Overview of English-language sites to search for permanent remote IT work
There are a million reasons for remote work. Hanging around for 8-9 hours in the office is not at all as great as it is shown in the series. One fine day, in the summer of 2018, I just decided that I needed more personal space and was about to quit, all the more so in my position at that time I had grown to the maximum and there were no further prospects.
My work was something between a support, a tester, an SQL statement and an Excel ninja, but I wanted to go deeper into testing.
Since I spoke and wrote confidently in English, I decided to immediately search the foreign market. I looked at several freelance exchanges, read reviews about Upwork and its analogs, and decided not to get involved. It is difficult to compete in small projects with Indian citizens who are willing to work for $ 3 per hour. It also seemed to me unproductive to submit applications to online services that work on the principle of a global intermediary between remote employees and companies, judging by the reviews, their selection is very tight, and the pace of work is incredibly stressful.
I decided to focus on resources that offer constant remote work in companies that could be contacted directly. The idea was tempting, as it was very impressive to work for a foreign employer without a chain of managers and bosses.
The following sites looked the most useful in terms of quantity and quality of vacancies, as well as ease of use:
Jobmote.com
This site is completely dedicated to finding candidates for legal remote work. Since I was aiming for a full-time job, I appreciated that the offers on this site were mostly long-term and full-time. All IT vacancies are grouped in a single section - Information Technology. Which is convenient - in vacancies it is almost always indicated whether they need a person living in a particular country or whether they are considering candidates around the world. The minus for me personally is not a lot of QA vacancies for those with up to a year work experience, however, I was not surprised - testing is not the most popular area on the remote. Therefore, I did not stop only on this site.
Remote4me.com
Sections of professions on this site are spelled out in great detail in the areas and programming languages. There is a section for QA. In vacancies there is a clear division into those that consider candidates only from a specific country (most often the United States) or where residence does not matter, but only consent to work in a specific time zone. This site works on the principle of the aggregator of several sites. The main minus is that you can’t send your resume directly from the vacancy shown, when you click on “View original job description”, the site redirects to the resource from which the vacancy was taken, which may also not be directly from the employer, which is a bit annoying when actively searching.
Indeed.com
This site has an intuitive design and is easy to use. At the beginning, you can create an account and a resume that can be sent to companies directly from the site. Although you can do without it, in each vacancy there is a link for applying on the employer's website. The site has a local version and an American one. Office and remote work are mixed up, so in the field of the name of the vacancy you need to add Remote or write this word in the Where field. Minus - when searching for a keyword in the search results, there are many vacancies that are completely irrelevant, so you have to scroll for a long time. As well as on other American sites, many remote vacancies do not clearly indicate whether they are considering remote candidates outside the United States, until you send an application, you will not find out.
Remote.co
It also has a simple design and is easy to use. My specialty, QA, is placed in a separate section, and the vacancies of developers in all programming languages are on the same heap - in the Developer section. In addition to vacancies, the site has a blog with useful articles and tips, which is good for beginners. Filters are quite convenient, there are also interesting rare professions. There were also a couple of sensible offers in my specialty, although again - the site itself does not indicate exactly whether they are considering candidates only from the United States or whether their place of residence does not matter. Minus - it is inconvenient to use from the phone’s browser, the mobile version is not user friendly.
I hope these resources will help those who decide to exchange an office chair for a comfortable home sofa. Of course, the developers will most likely find the remote work, but for the rest there are also many options.
As for me personally, I almost simultaneously received an offer both for the remote and from the local outsourcing company working with the Netherlands for the money it was almost the same. And I chose ... an offer from a local company, where I work now. Honestly, at that time I was already completely tuned to the “director for myself” mode, but free meals (I don’t cook) and medical insurance made me think in the near future. The decisive factor was that the office was across the street from me and I could work from home periodically. So, the story of the search for remote work ended with another office, but for me the experience of such a search was very valuable, and it is likely that it will be useful to me in the future.
My work was something between a support, a tester, an SQL statement and an Excel ninja, but I wanted to go deeper into testing.
Since I spoke and wrote confidently in English, I decided to immediately search the foreign market. I looked at several freelance exchanges, read reviews about Upwork and its analogs, and decided not to get involved. It is difficult to compete in small projects with Indian citizens who are willing to work for $ 3 per hour. It also seemed to me unproductive to submit applications to online services that work on the principle of a global intermediary between remote employees and companies, judging by the reviews, their selection is very tight, and the pace of work is incredibly stressful.
I decided to focus on resources that offer constant remote work in companies that could be contacted directly. The idea was tempting, as it was very impressive to work for a foreign employer without a chain of managers and bosses.
The following sites looked the most useful in terms of quantity and quality of vacancies, as well as ease of use:
Jobmote.com
This site is completely dedicated to finding candidates for legal remote work. Since I was aiming for a full-time job, I appreciated that the offers on this site were mostly long-term and full-time. All IT vacancies are grouped in a single section - Information Technology. Which is convenient - in vacancies it is almost always indicated whether they need a person living in a particular country or whether they are considering candidates around the world. The minus for me personally is not a lot of QA vacancies for those with up to a year work experience, however, I was not surprised - testing is not the most popular area on the remote. Therefore, I did not stop only on this site.
Remote4me.com
Sections of professions on this site are spelled out in great detail in the areas and programming languages. There is a section for QA. In vacancies there is a clear division into those that consider candidates only from a specific country (most often the United States) or where residence does not matter, but only consent to work in a specific time zone. This site works on the principle of the aggregator of several sites. The main minus is that you can’t send your resume directly from the vacancy shown, when you click on “View original job description”, the site redirects to the resource from which the vacancy was taken, which may also not be directly from the employer, which is a bit annoying when actively searching.
Indeed.com
This site has an intuitive design and is easy to use. At the beginning, you can create an account and a resume that can be sent to companies directly from the site. Although you can do without it, in each vacancy there is a link for applying on the employer's website. The site has a local version and an American one. Office and remote work are mixed up, so in the field of the name of the vacancy you need to add Remote or write this word in the Where field. Minus - when searching for a keyword in the search results, there are many vacancies that are completely irrelevant, so you have to scroll for a long time. As well as on other American sites, many remote vacancies do not clearly indicate whether they are considering remote candidates outside the United States, until you send an application, you will not find out.
Remote.co
It also has a simple design and is easy to use. My specialty, QA, is placed in a separate section, and the vacancies of developers in all programming languages are on the same heap - in the Developer section. In addition to vacancies, the site has a blog with useful articles and tips, which is good for beginners. Filters are quite convenient, there are also interesting rare professions. There were also a couple of sensible offers in my specialty, although again - the site itself does not indicate exactly whether they are considering candidates only from the United States or whether their place of residence does not matter. Minus - it is inconvenient to use from the phone’s browser, the mobile version is not user friendly.
I hope these resources will help those who decide to exchange an office chair for a comfortable home sofa. Of course, the developers will most likely find the remote work, but for the rest there are also many options.
As for me personally, I almost simultaneously received an offer both for the remote and from the local outsourcing company working with the Netherlands for the money it was almost the same. And I chose ... an offer from a local company, where I work now. Honestly, at that time I was already completely tuned to the “director for myself” mode, but free meals (I don’t cook) and medical insurance made me think in the near future. The decisive factor was that the office was across the street from me and I could work from home periodically. So, the story of the search for remote work ended with another office, but for me the experience of such a search was very valuable, and it is likely that it will be useful to me in the future.