9 Essential Remote Job Skills That Will Make You Stand Out

Remote job skills allow professionals to work with companies, clients, and coworkers from anywhere in the world without the need to go to the office, resulting in unprecedented flexibility. They are some of the most sought-after abilities in today’s digital business landscape.

This article will explore the most important remote job skills you should put on your resume to maximize your chances of getting the job. You’ll learn what makes these valuable, in which industries they are in the highest demand, and how you should emphasize them on your resume.

9 Important Remote Job Skills You Should Include in Your Resume

Let’s go through some of the best remote job skills for a resume. We’ll explain how each of these fits into a remote setting and what makes them enticing to employers.

#1. Written Communication

Written communication is one of the cornerstone remote job skills, as it’s typically the primary method of sharing information with employers, clients, and coworkers. Without office in-person interactions, various chat messages and emails become the foundations for remote work.

Professionals adept at written communication know how to convey their thoughts and ideas concisely and precisely. This helps them avoid any potential misunderstanding while keeping the reader engaged. As a result, they can maintain productivity while working with others and bridge gaps between remote teams.

All of this makes written communication essential in every line of remote work. However, it’s even more prominent in industries that traditionally benefit from professionals with strong communication skills. This includes customer service, marketing, project management, content creation, and so on.

#2. Tech-Savviness

Tech-savviness represents an individual’s ability to use technology to their advantage, enhancing their competence and productivity. A certain level of tech-savviness is mandatory for remote jobs, as they typically include online computer work. As a result, tech-savviness is one of the must-have remote job skills to learn.

This remote job skill includes proficiency in the following:

• Hardware, like laptops, cameras, printers, external HDDs, smartphones, tablets, etc.

• Software, like Google Workspace, Trello, Zoom, Slack, and other specialized apps and platforms.

Tech-savviness is one of the essential remote working skills in fields like software development, digital marketing, content creation, data analysis, and virtual assistance. However, professionals across every field can improve them to enhance their autonomy and productivity. This allows them to work independently while being more efficient and better at problem-solving.

#3. Collaboration

Collaboration in a remote environment allows professionals to work efficiently with colleagues from other locations. This is often facilitated through online meetings, written communication, project management tools, and various industry-specific software. Common tools used for collaboration include Google Docs, Zoom, and Asana.

This is one of the best skills for a remote job for professionals working on large-scale projects with multiple other individuals or teams involved. A collaborative effort results in a cohesive virtual environment where the team leverages the unique strengths of every individual to reach their goal faster and more efficiently.

All of this makes collaboration a must-have remote job skill for a resume if you’re in software engineering, design, customer service, project management, and similar.

#4. Time Management

Time management for remote workers is crucial for self-management and organization. It helps individuals allocate their time and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines without compromising the quality of work. Due to a lack of a structured office environment, time management is a vital remote job skill in stopping procrastination and maintaining productivity.

Remote workers with strong time management skills can devise clear goals, set priorities, break complex tasks into manageable steps, and stay on track with their schedules. This helps them remain efficient throughout their workday or project’s lifespan while avoiding burnout or disrupting their work-life balance.

Having all that in mind, time management is a vital skill for every remote worker, but mainly for freelancers, those in content creation or programming, and in every field where multiple projects and deadlines are common.

#5. Project Management

Project management skills encompass an assortment of abilities that allow for planning, executing, and overseeing projects from start to finish. These skills are particularly important in a remote setting where it can be more challenging to keep teams in sync compared to a traditional office environment.

Savvy project managers know how to keep remote professionals aligned and working toward the same goals. Moreover, they can stay within budget and consistently meet deadlines. This is achieved by setting clear milestones, fostering open communication, tracking progress, and removing any potential obstacles.

This remote work skill is vital in fields where completing projects on time while following scope is a common occurrence. As a result, you should strongly consider adding project management to your event planner or marketing resume if you’re into product development, construction, etc.

#6. Adaptability

Adaptability is a must-have skill when working from home or remotely. It allows professionals to adjust to unforeseen changes and situations without a drop in efficiency or quality of their work. This includes quickly learning new technologies or responding to changes in communication channels, adapting to modifications in work policies and goals, and more.

Adaptable individuals are typically resilient, flexible, and open-minded, eager to embrace change and tackle challenges instead of avoiding them. This allows them to remain positive and motivated in periods of uncertainty or increased workload, which is common for remote work. Their outlook can influence their team and colleagues and have a positive impact on everyone.

This is especially important in volatile industries that are rapidly evolving or constantly changing, making adaptability a must-have in an e-commerce or digital marketing resume, for a tech job, in healthcare, etc.

#7. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a remote job skill that gives people the ability to understand their own emotions and empathize with others. It affects every aspect of one’s work, including building strong and meaningful relationships with others or remaining positive and motivated in periods of increased stress.

This skill is especially valuable in remote settings, as it allows professionals to build trust, support others, resolve conflicts, and maintain open communication regardless of distance. Emotionally intelligent professionals foster positive work environments and inclusive team culture. They are capable of supporting and motivating others, thus increasing overall efficiency.

Emotional intelligence is a remote job skill that is in demand, particularly in customer service, human resources, management, and healthcare. These professions require personal interaction, even if it happens via chat messages, email, or video calls.

#8. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving allows one to analyze projects, tasks, and circumstances, identify issues and roadblocks, and develop effective solutions. It’s one of the crucial remote job skills when teams aren’t sharing offices, and problems often can’t be tackled in a collaborative manner immediately.

Adept problem-solvers are analytical, resourceful, and proactive, and they can resolve most issues quickly and independently. Moreover, they are savvy at identifying and resolving root causes and not just surface-level obstacles. This minimizes any potential delays in projects and ensures optimal efficiency and high quality of work.

Problem-solving skills are especially sought-after in IT careers, customer service, and project management. Professionals working these jobs often encounter unforeseen issues, whether of a technical or interpersonal nature.

#9. Ability to Work Independently

The ability to work independently is one of the must-have remote job skills for any professional. Remote employees have to perform to varying degrees of autonomy, whether they are organizing different aspects of their work, creating their own schedules, setting goals, maintaining focus outside an office environment, etc.

Employees always look for independent workers, as they require little management and have the initiative to overcome obstacles without the need for constant check-ins. Their efficiency minimizes distractions for other team members and results in an overall enhanced output.

While this is one of the core remote work skills that are relevant regardless of your field, it’s particularly useful when freelancing, creating content, writing code, or consulting. As such, the ability to work independently is invaluable in web developer resumes, consultant resumes, and similar.

How to Showcase Remote Job Skills on Your Resume

To showcase remote job skills on your resume, you want to include them in a dedicated section and substantiate them with relevant work-related accomplishments.

For starters, you should research the company you want to join or, if you’re freelancing, determine what the client needs. This will help you create a tailored list of abilities since you only want to list those skills that are relevant to the job. Given the concise nature of a resume, you should always go for quality over quantity.

When it comes to proving your competence, the best way to do it is to include a skill next to a relevant achievement in work experience or resume summary sections. That way, you’re showing the exact results of your competence. 

It’s especially important to properly showcase soft skills on your resume, as there often aren’t degrees or certifications that can corroborate them, unlike with hard skills.

Here’s an example of how you can demonstrate your problem-solving skills on your resume:

Here’s another good example of a candidate highlighting their adaptability:

For comparison, here’s how not to showcase your remote job skills:

While the example mentions the ability to work independently, it shows no concrete results or accomplishments. As such, it’s a vague claim not backed by concrete evidence.

Can You Learn Remote Work Skills?

You can learn remote work skills just like any other ability that can help you in the professional landscape. You can even improve emotional intelligence, which is a mix between a personality trait and a skill.

There are different ways to learn and improve remote job skills, depending on the skill in question. Hard skills are typically taught and learned in a traditional way by attending classes, taking courses, obtaining certifications, and so on. On the other hand, soft skills are generally obtained through experience.

For instance, you can improve your written communication by being mindful when writing emails and messages and focusing on refining them to be clear and concise. On the flip side, collaboration can be improved by volunteering for group projects or getting acquainted with relevant software tools.

You become more adaptable by putting yourself in varied work environments and experiencing different workflows and challenges. Similarly, independence and problem-solving skills are polished when engaging in tasks and projects that require out-of-the-box thinking, focus, and research.

Closing Thoughts

Remote job skills are various in nature and encompass everything from job-specific, hard skills to interpersonal skills, transferable abilities, and personality traits. While they aren’t strictly limited to remote work (skills like time management, collaboration, and tech-savviness are universally applicable), they can be more important than in traditional office environments.

By learning and improving these skills and adequately demonstrating your ability to do remote work on your resume, you’ll impress employers and clients and get the job you’re after.

Remote Job Skills FAQ

#1. How to list remote work as a skill?

You generally shouldn’t list remote work as a skill. Instead, list specific remote job skills that demonstrate your competence. For instance, emphasizing written communication and the ability to work independently show that you can excel in a remote setting.

#2. What is essential for remote work?

For remote work, it’s essential that you have the necessary skills and equipment. The equipment depends on your profession but typically includes at least a computer and an internet connection. When it comes to skill, you usually need tech-savviness, written communication, time management, and more.

#3. Which skill is best for a remote job?

Some of the best skills for a remote job include written communication, tech-savviness, time management, and the ability to work independently. On top of that, there are many other hard and soft skills that depend on your career and specific role.