Quick Highlights:
- Remote work has significantly increased due to advancements in technology and improved management practices,
- Essential skills for remote work include time management, self-motivation, communication, and problem-solving.
- Certain degrees, especially in areas like information technology, accounting, and marketing, are particularly good for finding remote work opportunities.
- Building a portfolio suited for remote jobs and learning to use online teamwork tools are key steps to landing a remote job.
Table of contents
Remote employment opportunities are more plentiful today than they were a decade ago. This remote work trend offers many benefits for employees if they can land a position in a remote-friendly industry. From flexible working hours to low commuting costs, a work-from-home job can improve your work-life balance and job satisfaction.
In order to get hired, you must get the best degree for working from home. While many of these jobs require a bachelor’s or master’s degree, it is also possible to find the best associate degree for remote work. Once you have finished the right college degree, you can begin the career of your dreams.
Related:
The Rise of Remote Work
According to Forbes, by 2025, 32.6 million Americans will be working remotely. This represents around 22% of the workplace. Today, these jobs are three to four times more common than they were in 2019. While the pandemic accelerated the transition to remote employment opportunities, it wasn’t the only factor.
“What the pandemic demonstrated is that we can all work from home. It was a proof of concept,” says Kory Kantenga, senior economist at LinkedIn.
In specific, there are a few ongoing factors that drive the increase in remote work.
- Better technology means that it is easier to work from home than ever before.
- Employees like it, so employers have an easier time finding workers when they offer remote employment opportunities.
- Startups that began during the pandemic are already accustomed to a remote environment.
- Research finds that firms in the United States are consistently better managed than their peers, so they are better able to use decentralized environments, such as remote work.
Certain fields have been better at making this transition. Service industries, such as hospitality and quick–service restaurants, are difficult to run remotely because they necessitate in-person interactions. In comparison, technology is excellent for remote employment opportunities because many tech jobs are performed on a computer.
If you are searching for work-from-home options, you may want to check out careers in:
- marketing
- human resources
- computer engineering
- accounting
- software programming
- web design
- social media
- web development
Then, read through the job descriptions to see what type of degree is expected from successful applicants.
Key Skills for Remote Employment
To succeed as a remote worker, you need more than just the best associate degree for remote work. You also have to have the right soft skills.
Time Management: After you find the best degree for working from home, the next step is learning time management skills. When you work by yourself, there’s no one there to tell you when to start working or how quickly you have to work to meet a deadline.
Self-Motivation: Along with the previous skill, you must learn how to be self-motivated. A work-from-home job entails a great deal of individual responsibility, so you can’t procrastinate on your projects.
Communication: As a remote employee, you must be good at communicating through email, video chat, and phone calls. You won’t have the opportunity to randomly mention something to a co-worker over the water cooler. Likewise, your boss can’t pop into your office to remind you about an upcoming project. You have to be proactive about communicating what you need and what you are working on.
Problem Solving: Problem solving and critical thinking are important when most of your work is done on your own. You won’t have a mentor onsite to walk you through how to do each task, so you must be able to think critically about how to do different projects.
The best degree for working from home can prepare you for the soft skills and hard skills you will need. For example, a communications degree can improve your communication skills. You can also minor in other subjects, like communications or psychology, that can help you learn soft skills for remote work.
Top Majors for Remote Work
While you can work from home with any college degree, certain majors are more likely to lead to remote employment opportunities. For example, technology and business degrees are often used by remote workers to land jobs. Among the many degrees that allow you to work from home, the following list includes the best majors for remote work.
Information Technology
Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects there to be 377,500 additional jobs in information technology. The median annual wage for someone with a master’s degree in IT is $100,530. Once you have a degree in information technology, you can pursue a career as a computer and information research scientist, computer network architect, or computer support specialist.
Website Design and Development
If you work in web design and development, you can expect your career field to grow by 16% between 2022 and 2032 according to the BLS. As an entry-level web designer, you will earn a starting salary of $35.01 per hour. Because almost all of the work a web designer or developer does is online, you can easily do this job from home.
Accounting
As one of the best degrees for remote work, accounting is an ideal subject to study if you want to work from home. From 2022 to 2032, this field is expected to grow by 4%. Once you are hired as an accountant, you can expect to earn an average salary of $63,081 per year.
Writing/Journalism
Writing is another field that can easily be done online. To become a writer, you will typically major in journalism or English. While this career field is expected to decline by 3% during the next decade, it has a decent annual salary. The typical journalist earns $47,741 per year. If you decide to work as a technical writer instead, you can expect to earn $72,255 per year.
Cybersecurity
From 2022 to 2032, careers for information security analysts are supposed to grow by 32%. The average person who works in cybersecurity earns an annual salary of $132,9963 per year. As one of the best majors for remote work, this major can lead to a position as a security engineer, incident responder, security consultant, or cybersecurity manager.
Human Resources (HR)
Over the next decade, HR jobs are forecasted to grow by 5%. If you are hired to work from home as an HR manager, you will earn an average salary of $119,660 per year.
Marketing
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs as advertising, promotions, and marketing managers are expected to increase by 6% from 2022 to 2032. The average salary in marketing is $74,006, but this can vary based on what role you choose. Once you have completed one of the best degrees for remote work, you can be hired as a marketing manager, event marketer, marketing strategist, or SEO specialist.
Graphic Design and Visual Arts
Graphic design and visual arts can lead to a variety of careers and wages. For example, a visual designer generally earns between $63,586 and $79,393. Meanwhile, a graphic designer earns a median annual wage of $58,910.
Incorporating Flexibility into Your Education
By discovering the best associate degree for remote work, you can get a head start on finding remote employment opportunities. To find the best degree for working from home, you should first start by finding remote work you want to do. Then, work your way backward from the career you want to the degree you need.
If you don’t know what career you want to pursue, then you should stick to majors that are easy to incorporate into work-from-home jobs. For example, mathematics, business, computer programming, computer science, accounting, and graphic design are all ideal for remote environments.
Other than picking the right major, you also need to get used to using digital collaboration tools. Slack, Zoom, Teams, and other online platforms are important for communicating with your co-workers. You will most likely be asked about your familiarity with these tools during an interview, so take some time to experiment with them during your degree.
Building a Remote-Friendly Portfolio
To prepare yourself for a work-from-home job, you should do more than find the best associate degree for remote work. Take some time to create a remote-friendly portfolio. It should include internships, freelance projects, and examples of your best work.
Remote employers want to see that you are capable of handling remote assignments. Your portfolio is a key way to demonstrate that you have the experience and abilities necessary for working at their company.
Read More About Remote Job Options
Whether you are searching for the best associate degree for remote work or online master’s degrees, there are many ways you can prepare for remote employment opportunities. Other than pursuing the best degree for working from home, you should focus on developing soft skills that will help you succeed in your position. In addition, a solid portfolio demonstrates your ability to work from home.
With the right degree, you can take the first step in getting a remote job. To get started, consider your personal interests and career goals. Then, you can use this information to figure out a major that is right for you.