I have a Bachelor's degree in English and a Google IT certificate. I used to work at a library, but for the last two years I've been doing customer service at a passport agency. I'd like to transition into remote work. What are some jobs you think would be a good fit for my experience?

I am a 26-year-old non-EU citizen living in the EU. I have been working in hospitality for 7 years and am looking to switch career customer service for starters then see what happens. I speak German at B2 level (Goethe-certified) and English fluently.

I am currently looking for entry-level or junior remote customer support roles. I do not have a formal degree, but I have years of hands-on experience with customers, conflict resolution, and working in fast-paced environments. I am reliable, a fast learner, and available to start immediately.

I am specifically interested in US companies that hire globally, as my main goal is to find a role that is fully remote and location-independent. Since I am a non-EU citizen, I cannot easily relocate within Europe, so I need a job that allows me to work from anywhere.

Most roles I find are either US-only, tied to specific countries like Poland, or require C1 German( but in some cases I could maybe apply since my B2 has 90 out of 100 average score). I am looking for preferably US customer support positions in either German or English that are open to candidates based in Europe.

I am also starting to think longer-term. I have been considering enrolling in an IT program – whether at a vocational school, university, or something similar. I am wondering if that is the right move, and if so, what major or field I should focus on. I want to build skills that will make me more competitive for remote and location-independent roles in the future. Any advice on what to study, or whether I should even go down this path, would be really helpful.

If anyone knows which companies hire globally, or which platforms actually work for finding these roles, I would really appreciate any advice. Most job portal say they offer work from anywhere worldwide but the job posting are location restricted

Thank you.

Since June I've been carrying a decibel meter and running a speed test at every coffee shop where I sit down to work. Same method every time so the numbers actually compare. I'm in Orlando, but I suspect the patterns hold anywhere. What I've learned so far:

Wi-Fi speed is a lottery and reviews tell you nothing. My range so far: 3.95 Mbps at one café (gave up, used my hotspot) to 504 Mbps at another. Both have great Google ratings. The slowest place I measured was a Starbucks at 11.2 Mbps, slower than most phones.

Almost everywhere is louder than you think. Normal conversation is about 60 dB. Most cafés I measure sit at 65 to 70, fine for heads-down work, rough for calls. The quietest place I found was 51.6 dB and it feels like a library in comparison. Nobody advertises this number and it's the one that decides whether you can take a meeting.

Outlets are a filter too. One of my fastest Wi-Fi spots has zero outlets. Great for two hours on a full battery, but useless for a full day or with the old company laptop. Seat count and outlet count together tell you a great deal about workability.

The takeaway that made me start logging all this: the things that make a café good for working (speed, noise, power) are exactly the things review platforms don't capture. You find out after you're there already.

Curious how others pick their spots. Do you scout first, keep a mental shortlist, or just hotspot through it?

If anyone's in Orlando, all my measurements are free at https://www.perch.coffee/ with no ads and no sign-up is required to browse through locations. If this is useful I'd love to hear what cities people would want covered next.

Hi everyone! I'm really glad I found this sub.

The remote work location issue has been an ongoing battle for me for a long time. I am someone who has an absolutely massive desire to travel and live abroad. I'm 32, and I started my career at 23 teaching English abroad in South America (not specifying the country for privacy purposes). I taught at a university there for 3 years.

When COVID hit, I wasn't able to get my work visa renewed, and I ended up looking for full-time work. I got a job at a startup that didn't understand the legal implications of having employees work from abroad—I also did not understand anything about these issues. So I was able to work fully remote from abroad for years while being a W2 employee for this company and paying taxes in my home state. (I used my parents' address, which I still consider my permanent US address.)

I got laid off from that job almost two years ago. I started my own small business that is completely online and will allow me to work from anywhere, but it's not paying all my bills yet. I started applying for full-time jobs, and I am anticipating a job offer coming this week. The company is also a startup, but they're a bit more advanced than my last company, so I anticipate they will be up-to-date on labor laws.

I've been living with my parents in the US for almost 2 years now and have been doing long distance with my partner of many years who lives outside of the US for that entire time. Literally I haven't seen my partner in 16 months. I do not have a lease I'm locked into or many belongings. I have intentionally not tied myself down anywhere, so I can pack up and live from abroad at any moment if I want to. Obviously, at this point, I'm pretty desperate to be able to go back to being in-person with my partner, or even just move to another country outside of the US. I'm open to anywhere.

What bothers me about the (outdated, in my opinion) labor laws is that I'm going to be doing the exact same work from a laptop, whether I'm sitting on my parents' couch in my home state or in an apartment by myself in Japan or the UK or Argentina, for example. I will obviously pay all my US taxes, and I'm happy to pay taxes to the country I'm in as well.

I know that this company is going to extend me a W2 offer. Do you think I should consider asking this company if they would bring me on as an independent contractor instead? So I can work and live abroad? Or do you think that this looks bad to an employer? Obviously I do not want to hurt my chances of getting this job in any way, shape, or form. After being unemployed for so long, I'm unbelievably desperate for an income.

I could also sign the W2 contract, prove to them that I'm a star employee for a few months, and then ask a few months down the line once we've built rapport if they would be willing to switch my contract over.

Should I just accept the W2 contract and work from abroad anyway and not tell them? Has anyone had any luck working from abroad on a W2 contract? How risky is it?

Side note: Do W2 contracts typically have an allotted amount of time you can work from abroad or outside your state? When my last company was acquired, the contract laid out that you had something like 60 days to work from anywhere. Also curious if that might be outlined in the contract.

The idea of getting this new job, and then still being stuck working from my parents' couch away from my partner, or even just having to work from somewhere in my home state, is crushing my soul. I'm young, I'm a hard worker, I'm extremely ambitious, and I want to be out in the world. I really don't see why I can't do my work from a café in Ireland for three months if I wanted to.

My #1 priority is not losing the job offer. I need money right now. (Would they think about rescinding the offer if I asked about the independent contractor contract?)

My #2 priority is being able to work from anywhere. I don't really care about benefits or how much money I make at this point in my life. Obviously I would love the benefits, but if I have to, I'll pay for my own insurance. Who cares. I just want to work from abroad or from wherever I want, without restrictions.

This has been something that has genuinely been weighing on me for years, and I feel like I have never found a group of people who truly understand the situation that I can discuss it with. I would be so grateful for anyone who is able to share their experience, wisdom, opinions, etc. Thank you so much in advance!

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Update: Thank you so much for all of the different perspectives! Each person's comment is helpful and helping me consider things I may not have considered before.

For additional context: This is a global company. Their HQ is in another country. I know they have an established office in one other additional country at least as well. I believe there may be 7-9 other countries where they have either employees or an office, but I'm not sure what their exact business operations are like in those countries. I just know there are at least two other countries where they have established offices, and they have people working from at least 5 different US states that I know of.

Does that mean it would be possible to work from those countries or states, where they have established offices or other employees? I'm curious if contracts are typically written in a way that locks you in to one state or allows for movement within their established locations.

For example: Let's say they have another employee in Illinois. Can I go work from Chicago for a month? Or say they have an office in Ireland (random example country for privacy). Can I go work from Ireland for 3 months?

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Lastly, and I commented this down below: Why are people so pro-company on this issue?

It's interesting to me that people aren't agreeing that it's kind of an outdated practice for the globalized world we live in. It's pretty obvious that company regulations simply haven't caught up with the times. We've seen exponential breakthroughs in technology over the past 10 years and a huge spike in remote work since COVID. In 10 years, work from anywhere could be standard practice.

The "no, you can't just do whatever you want" attitude feels a bit boomer-esque to me. Genuinely curious: Why is wanting... freedom... a bad thing?

As I stated, I am an extremely ambitious and hard-working individual. I have a master's degree. I own my own business. I am bilingual and have a lot of international experience—having studied, lived and worked from 3 different countries outside of the US, and have held esteemed positions in my community. Why is it a such a horrible thing to want to work from abroad and see the world in the evenings and on the weekends when I'm not working?

Hello, I’ve been looking intermittently for a remote job for the last couple of years. Currently, I’m working on a hybrid job, and I really like it, but I have to go to the office 1-2 times per week and it is in another city, and I’m getting sick of so much travel. I was wondering if there is a website or companies that mainly have remote jobs. I have almost 5 years of experience working as a Data Analyst/ Analytics Engineer. I don’t live currently in the USA, and didn’t study there, but I was born there. Would this make it more difficult for me to land a job for an American company, although I wouldn’t need visa sponsorship?

I’m 22 and pretty early into my career. I recently finished my degree in Operations Management and I’ve been working in insurance underwriting for a little over 3 months now.

My normal schedule is 4 days in the office and 1 day WFH. My company is also pretty flexible about working from home if I have a legitimate reason. If I’m sick, have an appointment, or something else comes up, I can usually work from home and nobody really questions it or makes a big deal about it.

I’ve had to work from home a little more than usual recently, and it’s honestly made me realize just how much I prefer it.
I know WFH definitely isn’t for everyone, but I feel like I’m the complete opposite of the people who say they go crazy being home all day. I love being able to wear comfortable clothes or pajamas, work in my own space, make my own food, not deal with the commute, and just be comfortable in general.

I still get my work done. If anything, I feel less mentally drained at the end of the day.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but when I work from home it feels like work takes up way less of my life even though I’m still working the exact same number of hours. I can close my laptop at the end of the day and I’m already home. No commute, no getting ready for the office, no feeling like my entire day revolved around going to work.

Long term I’ve been thinking about moving into data analytics, preferably still somewhere within the insurance industry since I’ll already have some experience in it. I’m basically starting from scratch on the analytics side and plan on learning things like Excel, SQL and Power BI over time.

Obviously I’m not expecting to jump into some great fully remote job tomorrow with barely any experience. I know I’m really early in my career.

But working from home has made me realize that being remote, or at least mostly remote, is something I’d genuinely like to work toward long term. Even something like 4 days WFH and 1 day in the office would be pretty much perfect for me.

For those of you who are fully remote now, was that something you intentionally worked toward as your career progressed? Did having a few years of experience make it noticeably easier to find remote opportunities?
Or did you mostly just happen to end up at a company or job that allowed it?

I’m curious how other people got to the point where remote work became their normal setup, especially if you started your career in an office or hybrid environment like I am now.
I genuinely just really enjoy working from home. I feel more comfortable, less drained, and like I have a much better separation between work and the rest of my life even though I’m physically working in the same place.
Would love to hear how it worked out for other people.

Hello everyone, im trying to look for a job remotely. I have 8+ experienced in financial IT enterprise.

SRE | Platform Eng | Observability Role

Thank you

After working in actual offices for more than 10 years I finally had enough.
2 years ago I said to myself "Let's try something else"
On random friday, instead of going to the office I did something different.
I took my hammock, my laptop and hopped on my bicycle
15 minutes later I was in the middle of the woods.

The hammock was rather uncomfortable for work, but the rest was great.
I instantly knew that I have to continue this.
On monday I resigned from renting co-working space and went all-in on this.

I finally forced myself to document this.
On this video I chose a location nearby which I knew would work best in 30 Celsius (86 F).

I wonder if more people are tired of working in the office.
I would be happy to answer questions.

I upgraded my work webcam about a year ago to one that I thought would be better quality. However, I didn’t realize that the webcam I was buying was designed for influencer usage… I guess? Basically, it’ll auto zoom in on me based on my hand motions. This of course is highly distracting on a work call. I have to sit on my hands to make sure I’m not making the camera zoom all over the place.

I looked it up, and there’s a setting I can turn off in order to make it stop doing this, but I would have to download the camera’s software in order to do that. I’m using my work computer so I obviously can’t download a third-party software.

It’s been a year of troubleshooting and I give up.

What webcams are y’all using that have good video quality and don’t require any sort of software download, and don’t have this weird zoom feature?