Why I built a community for remote work
The COVID-19 crisis has pushed everyone into remote work suddenly. Large-scale companies like Facebook, Twitter, Shopify have decided to go remote perennially. From the survey that we conducted recently, we found that 50% of companies have changed their remote work policies permanently and most individuals aren't seeing any drop in productivity.
The reality of remote work or future of work has been suddenly fast forwarded by 10-15 years. However, the forums, communities or products needed to support this change are either in a nascent state or entirely missing.
What do existing forums for remote work look like?
Existing remote work communities only focus on jobs and have given us a gazillion job boards.
They, however, miss the basic human need - to interact. As remote workers, we need to belong, relate and learn from others who understand the journey we are on.
This is precisely why, half a year ago, we started sharing stories of successful remote workers on our blog and here's just a glimpse of how people reacted on one of the stories -
Community to learn, network, showcase and upskill - in a remote setting
So, we built a community for remote workers to -
1. Learn
In my opinion, the best way to learn is through people's experiences. Here's one fantastic example of interactions on a post titled, 'What is the best note-taking app you have used?' -
2. Network
When you have a community focused exclusively around a common cause, passion or niche (in our case, remote work), you get the best of minds on the platform. We had a similar experience with our community which cumulatively boasts a truckload of remote work experience across diverse fields.
3. Showcase
When companies hire remotely, they aren't just looking for functional skills but are also concerned about how you communicate, the way you work, your opinions etc.
For example, Basecamp checks if a candidate can 'write' through specific writing tasks in the interview process. Doist evaluates if the person has a hobby outside of work. All to assess if the candidate is fit for remote working.
Our focus is for remote workers to be able to showcase all of that through their profiles on The Remote Clan.
4. Upskill
Of course when you are part of a community, you're also looking to polish your existing skills or learn a new one.
We focus on sharing quality resources on remote work, originally created by experienced professionals. There's also great opportunity to learn non-remote related skills.
Example, getting & effectively implementing user feedback -
So dive right in! Browse through the content, interact with others and make a few posts yourself.
The community website you see right now is the culmination of all our efforts over the past year and half. I would really love if you spend some time to drop me a line at [email protected] about your thoughts on this :-)