Well, after a couple of months of volunteering some work remotely with an environmental non-profit organization, it made me realize if anyone wants to put their foot in the door to launch a career, they need to learn to give value first as supposed to finding the next job that probably seems like the best choice at first because it pays right away, it leads to a dead-end job. With my past experiences working; or attempting to work; for these other companies that only pay you minimum wage and work you like a dog, after literally about a week or two, working starts to become more of “chore” than something that makes me motivated enough to do cartwheels out of the bed to get me excited about a work day ahead of me. On top of all of this, working for a boss that only cares to exploit your mental and physical capabilities to the max with compensation that isn’t even equivalent to the amount of effort you put in; that may involve improving a company’s workflow; you still have to deal with the daily stress of surviving LA traffic just to safely arrive at work and also the trek back home. I remember when I was working piledriving jobs in Orange County, from my personal experience, I had to wake up at 4am in the morning so I can drive an hour to arrive at work to put up with more stress by the foreman and the superintendent who want to work you like a robot for 8-10 hours a day. To be honest, I truly have no problem doing physical work and believe blue-collar work can become a very lucrative business, but then I start to question what I was doing and that is when I started to meditate on some career ideas and thought about the teachings of Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie respectively from their books, Think And Grow Rich and How To Make Friends And Influence People. Reflecting on the content from these books, I realized that I was wasting my intellectual talents and needed to become actualized. From this reflection, it has led me to volunteering my time today in hopes of becoming a partner with te organization that could lead to something great involving green technologies….and doing this while I’m working at home. Though I realize that with the relationships I’m building with this non-profit organization; luckily with my academic background and experience with research in renewable resources; I know the remote work may just be temporary when everything starts falling into place due to future growth and applying innovative ideas that can help better the environment.
But, anyways, after briefly talking about what has been going on in my life so far besides training myself…outside of the house…at the gym to eventually compete in my first Olympic weightlifting competition while focusing on this volunteer work as a researcher and technical writer that will eventually lead me to a paid career in a higher position, I want to talk about my experiences thus far with working remotely at home.
What are the benefits of a remote job?
Here’s a list of what I believe are the benefits of working remotely….
(1) You don’t need to drive to work. (Obvious benefit)
(2) Are able to work anywhere as long as you have a laptop, decent internet access, and keep constant communication with your employer and other employees despite international time zones.
(3) Are more flexible time with the work you do which means you have more quality time with your family that is usually lost driving to a typical job. (For this to be a “pro”, you need to still stay disciplined and focused to ensure you get the work done that your employer ask for; whether it’s a paid job or not.)
(4) To add to (3) and assuming you built up the habit to treat your sitting area, you are able to be more productive because your more comfortable and less stressed at home. For me, that is sitting on my living room couch with a portable table to place my laptop and my cell phone on while I’m comfortably wearing my pajamas and with my family watching shows on TFC; The Filipino Channel. The best part about this benefit is that it gives you flexible to do some other work on the side and guarantees the ability to cook myself a fresh lunch everyday; possibly consisting of my tita’s authentic Filipino cuisine.
(5) Gives you more time to build and focus on your true talents.
(6) Doing the type of research I’ve been doing thus far is compatible with my side gig of building up this blog because the act of researching things helps with coming up with ideas for future blogs and other ideas; even with fitness goals.
(7) Though critics may argue with me about lack of face-to-face social interaction due to the remote nature of the work, I would like to rebut that criticism because it gives you the possibility of allowing more time for social interactions outside of work. Using myself as an example, I socially interact with my family and practice my Tagalog with some of my family members, make more time to attend social events from meetup.com, use that time to mastermind with the people I currently work with, give myself extra time to network with other professionas though maybe honing my public speaking skills by attending Toastmasters meetings, etc.
Conclusion
Though there are some cons such as not effectively managing your time and not being cognizant of deadlines, once you have those main issues solved along with possibly working with other people in different timelines and security issues with confidential information, there are definitely more pros than cons when it comes to remote work and I truly believe any job can become a remote job that would in turn benefit both the company and the employee/contractor. And from my experience so far with volunteering my time doing work that I would otherwise be doing without anyone telling me to do because I already enjoy researching lots of topics on the internet, to ensure the employer that the tasks they are paying you to do is in the right hands, I truly believe that to become more competitive, offer your clients free work and showcase your portfolio to show your future employers and partners that you have the value and talent they are looking for and that you have the ability to exceed their expectations that college degrees and certificates can’t replicate.
The Outlaw Thinker 