There are 2 ways to land remote work these days: you either apply for companies directly (or via referrals), or you go to freelancing sites and land jobs there. This last kind can be classified in 2 as well:

1. Non-vetting platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freeeup where you create an account and start applying to jobs.
2. Vetting platforms where you need to pass 3-4 tough engineering filters to get accepted like Toptal, TripleByte or CrossOver.

I’ll talk about the second category here. Yes, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in these interviews, but you’ll likely get paid 2x or 3x compared to non-vetting platforms.

I myself have worked on some of these and can honestly say it’s changed my life.

Toptal

• Experience required: You’re expected to be fluent in your tech stack. I’d say you need somewhere between 2-3 years of experience.
• Pros: Excellent salary. Vetting for clients too. Full-time & part-time mainly.
• Cons: Tough and lengthy interview process.
• Interview: 4 steps: English interview, online coding assessment, live algorithms screening, take-home project. It can be heavy on algorithms.
• Salary (USD/year): Frontend: 80k-120k. Backend: 70k-120k. Machine Learning: 80k-130k.
• Apply here (Referral link)

CrossOver

• Experience required: They have a huge variety of openings ranging from 2 years exp for junior developers to +15 years exp for high level managers. You’ll need familiarity with JavaScript, C#, C++ or Java.
• Pros: Good salary. Only long term, full-time work.
• Cons: They take screenshots of your machine every 10 minutes to make sure you’re not on Facebook or Twitter.
• Interview: 6 steps: basic fit, psychometric (CCAT: basic math and logic test), language, software questions (multiple choice), 2 free response questions, and the final interview with a hiring manager. You have 13 days to complete.
• Salary (USD/year) Junior: 30k. Mid level: 60k. Senior: 100k. Technical Manager: 100k. VP: 200k.
• Apply here

TripleByte

• Experience required: 2-3 years of experience and good preparation to pass the online quiz and interview.
• Pros: Excellent pay. Good, well-funded startups to work for. No resume or credentials needed.
• Cons: Mostly for onsite US jobs. Few offers for remote only.
• Interview: 3 attemps to pass a 35 question quiz. 2 mins per question. 2-hour Skype interview afterwards. Make sure you apply to “Remote only” positions.
• Salary (USD/year): For remote, it can range between 100k - 190k.
• Apply here (Referral link)

Turing

• Experience required: At least 2 years of industry experience as a software engineer.
• Pros: Legit company with hires all over the world (Africa, Brasil, Pakistan)
• Cons: Tough and lengthy interview process. Less than 1% accepted.
• Interview: Unclear number of steps. You can easily go through algorithm tests, multiple choice quiz for a specific tech stack, live interview with coding task, and maybe you also need to build a take-home project.
• Salary (USD/year): Based on my research, you won’t probably get more than 100k/yr.
• Apply here

Arc

• Experience required: You’ll have it pretty difficult to pass with less than 2-3 years.
• Pros: Full-time and hourly jobs. Great online reviews. You can set your expected salary.
• Cons: Lengthy interview process
• Interview: 4 steps: Background and experience check, coding algorithms challenge, 1-1 English interview assessment, and a 2.5 hour interview with a senior dev.
• Salary (USD/year) Mostly depends on your location and seniority. Here’s a list with rough averages. Latin America: 70k. Africa: 60k. Asia: 65k.
• Apply here

Gun.io

• Experience required: Their vetting process is not hard - I’d say +1.5 years of experience is enough to apply.
• Pros: Short, easy application process.
• Cons: The site is not polished, lacks design and feels buggy at times. Requires a reference from a previous employer. Mostly hourly, contract work, not full-time.
• Interview: 3 step process: Reference check from a previous employer (this one is weird), 3 online algorithm challenge, video self-interview (just you and your camera).
• Salary: Mostly hourly contract work. $40-$70 USD/hr.
• Apply here

Save this post as I’ll probably discover some more platforms in the future and update the list. You can also follow me on Twitter, let me know what you think and tell me if you’ve had any experience with any of these!