How to land a remote gig in America and Europe while sitting in India

There can’t be a better time for me to write this blog and answer all your questions on how I bagged my job at LeadFeeder and how you too can get one!

This blog is all about my personal experiences. Especially to those aspiring to bag a remote gig with global companies. These are some of the most practical things that I did, and they worked for me. Happy to share them with you all to help you win!

Before I reveal my secrets, please do read the following tips and make sure you start putting them into practice right away. Because without them, my secrets wouldn’t work!

Without further ado

(If you want to skip reading and watch the video instead, this is where you need to go 👇🏻)

Tip 1: Nurture Connections

I can’t emphasize the need for building strong relationships with connections you meet. Having X followers or Y connections does not make “YOU” stand out. Much like with in-person relationships — trust-building and forming bonds are very important if you want to scale in your career and get good career opportunities and I think that can happen over Linkedin.

So how do you make that happen?

• So first of all, it is essential to always stay on the radar of your connections. To do this, you need to be systematic about being present online and, most importantly, being authentic. When you realize it is time for a career change or needs a change in scenery, you know where to go! LinkedIn is the place.
• And then make a list of your dream companies and follow hiring managers working in those companies on LinkedIn/Twitter.
• And also make sure you engage with their posts regularly. Make a connection, try to establish a relationship with them. This is very important.

When it comes to our careers, we’ve all heard, “Your network is your net worth” And it stands true for the current times. There’s always that “somebody” who is out there who has it all to help you achieve your goals. So make it count when it comes to building relationships on LinkedIn!

Tip 2: Always be learning

I have always wondered what it is that ‘makes’ employees at dream product companies like Google Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Like how do people get a job there? So I realized some of them have it straightforward because of their academic pedigree. But for some, a lot of this comes with continuous learning and applying what we learn.

For me, it’s the second; I have never shunned a chance to learn. Linkedin has been my favorite space to connect, and I put the dedicated time in my calendar to read, connect, follow and learn. For any of you looking to get quick bytes, a good way is to follow experts in your area of interest.

So I always compare myself with somebody on top of the food chain. Connecting with these people can help you start a conversation, get insights and learn how to bag such opportunities or become an expert like them.

And trust me, when it comes to your career change, this certainly helps you get into the groove. You become molded to take up newer opportunities in untravelled terrains with great confidence.

So yeah these are my two tips that you need to put into practice right away.

Now let me share some of the Best practices to hunt for an international remote gig

First things first,

Keep your profile relevant, optimize it with keywords you want to rank for, keep a professional photo as DP, etc. Few SEO tactics can work here! Also, turn on “job seeker” mode on LinkedIn so recruiters will start reaching out to you.

Take a look at my LinkedIn profile. I have optimized my profile to a greater extent I guess. You could take that as a reference.

Sanjana Murali - Product Marketing Manager - Leadfeeder | LinkedIn

Now let me first share how to find that dream remote gig and then share how to apply for those jobs as well as my interview experience.

Let’s start with finding the remote gig

• First of all, connect and follow people organically who can help you learn. Nurture the relationships not favor focused — that pie will never sell on LinkedIn. So follow people you think can help you learn.
• Then follow prospective companies and understand what they do
• Then try to follow job boards and become members within paid communities that help you gain your expertise. Here are few communities that I am part of:
• Paid communities — I’m part of DGMG by Dave Gerhardt, PEAK by Sangram Vajre.
• Non-paid communities — I’m part of Product Marketing Alliance, RevGenius, DemandCurve, and a few others as well.
• My recent favorite job board is the one by Dave Gerhardt which is dgmgjobs.com — Follow that as well
• Turn on Linkedin Job Filters based on the area of interest and location. This helps to narrow down and get the right and latest job listings based on your profile and the location that you are aiming for.
• And then Following hashtags is good. Well, I didn’t do it, but I recommend that you do. Everybody uses relevant hashtags on LinkedIn posts; so it makes it easier to filter the most recent job openings posts.

Okay, so this is how you hunt that dream gig.

Now How do you apply for these job openings? Remember there are 100s like you who will be applying for such roles. So how do you stand out?

• Well, start with your CV. Tailor your CV to fit the role you are applying to and not send one standard resume. Specifically, this is a crucial step in at least your resume getting the eyeballs or at least being called. What I’m trying to say is don’t mass email your CVs to different companies, take the time to personalize your CV based on the JD you read.
• Then apply to jobs where you have the holistic experience than applying to positions where the JD has ONLY one or two areas you have worked on. That’s not gonna work.
• If you get called, then show your expertise by sharing your screen during the interview. For example: if you get asked about landing pages during interviews, show them the pages you wrote. If you have done ICP research, then pull out the relevant document to show that you have done that as well. You generally set that tone of ‘what you see is what you get’ — which in turn increases your credibility with the employer. Call it a brownie point with online interviews; you can show off what you got!
• At last, don’t forget to write a follow-up email post your interview. This is the template I follow.

A bit of disclaimer here These are tips that worked for me and you can use them as a framework. I don’t assure you this will work, but I assure you this sure will help.

Now that I gave you the tips and best practices, let me give you an account of my entire experience.

LinkedIn to me has been a great platform and I literally followed all that I have mentioned here. I had applied to 20 different global companies. My target was Europe and Singapore. I too was rejected by 15 companies for obvious reasons that I worked out of India. I was lucky enough to bag 5 responses to my applications, 3 interviews, and 2 offers. Do you get the math? — The most important part of all of this is to give it your best shot till you actually succeed.

While I was at HippoVideo, I had collaborated a lot with Leadfeeder. We had done ebooks, webinars and I had built a close connection with their marketing team during the course. Outside of work, many of them from the marketing team was also part of a Slack group so we were in touch there. Call it the familiarity effect and a bit of a personal brand that worked in my favor while I had applied for the role at Leadfeeder.

It got me an opportunity to be shortlisted instantly. At the time of my hiring, Leadfeeder wasn’t hiring outside of Europe and I was the exception. Recall my secret tip — on forging strong connections with somebody up the food chain! Once you bag an interview then it totally depends on your own way of marketing yourself for the role, your skill sets, and talent.

So yeah this is how it all happened for me. And I personally know 5 other friends in the marketing community who succeeded by implementing what I shared with you all today.

So I wish you all the best and I am all curious to know if you have had such experiences or have more tips to add to this video? If you do then please hit me up in the comments and I will be excited to read them.

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Thank you all, bye-bye!