A healthy life-work balance means being able to effectively prioritize job responsibilities and the demands of personal life. This requires having enough time to socialize, relax, rest and pursue leisure activities, completely independent of work hours.

There’s more to life than work, and here at Remote, we take the view that your life should always come first. That’s why when we discuss this topic, we use the term life-work balance rather than work-life balance. It’s our way of challenging unhealthy attitudes towards work and reframing the conversation.

Whilst the work from home policies made popular by the pandemic have given employees more freedom over their work schedules than ever, it’s also made it much harder for some people to switch off.

Since March 2020, the lines between our work time and our personal time have become blurred like never before. Communication technologies like Slack and Zoom mean we’re able to be contacted by work colleagues at home and outside of work hours any time. 

This can create pressure to always be available, making it more difficult to achieve a real life-work balance and truly switch off outside of work hours. Some workers also feel a need to replace the time that they would have spent commuting to and from work with completing extra tasks, which means they’re starting earlier and finishing later - leaving less personal time for themselves.

To find out which industries offer the best life-work balance, we’ve analyzed 22 different industries, creating an overall ranking based on basic and overtime pay rates, annual incentive pay, the amount of hours worked each week, and employee turnover rates.

The best industries to work in for a healthy life-work balance

A consistently poor life-work balance can have lasting damage to the company’s culture, resulting in poor job satisfaction levels, high absenteeism, decreased quality of work, and a high employee turnover rate. Employers should follow in the footsteps of companies in our top three best industries for a healthy life-work balance to prevent these situations from arising.

1. Financial and insurance activities industry

Our analysis reveals that the industry offering its employees the best life-work balance is the financial and insurance activities sector. 

Compared with the rest of the sectors we analyzed, this industry has the highest average salary with £62,244 and the best annual incentive pay with £11,843. Employees working in financial and insurance activities also have the highest basic weekly pay rate at £985.20, working just under 34 hours each week to earn this.

This is slightly lower than the average amount of hours worked by full-time workers in the UK, which is 36.5 hours per week. The BBC reports that fewer weekly working hours can help employees feel more rested, more able to juggle their responsibilities outside of work, and keep burnout at bay. 

Offering financial and insurance professionals such an excellent life-work balance could be the reason why this sector has the lowest employee turnover rate of every industry we looked at, with 25%.

Workers who feel that their employers actively support their life-work balances typically experience higher levels of job satisfaction and are therefore less likely to jump ship to competitor companies who can offer them more in the way of a healthy life-work balance.

This is an important consideration for employers looking for ways to bolster their recruitment processes and attract a consistent stream of high-quality candidates. In fact, Forbes reports that more than 80% of millennial workers say they ‘seriously consider how a position will affect their work-life balance’, with millennial workers now making up 50% of the workforce..

One example of a UK company in the finance industry offering a great work-life balance is Mastercard. The average salary at Mastercard is £92,350.81 and Glassdoor ranks it the fifth best employer for work-life balance, based on more than 600,000 employee reviews and the specific measures the organizations analyzed have put in place to combat burnout.

2. Information and communication industry

Paying an average salary of £47,556, the information and communication industry offers the second best life-work balance according to our analysis. 

Whilst basic pay rates are relatively high in this industry, overtime pay is fairly low at £5.20 an hour and the employee turnover rate is not as favorable as in the financial and insurance activities sector with 44%. 

Glassdoor ranks IT infrastructure and services provider, Softcat, second in its analysis of the best UK companies for a healthy work-life balance. Examples of the policies Softcat has introduced for its employees include flexible start/finish times, part-time and job share options.

3. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply industry 

The third best industry for a life-work balance is electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply.

When we discuss working in this sector we’re referring to job activities that help to provide electric power, natural gas, steam, and hot water etc. to industrial parks and residential buildings.

The average annual salary in electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply is £45,541, around £2,000 less than the information and communication industry offers. However, workers in this industry receive a much higher rate of overtime pay at £41.50, the financial and insurance activities industry and the information and communication industry offer just £5.90 and £5.20 respectively.

However, employee turnover in this sector is 67%, the highest out of our top five industries - the slightly higher 36.1 hour working week could be a contributor to this. 

Annual incentive pay is significantly lower than in the financial and insurance industry too, offering just £1,680 compared to £11,843. 

Anglian Water and npower are two UK-based companies within electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply (utilities) that Glassdoor lists as some of the best companies for work-life balance. 

The table below shows our ranking of the best industries to work in for a healthy life-work balance.

How to improve life-work balance and employee wellbeing

Increasing productivity during work hours is a key element of improving life-work balances amongst employees. The more effectively workers are able to manage their time and spend it working productively, the less likely they are to allow their work responsibilities to spill over into their personal time, which can lead to stress, burnout and poor mental health.

Here are some ways that employers can ensure their staff are finding a healthy balance between work and life. 

Recognise that a healthy life-work balance will look different for everyone

Your employees might have their life-work balance affected by health concerns, childcare requirements, or other care responsibilities. Giving them the freedom to choose where they work from and the hours they work with remote and flexible working means they can construct a schedule with a life-work balance that works for them. This supports diverse workforces and helps to attract talent from a wider range of backgrounds.

Nadia Vatalidis, Remote’s VP of People says, “At Remote, we encourage belonging, inclusion, diversity, and equity (BIDE) and believe that the more diverse we become, the more attractive we are to a wider range of people who might consider Remote for their next career move. When you make this a non-negotiable, you create a space your future hires can thrive in.”

Provide training on how to identify stress and poor life-work balance

Whilst employers and senior level managers are responsible for putting measures in place to facilitate healthy life-work balances, it’s vital that everyone within the company knows what to keep an eye out for when it comes to stress and burnout. 

It’s important that this type of training is extended beyond management teams, so that each and every employee is empowered with the skills and knowledge required to support their fellow team members.

This can help to evaluate the effectiveness of the life-work balances that have been put in place and ensure there is continual improvement within this area.

As discussed at the beginning of this article, work from home policies are making it more difficult than ever to switch their devices off outside of work hours, which means employees are often emailing and messaging each other about work matters during their personal time.

In response to the rise in remote working, Portugal legally banned employers from calling, texting, messaging, or emailing their staff outside of working hours to reinforce healthier life-work balances. Whilst there is little legislation relating specifically to remote working in the UK at the moment, there’s nothing to stop companies proactively introducing no-communication hours themselves.

Working five days then having two days off each week is a generally accepted working pattern for full-time employees, but attitudes towards this are changing fast. 

Globally, four-day work week trials have been largely met with success, with productivity remaining the same or increasing in some companies across Iceland, Sweden, and Australia. Earlier this year, the UK launched what is thought to be the world’s largest pilot scheme for four day work weeks, involving more than 3,000 workers at 60 companies across Britain.

Four day work weeks aim to improve company-wide productivity and wellbeing without employees having to sacrifice the equivalent to a day’s worth of pay each week.

Create clear boundaries between employees’ work lives and home lives

Remote’s Senior People Specialist, Keah Nguyen advises employees to help their staff set clear boundaries between work and personal time. Nguyen says, “Remote encourages its employees not to have work apps on their phones and to master the art of working asynchronously. By switching to async workflows, team members can work at the hours that are best for them — and not during hours they would rather be doing something else.

Not only does an optimally balanced life-work split hold benefits for employees, employers can also benefit from a reduction in the costs associated with absenteeism and additional recruitment to cope with a high employee turnover rate. This is because their staff will experience less stress, a lower risk of burnout, improved wellbeing, and a greater sense of loyalty. 

There’s more to life than work but it can be difficult to find a healthy balance in some industries. Find out which ones offer the best life-work balance.

Out of office hours: Which industries offer the best life-work balance?

Many career and job opportunities which were formerly reserved for university graduates are now accessible to people without degrees, reshaping the job market and ushering in new attitudes around the value of a degree.

Making hiring decisions based on experience, attitude, and value-match rather than focusing on specific academic achievements advances equality and opens up the playing field for talented individuals from a range of different backgrounds.

To find out how much a degree matters in securing the best jobs and the highest potential earnings, we analysed job posts on Indeed, Glassdoor and Payscale to find out the level of education required to access different types of jobs and salaries in the UK.

Salaries with a degree vs. without a degree

In the past, the qualifications a candidate held had a significant influence on the salary they could be offered by an employer. In some instances, wages could even be automatically capped at a certain level if employees didn’t have a degree - regardless of their experience, skill set, references, or desire to learn on the job.

However, our research shows the gap between salaries offered to people with and without degrees is in many cases marginal, and there are a surprising number of roles where those without degrees can actually earn just as much (or even more) than those with bachelor's degrees.

The table below shows the average salary available for candidates in 20 high-paying roles with varying levels of education, ranked from highest to lowest in terms of average salary across all degree levels.

From our research, we can see that while academic achievements are still relevant for certain positions, the absence of a degree no longer serves as a barrier to higher paying jobs.

For example, the average salary for a marketing position requiring a degree is £33,416 and the salary for a candidate without a degree in the same position can be offered £33,226 - a difference of less than £200 a year.

For some, this could call into question the value of studying for a bachelor’s degree when the salary increase in comparison to those who do not have a degree is less than £200, especially when you consider how much time and money is invested into gaining a degree.

Some of the jobs roles we analysed actually offer a higher average to employees without a degree than those with a degree. 

According to our research, accountants who do not have any kind of degree can potentially earn more than those with bachelor’s degrees and even doctoral degrees. Accountants with bachelor’s degrees earn an average salary of £38,271.68, this drops down to £33,333 at doctoral level, whilst those with no degree can earn £39,349. 

We found a similar pattern with commodities trader jobs, without a degree candidates can earn a salary of £51,862.75 on average but those with a bachelor’s degree earn less each year with an average salary of £49,868.

These trends indicate that on-the-job experience and non-university education is becoming more highly valued by employers. Job seekers without a degree can bring their own unique backgrounds and perspectives to prospective employers.

Top ten highest paying jobs that don’t require a degree

Our research found that the highest paying job you can get without the need for a degree is an equities trader, a role in the financial sector that involves buying and selling stocks or shares on behalf of a company to help them reach their financial goals. On average, this job pays a salary of £56,284.

The job paying the second highest salary for people without a degree is a commodities trader, which has an average salary of £51,862. This role is similar to an equities trader, except commodities traders buy and sell basic goods such as gold, oil, grains, and natural gas rather than stocks and shares.

In third place, we have ethical hackers. A job in which cybersecurity experts are required to expose digital security vulnerabilities on behalf of organisations and provide improvements to their security strategies.

The top ten highest-paying jobs you can get without a degree are as follows.

For every role in our list, there are more jobs available that do not have degree requirements than jobs that do have degree requirements, which could imply that a higher level of education is not always as important to employers as experience, a willingness to learn, a positive attitude and genuine passion for the role.

The table below shows how many jobs each degree level unlocks for each role.

Some of the roles we analysed do not have any jobs available that require degrees. These include Pilates instructors, firefighters and cabin crew members. 

Benefits of focusing on more than just a degree

Our findings build a strong foundation for the argument that employers now value experience more than degrees, with some jobs not requiring any form of higher education at all and candidates instead being assessed on their experience, cultural fit within the company, and work ethic, amongst other key characteristics.

According to research conducted by the University of Hertfordshire and published by The Guardian, in order of importance, employers look for the following attributes when hiring graduates:

Removing unnecessary, outdated degree requirements prevents employers from missing out on a huge section of the talent pool and people without degrees have skills learned through on-the-job training. This creates greater diversity and engenders a more creative culture, leading to improved problem solving and idea generation, as well as facilitating skills and knowledge sharing. 

Does having a degree still improve your career prospects in today’s day and age? Find out what employers really think in this article.

Degree vs. Experience: How important are degrees to employers?

I am excited to announce our inaugural industry conference, Remote Connect 2022: Building Belonging in the New World of Work, will take place April 5-6 this year. This is a free, live virtual event where global businesses and industry leaders will share bold ideas to help us all build better, grow together, and support our teams and communities in 2022 and beyond. 

Remote Connect is for anyone who wants to:

Learn from the world’s foremost experts in remote work

There are many great reasons to attend, but of course the biggest reason is our incredible lineup of 40+ speakers. Headlining the event are some familiar names: Arianna Huffington, Adam Grant, Priya Parker, Michael C. Bush, and Charles Feltman. We’ll also have a diverse group of authors, CEOs, business leaders, industry experts, community leaders, and more sharing their experiences and perspectives. 

When you attend, you’ll also get access to our rich library of on-demand content that will include practical deep dives on global employment topics spanning legal, finance, engineering, and people teams. Do you have questions about offering equity awards to your global workforce? Scaling a finance team when you’re experiencing hypergrowth? Removing barriers for engineering teams to work better remotely? What about hiring in other countries?

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of international employment, just getting started with a new venture, or an HR professional looking to learn from the best in the world, Remote Connect is the place for you.

We’re also really excited to feature some great musicians from all over the world. There’s nothing like music to bring people together, and we’re happy to support these talented artists who have been impacted by the pandemic as they share their talents.

We have many more surprises to come, and we can’t wait to see you there!

Our inaugural industry conference, Remote Connect 2022: Building Belonging in the New World of Work, will take place April 5-6, 2022. This is a free, live virtual event where global businesses and industry leaders will share bold ideas to help us all build better, grow together, and support our teams and communities in 2022 and beyond. 

Join us for Remote Connect 2022

Jobs requiring STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are some of the most highly paid in the world. With nearly every business today requiring some sort of technological component — whether that’s just a website or a complete suite of software products — demand for workers with STEM skills is only going up. Most jobs in STEM can be done remotely, creating even more opportunities for this talented pool of workers.

Training in STEM can open all sorts of doors, but one major problem remains: equality.

Women and gender minorities still regularly face discrimination, fall victim to stereotypes, and struggle with a lack of acknowledgment for their work in general. This is especially true in fields like STEM, where women have made significant progress but must continue to compete for recognition and opportunities that remain dominated by men.

Fortunately, the recent boom in remote work has helped to accelerate progress toward equality. Women are now finding more opportunities to pursue STEM careers despite the obstacles in front of them. But how exactly is remote work benefiting women, especially women in STEM, and how can businesses contribute to these improved opportunities?

STEM is an umbrella term referring to four different fields of study: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Several careers exist within these fields, including fintech, banking, architecture and design, application development, and software engineering, to name just a few. Without STEM workers, none of the modern technological comforts we depend on would exist.

While STEM fields offer great career paths, women have traditionally faced extra hurdles in joining the STEM workforce. Equality and equal opportunity, not to mention equal pay, have been a distant goal for most. With the rise of remote work opportunities, though, the tide is turning.

The acronym of STEM includes any form of research or technological work, no matter when in history it occurred. Women have historically been a large contributing force to these advancements, though many have had their accomplishments ignored, stolen, or snubbed in the past.

Some notable examples of these groundbreaking women include: 

Nettie Stevens earned her doctorate in biology at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia before going on to discover X and Y chromosomes.

Lise Meitner, in a partnership with Otto Hahn, contributed to discoveries concerning nuclear fission. However, in 1944, the Nobel Prize for these discoveries was awarded to Hahn alone, while the committee disregarded Meitner’s contributions.

Chien-Shiung Wu, also known as the “First Lady of Physics,” worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II before later partnering with two male colleagues when she helped disprove the “principle of conservation of parity.” Wu went unrecognized for her contributions while her two colleagues earned a Nobel Prize in 1957.

Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian-American actress and inventor, pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems.

This is only a small sampling of the scores of women who have made strides in STEM fields. The technologies today may be more advanced and exciting than ever, but women continue to see their contributions and talents overlooked. 

A “gender gap” refers to systemic roadblocks in which social, political, professional, and cultural opportunities are not equally achievable depending on one’s gender. 

Historically, these systemic roadblocks do the most harm to those who do not identify as cisgendered men. This gap is particularly notable in STEM fields. Women hold only 27% of STEM jobs in the US, for example. Members of the LGBTQ+ community also face challenges to get involved in STEM, due in part to the harassment and hostility they often receive at work, especially in countries that do not have protections for LGBTQ+ people in their laws.

While gender gaps exist across all of STEM, experiences may vary depending on specific niches and professions.

While 20% of engineering graduates are women, some 40% of those graduates either quit the industry or never practice.

Women earn only 83% of men’s pay for the same jobs on average, and while these percentages shrink to single-digit gaps for many STEM professionals, those gaps still remain.

Gender pay gaps are even greater for Black, Hispanic, and Native American women.

The theme is consistent: women may earn more in STEM, but they still do not earn as much as their male colleagues for the same work. Smaller gaps are good, but the goal is to eliminate the gender pay gap, not just lower it.

How the transition to remote is impacting STEM 

Some STEM fields, like software engineering, flourished during the major shift to remote work over the last two years. Others, like many hands-on sciences, struggled.

From canceled professional conferences to closed in-person labs and active research being put on hold indefinitely, many forms of hands-on scientific work came to a halt when people were sent to work from home. Especially in the life-sciences field, researchers were unable to complete lab work, testing, and other procedures in a home setting without the proper cleanroom tools and safety precautions.

While scientists in many fields may still be able to work at full capacity from home, others have had to put expensive research projects on hold. Many professionals need to consider how to join and host conferences from home, coordinate the writing and editing of papers, and facilitate learning and development in an asynchronous working environment. Due to this indefinite pause on many in-progress research projects, many scientists fear losing their work, losing grants, or losing their lab positions.

Many employees in the tech sector were already working from home in varying capacities before the boom in remote work. More experience with remote work meant tech professionals didn’t experience as much disruption in their roles. As such, many tech workers are now more comfortable working remotely than in offices — and do not plan to give up their newfound freedom any time soon. 

This is not to say there aren’t skeptics of remote work within the field. However, the ongoing transition to distributed work in this industry was already in progress, so decisions on where to work are not new to today’s tech workers.

Software engineers can work remotely with ease, but what about more traditional engineering fields, like electrical engineering or mechanical engineering? Some of this work can be done remotely, but in reality, many engineers of varying specialities continue to work in offices. Emerging tools for asynchronous collaboration are helping to bridge the gap, but for now, most positions for engineering work continue to require an in-office presence.

Mathematics in STEM includes fields such as banking, fintech, and accounting.  Many of these niches have a unique relationship with remote work. While these industries are filled with roles that could often be done remotely, they also must meet high standards related to privacy, cybersecurity, and compliance. The divide in mathematical professionals today is primarily one of tradition. More modern fintech companies are happy to allow workers to stay remote, while more traditional banks and other financial institutions may not be so allowing.

Of course, finance is far from the only mathematical discipline in STEM. Because math touches so many different fields, possibilities for remote work vary dramatically from one opportunity to the next.

Benefits of remote work for STEM professionals

Remote work offers tremendous benefits for everyone who can enjoy the privilege, especially in STEM. Women and LGBTQ+ people may find some of the challenges they faced in offices to be diminished or even nonexistent in remote work environments. That’s not to say that women no longer face discrimination in remote work environments — or that employers can afford to be lax about protecting their workers — but overall, remote work does more to reduce disparity than exacerbate it.

Let’s take a look at a few reasons remote work is making life better for women in STEM:

Employers are no longer limited to hiring in one region.

Local STEM communities can be insular. Employers and hiring managers tend to favor candidates they know, which often means men hiring men. However, now that fully remote roles (and fully remote hiring processes) have been normalized, employers are casting their nets wider and relying less on local relationships.

STEM job opportunities have traditionally been concentrated within metropolitan areas. In turn, this has led to higher rents, a higher overall cost of living, and long commutes for employees. For women, who often bear the burden of “invisible work” that goes into maintaining a household, the obstacles of living and working in a city can be even more daunting. All things considered, it’s no surprise women are some of the most likely candidates to apply to open remote positions.

Remote work allows employers to access global talent and hire from anywhere in the world. Employees can not only apply to and be hired by international companies, but they can also find more opportunities to travel around the world while maintaining their income. Many have used this opportunity to move closer to family or to leave expensive cities for areas with lower costs of living.

Improved accessibility of mentorship and networking opportunities.

Where professional and industry-specific conferences used to be hosted in person (and regularly required paid tickets to attend), the shift to remote work has revolutionized large events. Events have gone online, driving prices down and lowering barriers to entry to STEM professionals to expand their skill sets. 

Virtual events don’t require event producers to take on the more expensive aspects of conferences, such as renting a location, parking, and security. This lower cost of production is passed on to attendees, meaning more opportunity for those who otherwise would not have been able to afford to attend on top of travel costs or time off from work.

It’s true that organic connections can be more difficult to make at virtual conferences as opposed to in-person events. However, people who are proactive in their outreach and engaged with the content of these events enjoy great opportunities to meet leaders in their industries and make new connections.

(Looking for the world’s best conference for remote work and global HR? Sign up to attend Remote Connect this April!)

What obstacles do women in STEM face in the remote work world?

Despite the benefits, there are still several opportunities for improvement within the remote working world for women. Issues women and face in remote work often include:

Disproportionate responsibilities at home, including childcare and household labor

Gender-based harassment or discrimination, which is especially common for LGBTQ+ individuals

Expectations for women to perform administrative work outside their roles, like taking notes in remote meetings or relaying messages

A lack of representation in company leadership

Understanding the root of these issues and how they affect women in STEM fields can not only shine a light on potential remedies, but also help to protect against similar issues in the future. While STEM continues to undergo a slow shift in women’s opportunities in the workforce, there is still a lot of ground left to cover.

What can STEM businesses do to lessen the gender gap through remote work?

Remote work has already helped more women access STEM careers, but there are things businesses can do to welcome more women into these roles — and to retain them. 

1. Establish better remote work goals, deadlines, and reviews.

Remote work highlights the value of measuring employees based on production instead of hours spent at work. While it is important not to hold office and remote workers to different standards, note that work may get done differently and at different rates depending on each individual’s work style.

Shifting toward more equitable measurement and performance analysis structures allows companies to conduct fairer reviews of their team members. Everyone should be measured equally using criteria that do not favor one side over another. This is a great opportunity for managers to examine their own biases so they do not unconsciously favor employees they see in the office over employees who work elsewhere.

2. Be more accommodating through flexible work hours and environments.

Consider employee expectations both during the workday and outside of it. Employers operating with a hybrid or remote model must answer culture questions like:

Are employees expected to be on the clock during specific hours?

Are there options for flexible working hours depending on different employee needs?

Are there recurring, required meetings that could be reworked to be more flexible?

Could more meetings be canceled in favor of asynchronous work?

What are expectations around answering messages outside working hours?

Simply allowing employees to work from home without considering changes to meeting structures or working hours is a recipe for disaster. Companies must trust their employees to do great work instead of micromanaging them. Another great reason to measure performance based on output instead of hours.

3. Provide relevant, targeted training to people leaders.

Intentionally train managers on the best ways to support remote workers. As Remote’s CEO Job van der Voort likes to say, “You don’t have to smell people to manage them.” Managing remote employees is not all that different from managing in-office employees, but remote work can expose bad management practices quickly.

Leaders should focus on developing their employees, recognizing microaggressions and harassment, and ensuring every member of staff has equal opportunity. Not only will these initiatives help employees feel supported and heard, but doing so will also create a more positive, welcoming environment for all.

Training also means development: creating an environment in which women’s accomplishments are recognized and those women are promoted based on the merit of their work. Promoting and supporting the great women in STEM already within your organization is the best way to attract more brilliant team members and keep your current ones on board.

4. Improve networking and mentorship opportunities.

Growth-focused STEM businesses should be investing in mentorship, leadership training, and other networking opportunities (particularly for employees working remotely). There are a number of simple practices employers can incorporate to facilitate this learning and development:

Hosting events, seminars, and conferences

Offering to send employees to remote and in-person conferences

Providing a learning and development allowance 

Inviting industry professionals to speak to staff remotely

Developing a structured mentorship program 

Especially for women working remotely, these events offer opportunities to connect with other women in their field and demonstrate how management sees and supports them. Professional development allowances are an excellent perk to help employees grow their skills in new ways, and structured mentorship programs can help employees identify areas in which they would like to improve.

5. Establish and practice zero-tolerance policies for harassment.

Working remotely does not automatically end harassment for women and LGBTQ+ employees at work. Toxicity can easily infiltrate remote companies the same way it can physical offices. In fact, the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic actually led to increased harassment for women and LGBTQ+ individuals in many cases, per Project Include.

Businesses with remote workforces must be active in how they communicate and enforce their anti-harassment policies. To ensure employees feel comfortable speaking up, companies may consider creating internal advocacy groups or allowing employees to do so on their own. When an employee reports harassment, the company must act swiftly to investigate the claims and decisively to ensure workers feel safe. Not only is protecting workers the right thing to do, but if harassers are allowed to continue, they will create a hostile environment for everyone.

Millions of brilliant women around the world already enjoy successful careers in STEM. The challenge for businesses is not to open the door but to support those who have opened it themselves. 

Women have made great strides in STEM fields, especially in recent history. But with some hurdles still standing in their way, many are finding the boom in remote work to be what they need to find success.

Bridging the gender gap in STEM with remote work

You found your dream position, poured all your time and energy into an amazing cover letter...and you hear nothing back at all from the company you applied to. Sure, your CV wasn't a perfect match, but you more than compensate for that, which you explained in your cover letter. Then why didn't you get a response? Or, if you got one, why was a it such an impersonal one without any feedback?

Most organizations use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Examples are Workable, Lever and Greenhouse. When you send in your application, be it to an email address, or a form on a website, it ends up in one of these applications.

Depending on the size of the company, they might have a team of recruiters or their own managers reviewing incoming applications here. For companies that want to grow fast, and companies that have many applicants (because they are popular), they could be receiving tens or even hundreds of applicants for any given position. For example, for one hire I’ve made last year, I rejected more than 300 people before hiring someone.

To manage so many applications, the recruiter has to evaluate profiles quickly. This means that applicants that do not match the requirements are usually rejected quickly. Your cover letter might not even be seen. And because the recruiter might have to review hundreds of applications, they will probably use a bulk-reject function, which is offered by platforms such as Lever. 

This is probably what happens with your application if you get rejected, or don’t hear anything. You might be the best fit, but if a quick scan of your profile doesn’t reveal that, you might be rejected without much consideration.

An organization that wants to scale up quick, that is - hire many people really quickly, will closely monitor how many people are hired, and how quickly. This is why ATSs market their reporting functions heavily, see this page by Greenhouse for example.

To hire people fast, they usually create strict job descriptions and might have internal rules that rank people higher or lower. For example, companies might prefer applicants with a university degree over applicants that don’t. Some companies avoid applicants that tend to job-hop, others will only review applicants that come from other notable companies.

I’ll refrain from going into unconscious bias here, but unfortunately this plays a role here as well.

The recruiter that does most of the first-stage filtering and selection will not have a deep understanding of the role and requirements. They often hire for several roles, and it’s impossible for them to understand that someone that does experience X might fit really well for role Y as well. They might select candidates on “do they have experience Y”.

A recruiter that has many applicants will not take any risk with candidates. The next person to interview a candidate is usually a manager or coworker: someone that does not spend all their time hiring. Recruiters are therefore under pressure to only pass through "safe bets."

You’re convinced you’ll make a great fit for a particular position, but your application still got rejected. How do you still make it in?

If you didn’t get a reply at all, ask for one! It might be that a company has simply missed your application. If a company doesn’t reply to your email, reach out to them on social media or reach out to the recruiter directly if that’s possible.

Got a standard rejection? Try to understand why, again by reaching out directly, but usually your best bet is to talk to the people that you’d be working with. You can easily find those people on Linkedin and social media. Reach out with a short message. Be kind and humble.

One thing that I’ve seen work is to reach out to the person that would be your manager. They have the best understanding of what kind of person would fit and could also tell you why you wouldn’t make a good fit. Do be respectful of their time.

Try to be empathetic with the recruiter and company as a whole. It’s not nice to get rejected, or not hear anything at all; consider that the people working at that company are likely in a situation that they’re not able or discouraged to help you out. The best companies do reply to every applicant, and give feedback. We’ll write more about this in the future.

Above any other way, the best way to get hired at any company is to be referred. Often there are internal incentives for referring a new colleague, plus you get to bypass much of the recruitment process.

So if you’re looking for a particular position, ask around in your network first. It might save you a lot of time, and generally your chances are higher.

You might read this in desperation and don’t feel like this was much help. I didn’t address any of these things:

I don’t have experience, but all jobs require experience

There is a problem with my CV, and I get rejected because of it

I want to change careers, but I can’t find a first position

I’ll address each of these over the coming months. Sign up at Remote.com to receive the newsletter that’ll let you know when one of these is up.

What is your personal struggle with finding a new job?

How companies review your application (and why you don't hear back)

How companies review your application and why you don't hear anything back

A meeting should be short, to the point, and not waste the time of anyone in it. That sounds difficult, but is absolutely achievable. This works for both in-person and remote meetings.

If you can avoid having a meeting, consider not having a meeting.

Something quick can still be disruptive to the work and time of the other participants. Meetings, even well-ran, are costly.

Only invite people to your meeting that need to be there. If you want to satisfy the curiosity of people that don’t need to be there but are interested in what is discussed, you can share the meeting agenda and notes with them (see below).

If your meeting only needs all participants for a part of the time, do that first, and tell those people to feel free to leave when they are no longer necessary.

A meeting is a tool to achieve a particular goal. Be careful to not create a culture where being in a meeting means you’re important. It’s not.

Expert move: if you’re in a meeting that you don’t need to be in and can’t contribute to, leave. Don’t disrupt the meeting. Just send a message to your manager / superior and let the person that organized the meeting know why you left.

A link to a Google doc* is the easiest way to do this. Give everyone edit rights, and tell them you will only discuss things that are on the agenda. Do this at least a day in advance, preferably whenever you send the invite.

1. Job: A brief description of what I like to discuss
	1. Marcelo: A comment I have on Job’s point
	2. Eduardo: Another comment I have on this point
	3. This is a note someone made while this point was being discussed
2. Luís: A different topic I’d like to discuss

Your name before your point. If it’s your point, you speak up. Have a clear goal in mind for adding something to the agenda. That can be a FYI, a clear ask or a clear point of discussion.

Everyone that isn’t talking, takes notes.

HR

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How companies review your application and why you don't hear anything back

Written by • Job van der Voort

How to run a successful meeting