Companies Hiring Remote Workers (During the Holidays)

Let’s face it – seeking employment during the holiday season can be a tremendous challenge, with hiring managers on vacation and decision makers out of pocket. While that sounds discouraging, the truth is that an astounding number of job seekers give up in December, opening more doors for people like you who refuse to quit forging ahead.

What you really want to know is who is hiring remote workers this holiday season, and who is hiring right now.

There are three types of work we’ll dive into – seasonal, freelance, and permanent roles. We’ll talk about the benefits and disadvantages of all three, and for each, we’ll offer some creative options you might not have considered yet.

Option #1: Seasonal Remote Work Jobs

Even if you’re looking for full time employment, while you wait for the pieces to fall into place with that process, seasonal work is a phenomenal way to keep food on the table.

The advantage of seasonal remote work is that the onboarding process is much faster since they need you for the holidays and are in a time crunch. People once hid their side gigs or seasonal work, but the stigma has quickly faded as people recognize that times are tough and we all need to keep food on the table. There’s no shame in providing for your family, even if you take on a temporary or seasonal job to make sure that happens!

The downside to seasonal work is that it ends, it is often very hard work crammed into a short time period, and it can lack flexibility that other remote work might offer.

You already know that in-person seasonal jobs for retail are currently booming, but what about remote options?

Don’t just think about holiday gigs – did you know tax preparation season is already here and companies are hiring, which could lead to work beyond just December?

If you don’t have any experience yet, TaxSense is currently hiring entry level tax preparers, saying they’ll train you. If you already have experience, Intuit is hiring bilingual tax prep specialists, and Deloitte is also staffing up already.

Also consider sports that are seasonal – searching each team’s site for seasonal help, as well as the league’s careers pages can lead to some creative and cool holiday roles. For example, the Disc Golf Pro Tour is coming up and they’re already interviewing for who will manage their social media beginning in February.

Sometimes roles pop up while someone is on medical or parental leave and they’re promoted as “seasonal” jobs, so it’s always worth searching your favorite companies’ careers pages from time to time just in case.

If you’re looking for something to just get you through the holidays without having to have certifications galore, data entry is always something companies hire for on a temporary basis. Take for example Bainbridge’s seasonal data entry role currently hiring (with an immediate start date). Those projects can be pretty big and require lots of hands, so data entry is always an option for remote workers seeking temporary roles.

If you live the RV life, a creative option is working at camp or travel sites that need seasonal help. Right now, the Grand Canyon Conservancy is looking for a Visitor Experience Specialist, and Rondout Valley Campground is looking for a new Team Member. While neither of these is a traditional remote role in the sense that you can work from anywhere so long as there’s a computer, it can certainly be part of a RVer’s travel plans.

Finally, an option often overlooked is the burgeoning online education space, not just software tools to help homeschooling parents, but companies popping up to educate adults (the sector is called “EdTech”). Many online education companies need part time, seasonal, and contract workers not just to teach or tutor, but to manage surges in people being educated, and to create content for their platforms (like Khan Academy which is currently seeking seasonal contract workers to create Physics Content as well as General Science Content. Fascinating!

Pro tip: A way to speed up your seasonal search is to go directly to search sites or company careers pages and search for the words “seasonal,” “temp,” “temporary,” and “contract” separately, as they are often used interchangeably.

Option #2: Freelance Remote Work Options

If you’re currently a freelance worker, we’ll share some options you might be less familiar with. And if you’re currently considering freelance work, the main advantage is that you’re the boss. The primary disadvantage is that you’re the boss, which means you’ll have to know or learn business basics so you don’t get in any trouble with the IRS or local regulators.

Pro tip: When job searching, it’s important to know that the word “freelance” is not the only word used. You’ll also see “contractor,” “gig,” “contract,” and “1099” to reference companies hiring outside help. This is true on job search sites as well as employers’ careers pages.  

There are also two types of freelance work – one where you have an area of expertise and you lend that out to companies (so a public relations expert will seek out and consult multiple companies at once), and another type where you work for another company on a freelance basis (so you set your own availability, but they bring the work to you, like Uber drivers).

While we’ll focus on freelance roles that lean on your expertise, for seasonal work, it is also worth considering supplementing your income with in-person options like ridesharing companies or final mile delivery jobs. You’ve seen Amazon deliver your package from someone’s personal car’s trunk, right? That’s an example of a final mile delivery job.

Here are just a few of the creative options for freelance remote work:

IAPWE, GAMURS Group, and ShoutVox are all seeking remote freelance writers

1. Clair is looking for a social media freelancer
2. Likeable Media needs a freelance community manager
3. Arbox and AGS are hiring freelance sales representatives
4. Barrel is seeking a freelance UX/UI designer
5. Arbox is also hiring freelance account managers
6. Arvie is an example of a company seeking ambassadors (and affiliate sales folks)
7. Welocalize needs a search quality rater
8. 2U Bootcamps is seeking freelance mentors for their technical courses
9. Together Education is hiring part time talent recruiters
10. SuperRare Labs needs a part-time entry-level security engineer
11. Exploding Kittens (it’s a game) is hiring a part-time game development assistant

If none of those job titles are within your area of expertise, we have a few tips on finding niche work. First, consider the career center of any university you attended, or any continued education option you’ve tapped into – many offer career placement for life, and few people realize that!

Secondly, a great place to find high quality freelance work is at professional associations, even extremely small groups. These are sometimes specific to a geography, and always specific to your career, so even if you don’t enjoy offline conferences or Zoom happy hours, member dues can sometimes be worth it for the job boards and forums that are kept from public eyes. At tighter organizations, people often share leads they want to refer out to a trusted person, so be there for that, too.

Lastly, whether you love or hate social media, there are tucked away communities dedicated to remote and freelance work. Search on Facebook and Linkedin for most well developed groups, and ask around for recommendations (people love giving recommendations).

Option #3: Permanent Remote Work Roles

Permanent salaried roles are obviously a popular option, given their perceived stability and benefits, but the process to hire can take longer.

That said, many employers are still finding the hiring process right now to be arduous – hiring managers aren’t the only ones on vacation, job seekers are also out of pocket. Use that to your advantage right now to find those stressed recruiters who are just trying to do a good job and deliver high quality talent like you!

Here are just 25 of the full time remote work options we’ve found that are currently hiring, regardless of the holiday calendar. And pay attention to the companies – they’re almost all hiring for other roles, too!

1. RV LIFE – Lead Product Designer
2. Mobile Must Have – Customer Service Representative
3. Upstatement – Lead Engineer
4. Administrate – Global Sales Development Manager
5. Lume – Content Creator
6. Signifyd – Senior DevOps Engineer
7. COLAB – Digital Project Coordinator
8. Karat – Interview Engineer
9. Power Home Remodeling – iOS Developer
10. Session Lab – Senior Product Designer
11. Red Hot Marketing – Finance Lead
12. CleverTech – Senior Ionic Engineer
13. Files.com – Tech Recruiting Sourcer
14. Stimulus – UX Engineer
15. Knack – Product Designer
16. Hotjar – Sales Operations Coordinator
17. AlphaSights – Senior Front End Engineer
18. Kanopi Studios – Drupal Developer
19. Growth Cave – Customer Support Representative
20. Kinsta – CRM Administrator
21. Trustworthy – Cloud Security Engineer
22. Semaphore – Release Engineer
23. AssemblyAI – Senior Python Engineer
24. Gravity Wiz – Customer Support Wizard
25. Interfolio – Corporate Counsel

Don’t let the holidays stop your search, because despite traction being difficult as people start taking their vacations, there are still plenty of companies that are frustrated because they need these positions filled. You’ve got this!