To many, the ability to work from home seems just too good to be true. Consequently, services that claim they can help you find one of these fabled "work from home" jobs should be met with skepticism.
However, after personally using FlexJobs to land many interviews and eventually a full-time job, I highly recommend their product.
Things to know before reading this review
- This review is not sponsored
- This review contains no referral links
- I landed a full time remote job from a job listing I found on FlexJobs
- This review is from a programmer's perspective. Results may vary for other industries.
What exactly is FlexJobs?
FlexJob's about page explains the service they provide in detail, but here's the gist:
Flexjobs aggregates job listings, with an emphasis on listings that are remote, part-time, or flexible in hours.
Another job listing aggregation site...so what?
There are a ton of job aggregation websites out there that are free for job seekers, including
- Indeed
- Monster
- Craigslist
- StackOverflow (for programmers)
So what does FlexJobs do differently? From their about page:
We "pound the pavement" so you don't have to. We have a team of excellent, educated, trained researchers who go out and scour the hundreds of online job resources every day (including industry blogs, employer sites, reliable job boards, and more). They are specifically looking for the professional, legitimate jobs that offer some kind of flexibility - telecommuting, part-time or flextime schedules, or freelance contracts.
FlexJobs essentially eliminates a majority of the grunt work involved with seeking a remote job.
How much does FlexJobs cost?
If you're just looking to try out FlexJobs, you can pay \$14.95 per month on a month-to-month basis. Once you've evaluated the product and have decided to seriously search for jobs through the FlexJobs listings, I'd recommend upgrading to the \$59.95 per year plan (which saves \$119.45 over the course of 12 months).
What kind of job listings are provided on FlexJobs?
If you visit the Find a Job page, you can view all of the job categories available.
A tour of FlexJobs
FlexJobs will let you view listing titles and summaries for free. Suppose you were interested in an account management position. Here's an example of what you might see by clicking on the Account Management category in the category listings.
From this page, you can use the Job Types drop down to filter on whatever employment type best fits your situation:
If you actually click on a listing, you'll be greeted with the paywall:
If you log in to FlexJobs, you'll be able to see a full job description as well as a link to the online job application.
Job Search
FlexJobs has a powerful yet simple search mechanism. Since I'm a Python programmer, let's take a look at what happens when we search FlexJobs for Python positions.
(Save This Search is for members only)
There are numerous results filters located on the sidebar, including
- Job Type (employee, freelance, etc)
- Schedule (full time, part time, etc)
- Job Category
- Telecommute level (all telecommuting, some/mostly telecommuting, etc)
Email alerts
If you're a paying member, you can tell FlexJobs to send you a daily email containing new listings that fit your search criteria
In conclusion
A FlexJobs membership is a small but great investment. I highly recommend it for anyone in the job market, even if you never previously had intentions of working from home. The high quality of the listings on FlexJobs alone makes it an amazing resource.