Remote working has changed a lot in respect to the way we work.
Compared to an in-office world, how we showcase our value, push forward our claims for promotion, develop our careers and self-promotion are markedly different.
Key Takeaways:
Remote vs In Office Career Development
The dynamics of career development between in office vs remote environments have some important differentiators that are pivotal to understand in order to maximize chances of progression.
Those who are able to adapt to this new setup and adopt new ways of thinking will help themselves stand out when it comes to career progression.
First, you need to know what these skills are.
Remote Work Skills For Career Development
There are certain skills that require extra attention to excel and stand out as a remote worker. Skill such as:
If you are able to hone these foundational skills, you’ll have a solid baseline to be recognized for your efficiencies and elevate your role specific achievements.
Setting Career Development Goals
Career goals can be orientated around a lot of metrics and ideas, but a good core framework is to make your goals SMART:
- Specific – Make your goals clear, to yourself and others
- Measurable – Define a measure of success
- Achievable – Within the resources available
- Realistic – Meaningful to overall business objectives
- Timely – Set a timeline and ultimate deadline
Once you’ve devised your SMART strategy and devised your plan, share and communicate it thoroughly with those that it will impact, those that you need to help achieve it and most importantly you manager or individual who will ultimately judge its success and impact.
Challenges Of Remote Work And Career Development
Here are some common challenge associated with remote work advancement and how to resolve them:
Less face to face interaction
💡 Solution: Check in regularly with your manager, document your achievements, proactively seek feedback from all collaborators, maintain visibility across all platforms, Zoom, Slack email etc and clearly communicate your SMART goals.
Good work is less noticeable
💡 Solution: Share your wins with the wider department and business over email or instant messaging tools. Be more brazen than you would be otherwise in an office environment with success sharing as good work is generally more suppressed due to lack of visibility in a remote work world.
Proximity Bias (tendency to favour those closer to us ie ‘f2f in the office’)
💡Solution: Go into the office if you can, utilize video conferencing as much as possible, be transparent and frequent with your comms. Build interpersonal rapport by starting meetings with small talk whilst taking an active interest in colleagues’ thoughts not just about work, but outside of it too.
Harder to demonstrate leadership
💡 Solution: You need to go the extra mile and be proactive in driving work forward in the remote world. Putting in regular meetings, transparent and concise comms go a long way to building collaboration, particularly on project work. This approach works well in the remote world as instantaneous in office comms that can benefit leaders are not available so proactivity is crucial to demonstrate strong leadership.
More competition/larger talent pool
💡 Solution: If you’re looking to progress outside of your current company, collating a portfolio of work, building strong references, networking and showcasing how you’ve built the previously mentioned foundational remote work skills will go a long way to helping you stand out against the competition.
Benefits Of Remote Work And Career Development
Some of the ways remote work can be an advantage for career development include:
Digitalisation
As more work is tracked in the remote world for transparency, it gives you the opportunity to prove your output and showcase the value of your work. Digital comms tools can further be used to share your accomplishments with a wider team too.
Better work-life balance
Better work life-balance means that people often have more flexibility, creating periods of focus and productivity that work best for them. Utilizing this agility to your advantage can mean that the amount and work you get through and quality of it is substantially improved.
Autonomy
As remote lifestyles make us work more individualistically whilst managing our own time, it’s a great opportunity to showcase autonomy. Career development/ progression often rely on the ability to work autonomously and showcase a proactive attitude to work – don’t miss the opportunity to do so!
More job roles to apply for
As the global talent pool available to employers increases with remote work, so does the amount of opportunities presented to prospective employees. Embrace the variety of positions and globalization that’s occurred to give you the best chance of advancing your career and finding a role that you’ll love.
Remote Work Career Development Plan
Once you have your goals and a full understanding of the parameters of both remote work and career development. It’s time to make your plan.
Self assess: Take time to assess and evaluate what you’re good at, where you need to improve and what your preferences are for your work and career.
Incorporate your goals: Build your overall SMART goal out by breaking it down into the smaller goals that will help you achieve it.
Action steps: What are the actions, strategies, meetings experience, networking that need to be done to get you there.
Roadmap: Create your timeline for when everything will be complete, identify where you need support.
Resources: Where will you need training, others to support you, do you need to layer in training or professional certifications/courses?
Feedback: Be receptive to feedback, especially at the conception stage to make sure your plan is achievable and well informed.
Adaptability: The plan could change and others will probably impose on it, realise this early on and remain agile to keep you on track.
Think big: What are your longer-term goals (5 year +) and how does this plan fit into your future, thinking further ahead will give focus and structure to your career development plan.
Summary
Whatever your career goals, however mighty or small, planning, communication and realistic goal setting will stand you in good stead to achieve them.
Enthusiasm, hard work and proactivity are often the majority of the battle.
Frequently Asked Questions
James Waite
Founder of Remoteopia, James has worked in remote roles for 6 years. After a stint in recruitment, he now works as a director of website strategy in tech.
