Remote work is hotter than ever, for both businesses and job seekers.
After non-essential businesses had no other option but to allow their employees to work from home, many decided to keep their teams working remote for the long-haul once realizing that their employees did just fine, if not better than before. Going forward, these employers are going to look to hire workers who have proven abilities to succeed while working remotely.
Do you have proven abilities to succeed while working remotely? If you do, make sure your resume reflects this, even if you aren’t applying to a remote position.
Why? Because having the ability to work from home successfully is a valued and rare skill that all employers admire. Remote work is not for everyone, and once you’ve worked from home long-term, you know it can be a challenge as there is a lot that goes into it. Being able to meet your goals while working remote proves that you are self-motivated, tech-savvy, adaptable and much more, all of which are transferable skills that employers look for.
Now…how do you display remote work experience on your resume?
You have a few options:
Call it out in your Professional Summary. Right at the top! If you are applying to a remote position, it may be helpful to showcase this at the start of your resume to catch the employer’s attention. Whether it’s a blurb or a bulleted list, you can add something like “4 years of experience working remote” or “Maintained a work from home job for 4 years.”
Add to your skills section. For some, your skills section may come first on your resume. You can be straightforward and list “Successfully worked from home for 3 years,” or you can get more creative with it. Think of everything you’ve accomplished, or skills you’ve gained, in your remote positions.
Examples:
- Proven ability to work independently from home office
- Excelled at staying in touch with a remote team
- Quickly learned and utilized cloud-based applications
- Mastered video conferencing platforms
- Exceptional time and task management
- Strong problem-solving skills
Replace the company location. If you’ve worked a position that was fully remote, you can list the location as “Remote Work” in place of the city and state. Another option would be to list the corporate office of the company as the location, and list “Successfully worked this position from home” as the first bullet.
Create an entire new section. This is a great option if you’ve worked multiple remote positions, and are only applying to work from home positions. Create a section dedicated to your work from home jobs. You can title this “Remote Work Experience” and list your other positions under a section titled “Other Work Experience.” This shows that not only did one company trust you to work remotely, but multiple did.
Looking to get a remote position without any previous experience working from home? Think outside the box.
- Have you worked for a national organization which required you to communicate with coworkers outside of your satellite office?
- Do you track your progress on various projects using a shared team spreadsheet?
- How do you organize and manage your own deadlines?
- Do you currently get your job done with minimal supervision?
In addition to this, brainstorm the transferable skills you possess that would help you thrive in a remote position, and list these on your resume as well.
Next time you update your resume, don’t forget to showcase your remote work experience in some way. It can say a lot about your abilities and qualities as a worker, intriguing potential employers.