Your guide to work-from-home careers that pay well

Remote work has progressed from a dream to a distinct possibility for many people, a shift fueled by pandemic-era necessity and technological breakthroughs. In fact, about one-third of U.S. workers who can work from home now do so all the time, according to the Pew Research Center.¹ 

That’s great news for job seekers who want to work remotely—the ranks of whom are still robust. What’s driving the continued interest in remote positions? For employees, the benefits can range from greater job satisfaction and significant financial savings to increased productivity and improved work-life balance. In fact, the same 2023 Pew survey cited above found that 56% of employees felt they could get more work done and better meet deadlines when working remotely.¹ 

“Working from home often allows you to plan your work around your life, rather than your life around your work,” says Kyle Elliott, a career and executive coach in Santa Barbara, California. “You’re able to create more flexible schedules that allow you to more easily attend to being a modern human—like running errands, going to appointments, or caring for a child or parent.”

Of course, what works for most might not necessarily be what’s ideal for you. So how do you determine if remote work might be a good fit? And what are work-from-home careers that pay well? Don’t worry—we’ve got insights to help you answer those questions and several more.

Is a work-from-home career right for you?

Real talk: Even if you’re hoping to find a new job, not every person thrives in a remote work environment. These questions can help you determine your potential fit—before you put a ton of energy into the job search.

What are your career interests and dreams?

Tech, finance, and professional and business services are the sectors in which remote work is most common, but don’t assume remote work is a no-go if your industry falls somewhere outside of those categories. It’s possible to find work-from-home careers in a staggering number of fields, including manufacturing and food services. The biggest fit factor isn’t industry but rather the type of work you want to do. Hands-on work is impossible to do remotely, for example, and spans across industries. Think: surgeon, construction foreman, hair stylist, airline pilot.

How would you rate your ability to manage yourself?

Though digital tools can make it easy to collaborate with coworkers from anywhere, working remotely may mean less management overseeing how you spend your time on tasks and fewer informal opportunities to ask clarifying questions. That’s why employers that allow remote work tend to look for self-starters who are well organized and proactive about seeking guidance if they get stuck on a task or want to stretch into new responsibilities.

“Work-from-home careers require significant dedication and self-motivation,” says Elliott. “You have to be honest with yourself and decide if you can be productive in an entirely remote job.”

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Do you have the right setup to work remotely?

Those with a spare room or already established home office will have an easier time operating in careers where you can work from home than someone sharing space with multiple roommates and a yelping dog. Also, consider that working from home may mean losing a lot of office-based infrastructure—like access to a printer, endless pens and paper clips, and free breakroom snacks. While some employers might offer a home office stipend or an initial flat sum to help you get your home office up and running, usually you’ll have to purchase extras like supplies and snacks on your own.

Tip: Many companies allow you to split your direct deposit between savings and checking accounts, providing an effortless way to save with each paycheck. 

Can you draw a clear line between work and life?

Toni Frana, lead career expert at an online jobsite, points out that it’s crucial for remote workers to stay vigilant about the hours devoted to work versus their personal time—or else they risk letting their professional pursuits swallow up their day. “From a life balance perspective, remote employees must understand the importance of setting boundaries between work time and nonwork time because it can be easy to blur the lines when working from a home office,” says Frana.

Are you a social butterfly?

Even with a calendar full of virtual meetings, some people prefer social interactions to take place in real life. In fact, feelings of loneliness and isolation are a notable drawback of careers you can do at home. If you’re more extroverted, staving off such loneliness might require seeking out more off-the-clock social opportunities.

7 work-from-home careers that pay well

(Salary estimates provided by Glassdoor as of September 2023)

Social Media Manager

• Average annual salary: $55,436
• How it’s growing: The overall field of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers is expected to grow 8% (faster than average) between 2023 and 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And with social media now a business necessity across industries, it’s fair to say that this niche represents a healthy slice of that projected growth.
• What the gig involves: Social media marketers use platforms on behalf of companies to attract and engage with potential and current customers. The role can include everything from writing posts and responding to customer comments to cultivating an audience and analyzing social media metrics to determine a marketing campaign’s success and help shape future efforts.
• Why it’s doable from home: Social media, by definition, takes place online. 

Project Manager

• Average annual salary: $89,366
• How it’s growing: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 7% job growth in the project management industry through 2033. Industry experts say the looming retirement of a sizable swath of current project managers means plenty of demand for fresh faces in the field.
• What the gig involves: Project managers flex organizational and people skills to help teams execute initiatives smoothly and efficiently while ensuring projects stay on time and on budget. Though you can find project manager positions in almost any industry, the role is prevalent in project-intensive fields, such as IT, construction, energy, transportation, and health care.
• Why it’s doable from home: Digital tools make remotely coordinating and managing teams easier than ever. Even in industries like construction—where much of the work is done on-site—technology can help to lessen the frequency of on-site visits.

Data Analyst 

• Average annual salary: $84,309
• How it’s growing: The need for operations and research analysts (which includes data analysts) is expected to grow a stunning 23% from 2023 to 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
• What the gig involves: As the volume and velocity of business data grows, companies need assistance making sense of it all. Data analysts help by collecting, cleaning, and interpreting data to answer questions and solve problems for organizations in a wide variety of industries. 
• Why it’s doable from home: Even in industries where data is related to on-site operations (say, manufacturing or retail), analyzing that data requires digital tools.

Virtual Assistant

• Average annual salary: $46,667
• How it’s growing: The job outlook for the overall field of secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to grow by 1% between 2023 and 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, demand for virtual assistants seems to be bucking that trend.
• What the gig involves: From freelance virtual assistants who juggle multiple clients to full-time staff positions dedicated to assisting one executive, this role can take a lot of forms. But at its core, being a virtual assistant means helping companies or business leaders with office-related tasks—which might mean anything from scheduling meetings and coordinating work travel to proofreading presentations and managing social media accounts.
• Why it’s doable from home: With everything from board meetings to team brainstorm sessions increasingly taking place online, digitally supporting such work can be seamless.

Web Developer

• Average annual salary: $81,471
• How it’s growing: Demand for web developers and digital designers is expected to grow 8% between 2023 and 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• What the gig involves: Web developers create and maintain websites: Front-end developers focus more on the site’s visual design and navigation, while back-end developers focus more on coding and managing site access. (Full-stack web developers, as you might guess, span both front- and back-end responsibilities.) Day-to-day duties can vary considerably, depending on whether you’re building sites for multiple clients as part of an agency or working at a larger company. But typical responsibilities include designing user interfaces, writing and reviewing code (such as HTML or JavaScript), testing web applications, and posting site content.
• Why it’s doable from home: The online nature of the work makes it an easy fit for working from home.

Sales Representative 

• Average annual salary: $73,242 (includes commissions).
• How it’s growing: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 1% employment growth for sales representatives between 2023 and 2033, slightly below average compared to the expected 3% growth for the overall job market.
• What the gig involves: Armed with a combo of strong interpersonal skills and deep product knowledge, sales representatives work to understand customers’ needs and then sell them solutions—which can include anything from complex tech products to baby bottles, depending on where they work. You might focus on wholesale, business-to-business, or consumer accounts, implementing day-to-day sales activities to achieve established sales targets.
• Why it’s doable from home: Though some sales representative roles demand extensive travel and in-person client meetings, digitally native brands can be successfully handled from anywhere with a strong Wi-Fi connection and other digital tools.

IT Support Specialist

• Average annual salary: $56,243
• How it’s growing: Job growth for computer support specialists is expected to grow 6% between 2023 and 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• What the gig involves: IT support specialists troubleshoot common tech issues for end users, whether that means internal employees struggling to access a server or external customers who can’t get the company’s app to work properly. Robust knowledge of standard computer systems is a must, as is the ability to communicate clearly (and patiently!) with people across all levels of tech know-how. In addition to fielding help requests, IT support specialists may manage systems to keep them operating effectively and make recommendations to improve those systems.
• Why it’s doable from home: The rise of remote work means there’s less need for in-office IT support staff. And specialized digital tools make it easy to effectively handle everything from customer ticket management to remotely accessing company devices.

How to Start Your Work-From-Home Career Search

Step 1: Tailor your job search terms.

While remote-only job boards and social media groups can be incredibly useful, hunting through the haystack of large, general job boards is worthwhile as well. Include search terms like “remote,” “virtual,” or “telecommuting” alongside job titles in your search queries (e.g., “remote IT support specialist”). On websites dedicated to job postings, for example, you can also search for the job title that interests you and list the location as “remote” to filter the findings. Note: Not all could-be-remote job openings will trumpet that fact in the job listing. Look for clues like “flexibility” and “work-life balance,” indicating that an employer may be open to remote or hybrid work models.

Step 2: Put the word out.

Even without decades of work experience under your belt, your network can be a powerful way to find your next great gig—but only if people know what you’re looking for. Don’t just say you’re open to new opportunities on your professional profile; adjust your settings to enable the “open to work remotely” feature. And if your job search comes up at networking events (whether that means an alum mixer at your college or an industry message board), don’t be shy about specifying that you’re looking for a remote role. 

How to Get a Remote Job

1. Highlight your remote qualifications (even if you’ve never worked remotely).

If you have experience working remotely, you’ll want to state that clearly in your resume and cover letter. But even without such experience, you’ll want to show potential employers that you have the skills—such as self-direction, strong communication, and problem-solving—that align with remote work. Did you lead a big group project in college where everyone worked asynchronously? Or maybe you broke down larger deadlines into daily tasks in your last role? Do you have experience coordinating with team members spread out across geographies and time zones? Now is the time to highlight such skills. You might also want to add a technology section to your resume to specifically highlight your experience with digital collaboration tools and software. 

2. Put your best virtual foot forward during the interview process.

Finding a quiet, tidy, and well-lit spot is a smart move for any virtual meeting, but when interviewing for a remote position, that backdrop can reassure potential employers that you have an environment conducive to remote work. It’s important to test any tech you might use in the interview (such as headsets and cameras) ahead of time. You could even ask a friend to join you for a brief video meeting to give feedback on your audio and lighting.

3. Get prepped to answer questions about remote work. 

What interests you about a remote position? Why do you think you’re well suited for remote work if you don’t have remote experience? What do you think will be your biggest challenge in working remotely? Though career experts generally advise job hunters not to introduce the topic of remote work during an interview, you may be asked about it at some point. To avoid being put on the spot (or blurting out a cringe-worthy answer you’ll regret later), think through potential responses beforehand. Another thing to be ready for—negotiating your salary. Hint: Just because you’re asking to work remotely doesn’t mean you have to settle for less than you’re worth.

Ready, set, go! Start exploring careers you can do at home

There’s no time like the present to look for one of the work-from-home careers described above, especially given how dramatically attitudes about remote work have changed in recent years. If you’ve ever dreamed of cutting your commute time to zero minutes, consider this a sign to investigate the opportunities that await.

Landed that dream remote job you’ve been hoping for? Set up your direct deposit with a new Discover® Cashback Debit account.

¹ “About a third of U.S. workers who can work from home now do so all the time.” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (March 30, 2023) https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/30/about-a-third-of-us-workers-who-can-work-from-home-do-so-all-the-time/

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