5 Great Resources for Remote Workers
Remote work has been a topic of interest for several years now, but it felt like an accelerated trend in 2015. More companies are giving employees the option to work remotely part- or full-time, and some companies are opting out of a physical office altogether. Freelance work is also on the rise, with 34% of the American workforce doing it. Working remotely is also becoming more common around the world with the emergence of platforms like Upwork, 99designs, and Freelancer.
If you’re a remote worker or spend part of your day working from outside of the office, the following tools will help you find jobs, discover the best cities for remote workers, and learn from people who have built successful freelance careers or location-independent companies.
1. Nomad List
Find the best cities to live and work remotely.
If you’re looking for the best places in the world to work remotely, look no further. Nomad List started as a crowdsourced spreadsheet, and has since become a site that collects more than 50,000 data points on 500+ cities around the globe.
You can search for places based on cost of living, weather, and even how fast the Internet is in a particular city. You can also filter based on how fun, clean, safe, friendly, and diverse a place is. Within each city page, you can find other nomads in that location, the best places to work and sleep, and frequently asked questions about what it’s like to live there.
The coolest part? The “NomadScore” rankings change throughout the day based on weather, humidity, internet speeds, and exchange rates—so it’s always up-to-date and a fun tool to use when you’re traveling. There’s a fee to become an official members which lets you chat with other members, but it’s definitely worthwhile if you’re considering more frequent city-hopping. This great community won’t disappoint you!
2. Remote OK
A daily aggregator of all remote jobs.
This site is everything you wish any other job board was. Lucky for lovers of remote work, it’s a daily aggregator built specifically for you. Remote OK is basically a search engine that pulls in data from all of the remote jobs its crawling on the Internet. The UX is clean and beautiful, and you can search based on job type and salary.
Even if you already get a gazillion newsletters in your inbox, sign up for Remote OK’s weekly job digest. It is a great resource if you’re considering remote work in the near future.
Fun fact: The maker of this tool, Pieter Levels who also created Nomad List (and was recently voted Maker of the Year by the Product Hunt community).
3. Remote Year
Travel and work remotely for a year.
Don’t read the next few paragraphs unless you’re ready to have some serious travel envy.
Remote Year just launched in 2015, bringing together 75 professionals from around the world to work, travel, and explore together for a year. If you’re one of the lucky folks who gets to do this, you’ll explore 12 cities (living in each place for one month at a time), which gives you a chance to get to know more about the local community and culture. It’s basically like adventure college for adults—where do we sign up?
The program costs $27,000 for the entire year, which seems like a decent chunk of change—but not given how much is included. You pay $5,000 upfront and $2,000 each month thereafter. In exchange, you’re covered for all travel between destinations, accommodations for the whole year with your own room, workspace with reliable internet and 24-hour-access, and various group activities and events.
You do have to have your own job once the program begins (Remote Year doesn’t provide them). But, hey—if you don’t have one yet, you can always start looking for one on Remote OK. :-)
4. Workfrom
Discover where people are working remotely in a city.
Have you ever landed in a new city (or even your own) and wondered where all the best remote work spots are? It seems like everywhere you go, you can’t find an outlet, or reliable WiFi, or a quiet space to park for a few hours.
Workfrom is the search tool you’ve been looking for. It’s like Yelp, but specifically for freelancers and remote workers. Use it to find the best bars, coffee shops, co-working spots, and other work-friendly places nearby. You can filter by: Power, Reliable WiFi, Outdoor, Late, Food, Quieter, Recent, and even places to grab a drink and happy hours.
Feature of note: You can also “clock in” and check out who else is working nearby. It’s a fun way to meet other digital nomads if you’re looking for a new friend during a coffee break.
5. Pajamas.io
A collection of interviews with remote workers.
Pajamas.io features a collection of interviews with people that work at companies who’s teams are mostly remote. The idea behind the site? What people do for work is changing rapidly, and being physically present in an office is becoming less and less of a requirement. That said, location-independent jobs have their challenges. Sometimes, it’s more challenging to build a strong company culture, get collaborative work done, manage multiple time zones, and keep everyone on the same page about business strategy and goals.
These interviews are exploratory conversations with people who have figured out how to make remote work, well, work. These Q&As are definitely worth browsing through if you’re looking for advice or new perspectives on how others manage remote work and teams. You’re sure to find something illuminating on this site. Plus: How do you not love something called “Pajamas”? It’s even in the name of the Product Hunt Global Hackathon:
If you’re looking for more tools and resources for remote workers, check out the full collection on Product Hunt:
