The first question you might ask is “Why should I show remote work experience on my resume?” First off, let’s define what remote work means. It’s paid undertakings; jobs whether as projects or contracted work that are conducted online from a remote location.
Remote workers are alternatively referred to as virtual assistants, freelancers, home-based workers or the more accepted, politically-correct term telecommuters.
There are four good reasons why you should reflect work in your resume:
- It informs the recruiter that you are interested in landing a remote worker position in the company.
- It shows leadership spirit; you are willing to be accountable for your career and financial independence.
- It readily highlights your strengths; a potential employer will take note that hiring you would entail reduced training expenses.
- If you have difficulty finding regular employment, remote worker can magnificently fill in the gap which recruiters are likely to question.
There are also two valid reasons why you should reconsider putting your remote work experience in your resume:
- The potential employer may think you are still doing remote work and may not commit to the demands of the job.
- It may present you as someone who’d rather be in charge than take instruction.
All things considered, it is better to show your remote work experience because the resume is your first point of contact with a recruiter. You should lay down all your cards and take the risk. At this point of the job search, the resume is the only document that can get you the all- important interview. By all means, go for it!
But if you want to avoid the risk of having your remote work experience go against your chances of landing the job, here is the best way to go about it:
1. Establish Your Purpose for Including Your Remote Work Experience.
As discussed earlier, there are three reasons why you should include your remote work experience in the resume. The answer to “Why” is your purpose and it will determine where you should place remote work experience in the resume.
- Summary – If your intent is to land a remote worker position in the company, have your experience included in the summary. This way the recruiter can immediately see it and tie it in with the rest of your resume.
- Skills Section – If you want to highlight your strengths, place your remote work experience in the skills section.
- Work Experience – Placing it here will show the recruiter you value your experience as a remote worker. You take pride in taking chances for yourself and are willing to take accountability for your own decisions.
If you’ve had a difficult time looking for work after being laid off or a brief resignation, placing your remote work experience in this section will fill in the gap nicely.
Recruiters are aware employment can be cyclical and difficult at times. They would prefer that you remain productive during these down periods.
2. Determine the Relevance of Your Remote Work to the Job Position.
If your remote work experience is relevant to the requirements of the job you are applying for, you should highlight them.
For example, you are applying for the position of Project Manager in a Digital Marketing company. If you had previous experience managing remote teams in digital marketing, you should capitalize on this. It should be frequently mentioned in different parts of the resume.
You can include it as part of your Summary:
“Designated Project Manager for a remote digital marketing team that handled 3 campaigns from different industries. My remote team included an SEO professional, a social media marketer, web developer and content writer. As Project Manager, my primary responsibility was to design the digital marketing campaign and closely collaborate with my team to stay on track of its performance.”
You can include your remote work experience in the Work Experience section where you should go into complete detail. Include the following information:
- Name of Client
- Main Objective
- Courses of Action
- Results; indicate actual numbers and figures
On the other hand, if the remote work experience is not relevant, you can include it in your overall work history but you do not have to go into detail. If you do, it may detract the recruiter from the more critical bits of information.
3. It Must be Related to Your Skills Or….
There are recruiters who place a premium on candidates whose skills and work experience show the company will not have to spend time and resources on additional training.
Many companies want to generate ROI on their human assets. They understand the value of training but they would prefer it if the candidate can contribute immediately to the company’s coffers.
For example, if you are applying for the position of Market Researcher and they see you’ve had previous remote work experience doing extensive research for a variety of clients it may be enough to convince the recruiter you deserve the interview.
In this case, your remote work experience worked to highlight your strength and core competence in the area of market research.
4. It Must be Perceived to Improve Your Weaknesses.
On the other hand, you could present your remote work experience as your way of improving a weakness.
For example, if you are applying for the position of Accounts Specialist but your remote work experience was that of a data encoder. You can present this in the Summary as follows:
“From March to August 2015, I took a remote job as a Data Entry Specialist for Deutsche Bank. I was tasked to verify all raw data collected from various sources then enter them into specific data bases. Not only was this a great opportunity to work with one of the most successful banks in the world, but it was the best way to improve on my analytical and encoding skills.”
No matter how you look at it, remote work still accounts for experience. It still represents a responsibility that you had to complete and submit according to the demands of the client. Including it in your resume will present more advantages than risks.
