The flexibility of remote working allows most of us to perfectly balance family and work life. While quite a few of us may feel that the environment of working from home with family, may have its own difficulties and shortcomings, one thing is clear: no one can complain that “we do not get family time” Whatever your reason, remote work is a ticket to freedom and exploring our drive and potential.
I have had a lot of personal experience working from my home in Dubai, more because I wanted to help my wife with the responsibility of bring up two new born babies, get maximum time to spend with them and work as much as I could (which was still 9 hours a day). I manage Genesis Executive Search, recruitment agency in Dubai and hence sales and marketing, digital marketing and IT were areas that I worked on. We subsequently set up two offices and a small team of recruitment consultants managing our customers and their job vacancies in the Middle East.
In the wake of COVID-19, our perspective on what is possible for remote work is expanding on a daily basis. But even as we’ve seen an increase in remote work across a wide range of industries in Dubai, there are still certain jobs and careers that are more suited for remote work than others.
1. Marketing Jobs in the UAE
Marketing encompasses anything that drives revenue growth through brand awareness and lead generation. Businesses are now prioritizing online strategy and that means lots of marketing jobs, most of which can be done remotely. Business owners want great marketers who can help them scale their business and grow revenue—even better if they can do that with less overhead cost by working from home.
Specialists are people who have expertise in one area of marketing. Social media, paid advertisements, content marketing, SEO, and public relations are just a few examples. Usually, specialists work for bigger companies or agencies that have larger budgets to direct to marketing, or they might operate as consultants or freelancers. The skills you need depend heavily on which specialty you want to work in.
A marketing role is ideal for someone who likes to exercise both their creative and analytical brains. Generalists and specialists alike have to be good communicators who can keep up with and adapt to new trends and technology in a rapidly evolving industry. Strong writing and data analysis skills are also important.
2. Sales Jobs in Dubai
Though sales are typically seen as client-facing and therefore a role that must be done in person, it’s actually well suited for remote work in many ways. Companies that value face-to-face sales methods often need salespeople in a particular geographic location to be closer to prospects, but don’t want to—or can’t—commit to opening a new office. So remote employees allow companies to expand geographically with less risk. Additionally, a lot of sales can be conducted over the phone or the internet. Meeting are held on Zoom, Webex, Skype, Google Meet, and there are many tools available now to assist with distance selling. If salespeople are good at building relationships and can leverage these tools, then they can do their jobs well from anywhere.
This would also be an excellent time to build new relationships and scout for new prospects
Our own development in learning sales techniques from behind our desks will take an upstage if we must succeed (you can only imagine how better a salesperson we can be when we sit across our customer’s desk).
3. Writing / Blogging
There are so many ways to build a remote career around a love of writing. Writing is needed across all types of companies and industries (and the pay varies widely). Branded content, content marketing, social media, copywriting, and technical writing are just a few avenues you can take to pursue a writing career in addition to traditional editorial or journalistic routes.
Though there are many full-time, remote opportunities for writers, you might consider a career as a freelance writer / paid or unattached blogger if you’re seeking even more freedom.
To be successful as a remote writer, you obviously need to have excellent writing skills. You should also have solid organizational skills and self-discipline to ensure you can take on multiple projects at once and never miss a deadline.
4. Software Engineering
Software engineers get to creatively solve problems by building web applications and software that, ideally, make our lives better. At Remote Year, the most common jobs for participants were always software engineer, developer, and designer—suggesting that companies are comfortable with these roles being remote.
Though software engineers work collaboratively with developers and designers, there is a ton of autonomy in this role, which makes it ideal for remote work. In fact, working remotely might be the best setup for software engineers since it allows them to minimize distractions typically found in office settings and find their flow when working on important projects that require focused attention. Additionally, because the demand is so high for effective software engineers, many companies are willing to hire remotely so they can expand their reach for potential candidates. Many employers would rather hire a better software engineer from outside their geographic area than limit themselves to who can come into their office.
5. Design Jobs
Designers are needed across a myriad of industries, from tech to finance to media. They design marketing materials for Fortune 500 companies, logos and websites for new business owners, apps for scrappy startups, and even book covers for publishers.
As is the case with writers and software engineers, the bulk of a designer’s work is conducted solo, is execution-driven, and increasingly takes place entirely digitally. All these aspects make it ideal for remote work.
If you’re looking to become a successful full-time remote designer, you need to be a creative who likes to work independently, but who can still collaborate with a team. You will need to be a great visual storyteller, well-versed in a variety of digital communication mediums and social media platforms.
To be effective in your role, you must also be able to bring someone else’s vision to life or contribute to crafting a larger vision if working with a team through the use of virtual collaboration tools. As a remote designer, you will likely be working on multiple projects at once; so excellent organizational and communication skills will support you in getting work done and sharing progress with stakeholders along the way.
6. Customer Support
Customer support roles are responsible for responding to customers’ questions and helping them solve problems. Many of these jobs are great for fully remote workers because companies need support available 24/7 (i.e. support reps that span time zones) and most support is conducted via virtual channels like chat, email, and phone. Often companies only hire remote customer support, increasing the number of available roles out there.
As a virtual customer support representative, you can take advantage of the fact that companies are looking for employees to operate in different time zones depending on what suits you best.
Customer support roles are great remote jobs for people who still want to engage with others throughout their day but don’t want the pressure of sales goals. You will be great at customer support if you have strong interpersonal skills, excellent listening and communication skills, and previous experience helping people solve problems.
7. Online Business in UAE
Owning your own online business is a true jack-of-all-trades job, especially when you’re just getting started. It’s great if you like the idea of doing a little of everything: marketing, sales, product development, customer service, and even accounting. However, along with that level of freedom comes a lot of hard work. Starting your own business takes a lot of time, dedication, and a certain set of experience and qualities.
You might thrive as an online business owner if you’ve worked remotely before and maybe even work better when outside of the traditional 9-to-5 office routine.
It’s also easier to get started if you have some understanding of marketing and sales because no matter what your business is, you will need to sell something to earn revenue, whether that’s your expertise, a service, or a product. You also want to have some specific expertise in the industry you’re starting a business in. This is important for designing a product or service that will be valuable to the market. For example, if you’ve been working in human resources, you could use your expertise to become a career coach, to consult for small businesses, or even to develop digital products such as online courses for human resources employees.
The best online businesses come from a combination of your skills, experiences, expertise, and interests so that you are offering something that is based on both what you know and what you love.
8. The Job You Already Have
It turns out that the best job for working remotely is probably the one you have now, especially if you’ve been a high performer thus far. If your boss and company already know you and trust your ability to deliver results, they might be open to trying out a new arrangement rather than risk losing you entirely. They can even opt for work-from-home for top performers and reduce office space and hence office rental costs.
Consider this perspective: It’s quite expensive to replace an employee. Your company would probably prefer to try to keep you then hire someone completely new (assuming you are a performer).
The COVID-19 pandemic has also changed many companies’ perspectives on remote work. The world experienced a massive shift toward remote work all but overnight, and this forced remote work experiment has revealed the real extent to which jobs of all kinds can be done from anywhere. As a result, companies may become more open to the possibilities of remote work long after the pandemic is over.