Ask HN: What's your strategy to land fully remote jobs?

I can share some thoughts from a hiring perspective. For context I'm the founder & CEO at https://ipinfo.io - we're a fully remote team of around 30 people, and we've hired at least 10 of those this year, many via the monthly HN Who's Hiring posts, eg. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33076376

The best way to stand out is to put some effort into the application. We get many applications that just include a resume, and no additional details. We also get a lot that include some very generic details that could relate to any job post (eg. "I'd like a remote job for reason X"). Applications that include even the smallest bit of customization will put you way ahead of many candidates (eg. "I saw your post on HN and it caught my eye for reason X and I think it'd be a fit for me because of Y").

Cold outreach direclty to me (email or LinkedIn) is usually a good sign, but again those vary greatly in quality. The worst ones don't give me any information about the candidate (eg. "Saw your post on HN, can you give me more details?"). The very best ones demonstrate that you're proactive, and a great communicator (eg. "Hey Ben, just submitted my application for the role I saw you posted to HN. I'm excited about the role for reason X, and think it could be a great fit because of Y. You can found out more about me at 1, 2 or 3. If there's anything you think I could improve on my application please let me know. And here are a few thoughts I had about your company/product from a quick glance: Z. Hope to hear back from you or the team soon, thanks!")

A really important part of fully remote work is communication, and the application process is a great way to desmonatate that, but it's something people often miss.

Best of luck on your job hunt!

I hope this isn't too drive-by or basic but did companies ever ask "why should I hire you as a freelancer rather than a W2?" or is the trade-off an easy sell since freelancers don't come with as much baggage as an employee does?

I've seen others do exactly what you are describing and am wondering if this kind of pitch on a W2 job posting is an easy layup or if there is something you encountered that you would be willing to pass along.

Let me know if this ask of you is too much. :)

Fair, fair. I do have a decent network locally. It's just that I'm interested in landing a fully remote role at some of these global distributed startups where I can't leverage my network.

Hi! First time user here! I’ve been trying to land remote jobs since before COVID but I could never do it. A difficult part was knowing where to search for those jobs, and how to keep updated about new jobs. That’s why during the pandemic, I decided to create an iOS and an Android app that searches in several very known remote jobs boards, groups them all together in a list and let’s the candidate apply in the original job board where the job is posted. This way I can make sure that only refreshing the list in my app, I get the latest jobs posted in 5 different jobs boards. I’m not sure if it’s allowed but if somebody wants I can write the link to the apps here (they’re both free)

I second this both as a manager and as someone who cold out reached to a careers page for my current remote gig.

There’s not a shortage of engineers. There IS a shortage of engineers who care enough to spend an extra 15 minutes on a task to finish it. Spending 15 minutes on a short note with your resume is the best way to show you have this trait.