AHMED EL AZZABI

Get That Remote Job

 Copyright © 2021 by Ahmed EL AZZABI

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the
publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or
distribute it by any other means without permission.

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 Contents

Introduction iv
Who am I? iv
What to expect from this ebook? iv
How to get the best from this e-book? v
How can you help me? vi
1 The basics 1
But why? 1
Show me, or it didn’t happen 2
The things you certainly need 4
English 4
Writing 5
2 The process 8
Negotiate a work-from-home agreement 8
I can’t make it this afternoon/morning 9
Ask for a full day 10
Ask for more 11
Stop whenever you want 12
What if it didn’t work? 13
How to get a new remote job? 14
Know what you want (or get close) 15
Do your research 16
Build your portfolio around your areas of improvement 18
Start applying for jobs early 20
 Introduction

Who am I?

I’m Ahmed EL AZZABI, a self-taught software engineer working

remotely with Automattic, the team behind WordPress, Jetpack,
Tumblr, and others.

In 2018, I used the same process described in this e-book to land

my remote job. And today, I want to share that process with you,
for free.

If you’re curious, you can find me online at elazzabi.com and

@elazzabi_.

What to expect from this ebook?

This e-book doesn’t contain tips or tricks that will get obsolete
in the next months/years. I’m not going to teach you a get-rich-
quick scheme or some nonsense. The process described in this
book is valid for years if not forever.

Instead of taking shortcuts, and hurting yourself in the long

run, you’ll be building your knowledge. Getting real-world
experience. And building your portfolio. One brick at a time.

iv
This means you need to put in the work to get what you desire.

Even if I work as a software engineer, this e-book isn’t related

to the software industry. Any person can pick this and apply the
process described here to their industry.

How to get the best from this e-book?

If you want to get the best from this e-book, I encourage you to
read it from start to finish. Do not try to skip sections, unless it’s
mentioned. In addition to the e-book, you’ll get a PDF document
as a recap. You can use the notes there as blueprints in your
journey.

In each section, there are exercises to do. Do them! Getting

information isn’t what you need. Getting real-world experience
is what matters.

In addition to this e-book, you’ll get some automated emails

every few days. Treat them as a check-in of your progress. Also,
if you have any questions, you can respond to those emails, I
read everything I get from my readers.

I would love to hear your thoughts about the e-book, the process,
or any other feedback you have. Please reach out to me at
elazzabi.com/contact.

v
How can you help me?

If you want to help, please send your feedback (good or bad)

about this e-book, I would love to read it.

If you want to help financially, you can do so from my Gumroad

page. Please select any product (even this one), add your desired
tip, and voilà. Thank you!

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 1

The basics

But why?

Before going deep, let’s start with the first question: Why do
you want to work remotely?

Skipping the commute? Skipping big cities? Avoiding the office

distractions? The possibility to travel and work?… Whatever
your reasons, note them down.

Keep your reasons at reach and read them whenever you feel
down. The path can be a long one. And you may think of quitting.
But always remember the reasons why you’re doing all this in
the first place.

How to note them is a personal preference. You can use a post-it

note. Your phone/computer wallpaper. A digital note… Anything
you want as long as it helps you going forward.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Show me, or it didn’t happen

Let’s start with the first thing you need to do to get a job. And
that’s applying to a job opening.

Some remote companies get hundreds of applications for each

job opening. Basecamp, for example, got more than 1.000
applications for the Head of Marketing position. And the same
numbers apply to other remote companies. All this to say, the
competition in remote jobs is no joke.

I’m not saying this to frighten you. Or to tell you it’s impossible
to get a remote job. I’m only telling you this as I need you to
keep something in mind: Getting past the first selection stage is the
hardest step in getting a remote job. Getting the eyes of a recruiter
in a pool of hundred applications isn’t easy. But we’ll work on
it.

To understand how you can get past this first step. We need to
understand what remote companies are looking for? Once you
know this, you can make your application stand out.

Remote companies are looking for real-world experience. Either

past experiences, or side-projects. Some people may use their
education and/or the school they attended to stand out. But
that’s a bad idea when posting to remote jobs!

I once got this question from one of the readers of my blog

remote.ma:

Can I post to an engineer position even if I don’t hold an

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 THE BASICS

engineering degree?

Remote companies do not care about your education. If you can

market things, you are a marketer. If you can create software,
you are a software engineer. There is no need to show your
certificates or diplomas. You’re what you do. Remote companies
do not care if you are self-taught or if you do hold a degree. So,
if your resume has your education on the top, to emphasize it,
go ahead and remove it. Instead, focus on your past experiences
and/or projects.

For remote companies, seeing your work is way better than

reading some words on a PDF file. They are curious to hear what
you have to say on your blog. How you market a brand from
scratch. How you manage to keep customers happy. And any
useful projects you worked on. But also, any side-projects you
did in your free time.

Show me, or it didn’t happen.

That’s it. That’s what you need to know. Don’t tell me about
your education and your GPA. Show me what you do. Let me see
with my own eyes and I’ll decide.

This is the first lesson in this e-book, and I want you to keep it
in mind. In fact, everything we’ll do from now on is preparing
you to show what you got.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Exercise:

What are the things you created but didn’t share with
the world? Do you have some notes about a book?
Do you have a small software laying around? An
experience you didn’t write about it yet? …

Think about this, and write down at least 3 things

you can share with the world. Spend the next few
days preparing them and share them whenever you
are ready.

The things you certainly need

If you want to work remotely, there are two things you’ll need
regardless of your industry. They are English and Writing.

English

Working remotely is working with people from all around the

world. To be able to communicate, you need English.

If English isn’t your primary language, you need to spend some

time learning it. You can start simply by doing what you already
like, but in English:

• Do you like reading? Read English books.

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 THE BASICS

• Do you like music? Listen to English songs and read the

lyrics.
• Do you like writing? Write in English.
• Do you like watching movies/series? Watch English ones
with subtitles.

Another good way to learn is by following people you admire

on social media and read their tweets and/or blog posts. This
will help you learn more about the terminologies of your desired
field. Thanks to Alex Münch for the tip!

It’s not an overnight success, but you’ll get better with time and
practice.

Writing

Working remotely is working with people from different time

zones. When it’s morning for you, it’s evening or night for
others. Doing a call isn’t an option anymore. This is why you
need a new way of communication: Writing.

By default, writing is the tool of communication when you work

remotely. Calls are the exception, not the normal.

A project you can use to cover both these skills is blogging

in English. This means either micro-blogging on Twitter or
starting a blog. If you use Twitter, this will help you grow your
audience where you can share your blog posts in the future. So
I encourage you to start on Twitter and then create your own
blog.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

If English isn’t your primary language, or if you need some

help, I use both Grammarly and Hemingwayapp to help me with
grammar, punctuation, and writing style.

For ideas, nothing crazy. Share small parts of your life or what
you read/think about. If you take a look at my blog, I write
about tomato purée, my way of reading books, or launching a
business. It’s a personal space, so talk about anything you want.
Our goal is to get better at communicating ideas.

You are writing first for yourself, then for others. You are writing
to improve yourself, to challenge your thinking, to document
your progress, to build a network, to share experiences that
might be useful to read about for others who are in a similar
situation. Then to have something to show when you apply for
a job

If you can write about your industry from your experience. Or

document your journey while learning a new useful skill in your
industry. You’ll win extra points and help show your enthusiasm
for your craft. If you’re learning something new, make sure to
share your progress once in a while. It will also help you see your
development and keep the momentum.

Exercise:

Enough talking, go ahead to wordpress.com (or any

other blogging platform) and create your blog. Every
day, create a new document in your favorite note-

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 THE BASICS

taking app (or a draft post in your blog) and start

writing.

Once a week, take your weekly notes and create a blog

post from them. I encourage you to do this on Mondays
so you can get an energy boost for the week. Once done,
share your blog post on your social media accounts.

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 2

The process

In this second chapter, we’ll talk about the process to get a

remote job.

Negotiate a work-from-home agreement

The first thing to consider is whether you can do your current

job remotely. If your answer is yes, then continue reading.
Otherwise, feel free to move to the next section.

If you can work remotely, but you are currently working from
an office, we’ll try to negotiate a “work from home” agreement.
You need to try this before looking for a remote company as it
may be easier and less time-consuming. Also, it’s a good way
for testing remote work.

Here are some steps to use in your current job:

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 THE PROCESS

I can’t make it this afternoon/morning

First, ask for an afternoon/morning working from home. If

you’re not sure your boss will accept it, go with the “I can’t
make it” argument. Call your boss and tell him/her you can’t
come to the office for personal reasons. If you think your boss
will ask you, better give them a complete answer from the start.
Feel free to use some of these:

Hey [Boss Name], my [daughter/son] has a fever and was

sent home from childcare. My [wife/husband] can’t take
care of her/him, so I need to go home. I don’t want to
take the afternoon off as I have some important work to
complete, so I’ll be working from home. I hope that’s okay

Hey [Boss Name], I’m not feeling well today and I’m
afraid I can’t make it to the office. I have some important
work to finish, so I’ll work from home instead

When you ask for an afternoon/morning, make sure to avoid

Monday and Friday. This can imply that you want a long
weekend and we don’t want this as a first impression.

When you work from home, make sure to be as productive as

you can. Take note of what you achieved and how you adapted to
your new environment. You’ll use it in your future negotiations
when you’ll hear questions like: How do you collaborate when
working from home? How did you brainstorm ideas with your
co-workers? Etc.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Everything can be done remotely. But your boss needs to hear it

from you and preferably with examples. So make sure you have
those ready.

Ask for a full day

Your next step is to ask for a full workday from home. Call it a
“two-week experiment” of working from home. Tell your boss
they can stop the experiment whenever they want to give them
insurance they are in control. And be sure to talk about all the
benefits you had the last morning/afternoon you worked from
home. You can use something like this:

Hey [Boss Name], I have an idea I want to discuss with

you… You remember the last afternoon/morning I worked
from home? I wasn’t expecting it, but I’ve been very
productive. Actually, I managed to finish [X] tasks that
afternoon/morning compared to [Y] tasks I finish from
the office. It is amazing! So I was thinking, as a trial,
I’d like to propose working from home Wednesdays for
the next two weeks. It’s an experiment to see if I’m more
productive working from home. Of course, you can stop
this whenever you want, and I’ll come to the office if there
are meetings. I’m confident I’ll get twice as much done
from home. Does that seem reasonable?

You are asking for a complete day from home. If your boss rejects
the idea, ask for half a day. This is why we are asking for a full
day at first so we can have a margin for negotiation. Do not

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 THE PROCESS

forget to schedule a review with your boss after the two weeks
experiment. You will discuss the achievements you made in your
trial period and propose to make it longer.

Like the last time, be as productive as you can when you work
from home and keep a note of your achievements.

Ask for more

In the review meeting, talk about your achievements and pro-

pose new trials. Each time add a day and repeat the same process.

When you start asking for 3 or 4 days per week, your boss will
start rejecting the idea. That’s normal.

First, make sure to confirm all your boss’s rejections before

giving solutions. This way, you don’t appear to be in fight mode.
Second, make sure to communicate this is a trial period and your
boss can stop it whenever they want.

Here are some of the rejections you may hear:

Boss: I’m not sure we can do that.

You: What’s your main concern? (Do not accept a vague

answer, know the pains so you can fix them)

Boss: What if everyone wants to do the same?

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

You: Fair enough, good point. No one should be allowed

to work remotely unless they can show increased produc-
tivity. And I’m the perfect experiment. If they can show it,
why not let them do it on a trial basis? It lowers costs for
the office, increases productivity, and makes employees
happy.

Boss: Are you trying to quit?

You: To be honest, I am exhausted from my commute and

all the interruptions in the office. But I’m feeling great
now with the change in the routine. I hope I can have
more days working from home.

Stop whenever you want

For some, working 100% remotely isn’t what they are seeking.
They want one or two days working from home, but still prefer
to go to an office for the rest of the week. If that’s your objective,
then stop negotiating when you think you achieved what you
want.

Once you’ve reached your objective, we need to maintain the

time you negotiated. Remember? This was an experiment only.

Now move your talk from experiment to extension, then to

permanent. Here is a suggestion:

Hey [Boss Name], the few experiments we did run about

remote working were beneficial for me and my produc-

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 THE PROCESS

tivity. I feel I can do this for more time now. What do

you think if we can extend this experiment for an extra 4
weeks? Of course, you have all the rights to stop it…

Once the extension is accorded, ask for things to be permanent:

Hey [Boss Name], as you’ve seen, the extension worked

pretty well and I’m now used to working from home. I feel
I’m more productive than the first weeks I started. What
do you think if we keep this as a permanent experiment?
I’m sure I’ll be more productive. Also, I can rejoin the
office if I’m needed for a meeting or if you think my pro-
ductivity working from home isn’t up to the expectations.

Make sure to state it’s still an experiment, and they can stop it
whenever they want.

What if it didn’t work?

You can negotiate and do your best, but sometimes it still won’t
work. 1) Either your boss does not want you to work remotely,
or 2) the company you are working with is too rigid to accept
that. Either way, it looks like you need to change your employer.

The next chapter talks about this in detail.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Exercise:

Talk to your boss in your next meeting or around a

coffee break about the idea of working from home.
Try to ask curious questions and make it an informal
discussion.

This will help you understand if your boss is open to

the idea of working from home. You’ll know if you can
proceed with the plan above or not.

How to get a new remote job?

Let’s say you can’t do your current job remotely and you need
to learn something from scratch. First, don’t panic, this is
completely possible. I work as a Software Engineer from home
and I learned it on my own. You don’t need a fancy school or an
expensive course. You can learn anything online. If you want to
do it, you will.

But what do you need to learn? Good question!

Here is a process I used to get my first remote job. It’s not tied
to any industry and can work for all people.

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 THE PROCESS

Know what you want (or get close)

Jobs you can do remotely are:

• Software Engineering
• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer Support
• Systems Administrations
• Writing
• Blogging
• Design
• … and more

What industry sounds interesting to you? If you already have

knowledge in some of these fields, or already working in one of
them, I encourage you to pick it. It will be easier for you and will
help you move faster.

If you are still new to a field and don’t have an idea about it. I
encourage you to google “what does a ….. do?”. Like “what do
software engineers do?”.

If you still can’t pick your favorite/dream job, pick your top two
or three. I’ll help you narrow things in the next steps.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Do your research

This is the most important step and you’ll learn a lot from it.

Once you have an idea about the jobs you want, you need to do
some research about them. Job descriptions, qualifications, and
other things we’ll see next. The best way to do this is by visiting
remote working job boards.

There are a lot of job boards out there, but the ones I use are
remoteok.io and weworkremotely.com. Start reading the job
descriptions for your desired job.

If you still don’t have a clear idea about your dream job from
the prior step, you need to spend more time here. Visit each job
posting and read the description. This will help you understand
what you’ll be doing daily and choose the most appropriate one
for you. In the end, you’ll find a job that resonates with you.

After spending some time with job descriptions. Now move to

the requirements part of the jobs and read it closely. If you spend
enough time with different job postings, you’ll start seeing a
pattern emerge. You are in search of the skills that appear in
every job requirement. You need to take note of those for the
next steps.

Beware of things that are specific to a job posting or a group of

job postings. Here is an example from a job posting for a support
position:

Fluent in English and German.

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 THE PROCESS

From this example, knowing German is specific to this job, but

it is not a requirement for all jobs. This one was obvious, but
sometimes, it can be tricky. Take a look at this job posting for a
marketing position:

Advanced knowledge of at least one programming lan-

guage (e.g., Javascript, PHP)

This is a job posting for a marketer, and asking about coding

skills. This is not the norm and this requirement is specific to
this job. A simple trick is asking yourself: If I remove this, can
I still perform my job in another company? If your response is
yes, then it’s a detail. If not, then it’s necessary. This will help
you get the signal from the noise.

Note from the author:

For me, I’ve done this research on software engineering
jobs. The pattern that emerges is: you need to be able
to communicate well within a team and have a record
of building and shipping products. The specifics on
the software engineering jobs are the programming
languages and the frameworks. You’ll find thousands
of jobs asking for experience in Ruby on Rails (a program-
ming framework), and others with experience in PHP (a
programming language). But those are details only.

Once you have a list of the things appearing in every job posting,
you are ready to move to the next step. Let’s call this list: areas
of improvement. “Improvement” here can mean learning from
scratch or improving your skills.

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 GET THAT REMOTE JOB

Build your portfolio around your areas of improvement

Remember our first lesson in this e-book? Show me or it didn’t

happen. We are going to use it a lot here.

What we’ll be doing next is building a portfolio. For those who

hear this term for the first time, a portfolio is a place where
you can showcase your work. Traditionally, we’ve been using a
resume for this. But now with the Internet, it’s usually a blog or
a personal website.

Your portfolio should cover two things:

1. Projects you’ll build to show your skills

2. Projects around your writing and communication

For the projects around writing and communication, we’ve seen

that your best bet is blogging in English. Now let’s talk about
your skills (ie, areas of improvement).

Our goal is to showcase a project where you developed your

desired skill. The process looks something like this:

1. Take a course online about your desired skill

2. Apply what you learned to a real project

I get a lot of questions from people about the best course for
learning software development or the best course for learning
marketing. And the truth is, it doesn’t matter. There is no best
material to learn something. Just pick one, and stick to it until
completion. Take notes while learning, and revisit your notes

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 THE PROCESS

frequently. That’s what you need.

Once you finish your course, go ahead and apply what you
learned to a real project. Keep this in mind: If you can’t create
something real with what you learned, you wasted your time.
Getting more information will not help you. Applying things is
what you need. And if you struggle with motivation, try to find
a friend to stay accountable with your goals.

For some jobs, it’s easy to create things on your own. Software
engineers and designers can create apps and design things on
their own. But let’s say you want to work on customer support,
how can you showcase this to your future employers? What’s
the equivalent of building apps for customer support people? Or
marketers? Or sales?

It’s easier than you think. Go to Google and make a quick

search for nonprofit organizations in your area. Make a list
of those needing your help and offer to do it for free. Nonprofit
organizations are understaffed everywhere.

• If you’re a social media manager, look for nonprofits with-

out a social media account. Offer your help to create a
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter page and manage it for them.
• If you want to practice your customer support skills, look
for nonprofits selling goods. Offer your help responding to
calls, emails, and dealing with customers.
• If you are in marketing, offer your help growing awareness
about the nonprofit organization.

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Helping a nonprofit is better than working for free as a freelancer

to “get experience”. It’s crazy how some people still suggest
this as a solution to build a portfolio. You’ll spend a lot of time
trying to find the perfect freelance gig and dealing with crazy
deadlines.

Your skills are in better use with nonprofits. You’ll help people,
practice your skills, and make your portfolio stand out with real-
world experience.

At first, you may need to learn these new things while keeping
your daily job. And I encourage you to do this instead of quitting
your job to focus on learning skills for a remote job. It may take
longer, but that’s the more logical and safest option. To help
you with that, I have a step-by-step guide on how to learn new
things while keeping your day job.

If you have some experience already, but your work isn’t public.
Here’s a quick idea you can apply to share proprietary work with
the world.

Building your portfolio is the longest step. Take a deep breath,

take your time, and keep your objective in front of you.

Start applying for jobs early

When you have at least one thing in each area of improvement

in your portfolio, start applying for remote jobs. There is no
such thing as the perfect portfolio. Start applying early. Odds
are, you’ll not land a job from the first try. And it’s normal.

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 THE PROCESS

Keep working on your portfolio, add anything interesting to

your resume, and keep applying for jobs. Work on real-world
projects, help nonprofits, and make your application interesting.
Keep posting for jobs. One day it will stick.

I got rejected multiple times. One time from Automattic, the

company I’m working with right now. It’s all part of the process.
So start early, and keep trying.

When posting to new jobs, always favor quality over quantity.

Do not post to a company if you don’t understand their mission
or you’re not excited to be part of it. Those are some of the
things you can easily see in one’s application. And they make
the difference.

For example, are you using the company’s products? Are you
following their latest news? Are you interacting with them on
social media?… All this helps, so make sure to state it when
applying.

Not every remote company might be the right fit for you or their
hiring process takes too long. If there’s any point along the
way that bothers you, you should stay away from applying or
discontinue the application from your side.

Your resume should have a list of your projects and a link to your
portfolio for extra information. Also, make sure to include any
links you think are a good addition to your application. This
includes a link to your blog, Twitter account, or any other social
media platform.

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For your cover letter, make it personal. Talk about yourself, your
excitement about the mission, and why you think you’re a good
fit. Lastly, include personal information about yourself. Like
what you do outside your work? Do you have pets? etc.

I will not give you an example of a cover letter. I don’t want you
to copy and paste it. I want you to craft your own.

Exercise:

What is a company you’re dreaming to work for? Write

the company’s dream down and start crafting your
dream cover letter.

Make it personal. Talk about your excitement. And

why you’re a good fit. Even if you think you don’t have
the perfect skills yet, just write them down. This will
inspire you to work on your areas of improvement even
more.

Keep your dream cover letter nearby. It will inspire

you to keep pushing forward.

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