Finding remote work in 2022

A few years back I wrote how to find remote work in 2019 after a personal research of having to find a remote work for the first time not by being approached by a headhunter, but on my own. That article did better than a lot of other things I've written. However, recently I had to hire people about of a very very early stage startup (the very first hires other than the co-founders), and noticed the list and feedback I had on my original article needed some updates, especially with the business world embracing the remote work more and more after the pandemic.

So here they are - in this article I'll cover the most popular platforms I've noticed as being used and their pros and cons and in another one I'll cover the perspective of someone looking to hire and the pros and cons of the platforms then, as they more often than not are quite different.

We Work Remotely

Still my favorite several years later! I've found most of my job opportunities through WWR.

Pros
+All companies I have contacted for job postings on this website were fast to +respond. 
+All had a quickly moving hiring process. 
+It has several types of jobs - marketing, programming, etc. 
+It also has the benefit of showing where candidates must be located for the job. 
+It has kept growing over the years. It now has 28,530 postings

Cons
-It doesn't allow for an easy apply like other entries on the list.
-The increased number of companies leads to a bit of a dilution of how often companies reply and how quick their process is.
-There is no streamlined way of applying for a job. The button for applying can lead to anywhere - outside platforms or even just email addresses without any guidance on what information is of interest to the company.

Remote Tech Jobs

Built as a replacement of Stack Overflow jobs, based on their description.

Pros
+It has much better filtering capabilities than other options, to find what you are looking for
+All jobs get taken down after 30 days at most, ensuring fresh listings.
+Has a lot of open opportunities. Almost 5 000 at the time of writing, which when the previous point is considered is a lot of activity from companies looking for candidates.
+Has an easy-apply option.

Cons
-They also aggregate jobs from 11 other platforms, aiming to be the go to place for finding remote work. However, when tested with several postings from We Work Remotely, they didn't appear in the results of Remote Tech Jobs.

LinkedIn

Pros
+The most obvious candidate for everyone. 
+The number of companies looking to hire through LinkedIn has increased over the last several years.
+Has an easy-apply for a lot of the open positions
+Can filter by location as well (in case you need/want to go to an office as well or are looking for a simpler legal process (when both you and your employer are in the same country), or if you are just considering moving there)
+Can easily research the company's profile right there in LinkedIn, including for active or past connections to get some inside information

Cons
-It still has mostly permanent positions
-A lot of early-stage startups don't post on LinkedIn while they are still in stealth mode, so if you are interested to be one of the first hires at a company, other entries such as AngelList or HackerNews would be better options

AngelList

Pros
+Has a lot of active listings
+Companies are required to list their salary range for the posting, so there is less of a chance of surprises
+Companies also list expected bonuses in terms of stock options
+Has a streamlined application process

Cons
-There is a lot of competition especially because of the easy application process so you'll need to stand out
-Most of the companies on AngelList are early stage start ups. This can be viewed as a benefit for some people as well

Otta

Pros
+Each company posting jobs at Otta is screened by them so the quality feels a lot better than some other platforms
+Extremely good filtering
+Streamlined application process

Cons
-Lower number of overall job postings

HackerNews

This one is a bit more complicated as it has a few different parts:

• https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs / https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
• Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2022) - new thread each month
• Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2022) - new thread each month

Searchers build on top of the information from those threads

• https://kennytilton.github.io/whoishiring/
• https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/

Pros
+More personal approach for each position
+You'll most likely get interviewed by the actual people you'll work with and not an HR, recruiter, or a headhunter
+A lot of open positions and overall active community

Cons
-No easy filtering like other options on the list
-Some listings might have expired and not been closed
-No easy way to find still opened listings (from the end of last month for instance)
-If you are posting your own profile to get contacted, you'll need to do it every month (if you don't find a job right away)

Other noteworthy mentions that have declined over the years

No Desk
Dice
Remote Work Hub

Pilot
Upstack
Gun.io

Notes:

Always read the job posting in its entirety! Some companies would ask questions in their listing that they'd like to get an answer to when applying. A sort of a replacement for the usual stock cover letters.
Prepare yourselves for a lot of companies not closing their job postings after finding a candidate. Especially on HackerNews.

P.S. Everything written above is from my own limited perspective when I have applied for different jobs or noticed when deciding on which platform to post a job to get the maximal result. It may vary for different disciplines and/or cases. I would love to discuss what others have come across while searching for job opportunities in the comments below or on Twitter

Last disclaimer - The image at the top of the article is from Ostap Senyuk at Unsplash