5 Ways To Get high paying remote jobs in Nigeria.
The ideas that the world is a global village means that you can offer your skills remotely to anyone in the world, even right from Nigeria. Remote job means that you don’t have to resume to a physical office of the company you work for. You are simply assigned task with deliverables which you submit to your employer as agreed before you get paid.
Companies like GroveHQ and BaseCamp are advocating for distributed teams via remote workers because it helps to improve workplace diversity and ultimately they spend less money to hire remote workers than paying someone in US for full-time job.
Since these jobs pay in hard currency, you earn higher when you convert the money to local currency and you can live a lifestyle well above the average worker in Nigeria, no thanks to the current economic recession and poor Naira value.
@OotheNigeria puts the calculation better:
Simply put, a remote job paying $5000 per month puts you in the millionaire league in Naira equivalent, earning you 5 times the salary of someone working for Nigeria companies.
How do people get this kind of remote jobs?
One of the ways to get this kind of jobs is through Andela, the software training school started by Iyin Aboyeji to train developers for free and give them jobs to do. The simple business model of the company is to connect highly skilled people in Nigeria with jobs outside the country thereby giving Nigerian developers the opportunity to outsource their skill set to the highest bidder.
Many of the best examples of remote workers In Nigeria are fellows of Andela at one time or the other. However, since Andela recruits only the top 1% of its applicants, that means majority of (yet-to-be) highly skilled people are not getting this “privileged” remuneration. Outside Andela, platforms like eWorker.co and Devcenter.co also help Africa’s best tech talent to get remote jobs like software development, content writing, database analyst etc.
Here are 5 tips that can help you to get these kinds of jobs and work from from the comfort of your “pyjamas”.
1. Identify communities.
Identify and join an online community in your area of job interest. If the community has a section for jobs, take advantage to apply for any remote job that fits your skills. For example, DevCenter; a community for software developers and UX designers in Nigeria has a dedicated job board for remote work.
As an extension to this strategy, seek out Slack channels, LinkedIn or Facebook groups in the target market you are seeking to offer your services.
2. “Shadow” people you want to work for.
You probably know an expert you want to work for or help to fix a bug on their software. Use all available channels to get their attention and go ahead to show them how you will help them fix the problem so they can hire you.
It is important to also leverage your network and mentors. If you know any successful remote work, this is time to ask for their advice and recommendations.
3. Research job boards dedicated to remote jobs.
Many people are familiar with Upwork, Freelancer or Fiverr with the $5 jobs on offer. In addition to searching for remote jobs on those platforms, here is a list of 25 high paying remote job sites.
Here is an example of remote job advertised on RemoteOK for freelance writers at a startup called Quimbee. As you can see, there are over 22,000 remote jobs you can apply for.
You need to understand that the quality of remote jobs you get will depend a lot on you. So, how do you become the person that gets this kind of jobs?
How To Become The Person That Gets High-paying Remote Jobs
Here are 2 tips for you to become the kind of person that gets high paying remote jobs on consistent basis.
4. Build an expert status.
Before you can command a hefty paycheck, you have to build your expert status and be regarded as influential in the space. In one word, you have to build a portfolio of work.
- In the software space, a fast approach is contributing to open source projects. Prosper wrote about his interesting journey to achieve his expert status which he now leverages to get high paying remote jobs from Nigeria.
- Outside software, you can build your expert credibility by writing, speaking and even creating portfolio of your work.
- Some remote job platforms might require that you go through a vetting process. Get familiar with such vetting requirements before applying through them. When accepted to work on platforms like Upwork that use a rating system, it is better to start with simple tasks that you can easily complete so your “employer” can rate you favourably.
5. Educate yourself
Ask yourself, “what skills are people getting hired for right now?” Go and identify it and become experts at it.
- Use platforms like LinkedIn to search for people with remote roles. You can do a search on LinkedIn and check out the skillsets of every profile that is displayed for the role.
- Take advantage of free learning online platforms like FreeCodeCamp, Coursera, edX and Nanodegree courses on Udemy or take a certification course with Hubspot academy.
Concluding Thoughts: Are you ready for the Remote Lifestyle?
The lifestyle of a nomad worker is an interesting one. Some people call it “the road to location independence”. While it is fun, you should understand that it requires you to work across multiple time zones among other demands. If you feel this is right for you, there are several positions to start with.
You too can give it a shot. All the best.
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(Special thanks to Osioke Itseuwa, Devcenter’s community manager, for additional insights for this article)
