How many applications should you send to get your first remote job

People all over the world are shifting to remote employment at a very fast pace. While it is mostly a personal preference, many major companies have come to the realization of the merits of remote work and they too look forward to becoming fully remote. So at some point, most employees of the workforce around the world will get to work from wherever they want to.

This is why I encourage remote employment. It enhances the chance of more people getting employed, helps employees earn and save more from their salary, and helps companies reduce their expenses. And it all comes down to the absence of commuting and managing offices, which for the most part, is unnecessary when there’s a more advanced way of working and managing workers.

But what threatens people is the difficulty of getting a remote job. While I say remote employment helps more people get employed, people struggling to land their remote job might say otherwise.

And this is where the concern keeps popping up - how many applications you should send to get your first remote job.

The Grind Towards Your First Remote Job

As a company goes remote, it’ll be in a position of greater exposure. They’ll be in a position for more workers to see them, which means they’ll get hundreds more applications when there's recruitment going on.

As this increases the competition for remote workers, the right thing to do is put in a little more effort and keep grinding until they get a job. Remote work is, in most ways, the better working system so it certainly deserves the effort from your side.

Your conversion rate from applications to interviews will probably be below 10% for remote jobs. So if you’re just getting into remote employment and you have little to no experience, you’ll most likely need to apply to more than 10 job openings in order to get at least 1 interview.

That might sound like a lot but everything has a beginning, and it all takes time and effort for a fruitful future. So as a rule of thumb, you should perhaps apply to any remote job that fits your skills, at least in your early stage of remote employment desires. And if your eyes are on garnering that initial experience rather than the money you earn, try for those entry-level remote work.

By sending out so many applications, you increase the probability of winning an interview. In the best case, you’ll be having multiple interviews and you’ll get to pick what fits you and rule out the jobs that don't.

Best Practices to Get Your First Remote Job

The best practice is to apply to as many jobs as you can in a week. In case you already win interviews, book them for the next week or squeeze them into the current week if you have the bandwidth of attending them.

For some people, you might have a bad time seeing conversions from applications to interviews. If that’s the case, test different variations of your desired job role. You can aim for more junior roles, entry-level remote work, or even try different job titles that require your skills.

Things will get easier for you as you gain more and more remote work experience in your desired job role. The hardest bit is getting started, so it’s vital that you put in the extra effort. And always try to get jobs within your interests and skills rather than fitting into the in-demand remote employment opportunities and high-paying job roles where you’ll be burned out in just a few months.

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