Is Remote Work Only for the Chosen Few?

Is Remote Work Only for the Chosen Few? How to Find an Online Job

A Friday article about work? Yes, please! Why put it off any longer? How many of you have ever thought about working remotely?

“Where do I even start?”
“That’s not for me.”
“I don’t know anything or have any skills.”
“You need experience for that.”
And, of course, the million-dollar question: “What career should I choose?”

Sound familiar? Then let’s talk.

How It All Started for Me

I started working remotely back in 2014, long before the pandemic, while finishing my fourth year at university. I found my first opportunity through a freelance marketplace.

Sure, more experienced people helped me land that first gig. But when it came to social media and marketing, I was a complete beginner. I didn’t even know that managing social media accounts fell under the umbrella of Social Media Marketing Management.

I simply started watching what competitors were doing, experimenting with different activities and creative ideas, and figuring out what worked.

Back then, you didn’t need nearly as many skills to get started as you often do today.

But there’s one thing I’ve always said, and I’ll keep saying it: the fundamentals of marketing remain largely the same year after year. You need to know them. They’re the professional equivalent of learning your times tables at school.

So I started learning. Through free and paid resources, YouTube videos, pirated courses, and webinars hosted by online schools. Three years after making my first rookie mistakes, I enrolled in an online university.

I’ve Tried My Hand at Different Fields

Customer support, guerrilla marketing, copywriting, reputation management — I’ve worked across several different fields. I even found some gigs on regular job boards simply by filtering for part-time positions. And, of course, not every experience was a good one.

I’ll never forget the time I got cheated out of payment. I spent an entire holiday writing articles for a client. This was before AI writing tools became part of everyday life, so everything was done manually.

The texts turned out beautifully. But the client refused to pay, claiming the work wasn’t suitable. A week later, my texts appeared on their website. After I filed complaints, the content was taken down. But the experience stayed with me. It was my first encounter with that kind of dishonesty, and it taught me a valuable lesson.

Unfortunately, remote work isn’t just about freedom and working from anywhere in the world. It’s also about protecting your interests, vetting clients, and learning not to give your work away for free.

Where Should You Start If You Have No Experience?

Honestly? Start with free webinars covering all kinds of careers that catch your attention.

Explore everything: coding, design, marketing, illustration, 3D, data analytics. You don’t need to rush into a course or spend a fortune on training before you even know what you want to do.

Start small: one free webinar a day.

Take career aptitude tests, preferably a few different ones. They won’t magically tell you what career to pursue, but they can help you understand yourself better and discover what interests you.

Next, explore freelance marketplaces. There are countless platforms out there today, just as there are countless career paths.

Look at the demand for the roles that interest you. You can also search remote jobs for beginners. What skills do employers and clients expect? What does the day-to-day work involve? How many jobs and projects are available?

Then ask yourself one simple question: could you do this every day without getting bored out of your mind? If the answer is yes, add it to your list of possibilities.

How Do You Find Your First Clients?

The idea is simple, even if putting it into practice isn’t always easy. Reach out to potential clients. Offer your services. Explain how you can help, make a convincing case for yourself, and show what you can do.

If you don’t have experience yet, start building a small portfolio. You can use practice projects, personal work, or sample case studies. You can also take lower-paying projects to gain experience, but agree on the terms upfront. Don’t work for free on the vague promise that someone might pay you someday.

And then there’s learning. Lots of learning.

Keep improving, test your ideas on real projects, analyze the results, and work on becoming better at what you do. Even if you’re designing a simple, inexpensive banner, it’s worth understanding what it’s supposed to achieve and whether it actually works.

That’s how you build experience. And experience doesn’t appear out of thin air.

There’s Another Option: Customer Support

If your goal is to get your first remote job as quickly as possible, consider customer support. This could mean answering live chats, responding to emails, or handling phone calls.

Companies regularly hire support agents, and some entry-level positions require less previous experience than other fields. The starting salary may not be particularly impressive, but it’s an opportunity to gain professional experience, learn how to communicate with customers, and become familiar with workplace tools and processes.

From there, you can grow within the company, work your way up to a team lead or management position, or move into a related field.

The important thing is to get started. Your first job doesn’t have to be your dream career. Sometimes, it’s simply a way to gain experience and figure out your next move.

Was It Easier to Find Remote Work in 2014?

Oh, please. Don’t make me laugh!

Today, we have an incredible range of tools, platforms, educational resources, and career opportunities. We can learn from professionals around the world, work with international clients, and discover entire industries we might never have heard of before.

Back in 2014, there wasn’t nearly as much choice. Fewer platforms, less information, fewer opportunities — and working conditions that could sometimes be downright exploitative.

So, yes, I’d definitely challenge the idea that finding remote work was easier back then. Of course, competition has increased. Some professions require considerably more skills than they used to. But the number of opportunities has grown enormously, too.

Remote work isn’t a privilege reserved for the chosen few. But it’s not a magic button that makes money appear in your bank account, either.

You have to experiment, learn, make mistakes, explore different career paths, and gradually build your experience. And perhaps the most important thing of all is not to wait until you’re good enough to begin. Because sometimes, all you need to do is open that first webinar.

What’s your experience with remote work? Share your story in the comments! ❤️