Remote Jobs – Interview with a Senior SEO Specialist

The beginning of the year brought Oum new challenges – a new role, his first fully-remote one.

In this month’s remote jobs interview, we want to present you Oum, our amazing Senior SEO Specialist, while showcasing his best tips on SEO and how to navigate a new role, into a fully-remote company. 

With over 15 years of experience in the field, Oum is based in Bangkok and specialises in tech SEO. Since joining the IMWT crew, Oum has been adding tremendous value both internally and for our clients; which is why we want to give him a massive shoutout – we are thrilled to be part of your journey!

It’s commonly known that the beginning is the hardest. What was the hardest thing for you to overcome when starting at IMWT?

Working at IMWT is my first time working remotely as a full-time job, as I’ve been an office person for most of my working career. So, I was a bit confused and full of questions on how the communication among teams and colleagues would be.

To catch up with the new working processes with the new team, a new working environment remotely was the main thing that made me struggle a bit when I first joined IMWT.

What motivated you to pursue a remote job?

As many people have experienced starting working remotely from home since last year because of COVID-19, I was one of those who had to adapt my working style from office to home as well. I found that there is some flexibility yet working remotely is effective which I never thought before.

I can spend more time on my personal lifestyle and choose when to focus on work, with increased flexibility. I can take time to make sure I’m not missing life’s important moments without worrying about leaving the office during standard business hours, as long as the work gets done, it’s kind of a perfect new balance.

What are your best tips on working remotely?

Workspace is important. It’s because my home will be my office from now on. I used to relax and do all my personal life at home, rarely bringing work from the office back home, but now everything has changed. So, to have a good workspace helps me create my own little office and doesn’t feel like working at home.

Also, try to reduce distractions as much as possible. I have a dog who always comes around begging for some snacks, a construction site close to my house building a big condo which all easily distract me from focussing on my work. So while working, I will close my door, turn on some relaxing music using my earphones which helps a lot.

Another thing is ergonomic devices are also a good choice. I use an ergonomic mouse and chair which helps me a lot in reducing body pain from the work. 

What is the most challenging part of your role?

People here in IMWT are very smart and active. Because of the different time zones, every morning I wake up there will be lots of emails and messages going on around all projects back and forth. Those make me so alert to get ready to work as I need to keep everything on track making sure I’m not missing anything.

What is the most rewarding part of your role?

Getting to work around lots of people with experiences and knowledge from around the world makes me happy with my job. We have a team that is so friendly and willing to help and I learn a lot of new things, and not just work-related, but also some life tips as well.

Your best tips for someone looking to start out in the SEO world?

Always stay at the top of SEO news and trends. SEO is always changing; this is because search engines always come up with new technology to play around with websites. SEOs also have to chase up with those changes as well. Some SEO methods that used to work 3 years ago might not be working today.