In the city, several professionals have chosen to work for international companies without leaving their homes.

Digital content writers, programmers, graphic designers and people who are in front of customer service are part of the jobs that, in the last two years, have been most in demand on platforms that offer remote jobs.

With the confinement due to the pandemic, dozens of companies in the world, although they already summoned professionals from various areas to work from wherever they wanted, increased their offers that were welcomed by Ecuadorians.

In the case of Cuenca, there are already professionals who are working remotely, such as Diego Molina, who for eight months has been giving technical support to online stores that operate in the United States.

After being hired by a company in Vietnam, he, from home, must be connected to the internet to respond to the needs of the stores.

“I always had an interest in computers and the digital world, so I wanted to take a bigger leap to see how far my skills go and I had the opportunity to find this job,” said Diego.

While Diego is keeping an eye on the online stores, Katherine Astudillo, from Cuenca, does data analysis for Payphone. She worked in an office before the pandemic confinement in 2020.

However, with the health emergency, the company decided to change the way they worked and established that their employees could work from home. Since then, from Monday to Friday, she connects and works with her computer.

For her, and the same for Diego, remote work has its advantages: managing time, being anywhere, and, if you have children, working from home allows you to be closer to them.

But it also has its drawbacks: no co-workers, no physical meetings, and no social contact.

“You have your time, you can work from anywhere, but you also need that work coexistence,” says Katherine.

A club for remote workers

The lack of coexistence had also been felt by Diego and his friend Joseph Kennedy, a young British man who lives in Cuenca and works remotely.

Given this, both decided to found the first club of people who work remotely in Cuenca. For that, two months ago, they called those they knew who worked from home.

In less than a month, the club welcomed thirty people, including Cuencanos and foreigners. Once a week they meet in different places to work together.

“Everything was organic. They were friends, and friends of friends who came together. Then I did a reel on Instagram, and I did an ad on Facebook, and we got more and grew,” said Joseph.

Currently there are another thirty people from Cuenca who are waiting to join the club led by Diego and Joseph, since the trend continues—Cuencanos and foreigners who live in the city continue to be hired by international companies.

Tips

Once the club became known, Joseph and Diego, were regularly asked the same question: how to work remotely?

And the first advice that friends give is, look for what you like. Both Joseph and Diego were browsing various web pages. When they found something that interested them, they uploaded their resumes and waited.

“There is no single platform to search for remote work. You have to search and search and apply. Meanwhile, my recommendation is to always be improving your skills. Look for courses, study, prepare yourselves,” said Diego.

Another space that can serve all those who are looking to work from home is Torre.co, a network where remote jobs are posted. All you need is an account and then you can upload your resume to it.

Katherine Astudillo recommends people look on the platform LinkedIn. Just filter your searches with remote work, and the options will be visible.

“To work in a remote company, what you need is to be organized, decide what you are going to prioritize, what time you are going to meet, what is urgent. Once you have that, you have to search,” said Astudillo.