How to Find Remote and Work-from-Home Jobs with Brie Reynolds of FlexJobs

Sneak Peek:

Brie:    00:00:00    It is true that a lot of remote companies look for people who have remote experience, but it's also true that most of the job seekers that I encounter discount the remote experience that they have, they don't even realize that they have remote experience. People kind of feel like if they're saying they have experience working remotely, it has to be official.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:  Today's episode is sponsored by me. Did you know you can now shop my favorite remote work tools, video production equipment, and travel accessories directly from your Amazon account? It's true. Just go to TravelingwithKristin.com/amazon to check out all the products I use and love  

Kristin:    00:01:04    Brie Weiler Reynolds is the career development manager and a career coach at FlexJobs, the award-winning site for remote, flexible and freelance job listings. Brie has a background in human resources and career advising, 15 years of experience working with both job seekers and employers. And she's a certified resume writer. She offers career advice, hiring and work-life balance advice through the Flex Jobs blog and through mainstream media outlets like Fast Company, Forbes and NBC News. Today on the podcast we're talking all about remote jobs, where to find remote jobs, how to actually land one the biggest mistakes people make when applying for remote job, the top skills that flexible work employers are looking for and even how to organize your resume and cover letter to win the job search algorithms. We also talk about how to approach companies to work for them, even if they don't have any remote job positions available and what to do if you don't have any work experience or remote work skills at all. Or if you think you're too young or too old or too inexperienced to get a remote job. We're talking about all that and much more today. Brie joins us now from her home office in Boston, Massachusetts. Let's get started.  

Podcast Interview:

Kristin:    00:02:39    Well, you've been a HR professional and you've worked for FlexJobs for 10 years, right? 

Brie:    00:02:46    That is correct, yeah.  

Kristin:    00:02:48    So how did you get involved in that so long ago? Because 10 years ago people were not talking about remote work, even though it's been possible to do it for probably 50 years, it's really only in the past few years become a buzzword. So how did you first get attracted to this remote work industry?  

Brie:    00:03:06    Yeah, I think like a lot of people, it was out of necessity. I, at the time, this was back in 2010 or actually 2009, I was working as a college career advisor and I'd been doing that for the last five years or so and loved it, absolutely loved my job, loved career coaching and writing resumes and doing all of that. And my husband got a job that would relocate us every year, which was something that we wanted to do. We kind of wanted to get out, see it was a US based job, so we kind of be all over the US for five years or so, and I thought, well, that sounds great. You know, we didn't have kids at the time, we were unencumbered and so we just thought, well, we'll just go. But I knew that my job couldn't come with me because at that time there weren't really in the college space anyway, there weren't remote career advisors.  

Brie:    00:03:52    Everybody was on campus and I thought, well, I'll just, I'll, I had been writing freelance writing, doing career advice and things like that for a few years. So I thought, well, I'll just ramp that up and I'll find some, you know, part-time gigs, wherever we move and I'll just make it work. I'll piece some jobs together and, and that'll be that. And then it turned out my last maybe month on that job, I got an email from this software company that we, um, worked with at the career office and they were looking for remote people to join their team and he knew that I was leaving and going off to do this traveling thing. This was my contact at this company and it's a, it was a program that a lot of career services offices use to host job fairs and do job listings for their students and their alumni.  

Brie:    00:04:36    So I was really familiar with the program and it was a full-time remote job and it could travel with me. So our first stop was, we were originally in Boston during that time and our first stop was New Jersey, so not too far away, and then wound up going to Georgia and to Texas and that was my first foray into remote work. Was just this job popped into my lap at exactly the right moment. So that was pretty awesome because I didn't have to really do a big job search to find my first remote job. And it was so uncommon at the time that I just felt really lucky. Oh, the universe just handed me <laugh>, this perfect gift. So that's how I got started. But it turns out that customer service, which was basically the role was helping other career services offices use this software and when the software doesn't work, helping them with that, it was not my strong suit.  

Brie:    00:05:22    So I was there for a little less than a year. It was the shortest stint that I had, had <laugh> in a professional job, but I loved working remotely. I absolutely loved that part of it. I knew I wanted to keep doing that. And then it just, like they say with the job search, you find your jobs through a lot of networking in addition to applying, applying online. And I happened to know somebody at that company who had worked for Sarah Sutton who is the CEO of FlexJobs and she had just founded FlexJobs a couple years before that. He worked with her previously in a different company that she had founded that was successful, absolutely loved her, loved working with her and said, Hey, she's hiring people to work remotely doing writing for the career advice blog and researching the companies on the site and doing all of these kind of content things, but all related to job searching and careers. And I thought, well, of course I wanna do that. And so that's how I got into flex times. It was a part-time, freelance writing job at first and I just grew it from there. I kept saying yes to everything that that came my way.  

Kristin:    00:06:19    And directly in your area of expertise?  

Brie:    00:06:22    Yes, it was really, really nicely aligned and I had been writing a lot before that, so I had that that, you know, freelance side of things going already and I just felt like all the planets aligned in this position and that's how I wound up at FlexJobs.  

Kristin:    00:06:36    I love that example or your experience because a lot of times people hold out for the perfect job. Like it has to be for some reason when they're going for their first job out of high school or college, it's like any job will work, you know, any entry level job. And then when they decide that they wanna work remotely or work and travel, it's like all of a sudden the job that they get has to be, it has to be either their own business, they have to become an entrepreneur or it has to be the perfect intersection of passion and their skills and income. And it's like, it becomes a lot of pressure on people to find like the perfect remote job or the perfect way to make an income and a living full time in like a completely different way than they may have been doing for the last 5, 10, 25 years. And so this, just to show that you can start small as long as you start somewhere, just take that first step into a remote job, even if it's making a few hundred dollars a month or a thousand dollars a month freelancing and then taking small jobs, get your foot in the door and then see what can happen from there. And when people lower their standards, sometimes more opportunities open up and then it becomes better than if they had planned and waited and searched for like years for the perfect job.  

Brie:    00:07:58    It's true. And it's, it's funny how that works is is we really, you, when you want to work remotely, oftentimes you start to get a little bit picky about what it actually looks like. And when you're trying to break into that first remote role, it can be tough because a lot of employers look for people with remote experience. They want people who've worked remotely before. And so how it's the, the classic, you know, circular, how do you get the experience to get the job when no one will give you a job to get the experience?  

Kristin:    00:08:26    Yes. Catch 22.  

Brie:    00:08:28    And so, yeah, so I, I totally agree with, you know, just looking at what you're able to do and what you can do. And it might mean being in a job that's not perfect, um, that doesn't uh, check a lot of the boxes that you're looking for, but if it's remote it gets you in that environment. Um, and I think from there, not only do you gain the remote experience, but you gain contacts because everyone that you're working with is also remote. And so now you have people who also work remotely. They might know people in their profession who are doing this, which was the case for me. You know, you, your network of remote job possibilities expands so much more once you get your foot in the remote door of that first remote company that you're working for. So I definitely think that's a good idea.  

Brie:    00:09:12    I don't think that it means having to cast your net so wide that you're applying to everything because I think that's not usually the best way. But really just thinking about what you can do and then focusing on some of those, and we might talk about this in a little bit, but some of those areas that are really popular with remote work that offer a lot of remote work opportunities, what can you do in those areas because that's where most of the jobs are and that will help you kind of get that first one and then from there you can build your career. That's what I always say is when you're going for a job, it's you're just going for your next job. A lot of people think, well this is it. 'cause they don't like job searching and they don't wanna have to do it again that they wanna find the perfect job so they never have to job search ever again and it's not gonna happen. Everyone will have to job search again. And so just getting the next job is a good step in the right direction.  

Kristin:    00:10:01    That is great advice too. And I completely agree because when people ask me how to find remote jobs or how to make money online, my first advice is to start with the skills that they already have rather than going from, you know, maybe they're working in uh, marketing in one company but then they want to make a full-time income doing a blog or being a photographer or something like that. Like they wanna completely switch industries and do everything all at once and when frequently the best opportunities are already within their current network. Like if you're in your twenties or thirties or beyond, you already know probably hundreds of people <laugh> or thousands that you could reach out to and just let them know that you're looking for a job or let them know that your skills are for sale, your skills are for hire and see if they need help with anything. And I think yeah, people would have more of an impact if they started with their personal network, if they go directly to a big aggregate site and apply to every single job like copy and pasting their cover lover to everybody.  

Brie:    00:11:09    Oh yes, I wish I could tell everybody to not do that. <laugh>, it just saves you time and energy too and helps you. It's just go into the next step getting your foot in the door for that next job. And, and like you said, if you're trying to change careers and go remote and do everything all at once, it's gonna be harder. It's not impossible, but it's definitely going to be a di more difficult task. You have many more obstacles to overcome. So if you can kind of do one thing at a time and work your way into the perfect job over the next couple of years, that might be a more feasible way to do it while you're getting some of the benefits immediately. So maybe it's not the perfect job, but now you're working remotely, which is great. And then you can work into, okay, well what do I wanna do next? What's the next thing on my list? Um, you know, is it changing careers? Is it getting a different job in this industry? But going one step at a time can sometimes help a lot.  

Kristin:    00:12:02    Yes. And I have friends who are already remote workers with good salaries and they also have a remote side hustle, which is their next thing that they wanna be working on. And sometimes they work on that for a couple years while holding a full-time remote job because they know that they're going to want to advance to the next opportunity or challenge themselves or change their career in some way later. So that really resonates with me. And I myself am not immune from this advice, even though I've been working remote for a really long time and I've worked for myself pretty much always. When I started content about remote work and digital nomadism and travel, I had never met another digital nomad. I had met other expats who were living abroad and had regular jobs, you know, full-time jobs at companies in different countries. But I hadn't met any remote workers because we work from home <laugh>.  

Brie:    00:12:58    Right, exactly. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:13:00    So I had to intentionally start to build a network from scratch. And so I spent an entire year in 2018 attending conferences and event and working at coworking spaces and specifically putting myself in the environment where I would meet other people from the work world and industry. And this has led to so many friendships and professional relationships and opportunities and podcast guests and just so much fun. And to the point that even this week I just confirmed that I'll be going to the Running Remote Conference in Austin, which is coming up and I know that FlexJobs will be there and we'll have more info on that in in an upcoming podcast. But I'll be doing media for the Running Remote Conference, which is the biggest remote work conference in the world with like 500 attendees from remote companies. That didn't just happen on accident. That was something that took two years to get to the point where I felt ready to go to that conference. I felt like I had value to provide in in covering that conference. And yeah, I have to work just as hard as everybody else who's getting a remote job for the first time.  

Brie:    00:14:16    Yes. And it's so, it's so interesting the side hustle angle because you're right, a lot of people I know who work remotely because you are ditching so many of the things that make that take up your time like commuting and getting ready in the morning and all that sort of stuff. Not to say that I don't like try to look a little bit nice during the day, but like I'm, it's not the full extent of going to an office job or anything like that and the people just kind of naturally gravitate towards doing stuff on the side. And I didn't realize back when I was working at that career office, um, and I started my own job search advice blog just because I really loved the work and the topic and I had more to talk about and more to say and I, and it was, it was like the mid two thousands, so everybody was starting blogs and I thought, okay, well I'll do that too.  

Brie:    00:15:01    That'll be fun. And that gave me inroads into paid freelancing work and it was just something I was doing on the side totally my own thing. I didn't think anybody was reading it and not many people were. But about a year into doing that, um, I had a friend of a friend, a lot of networking things coming up who, um, his girlfriend was starting to work for this company that was doing a lifestyle blog for college students and recent grads. And I thought, well that's exactly who I work for and who I write for and they needed a careers blogger. And so that became my first paid freelancing gig. And I guess my first remote job, because I was doing it from home, I never really thought about it that way before. 'cause it wasn't back then, it wasn't that you thought, oh well that's working remotely.  

Brie:    00:15:44    It was just that was freelancing and that gave me the writing experience to really feel super confident when this job at FlexJobs came up. And I thought, well of course I could write that instead of being like, well I'm not sure. It's kinda the same with your conference experience. Like you have to build up your confidence and your abilities in doing these things before you can be like, well yeah, absolutely, I'm definitely prepared for this. I could definitely tackle that. And so I think, you know, if that FlexJobs had come up three years earlier, I might not have jumped at the opportunity or I would've felt less confident in applying. And it's all, it's interesting how it all comes together, but I think the side hustle thing is a great just idea for anybody. If you've got any ideas of anything you wanna be trying out, just go ahead and do it <laugh>, go ahead and do it on the side it, whether it's work related or a hobby or anything. I think that just the energy that you create by trying new things leads to so many good things down the road in surprising ways. Stuff that you couldn't really predict, you just never know.  

Kristin:    00:16:41    Completely agree. I actually just read last night an article by my friend Nick Gok on Medium, who's an editor for some of the publications on Medium. And it's funny to even call him a friend because he's my remote friend. We've never met <laugh> so many remote friends.  

Brie:    00:16:57    I have lots of those.   

Kristin:    00:16:59    Yes, exactly. You're a remote network can just grow organically this way when you're putting yourself out there, when you're writing, when you're speaking about what you know and publishing and building your personal brand. And he wrote in an article that he started writing at 23 and now he's 29 and that most of his income sources didn't even exist three years ago. But because he had put in the work teaching himself how to write for free on his blog, once the money became available, he was there to receive it. And I thought that was so true, you know, at this point in time in 2020. That's so powerful.  

Brie:    00:17:39    Yeah, it really is. You really have no idea what's gonna happen as a result of the things you just start doing today. And that's, I guess that's another thing that I talk to people a lot about is the start today kind of mentality. Like the, there's that old proverb that's when the, when is the best time to plant a tree and it's 20 years ago, when is the second best time to plant a tree today? Because there's no time like the present, all of these cliches are there for a reason. I just, I love the idea of starting something and especially for, I talk a lot now, um, at FlexJobs we have a career coaching program and I talk a lot with remote job seekers about their job search and one of the big obstacles is burnout and just being exhausted with searching for jobs and all that sort of stuff.  

Brie:    00:18:18    And I think that idea of just starting something that is just for the sake of doing it and because you are interested in it and you enjoy it, can give you energy to do these more difficult things that you're going through in your life. Whether it's a job search or a personal thing. Um, just having that thing that you look forward to that you're interested in just for the sake of learning and growing and distracting yourself a little bit too <laugh> from constantly worrying about your job search. I think it can all lead to really good stuff.  

Kristin:    00:18:47    Yeah, it's kind of like, as I have heard, not through personal experience, kind of like when you need a boyfriend <laugh>, if you don't, if you aren't looking for one, one comes up <laugh>. But I love that you've had this multifaceted experience and that's what I, that's the reason why I started this podcast to begin with because in this particular example, you have been along the same personal experience and personal trajectory of many of the people listening and as have I, like, we've all been there for the past 10 years and we've kind of worked our way through this remote work economy and now we're here to be able to give advice and yet you're here also representing a company that helped find remote jobs. So it's like the people who are in remote work right now are part of the creation of the remote work industry.  

Kristin:    00:19:40    We're kind of the pioneers in a way. Also the guinea pigs <laugh>. So it's like we're all together as a remote community creating this reality as we go. And it's just so cool to be a part of. And for people who wanna start now, it's like people start working remotely and then they realize, I wish I had this remote work tool, or I wonder what the best, you know, productivity hacks are for working from home and then all of a sudden all of these remote workers start side hustles making products and services and things that they wish that they had and then this remote economy just grows even more. So it's such a great time.  

Brie:    00:20:17    Yes. Yep. It's, it's really interesting how it kind of supports itself that way and it's really just through that, through your own personal experience of realizing like, oh, this would be really helpful for remote workers. Or one of the things that our CEO Sarah Sutton, um, did, I think it was back in 2015, was start this website remote co it's remote.co and, and it's, it's basically came out of that like people wondering how do remote companies operate? How do they hire, what do they look for? And they're fully remote companies on that site. So at FlexJobs we have a variety of companies and some of them are super, well-known, long established multinational, massive corporations. And then some are the startup remote companies that you would think of. Um, but on remote co it's all strictly remote companies. Um, no brick and mortar and so it's really, or or or huge remote teams.  

Brie:    00:21:06    That's the other big thing. Um, but one of the reasons was because it's now that there was this uprising or upswell of, of remote only or remote first companies, other people either trying to break into those companies or to work remotely themselves and grow their own remote businesses, were wondering like, how do other people do this? And so Remote.co is this great series of interviews. I think there's like 140 companies on there that have been interviewed and they talk about everything they do, how they hire, how they manage, how they train, and then productivity hacks and all sorts of things. There's also a section for digital nomads for people who are kind of solo working remotely or who are just working remotely and moving around quite a lot, doing a lot of traveling about how they maintain their sanity <laugh> when they're all over the place like that. And it's, it's because there was the necessity for it and people were asking and, and Sarah just thought, well why don't we put this together? We know a lot of remote companies, we know a lot of digital nomads. Let's bring 'em all together and ask them these questions that everybody has. So now you can kind of get the insights into it.  

Kristin:    00:22:09    I didn't realize that Sarah started that, but I definitely have consumed a lot of content on that site as well. So <laugh>  

Brie:    00:22:16    <laugh>, that's funny. Yes. Yep. We call remote.co our sister site at FlexJobs, we're all part of the same little family.  

Kristin:    00:22:22    Perfect. We'll link to that in the show notes for sure. So yeah, let's talk a little bit more about what is available on flex jobs. So some people think when they're looking for a remote job that it has to be a completely remote company. But can you kind of give an overview of the different types of small mid-size and large organizations remote, semi remote, not remote that are listing their jobs on the site. And how are these jobs legitimate and different from the kind of like work from home scams that people might get bombarded with on the internet sometimes?  

Brie:    00:23:00    Yes. Yeah, there is a huge difference, that's for sure. So FlexJobs is really focused on all types of flexibility. So remote is the big one. That's the one that most people think of. It's the one that most people actually want when they're thinking of how can I make my work life more flexible? Most people think I'd like to work from home. Um, and we do surveys on that every year and I think it's like 80% of people say that one 100% remote work is their preferred choice for work flexibility. But FlexJobs also offers part-time professional jobs. So jobs that have reduced schedules but are still very professional level, high quality types of jobs. You know, accountants, uh, nurses, like all the standard uh, quote unquote standard types of jobs that you would see but that have some sort of reduced schedule but might be on site.  

Brie:    00:23:46    And then there's freelance jobs and I'm missing one, oh, flexible schedules jobs that might be full-time or part-time, but they also offer the ability to more or less set your own hours or be super flexible with your hours. So there's all those different types of jobs on FlexJobs. Most of the jobs, I think it's like 75% now are remote in some capacity. So that's one of the first questions that we get is like, why is this job only partially remote? Because some companies have the types of jobs that are remote where you work from home all of the time, but a lot of companies have partially remote jobs. It's actually the most common where we call 'em hybrid situations. So you're working in an office sometimes and you're working from home other times, but it's the same company, it's the same job and they just let you work from home either, you know, maybe a couple days a week or half the week or maybe one week you're at home and one week you're on site.  

Brie:    00:24:37    Companies do it all sorts of different ways to, depending on what they need and what they want their team to be like. But that really is the most common that we've found. And then there are the remote jobs that have occasional remote working. So you might work from home one day a week or on and off or it's, it's kind of flexible and just up to you depending on what you need and want. But the funny thing is, is that not everybody wants to work from home full time. So it's actually really nice that there are these options for people who like to work from home sometimes, but who also really like the office environment. They like the social interaction, they like the buzz and the feel of being around other people and sometimes even the ritual of commuting to the office. I don't personally feel this but I understand that other people sometimes like that they like taking the train every day to the office or some days to the office.  

Brie:    00:25:25    So having that hybrid is really nice for a lot of people who don't wanna be from home all of the time, but they also don't wanna be in the office all the time. So that's the mix of jobs at FlexJobs and then the companies are a huge mix as well. So there's small, medium, large companies. I think right now our database has over 50,000 companies, not all currently posting jobs but that have posted jobs at some point in the past that are flexible and I think it's like 5,000 actively posting right now. Um, but it's, it's huge range of types of companies. So there's well-known companies like at and t Williams Sonoma, Amazon United Healthcare and then there's tiny little itty bitty companies and there's everything in between. The biggest fields that we see are usually things like computer and it of course I think that's one that everybody assumes is very flexible and often remote.  

Brie:    00:26:16    But then also medical and health is actually one of the largest fields for remote work. Not just flexible work but remote specifically. And we see lots of case management positions, social worker positions, but also nursing positions. There's lots more telehealth going on where you call and talk to a nurse over the phone or you have a video appointment. Um, I've actually had two video appointments with my doctor recently so I'm doing remote doctor appointments now <laugh> and we hire, uh, we see listings for remote doctors so there's a really wide range. Accounting and finance is a big one. Education and training. Customer service of course is very big and administrative is another really big one. And sales, I always forget sales for some reason, but that's a big one as well. Perfect.  

Kristin:    00:26:58    So  

Brie:    00:26:58    Those are kind of the big jobs. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:27:00    We actually had a question, I have a few questions from uh, members of my Facebook group which is also now conveniently renamed and it's called Badass Digital Nomads to go with the podcast <laugh>, one of the people in the group, Mindy was asking what are, you know, what are the trends towards remote jobs right now and what has the most availability? And I think you just hit the nail on the head, but another question that people have is, okay, well actually one person had this exact question. Um, David, David Wanner asked if he could apply for remote positions without having any remote experience. And one of the biggest questions I get is, yeah, how are, how can people be qualified for a remote job if they've never done it before? As you were saying that catch 22. And do they have to be really tech savvy and have like technical skills and be a developer to be able to work remotely? So what would your answer be for that?  

Brie:    00:27:56    Oh, I love this question because there are so many ways to approach this even if you don't have remote work experience. So first, yes it is true that a lot of remote companies look for people who have remote experience, but it's also true that most of the job seekers that I encounter discount the remote experience that they have, they don't even realize that they have remote experience. Um, so remote experience doesn't have to be a formalized policy where you were working from home on a regular basis. It was manager sanctioned, it was, people kind of feel like they, if they're saying they have experience working remotely, it has to be official. Um, but it could be if you've ever worked from home even occasionally, even if it was because you um, were waiting for the cable to come and be installed or the commute was really bad 'cause the weather was terrible.  

Brie:    00:28:44    So the office said, Hey everybody work from home today. If you have experience working from your place of residents where you were productive, you were effective. And you can talk about that in a job interview, even if it was only very occasionally that can count as remote experience. Essentially what remote employers want to see is that you understand what it's like to work remotely, that maybe you've done it a little bit and that you're well aware that it's not the party that a lot of people think that it might be, but that it is really serious work and you have your own methods for staying productive and effective and focused. And so that's really key. If you've even never worked from your house before but you've worked with people from different time zones or in different locations than you and you have used a lot of technology to communicate with them like email, phone, it doesn't have to be fancy technology but things like that or online chat or you've done document sharing and project collaboration in that remote way, but you were in an office but the people you were working with were not physically with you.  

Brie:    00:29:46    That can count as remote experience because that's really the, the crux of it is, is how do you work both on your own when you're from home but also with a team? How do you work with other people? Are you a good collaborator over email and phone or do you really need to be in person to do your best work? So all of those things can count if you've ever done remote volunteering, that's one thing that we see coming up more and more is like doing volunteer work for a nonprofit but you're doing it from home. Maybe you're writing grant proposals or anything really from home or if you've done remote study, if you've ever taken courses online, gotten a degree online, earned a certification, anything like that, that can count as well. So thinking about all of those things, you might have more remote experience than you actually think. Yeah  

Kristin:    00:30:28    And a lot of companies basically are remote organizations, even if you're in the same building or in the same town because people are communicating between cubicles, offices, different floors, different physical office locations. Nobody's getting up and going to the eighth floor to ask you a question like they're gonna send you a message or they're gonna post it in Slack or use some of the other tools. So it's like people already have a lot of the remote communication skills that are so important in a remote context, even if they've never logged into their work computer from home, which a lot of people have probably done too <laugh>. So how should people communicate these skills? Should this be in their cover letter or in their resume or how can they highlight that to put that forward to possible employers?  

Brie:    00:31:15    Yes and yes. Cover letter and resume. It depends on what the job description asks for. Sometimes it says like, oh, previous remote experience preferred or it'd be nice if you've worked from home before. Sometimes it doesn't even mention it, but I would say even if it doesn't mention it, you should be talking about this. So in your resume for sure, usually there's some sort of summary and key skills list at the top of your resume. So the different skills that you have kind of listed all in a row, you can put remote work experience as one of those skills or you can write a line about how you were effective and productive as a remote worker. And you don't have to be more specific than that, you know, in your summary. It's just a, a truly a summary of the, the experiences and skills that you have that are the best for that particular job.  

Brie:    00:31:57    And so you can say you, if you have more specifics, like five years of dedicated remote work experience, of course you wanna be specific 'cause that sounds great, but you can just say previous remote work experience or effective remote worker. And then in your job descriptions on your resume and next to your job titles and and areas like that. If you did have the true like at home experience, you could put remote work experience in the um, bulleted descriptions. You could have a line that says, worked remotely from most of my colleagues or, you know, able to collaborate and communicate remotely with, oh there's my dog shaking her collar <laugh>, she's, she's switching positions for the day,  

Kristin:    00:32:38    Mine's usually below the desk  

Brie:    00:32:40    <laugh>. Yep. She's always right next to me and she just kind of changes depending on where the sun in the office is going.  

Kristin:    00:32:46    I think that's the biggest work from home benefit is having your dog.  

Brie:    00:32:49    Yes, I think so. For sure. I love it. I love it. But anyway, so on your resume yeah, doing the uh, on your bullets you could talk about how you collaborated and communicated effectively with distributed team members. That's a, a nice word is distributed. 'cause a lot of companies recognize that way of working now most companies, like you said, are distributed in some fashion, whether you're on different floors of a building, different buildings in the same city or different CI cities entirely, you can talk about working that way. So those are just some different ways to have it on your resume. The tech savvy question that you asked before, they do wanna know that you are comfortable with technology but you don't have to be by any means like developer or software engineer comfortable with technology. They basically want to know that you are able to set up your own home office, that you can set up your laptop and if you have an extra monitor, you know how to connect those things and you have wifi or sometimes they do require hardwired internet, um, depending on the type of job but they, you know how to get the internet um, to work in your house and you know how to troubleshoot the internet if it goes out in your house.  

Brie:    00:33:54    Things like that where it's really just the day-to-day functioning of your home office. They wanna make sure that you can keep up with that. Having a technology skills section on your resume I think is a great idea and it's just a list of all of the programs that you are familiar with or that you're proficient in and it's everything from your standard Microsoft office types of programs to all of the remote communication and collaboration tools that are out there. So things like Slack for online chat or Google drive and docs and sheets for document collaboration, um, zoom and things like that for webinars. So having a an an actual section on your resume really helps show people, I've thought about this, I understand technology well enough to be comfortable working in a home office and making sure that that's functioning.  

Kristin:    00:34:40    So it sounds like the process of how you would go about getting a remote job is very similar to how you would get any job and that people already have a lot of the experience and skill sets and qualifications that they need for a remote job.  

Brie:    00:34:55    Yeah, it's so true. The, the actual job search itself is very similar to a traditional job search. You submit applications, you wanna tailor your resume and your cover letter to that job and yep that means um, having you know, your remote experience or your remote skills too. Oh that's one thing we didn't talk about is if you have truly no remote experience to speak of, which I think most of us probably do, but just in case you can talk about the skills that you know you have that would make you a good remote worker. So communication skills are critical whenever it was on remote co we asked what skills do you look for in remote workers? Communication is always the number one answer from any employer if it's written communication and verbal communication. And it's because most remote companies, that's their foundation, that's how they function is through communication, digital communication, super critical. That's the big one. Always have that on your resume in your covered letters. Make sure that you are known as a really great communicator  

Kristin:    00:35:53    That is so valuable. Listen up guys. Communication that is the central point of everything here. <laugh>, we have a question from Marie who asked how do companies vet soft skills? Like things that wouldn't necessarily go on a resume or things like personality and enthusiasm and leadership qualities. Um, should they highlight that or is that something to come in at a later stage in the interview process?  

Brie:    00:36:21    I think you should definitely highlight it. I think each remote company, especially for the smaller ones, they kind of have their own personalities, their own cultures and you're gonna find yourself connecting with those companies for a reason. So you might be doing your job search and you're researching different companies and you just think, wow, this sounds like an awesome place to work, I really feel like I'd fit in here. Think about that a little more deeply about what it is about that company that you really connect to. Is it the friendly attitude that they have on their website? Is it how they wrote their job description? Like what is it about this company that you're connecting with? And then those are the kinds of soft skills and personality touches that you should mirror in your resume and your cover letter and your cover letter especially is a really good place to do this.  

Brie:    00:37:06    One of the kind of tangential questions about is, is whether to even include a cover letter, which I always say yes, especially for smaller companies, they're much more likely to read those cover letters. But even for larger companies, the surveys that we see say usually somewhere around, I think it's 50% of recruiters and hiring managers will read a cover letter. Oh wow. So yeah, that's half that aren't gonna read it, which is kind of depressing, but half are going to read that letter and they like to see that personality come through there. So showing your personality there can be really great. There are a lot of really good examples online actually of cover letters that have been written with personalities. So that's a good search to do <laugh> to see just some examples out there of how people do this. But yeah, I would say your cover letter and your resume are good places to put those and take your cues from the job description. So a lot of times they'll, they'll actually put like, we're looking for someone who is you know, friendly and outgoing or really dedicated and serious and so take your cues from that, what do they wanna see and what do you have that they wanna see and then you can talk about those skills.  

Kristin:    00:38:03    Okay, great. So that was actually one of my questions is how much should people load their resume and cover letter with specific keywords? Should they be pulled straight out of the job description? Are, are companies using software to just filter resumes for the keywords or is it you know, a more one-on-one process where some person is actually reading it?  

Brie:    00:38:24    Yeah, this is, we actually, the career coaching team at FlexJobs talks about this all day long because it's like the ever eternal struggle of how to write your resume so that a computer system can scan it and it can pick up all those great keywords which yes most companies do use some kind of applicant tracking system or a TS to scan your resume but then that resume's eventually gonna make it to a human. And so you wanna make sure that it's good for the human too and it's like this weird balancing act that everyone has to do. And I would say yeah, it's not necessarily keyword stuffing or keyword loading but you really wanna make sure that your resume, especially your resume cover letter also. But definitely the resume really mirrors the job description and the critical skills and experiences that they're looking for. So the summary and key skills area on your resume can be a really good place to do this.  

Brie:    00:39:13    You wanna make sure that's really heavily updated and you might actually go through the job description. Um, some people print it out, some people just save it as like a word document so they can edit the text and they'll actually start highlighting the text where the skills are listed that they have and the experiences are listed that they have. And so you're highlighting as you're going through the job description, anytime you think like, oh that sounds like me or I could totally do that, or yeah, I definitely have that, or this is me, this is me. That's the, the feeling that we often have when we're reading a job description is like this is me, this is totally me. Highlight those words that you're reading that make you feel that way and then make sure that those words are in your resume. So in that summary you wanna talk about yourself that way, talk about yourself using those same words that describe you from the job description. And some people are like, well that's plagiarism. It's like, well in this case it's really not <laugh> because you're not copying whole sentences word for word and you're doing it because that's what's required to get through the scanning system. It's gonna be scanning for those exact keywords and if you're not a match, tough luck you're not gonna get through. So it's unfortunately just the reality that we're in and that's  

Kristin:    00:40:22    Great advice too. I mean if you're guys, if you're falling asleep reading that job description, don't apply for the job <laugh>, wait until you get that yes feeling like that's me, I can do this. Like when you read a job description and you feel like it was written for you, go for that one. <laugh> don't just apply to places because you want a remote job or you wanna travel like bad strategy.  

Brie:    00:40:43    That's so true. <laugh>  

Kristin:    00:40:45    <laugh>. Well I, that could be the problem with some people. I, I actually get a lot of emails and Facebook messages and comments from everywhere of people who have six, 12 months applying for remote jobs and have never heard back from any of the companies. So clearly they're doing something wrong. I haven't looked at their actual resumes or analyzed, you know, which jobs they're applying for and how that matches with their skillset and their expense. But what kind of general advice do you have for people who've been job searching for a year and they're not getting any traction? Where can they go? Like what kind of resources should they use or do they need a career coach to take a look at it? One-on-one.  

Brie:    00:41:27    Yeah I think it, it could be a little of everything, it depends but there are definitely a few things to think about and steps to take if you're in that position. So the first thing to think about is if you are not hearing back except for one of those cursory, you know, thank you for your application, we will be in touch if we want to proceed sorts of form letters. There's something going on with your documents that is not connecting with that job and if you're applying online and you're uploading then it's time to look at how well are you doing that keyword matching, how well are you updating and tailoring that resume for that job description each time And it can get tedious even for jobs that you're really excited about. It's not the most fun process so it's understandable. Some people kind of wanna be like, well I think I did okay, I did good enough, I'm just gonna submit it.  

Brie:    00:42:14    And unfortunately it oftentimes those are the ones that just don't make it through. So that's one thing to think about is if you're uploading it a lot, that's an issue. The other issue might be with the formatting of the actual resume making it difficult for the applicant tracking system to scan it. So if you use things like columns or put information in your header and footer of your resume or you use an uncommon font, like little things like this can totally throw off the applicant tracking system and cause it to have a reading error where it just rejects your document because it can't parse the information, it can't figure out where the words from your resume should go into its system. So the big things are no text boxes, no columns, no headers or footers. Just use common fonts, use common bullet points, no graphics, no uh pictures, no charts, nothing like that.  

Brie:    00:43:08    If you can't take your mouse and scroll down your resume and highlight all of the text, if big chunks of text get missed as you're like trying to copy essentially the words on your resume, if you click at the top and scroll all the way down with your mouse, there's something going on with the formatting. So that's something to think about too. One thing that will help with all of these questions is this tool that we use at FlexJobs called Jobs scan. It's jobscan.co is the website and I think they offer some free versions so you can actually use this without signing up for a membership and paying right away. And what it does will you put your resume in and then you put in the job description that you were applying for with that resume and it will actually analyze it just like an applicant tracking system and give you a report that shows you how well you matched the job description.  

Brie:    00:43:56    And oftentimes people who think that they've edited and tailored their resume will get like a 20% match and they'll think, oh I missed a whole bunch of stuff here <laugh>. And it will highlight like this word appeared 10 times in the job description and only one time in your resume. It gets really nitty gritty with it. So Job Scan is an awesome tool to just figure out what's going on with your document and and if it can't read certain things you will see big blanks, you'll see where you know it can't actually read pieces of your resume. So I would start with that, start with Job Scan and just see what the results come back as and you can go from there.  

Kristin:    00:44:28    Yes, I've actually used that tool and I've tested it out for the students in my digital nomad challenge class 'cause we do one just dedicated to finding remote jobs. So we'll put a link to that in the notes as well. I actually just made, I don't, I've never had a traditional job but I made a resume specifically for the purposes of using Job Scan and I basically pretended I was applying for this job and I got like a 20% <laugh> or like a 17% on my resume and I was like, oh my God, I thought I made a good resume and then I ran it through the scanner and there were all of these holes in my, you know, experience and the keywords weren't mentioned. Like a lot of the key important keywords. Sometimes even with a highlighter you're gonna miss the frequency of certain things and themes that come up. So I love that objective very practical tool that is just an algorithm telling you yes or no, you're on the right track.  

Brie:    00:45:26    Yeah, it's doing what those systems are gonna do so you can at least get the insider info. I will also say there's a big caveat, so I think Job Scan recommends you get at least 70% matching, but Job Scan is a little bit different than most of the applicant tracking systems that you would apply through because it doesn't wait the keywords. So one time I, I scanned a resume and then I did it in Job Scan and, and it came up saying it doesn't, you don't talk in your resume about dental insurance and the words dental insurance appear in the job description. It's like, well because they're offering you dental insurance with this job so you have to take it with a grain of salt. I would say if you can get it up to like 40% or 50%, that's probably good enough with those real keywords, not the peripheral things that Job Scan picks up that the uh, the real job would not be scanning for. Like they wouldn't expect you at that company to have dental coverage on your resume and in the applicant tracking system they're not gonna put that in as one of the keywords that they're looking for. They actually put a list of keywords in that they want to see so pay attention to those ones.  

Kristin:    00:46:29    That's a great tip. And then I'm also curious because there's definitely a stereotype of remote workers that they're kind of this 20 or 30 something male tech worker and that's the same with digital nomads and that's not true <laugh> based on demographics, research statistics from all different sides of the remote work spectrum. So what do you think that people need, let's say if they don't fit into that stereotype, let's say they are high school grads who don't wanna go to college. I would like to start with that. What are the requirements from a corporate perspective or a company perspective? Are they still waiting traditional four year college degrees as important? And then what about the opportunities on the other end of the spectrum because a large percentage of remote workers are maybe baby boomers or you know, they're in Gen X or they're in like an older generation, not necessarily millennials or Gen Z, I think it's like more than half are over 36 or something like that. So what kind of advice do you have for people who are 18 years old, you know, who don't wanna go to college but they are tech savvy, you know, with the basic skills and they wanna work remotely and then also people who maybe are on their second, third or fifth career and they just wanna stop commuting to work and they wanna have a better quality of life. What are the opportunities like for them?  

Brie:    00:47:59    Yeah, so from, you're totally right that the demographics of actual remote workers are so different than the stereotypes that people think of. I think it's the, the data that we have shows that half of remote workers are over 45 years old. Wow. So half of the remote workforce is definitely on that experienced end of the spectrum. They have a lot more experience and then it's most common, if you look at it generationally, it's most common among baby boomers versus Gen X or millennials. So it does skew to this older crowd for the most part. However, if you are young and let's say you're just graduating from high school or something like that or in college or getting certificates, whatever it might be, and you're on the younger end of the spectrum, there are definitely lots of opportunities there as well. I will say the degree issue is something that it's, it still persists in the remote job market as well.  

Brie:    00:48:51    So there's, in the overall job market it's, it's thought to be too heavily relied upon when people say, you know, a four year college degree is required for this job. A lot of times it really doesn't have any bearing on how someone would do in that job, but they're just requiring it because it's a thing that sounds good and they wanna narrow the applicant pool and all that kind of stuff. So, but we are seeing that very slowly start to change very slowly in the job market overall and that includes with remote jobs. So that's, it's good news but it's not good news if you're still searching right now because it's kind of the same as it always has been. It's definitely you're gonna be looking at more entry level types of positions unless if you, uh, let's say you have a high school diploma but you've been working for years, you could say something on your resume like in lieu of a bachelor's degree, I have 15 years of experience in this particular area and that helps get the bachelor's degree keyword on your resume, but get past those applicant tracking systems that might be looking for that degree to be there.  

Brie:    00:49:53    So that's, it's, it's not always guaranteed to work perfectly, but it's one thing you could try, but for the one of the gateway remote jobs that we find a lot of times for people who either don't have a lot of work experience in general or um, who are looking to work remotely but don't necessarily have a degree, is customer service, which was my remote gateway job to getting into remote work too. It's a huge area of remote work. There's lots of opportunities, some better than others. I would say definitely look for reviews of the different companies that you're looking at. If you're, if you're looking at customer service, some treat people better than others, some have better hours and better schedules and pay and all of that. So I would just pay close attention to what reviews are online. glassdoor.com is a really good site for that. Getting the inside scoop into different companies and what it's like to work there. So yeah, customer service and sales is another big area where they don't necessarily require a ton of experience or a specific degree. Account management, things like that, which is kind of like on sales and business development and customer service all combined. So those are some areas that we see a lot of, uh, the ability to break into if you don't have some of the traditional  

Kristin:    00:51:03    Right. And like you said, it's all about getting that initial remote work experience on your resume, getting your foot in the door, learning, uh, new skills and a new job and then buying yourself some time while you increase your skills and looking for another job if necessary. But I have friends who are completely content, they're making really good money. Like I think some of them are making five to 7,000 euro per month working in customer service. And the, the companies are based in Europe even though they're based in a different country. And so they get the European work hours, which are, you know, not necessarily 40 hours per week. And so it's not a high stress job, but they're getting paid really well and you know, they're out skiing every day and like in the morning and then go to work in the afternoon. And I mean, I'm a little bit jealous <laugh>. I'm like, well  

Brie:    00:51:58    Yeah, sign me up <laugh>. That sounds great.  

Kristin:    00:52:00    Yeah, so it's customer service or, or some of the entry level jobs might have this negative connotation, but these people are just, they have a good quality of life. They're laughing all the way to the bank and they're building their skillset if they want to kind of climb the remote ladder in the future, so to speak. So don't be afraid.  

Brie:    00:52:18    And one of the things that I have not mentioned, but I should have all along the way, is the people factor in your job search involving other people. Getting into like Facebook groups where you can meet other people and interact and just build a community of people who are either job seeking or who can help in your job search. Especially if you're looking to break into something that you haven't done before or you don't have quite the quote unquote right experience for something. But you know, you could do the job networking and getting contacts at the companies that you wanna work for and expanding the number of people that you know professionally is a huge benefit in your job search. So I would say that should be a focus even with remote work. And it doesn't, like you said, you've met people who are like your remote friends and you've never met them before, but you feel very comfortable with them.  

Brie:    00:53:05    That can be your networking experience too. You don't have to go shake people's hands at some cocktail party or go to some kind of like a Chamber of Commerce event or something like that, which are fine. But I also know it's not the most comfortable situation for a lot of people. There are plenty of online ways to network. LinkedIn of course, is one of the obvious ones, but there are so many different groups now. Facebook groups, exactly what Kristin's doing and other types of groups like that online. That would be a really helpful thing for people is to just expand your network, get to know more people and actively talk about what you wanna be doing and what you're looking for. And not necessarily asking people for specific help, though you can get to that point. But really just being open and positive about the direction that you're moving your professional life. And you'll be surprised at what people have to offer you. That's what, when I got the job or got knew, heard about the job at FlexJobs, it was just because my coworker knew that I was unhappy in my current job and knew that I had been writing on the side. And he was, he put two and two together for me and was like, Hey, I heard about this thing that you might like, so you just gotta talk to people. <laugh> talk to as many people as you can.  

Kristin:    00:54:12    And one of my other remote writer friends, his name is Ail, he's coming to Miami for a conference next week. And we were laughing like, oh, we're gonna actually meet in person. Which like never happens. And I just read his book called Real Help, which I, I think I recommended it in my other recent podcast on like the books I read throughout the year. I read it in just a couple days. It was such a good book. I'll link to that as well. But in the book he talks about how he basically was, he was unemployed, he went to jail for selling drugs. Like he was at the bottom, bottom, bottom. His electricity cut off. He had a daughter, he had so many issues going on and he started working from the library, reading library books for free and writing on the side. And now it's five years later, his life is like 180 degrees different.  

Kristin:    00:55:01    But at his first job, his first big break for like a remote job because one of his friends noticed that he was posting his writing on Facebook, like his essays. And he's like, do you wanna write for my website? I need someone to write content on my blog. And he said yes. And it's like, because he put himself out there, people noticed 'cause he was like writing positive things about topics that he cared about. Yeah, you just never know. And he still says to this day, like, that was my big break. If it wasn't for that guy offering me that and me saying yes, who knows how many extra years it would've taken me to make a living from my craft. So  

Brie:    00:55:39    Mm-Hmm. Oh it's such a good example. People, people, people. <laugh>. It's all about people.  

Kristin:    00:55:44    All about people. Well I have one more question before we get into the lightning round. What are your thoughts on approaching a company, even if they don't have a job that fits your skills and maybe doing a key or offering to do some work for free or something like that as a, as a way into a job? Do you have any experience with that?  

Brie:    00:56:06    Yes. I say go for it. I used to be kind of called like cold calling employers, but now I guess it would be cold emailing or cold messaging employers. But essentially you're just writing to say, Hey, I love your company. I love what you guys are doing. Here's what I do. I know there's not a specific job listing posted right now, but if there is ever the opportunity to work together, I would love to talk to you more about that. And that's it. It can be that simple. I have people do that on LinkedIn or if they can find that person's email address, that's really ideal. But yes, I say absolutely go for it. I think it works wonder sometimes and it just expands your network. If nothing else, you are meeting people <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:56:45    Yes, definitely Don't be afraid to reach out guys. I publish this weekly new show called Digital Nomad News and every week, depending on the story that's in there, if it makes sense, I'll actually contact the company or the people that I featured in the show and share it with them. And I find their, their website or their email address or connect with them on LinkedIn. And these are people that I came across through mainstream media or through research for something I was doing. And I found an interesting story and then I put it on YouTube. They don't know who I am, but I send it to them and just say, Hey, you know, I featured you in my new show. Keep up the great work, love this, blah blah blah. And that way I've had some executives at like multi-billion dollar companies subscribe to my YouTube channel just because I sent them <laugh>, this clip. And then jobs have come out of that, opportunities come out of that. But that's a cold email basically. And I'm not asking them for anything. I'm just saying, Hey, I like what you guys are doing so much that I made a video about it to share with my audience because I believe in this and good for you. And that's it.  

Brie:    00:57:55    Oh, I love that. It's so true. You just never know what's gonna come from it. Just, just reaching out to people. That's really all it is.  

Kristin:    00:58:02    Yeah. And sometimes people don't respond, but then it doesn't matter. Like the more you are putting out good vibes, the more it's gonna come back at at some point eventually. So take chances guys. Yep,  

Brie:    00:58:13    Exactly.  

Kristin:    00:58:14    Okay, so let's hop into the lightning round. I'll let you get to your, to the rest of your day and your weekend. What is your morning beverage of choice?  

Brie:    00:58:23    Oh, I like this question because I recently, I just made a big change in my life. So I was a Diet Pepsi person in the morning for a long time. I don't like coffee. I know it's, ugh, oh, I don't like coffee. And I didn't really like tea, but I like caffeine. And so I thought, well, okay, I'll do that. And then of course like more and more information comes out about how it's not good for you to drink. And um, I just wanted to kick the habit. So I finally did after many times trying just like last, I think it's been a month. Um, I don't have it in my house anymore. I don't even think about it. And uh, so now I drink tea. Tea is my morning drink of choice.  

Kristin:    00:58:58    Oh wow. I haven't heard that yet. Pepsi in the morning. But I'm glad you switched to tea.  

Brie:    00:59:03    Yeah. It's not the greatest decision to make in your life, but here I am <laugh>,  

Kristin:    00:59:09    We all have one thing in common though, and that is a caffeine addiction. Most of us  

Brie:    00:59:13    <laugh>. Yeah. That was never my option was like, oh, maybe I'll just ditch caffeine. I was like, no, no, no. I have to ditch this version of caffeine.  

Kristin:    00:59:20    We're gonna replace it with something else. Yep. What is your work from home morning routine? How do you start out your day?  

Brie:    00:59:28    Well, I, let's see, I have two kids, so I get up when they get up, we get them off. I have a 6-year-old, he goes to school. I have a one and a half year old. She goes to daycare. Highly recommend childcare for anybody who's working from home. <laugh>, it's in my book. It's a must. And then once I get them off to school, I, I come home, I walk the dog. That's another good thing about having a dog. She gets you out, gets you exercised every day. I love getting daylight and fresh air first thing in the morning if I can. So I usually go for a couple mile walk with her and then I settle into work. My office is on the third floor of my very old house. And so the kitchen is really far away, which is great 'cause I don't snack as much as I used to when I lived in a tiny house where the kitchen was like across the hall <laugh> from my office  

Kristin:    01:00:13    As I sit next to the kitchen. <laugh>.  

Brie:    01:00:15    Yes, it's tough. It's a tough place to work for me anyway. I'm a, I'm a snacker. I can't ignore food so I usually grab just like a water or tea and then a snack to bring up with me.  

Kristin:    01:00:25    And what is your favorite work from home or remote work tool? It could be an app, like a digital tool or a physical tool, like a journal or something like that.  

Brie:    01:00:36    I love, I have a wireless mouse and keyboard. So I use a laptop and then I have dual monitors and I do not like the laptop keyboard even when I'm just using the laptop. I love having a regular keyboard, but I hate wires. <laugh>, I have lots of like, I love this but I hate this. So I love a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard 'cause it gives you the full keyboard and full mouse experience. But without those extra wires  

Kristin:    01:00:58    We can be work buddies because I have the same setup. And actually today I posted it was, it's Friday. So I posted a photo in my Facebook group, a post where you're working today, like send us a photo. And I sent a photo of my new desk set up 'cause I just moved to Miami and I had like my monitors and everything. And Delphine who lives in France, she's like, oh, do you travel with that monitor, that beautiful apple display? I was like, unfortunately no, I only have it when I work from home. Otherwise I use like a little monitor, like the size of an iPad or something. Or if I go to a coworking space that has them, I will go during off peak hours and I will plug into the, the monitors there as long as we're allowed to do that. And that's my other hack for that. So <laugh> in my coworking space in Amsterdam, I used to go on the weekends and at night because they had my exact same Apple display. Um, and the guy said I could use it anytime when he wasn't there and he was there from like nine to five. So I would just go hours and just get my work done. It's so, so much more productive to have your external monitors for sure.  

Brie:    01:02:03    Ugh, I love, yeah, anytime I'm just on the laptop I feel like I can't see, like I just can't see anything. I have two huge external monitors that I like to use, so I'm with ya. I, I am sad when I don't have them.  

Kristin:    01:02:15    And which app does your team at FlexJobs use the most for communication?  

Brie:    01:02:21    I think Slack, which is pretty common. <laugh> Yeah, for, for remote, for regular teams too. Even in office teams use that. But Slack. And then we also use a thing called koco, which is like a, a virtual office environment where on the screen it actually looks like a blueprint of an office and everybody has their own office where like the content team all sits together, the coaches, career coaches all sit together and so you can see, physically see people when they're working, their little icon shows up and they're in their office or you can see like, oh, you know, Carol is meeting with Doug in this office. You can knock on the doors by like double clicking with your mouse and it will actually have a little knock, knock, knock pop up on the person's computer.  

Kristin:    01:03:02    That's adorable.  

Brie:    01:03:03    It's really neat. It's the closest I've gotten to that in-office social feel since I started working remotely. So I like it. It's, it's a little finicky sometimes, but we really like it 'cause it just, it also just shows you at a really quick glance who's in the office when you are. So if you're looking for somebody you can see like, oh yeah, they're on right now. Or Oh nope, they're not here today or whatever. So I like it.  

Kristin:    01:03:22    It's like the Sims in a virtual office format. <laugh>.  

Brie:    01:03:25    Yes, it is The Sims for remote work. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:03:28    I love that. Because then you don't have to text people or message them like, hey, where are you? You could just see where they are. Oh, they went for a coffee break.  

Brie:    01:03:35    Yeah, or if I have a meeting coming up with somebody and they're not in, we use like Zoom and stuff for meetings. If they're not in yet, I'll just look at Koka. I'm like, oh, they're meeting ran late with so and so. I can still see the two of them in the office chatting together. The icons actually blink when you're talking. Wow. Because it sound like the sound of your voice or whatever. So you can actually see when people are engaged in conversation. It's really cool. I like it. It's so coco.  

Kristin:    01:03:56    I'll definitely check that out. That sounds very useful. And like not in a big brother way, but in a very practical way.  

Brie:    01:04:03    Yes. Yeah, it's definitely saved me from having, like you said to I am. So I'm gonna be like, Hey, are we still meeting? I'm like, oh, he's just running late with so-and-so he'll be in in a few minutes. I don't have to bug him. Love  

Kristin:    01:04:12    It. So where can people get more information and resources of your writing on the FlexJobs blog and then how can they connect with you on socials?  

Brie:    01:04:21    Yeah, so on FlexJobs, it's flexjobs.com/blog and on Twitter, which is what I tend to use most often, it's Brie W Reynolds. And Brie is like the cheese, BRIE.  

Kristin:    01:04:32    Oh great. We'll never forget that,  

Brie:    01:04:34    <laugh>. No, it's pretty easy. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:04:36    And will you be attending Running Remote?  

Brie:    01:04:39    I will not, but the uh, some of the team at FlexJobs will be there. So definitely if anybody else is at Running Remote and for you of course, definitely check them out. So are you gonna be on site at Running Remote?  

Kristin:    01:04:49    I am. I'm gonna be doing video for them.  

Brie:    01:04:52    That is awesome. Yeah. So you'll definitely meet some folks from FlexJobs, unfortunately not me. I wish we could meet, but we can still be friends. Remote friends,  

Kristin:    01:04:59    Best remote friends forever. <laugh>.  

Brie:    01:05:01    Yes. <laugh>,  

Kristin:    01:05:02    Thank you so much Bri, for coming on and giving us so much great advice. This was so helpful.  

Brie:    01:05:08    Oh, you're welcome. This was a blast.  

Kristin:    01:05:10    And actually side note, I think this interview happened because I feature FlexJobs all the time on my news show and then somebody from the company emailed me,  

Brie:    01:05:19    There you go-  

Kristin:    01:05:20    <laugh>. And I was like, oh, can I talk to one of your experts on remote jobs? Because this is such a, a big question for people and we hadn't done an episode about it yet, so this was perfect. It just all fell into place.  

Brie:    01:05:33    Oh, I love that. Yep. It's the art of reaching out. Include more people in your life, <laugh>, even if it's just a, yeah, just to talk about the products and services that they use or whatever. Yeah, I love that. I love when things come together.  

Kristin:    01:05:45    And then thank you everybody in the Facebook group thanks to Sacred and David and Mindy and Marie and everybody who wrote questions for us to ask Brie, I appreciate that and I hope you guys got the answers you were looking for. If you have any other questions this episode, feel free to message Brie and I on Twitter. I'm Kristin, and of course you can always reach out through our websites as well. And have a great weekend, Brie. We will talk to you again soon, hopefully.  

Brie:    01:06:14    Yes, thank you too. Happy weekend.  

Kristin:    01:06:21    If you liked this episode of Badass Digital Nomads, then you'll love my new remote jobs guide, A pdf with 11 strategies for landing a remote job in 2020. You can download it directly from my website at www.TravelingwithKristin.com.  

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