Remote medical coders and other remote healthcare job opportunities are on the rise and this means that there’s more competition when searching for a remote healthcare job as well as more places to find remote jobs.
Desert Medical Careers has been staffing healthcare jobs for over 20 years, and over the years we have begun placing remote jobs. We’d like to share with you some tips to help you be more competitive when looking for a remote healthcare job.
Is a remote healthcare job a good fit for you?
Before seeking out a remote job, make sure this is a good fit for you. Here are some things to consider before beginning your job hunt:
- Working from home can be lonely and sometimes very boring. If you are a very social person and benefit from speaking with your co-workers to get your job done, a remote job might not be for you.
- Think about when you last attended school. Did you do better when you worked on a project with a group or did you find that you accomplished more when you worked independently? A lot of remote jobs require independent work rather than team collaboration.
- Do you have an environment that allows you to stay focused? If you live somewhere that isn’t conducive to a quiet, calm atmosphere, a remote job might not be for you. For instance, it will be hard to have a quiet workspace if you have roommates or family that live with you that come and go at random times. People arriving throughout the day can pull on your attention. People at home while you are trying to work can prove to be noisy. This is why most people like to try and find a spare room or area in their home where they can set up a home office. This can make working much easier. To set up a home office, you’ll need to buy some office supplies to make sure that you have everything you’ll need to work effectively.
- Are you good at learning new technology?
When you work remotely you will need to learn how to interface with your employer’s technology on your own. Yes, they normally have an onboarding training process, but you typically have to work through it on your own. So if the thought of learning how to use a new email system or file-sharing technology is one that causes anxiety, listen to yourself and steer clear of working on your own. - How good are you at prioritizing what you have to do? If you normally desire being told what’s the most important thing to get done, you might want to avoid working independently. You will have direction and a boss when you work remotely, but that boss will likely have a lot more staff to watch out for than in-person positions typically warrant, so their time is at a premium. If you are someone who wants or needs to interact with your supervisor about prioritization and daily work assignments, remote work is probably not for you.
- Working remotely might mean you clock in and clock out according to your employer’s schedule that they set for you. When you work from home it is very tempting to log in late or to login and then walk away from your work for “just a moment.” Keep in mind that most remote employers are more on top of their remote workers’ clocked hours than they are with in-person jobs, so if you aren’t good at keeping yourself on a schedule, stay away from working remotely.
- When you set a schedule for yourself, do you stick to it most of the time? Some remote jobs will let you work when you want as long as you get a set amount of hours in during a 24-hour period. This means you’ll need to manage yourself and get in the required amount of work per day. Think about how you’ve managed other situations like this in the past, such as college assignments. Did you put off your work until the end? Were you typically late to class and late when finishing large projects? Or were you on time or early and stayed pretty on top of pacing yourself to get your projects completed by the due date?
If you would like to be placed in a remote healthcare job within the United States, please fill out the form below or call us at 602-468-6300
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Why do you want a remote job?
This is a super common question. Answer this question with statements that benefit the employer, such as:
- I am more accurate when I work in the quiet of a home office.
- I am more focused on the work at hand when I work from home.
- I am able to get more work done in less time when I work remotely.
- Working from home allows me to work more hours for my employer.
Where will you work?
Expect prospective employers to ask where you will be completing your work. They want to know if you have a dedicated working space. This is an indicator of how focused you will be and a dedicated working space is important for you during meetings so you can participate in conference calls without background noise. They might also ask you what type of computer equipment you have because a lot of remote positions expect you to have your own.
How well do you communicate?
When you work remotely, you will need to interact with others, but instead of face-to-face interaction, it is frequently by messaging, email, or by phone. Think about your personal communication and your current in-office job when answering these questions to determine if you are good at communicating via technology rather than in-person:
- Do you like communicating via text, email, and phone?
- Are you good at expressing yourself briefly, even when the situation is technical?
- Do you have a good instinct as to when you need to pick up the phone rather than communicate by text?
- How often have you ended up in a situation that was misunderstood over text or email?
Lastly, watch out for personal information requests during your remote job hunt.
You will eventually need to provide personal information when you are going to be hired for a position. However, don’t give out your personal information until you have had an interview for a specific job and then only provide your personal information via the website’s secure connection or other official channels. If someone asks you for personal information as soon as you get in contact with them or if they ask you for personal information to be sent through a basic email (rather than an encrypted, secure request after an interview for a specific job), don’t provide it.
Are You Looking for a Remote Healthcare Job?
Desert Medical Careers has a high demand for remote healthcare jobs, such as remote medical coders, throughout the United States. We place full-time and part-time positions. With over 20 years’ experience working with healthcare employees, DMC is an expert at matching healthcare workers with their ideal work environment. Contact DMC today at (602) 468-6300.