” that allow you to work remotely (for this one definitely listen to the podcast as Adda goes deep into some ways to do this)

MAKE YOUR CURRENT JOB MORE FLEXIBLE

I’ve had so many people ask me how to do this that I have literally had this coaching conversation hundreds of times!

Here are the simple (but not easy) steps to ask your current boss for more flexibility in your job.

Here’s a clip from my appearance on “The Suitcase Entrepreneur” describing exactly how to negotiate telecommuting

1.  You must be a high performer.

If you’re not already, it won’t matter what you ask isn’t going to work. Conversely your boss must view you as a high performer too.

Remember this doesn’t just mean you do your job well, it means that you get results + you make your boss’s life easier + they like you and want to support you!

When you’re invaluable to your boss, it becomes very possible to negotiate for things like work time, salary, telecommuting, and flexibility.

If you have any doubt that this is the case then follow the steps in our “Ultimate Guide to Negotiating a Raise” before you ask for more flexibility.

2.  What’s in it for them?

If you want my personal guarantee that it WON’T work, go in and say something like;

“My spouse and I have talked it over, we need more flexibility in our life so that we can adopt some kittens, travel the world and honestly, I just work better after I’ve slept in until 9am”

Your boss will be surprised, but neither of you will be pleased with the outcome.

Instead consider what will actually work build a case with what actually is useful to your company or better yet, your boss!

Here’s a list of some examples from actual proposals that are good for you AND your boss

“I’ve learned that on the couple times I’ve worked from home, I get almost twice as much project work done. Seriously I measured it, about 1 hour for what takes me 1.75 hours at the office”

“I plan on using the extra time that I would have been commuting to work on the Conversions project so I can take that off of your plate”

I make my clients write out specifically how it benefits your employer and your boss (and your team) before ever asking.

3.  Ask for a trial

If nobody else at your work is working from home right now, then it’s unlikely that your boss is going to be all smiles and giggles at the prospect of going from zero to having you only available by laptop because you’re in Fiji. (plus the wifi is terrible in Fiji)

Instead, consider asking for a trial period first.

Here’s how that might sound

“Could we try me telecommuting from home for 2 days a week. After 1 month we can review if it’s working and whether the results are what we thought. If it’s great and I’m getting more work done we can keep going, if not we can simply end the trial or adjust down.”

The psychology of “asking for a trial” is that if you ask for something permanent your boss will perceive risk. Instead when you give your boss the control to reverse the decision if it’s not working and putting specific limitations on the decision, then it removes that risk.

My experience with doing this myself is that if you do step number 4 well then rarely does your boss decide cut off your flexibility fun!

4.  Kick Ass at your Job (More than you usually do)

Be more productive than you’ve ever been. Make your boss believe this is possibly the best decision they’ve ever made.

I personally when i’ve done this myself have kept time logs so that I could show metrics (in hours) of exactly how much more output I was making vs. being in the office.

When your time to review your progress comes around go ahead and pat yourself on the back because you’ve successfully negotiated flexible work!

Sometimes your company just won’t go for it, or maybe you just don’t like your company that much. If that’s the case you should plan on making a change.

FIND ORGANIZATIONS THAT ALLOW REMOTE WORK

Here’s the very first question that comes up when we suggest this as an option nearly every time

“How do I know what companies allow me to work remotely or have flexibility?

The cool thing here is there is no shortage of ways to find out

My absolute favorite way is to look for companies that are already posting jobs that allow you to work from home or work remotely. You can even download our complete list of remote and flexible work resources and websites.

Once you’ve found a company that you’re interested in begin your own list of “Target Companies”.

If you’ve read anything on Happen to Your Career at all before, you know that we believe that it won’t be just one element that makes you happy in your work, meaning that you will need to learn first what your ideal company actually looks like before “getting married” to them just because they offer remote work.

You can be working remotely (good!) but still be hating life and your job (not as good ? ).

Answer a few of these questions for yourself first before adding them as a company that you’re really interested in working with.

• Does this company value the same things I value (based on what you can tell right now from your research)
• Am I excited about what the company does OR what type of work I might get to do?
• Does this company have opportunities that leverage my strengths?

If you’re struggling to answer these questions for yourself, let alone for companies you’re considering, use our “Figure out what Career Fits you” 8 day email course to get started or check out HTYC coaching for even more help to make it much easier.

ACQUIRE THE “TYPES OF SKILLS” THAT ALLOW YOU TO WORK REMOTELY

There are some skillsets that make “remote work” much more available to you than others.

First of all think about it, for most remote work it’s going to require technology to allow it to happen in the first place. This doesn’t require you to be tech junkie, but it does mean you must know your way around a computer and be able to problem solve when the web cam or your microphone all of a sudden no longer works. (and it will, trust me!)

On top of that there are some skills and professions that are much more “socially accepted” for remote work (or more companies that allow for remote work need these skillsets)

Here’s a list of some examples of types of positions that are regularly posted

• Copy writer
• Editors
• Graphic Designers
• UX (User Experience) Designers
• Developers
• Account Executive (in charge of a region or sales territory)
• Software Engineer
• Traffic Growth Manager
• Motion Designer

Note that most of these have something to do with technology OR they require skills that are portable

We’ve found that there are usually 3 roads to acquiring these skills or experience that are relatively quick

1. Take on projects in your existing job that will force you to develop skillsets and apply them. For example in my HR job, I volunteered to create a local website for internal communication and internal job postings. I had no idea what I was doing but it forced me to learn AND gave me real skills that have been useful ever since.

In nearly 100% of cases we’ve found there are already existing opportunities in your current role to leverage skill development, yes it might mean that you have to work a little more to do it but stop and think about what you’re doing if you take on new schooling or training, which often you will be paying for instead of getting paid to do.

2. Take a program or a class. This can mean a specific degree through a university but honestly those are usually far more expensive for what you get and the time you’re putting into them. At $30,000+ on average it’s often not a good return on your time and money investment.

Instead look for specific courses that teach you a particular skillset

Here’s two examples:

Schoolofmotion.com –  This is an online school for Motion Designers run by my friend Joey Korenman and his team. Joey’s training is regarded as some of the best in the biz and is over $100,000 less costly than some other alternatives for motion design (like the type that you see in Pixar Movies)

SkillCrush.com – This is Adda’s company that we mentioned above (listen to the podcast audio or read the transcript here if you haven’t already) they teach digital skillsets like coding in an online format for far cheaper than the computer science degree that I went part of the way through in college.

These are only two examples of many, but first learn what skillsets you’d actually enjoy be talking to people that are using them right now, then you can research which programs may be the best fit for you.

3. Just start doing the work. This is the trial and error method.

It can range from helping out a friend who needs that kind of work done to test out whether you like it at all while learning what you can on free youtube videos, all the way to freelancing on a place like Fiverr.com or even starting your own side business.

Always consider your “opportunity cost”

If you say “yes” to one opportunity, like taking a course or taking on freelance work, that means by default you are saying “no” to other things you’re doing with that time and money. Keep in mind 100% of these ways we’ve suggested are going to cost you either time or money to acquire skills.

The rule of thumb that we use for our students is: if you’re paying more money then you should be spending less of your time to acquire them. (which is why Universities are often – but not always, a less desirable investment for particular skill sets)

BONUS: EVEN MORE IDEAS TO MAKE THE CHANGE TO REMOTE WORK

How else could I find work that pays me enough and allows me to work remotely? I could…

• Interview people I know who are working remotely to find out how they did it and how they make money and what they enjoy/don’t enjoy about their jobs
• Propose a shift in my current job to my boss of evolving into being a part-time or full-time Work from home position
• Do research into the highest paying jobs and see what elements of those might be able to be done remotely
• Do I need fully remote work, or just more flexibility? See about getting a webcam or VPN setup from work so I can work from home on days with doctors’ appointments
• Define “pays enough” by creating a range of minimum, target, and ideal salaries so I can start to narrow in on possibilities
• Read case studies on businesses that have remote-only workforces, and send a note to a contact at those organizations asking them for their perspective on how it’s been
• Look at roles and industries that are actually improved when the employee is remote or able to travel easily: sales, coding, coaching, training, event planning…
• Start a location-independent side business now at my current job, with the intent to scale it. (Dropshipping, coaching, online information products, online stores, etc.)
• Take a class online about what you need to know to become a digital nomad
• Get coaching from a career coach on how to find these jobs and apply for them so I can be a stand-out candidate and increase my probability of securing the job
• Join location independent employee Facebook or LinkedIn groups
• Take a course at SkillCrush.com on learning coding skills