What is a digital nomad and how to become one?

New jobs appear every day, some of them more specialized than others, but in general they all have something in common: they are related to the digital world.

Since the invention of the internet, a multitude of new technologies have been developed that allow us to be in instant contact with people from anywhere in the world, and this has created new job offers, in sectors that we could not even imagine existed before.

That's where this word comes into our slang: digital nomad. A digital nomad does not have a fixed function as a job and refers to all job disciplines that are developed with digital technologies on an itinerant basis. That is, without a permanent place of residence. Many of us have to go to our usual workplace, such as an office, but surely you know someone who, since the start of Covid-19, has had to stay at home working. In fact, you probably had to do it yourself.

So the question (or challenge) that I ask you in this article is why stay at home working if you can do it from anywhere?

Advantages of working while traveling

I'm sure you're wondering what kind of advantages a job like this can have. Here are a few:

• Freedom: This is perhaps the biggest advantage you have being a digital nomad and is that in most cases you will be able to move independently, when and how you want, allowing you to travel anywhere in the world.
• Minimalism: Work with very little. Do not imagine carrying suitcases from one place to another, taking the office with you. Since for most remote digital jobs, you will only need a laptop and an internet connection. Easy right?
• Save: Most likely, you imagine spending a fortune between transportation, accommodation, food and an endless list of expenses. But the reality is that many of the expenses will be less than living in your usual residence. There are hundreds of interesting countries with cities to discover where the cost of living is much lower, so with your salary you can cover all these expenses and even save.

What are the disadvantages of working while traveling?

It is clear that not everything can be advantages, and although each person is different, in general these are some of the disadvantages that we can all find when working while traveling:

• Loneliness: It is true that it is a very personal decision to take your bags and go to work traveling as a digital nomad. In this case, it is important to keep in mind that on many occasions we can feel alone. Either because our family lives far away and we cannot have the same contact, or because you are a very social person and need to have your friends close.
• Same telecommuting issues: Another thing a digital nomad has in common with telecommuting is the feeling of isolation, or emptiness, that comes from working alone, with no co-workers reporting instant feedback on the job. day by day and help us liven up the work day.

Coliving and coworking as a lifestyle to work while traveling.

But don't worry, big problems come with big solutions, because for each of these problems there is a solution.

coliving or what we have called sharing a house all our lives, is the best way to combat the day-to-day loneliness that we can find in any city once we have just arrived. If we look for shared accommodation, we will break that barrier from the beginning and share moments with other people from the first day in a new city.

On the other hand, there is coworking, a work system that has been established for a few years now in the most important cities of each country. It consists of shared offices that allow workers, entrepreneurs and businessmen to have a work environment with the typical characteristics of an office and, in addition, have added advantages such as expanding your network of contacts or being able to have a coffee during the long-awaited break together. to a relaxed chat with your new colleagues.

How can I start working online?

If you want to pack your backpack and start seeing the world, but you want to do it by working to continue earning an income, you will wonder how to start working online. First of all, it is to differentiate the types of digital works that exist, which of them are more adapted to you, if you have previous experience or start from scratch. You will not earn the same if you work taking phone calls or answering emails in a chat, than developing web pages or managing social networks.

For all these cases, keep reading because you are interested in the following information.

Remote work for technology professionals.

Perhaps this is the job that we all imagine doing remotely, well-paid professional jobs that at the same time imply personal and professional development. We can group here works of graphic design, web design, community managers, software developers, etc. But in this group we can find professional jobs that have normally been carried out in person, but that thanks to digitization we can do remotely, such as a language teacher, psychologist, translator, lawyer, accountant and many more.

For the latter, it would be necessary to carry out a digital transformation of the business model, but nothing is impossible.

Internet jobs without experience that you can do at home or traveling.

How many times have you called your telephone company and a person answered to answer your questions remotely? Surely it has also happened to you that you have had a question about the electricity bill or the electricity company and you have opened a chat on the company's website and they have resolved it at that very moment. There are hundreds of jobs that, with a simple previous preparation that the same company provides, we can work from home.

There are jobs online without experience in many companies that require a telephone service, or a chat to solve doubts and problems. We can also find jobs as commercial agents, so if you don't already have training for a more specific job, you can always start working remotely and train to get the job of your dreams and travel wherever you want.