This is our review of FlexJobs, the popular paid job search site that specializes in flexible and remote work.
In this FlexJobs review, you’ll learn:
- What you get as a premium member
- Tips for getting the most out of a premium membership
- When to go with FlexJobs vs. an alternative
The truth is that FlexJobs isn’t for everyone.
So in this article, my aim is to give you the right information to help you decide whether it’s right for you.
FlexJobs is legit and does what it says: validate remote and flexible job listings. FlexJobs also provides a platform to easily search for and find these jobs, which is difficult on many of the larger job boards. The listings are aggregated from freely-available sources, so there’s no listings exclusive to subscribers. The pricing is fairly high at $23.95 per month, but there is a 14-day trial available for just $2.95. We recommend FlexJobs for those who have narrowed down the type of role they’re looking for and are ready to start applying for that role.
- Listings are manually reviewed to weed out scams.
- Money-back guarantee and no-commitment cancellation policy.
- Search and filtering designed specifically for finding the type of remote job you're looking for.
- Must pay a membership fee to see job details.
- No feedback system, which can be helpful for getting started as a freelancer or independent contractor.
FlexJobs Review: The Basics
FlexJobs is a job board that lists postings for all types of flexible work arrangements. They’re well-known as a job board for remote work positions, but really have all types of flexible work arrangements.
These can include:
- Alternative Schedule: Jobs that allow you to choose your own hours.
- Freelance: Jobs that entail you being an independent contractor for a company.
- Fully-remote jobs: Positions where you’re never required to work from a set location.
- Semi-remote jobs: Full-time positions that allow you to work from home part-time.
- Temporary: Short-term jobs for a specified period of time.
Every job opportunity you see on FlexJobs has been vetted.
You can search for jobs on the site for free. Depending on your search criteria, you’ll get a list of jobs FlexJobs has available, with a very short summary of the position (as shown in the screenshot below).
To access more details about the job — most importantly, who the company is and how to apply — you need to become a paying member.
Below is an example of what you’d see as a paying subscriber when opening a job listing page.
FlexJobs has three tiers of pricing, where you can join for as little as 14 days or as long as a year:
- 14-day trial: $2.95 (automatically transitions into the monthly plan if you don’t cancel).
- $23.95 per month.
- $71.40 for an annual membership (comes out to $5.95 per month).
Finding Openings on FlexJobs
While there are some additional offerings (which we’ll get into below) here’s a deeper look at FlexJobs’ search capabilities.
Dashboard
Once you’re logged in, you’re taken to a customized dashboard where you can start searching for openings.
On this dashboard, you’ll find the following:
- Advanced Search: Filter jobs based on several criteria (which we’ll go over below).
- Recent Activity: Find recently viewed and saved jobs, saved searches, and application history.
- Resume Profiles: Create your profile, including a title. There’s a box to click that will give you some tips on creating the right profile title. FlexJobs recommends having multiple resume profiles for scenarios like same industry/new position, same industry/various positions, same industry/telecommuting position, completely new career field, new industry/same position, and new industry/new position. When you have more than one resume profile, you can select the one you want to send to a potential employer.
- View New Jobs of Interest: This tab shows you new jobs that are most relevant to your searches. In order to populate it, you need to first start a Resume Profile.
- Skills Test: There are assorted professional skills tests you can take to help highlight your strengths. Your results will show on your Resume Profile so that potential employers can see them. You can see your results in this tab, too.
- Account Settings: Here you can manage your contact information, password, billing, upgrade or cancel your subscription, and find the FAQ section.
- Member Savings: Here you can get discounts on a variety of offers and services, like a 20% discount on Grammarly, specials from Dell, and a one-month free trial to LinkedIn Learning.
- This Week’s News: This is a weekly roundup of FlexJobs in the news.
Searching Jobs
There are dozens of job categories on FlexJobs. However, you can narrow these down with the Advanced Search feature to find the most relevant opportunities.
FlexJobs Job Categories
There are 11 criteria you can use to hone your search:
- Keywords: I found that it’s best to start broad then narrow down your search. For example, use “Video Game” rather than “Video Game Developer.” That’s because employers may not always write a post in a way that allows it to get through a keyword search that’s too specific.
- U.S. Location: Filter by city, state or zip code. Some employers and some positions prefer (or even require) that employees are in the same geographical area as the company — even if the work is 100% remote. If a company has that requirement and you try to apply despite being outside that area, FlexJobs will show you a message stating you’re outside the area to apply for that job.
- Job Types: Employee, freelance or temporary.
- Categories: These are the job categories, and some of them can be further refined.
- Career Level: Select from entry-level, experienced, manager, or senior-level manager.
- Featured & Award-Winning Employers: Here you’ll find categories like Top 100 Remote, Best Company to Work for In X (various states), and Happiest Companies in America.
- Exclude Words: Sometimes it’s just as important to know what you don’t want to do as what you do want to do!
- International: If you’re not in the U.S., or if you want to work for an international company, you can choose from a list of countries.
- Work Schedule: Part-time, occasional, short-term, etc.
- Remote Work Level: Any Level, 100% Remote, Partial Remote Work, Option for Remote Work.
Applying to Jobs
When you find an interesting job listing, click on it and you’ll see the full details of that job, including the main responsibilities and the required/desired skills.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the icon that will take you to the company’s application page. Follow their procedure to apply for the job.
Additional Resources and Perks of Membership
Other services included in your FlexJobs membership are:
- Skills testing: You can take a test for more than 170 skills, ranging from computer skills to healthcare to personality tests. If you score above 70%, the score will show on your profile and the only employers who can see it are those you apply to from FlexJobs or those who find your resume on the site.
- Resume profiles: This is where employers can search for potential employees. You can import your LinkedIn profile, which will populate much of this screen and attach your resume. You don’t have to fill out everything from scratch.
- Members-only videos: These are webinars on subjects like resume tips and how to make a career change.
- Learning Center: The Learning Center is a great resource. It offers courses on things like recovering from a layoff, working remotely, and building a flexible career. There are also downloadable guides on subjects like how to start working from home and returning to the workforce after having children.
Resume and Career Coaching
FlexJobs has four services available for an extra cost to paying members:
- Career Coaching. A 30-minute coaching call for $64.
- Resume Review. $129 for a resume review and upgrade.
- Career Coaching + Resume Bundle. $164 total.
- Mock Interview. $64 for a 30-minute practice interview.
These services are all offered on a one-on-one basis with a FlexJobs career coach.
As a general rule, career coaches typically run $75 to $150 per hour while resume makeovers cost $100 to $400. When you pay for these services through FlexJobs, you’re working with a career coach that specializes in remote work. So we think these services are priced affordably.
Pros and Cons
FlexJobs is a great resource, but it’s not the right fit for everyone.
Pros:
- Hand-screened job listings means there are no scams. Scammers are sophisticated, and no matter how smart you are, you could fall prey to one. You won’t have to worry about that on FlexJobs.
- Great search, sort and filtering ability. On the big job boards (such as Indeed), it’s hard to narrow down your search to remote-only positions, since inputting a location is a primary sorting factor. FlexJobs makes it far easier than these boards to find the flexible work arrangement you’re looking for.
- You can set up email notifications. Searching for a job is sometimes as much about timing as a good resume. Getting alerts when a job that fits your criteria is posted means you won’t miss an opportunity.
- Money-back guarantee and easy cancellation policy. It only takes a few seconds to cancel your account and they have a 30-day money-back guarantee
- You can set your account to expire after one month.
- No ads. FlexJobs’ site is not cluttered with ads. As a membership site, they don’t have to make money via advertising.
Cons:
- No payment protection. When you apply for jobs on many freelancing sites, you do so through that site. As such, those sites can make sure the client pays you. FlexJobs is a middleman, so it doesn’t facilitate or guarantee payment.
- No feedback. If you’re trying to build a freelance or remote work career, client feedback is a big help. On many freelancing sites, clients can post public feedback, and a strong feedback profile can lead to more jobs and better rates. There is no such option on FlexJobs, which can make it very hard for those without experience to land a job.
- The pay rate is not always listed.
FlexJobs vs. Alternatives
As FlexJobs offers a wide range of work arrangements, there are many alternatives.
Below, let’s look at how FlexJobs compares to:
- Popular job boards like Indeed and Monster.
- Virtual Vocations, a website that has a very similar offering.
- Freelance job sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
FlexJobs vs. Indeed (and Other General Job Search Sites)
The biggest names in the job search space are Indeed, Monster and LinkedIn.
There’s no single best job search site among these, as it will come down to what you’re looking for. But, for the purpose of this review, let’s look at how well these popular job sites do in helping you find flexible jobs.
As you’ll see, one thing that really stands out is FlexJobs’ ability to filter and refine your searches for specific types of flexible work arrangements. For example, on a job board like Monster, you can filter by remote-only opportunities. However, additional filters such as freelancing or part-time are not available.
Indeed
Indeed has the largest number of jobs out of any site. They aggregate job listings from a wide range of sites, but jobs are not vetted and often not updated. Listings tend to be more entry-level, which can also mean a lot of competition.
Finding a flexible work arrangement on Indeed is tricky.
When you’re searching for a job, Indeed asks your location:
You can enter “United States” to get jobs nationwide, but you still get a wide range of types of remote jobs — e.g., partially remote, travel required, temporary remote jobs, etc. So you need to do a lot of the filtering on your own.
Monster
Monster is similar to Indeed in that its inventory of available jobs is among the largest online. You can also sort by remote jobs on the platform.
The downside to Monster, however, is that it offers very limited search filtering capability. There’s no option to filter by freelance, part-time, partially-remote, experience level, etc.
You can search for remote jobs nationwide with LinkedIn. There’s also the ability to sort by remote only.
LinkedIn is known as one of the most expensive job boards for employers to post on. Therefore, you won’t find as much entry-level or contract work.
One advantage to LinkedIn is that your profile acts as your resume for a lot of recruiters. If you do have strong work experience, it’s a great place to apply.
Overall, LinkedIn is great if you know the exact company you’re looking to work for or want to connect with recruiters in your industry.
Flexjobs vs. Virtual Vocations
Another job search site with a very similar business model to FlexJobs is Virtual Vocations.
Like FlexJobs, Virtual Vocations is an aggregator of remote jobs that screens each listing on its site. You can get some information about certain jobs being a free member, but in order to unlock the full details, you’ll need to pay.
Premium subscriptions for Virtual Vocations start at $15.99 per month. There are no weekly payment options, and coupon codes are not as widely available. As such, it tends to be slightly more expensive (although not by much).
Virtual Vocations has a good reputation, with an A+ BBB rating.
The two biggest differences between the Virtual Vocations and FlexJobs are:
- FlexJobs specializes in all types of flexible work arrangements, while Virtual Vocations specializes only in work at home jobs.
- Virtual Vocations has listings from only U.S. companies, while FlexJobs is open to employers from around the world.
FlexJobs vs. Freelance Marketplaces
The freelance jobs on FlexJobs tend to require previous experience and are longer term commitments. Furthermore, most of the freelance opportunities you’ll find on FlexJobs are more common roles such as for writing, transcription, developer and graphic designer.
Freelance marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork, on the other hand, tend to be shorter-term work and it’s easier to find work as a beginner. Plus, the jobs are very wide-ranging.
As an example, a search for “podcast editor” brings up only three jobs on FlexJobs, while it returns 38 jobs on Upwork. So, if you tend to have more non-traditional skills, you might find better success on freelance marketplaces like Upwork.
Overall, beginning freelancers will likely find it harder to land a contract via FlexJobs. Most jobs require some level of experience. If that’s you, we would recommend building experience on freelance marketplaces first, then heading to FlexJobs to search for opportunities.
Recommended: If you’re looking to make it as a freelancer, we walk you through the process in our guide to starting a freelance business.
If you have experience inside some of the more popular freelancing careers, FlexJobs is a great place to land longer-term projects.
You can also learn more about leveraging these platforms in our articles on how to make money Fiverr and how to make money on Upwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are some of the most commonly asked questions about FlexJobs. If you’re looking for information that wasn’t covered in this review, please let us know by leaving a comment below, and we’ll research the answer and add it to this section.
FlexJobs was founded by Sara Sutton in 2007, and Sutton is the CEO of the company. She had previously founded an employment service, and saw that both employers and job seekers were increasingly looking for people open to remote/off-site work.
The company is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, and employs around 20 people. FlexJobs has an C rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a 3.32 (out of five) rating based on over 75 user reviews.
While you can search job listings for free, you can’t view the company and application details unless you sign up for a membership.
If you’re hired for an opportunity you find on FlexJobs, you’ll be paid directly by your new employer — usually via direct deposit to your bank account, but sometimes via paper check or PayPal. Unlike Upwork and Fiverr, FlexJobs does not facilitate payments and has no role in the payment process.
When you’re viewing listings on the site, you’ll see job titles in two colors: orange and blue. Orange titles are listings that have been posted directly to the site by vetted and verified “featured employers.”
In other words, these are companies that have been screened by FlexJobs and have been given permission to post jobs on the site without having each one reviewed by the site’s staff.
Blue titles are listings where the specific job has been researched and vetted by FlexJobs’ staff. They may come from companies that are not “featured employers.”
New jobs are added daily, but some users have reported that job listings aren’t always removed from the site in a timely manner — meaning that they applied for positions that were no longer available.
Skills tests are becoming less important overall in the remote jobs/freelancing employment space. For example, Upwork recently removed them from freelancer profiles and is completely ending its skills testing program.
The reason for this is simple: people were cheating by sharing the questions online.
So while having a successful skill listed on your profile may help you get noticed or get a foot in the door, we wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on them.
FlexJobs Review Summary: Is It Worth It?
My recommendation is that FlexJobs is worth the price. However, before you sign up, you need to get specific about what you’re looking for.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What’s my ideal job role right now?
- What type of company do I want to work for?
- What type of flexible work am I looking for?
Once you’ve gotten specific, head to FlexJobs and perform a free search to see if they have opportunities. If they do, paying their small fee to access these opportunities is well worth it.
