Eno-obong Akpan (Eny)

Hey, I am Eny. A few years ago, I was just like many people trying to figure things out online. How do I start? What skill should I learn? How do people find remote jobs? How do freelancers get clients? I've spent time learning, making mistakes, asking questions, and finding answers.

A job can pay well and still cost you more than you realise. Pay attention to your health, relationships, peace of mind and the kind of person you’re becoming while pursuing a career.

Good morning ❤️ May today bring you answers to the questions you’ve been asking, opportunities you didn’t see coming and the courage to take the next step. May your efforts produce good results, and may you have reasons to smile before the day ends. Amen. 🙏

The way I can be so productive in my head is actually impressive. If only my body would cooperate.

Being a good freelancer doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. Protect your boundaries!

A client can be unhappy with your work without having the right to disrespect you. Imagine submitting a task, receiving feedback and being asked to make changes. That’s normal. But then the changes keep coming. The original agreement starts changing, and somehow you’re expected to keep doing extra work without discussing additional payment. Here’s where freelancers need to understand the difference between accountability and people-pleasing. If you make a mistake, own it and correct it. If the request is outside the agreed scope, communicate that and discuss the additional work. You can protect your professional boundaries without being difficult to work with. Being a good freelancer doesn’t mean saying yes to everything.

I love people who can laugh at themselves. Life is already doing enough. We don’t need to take every little thing personally.

The dream is to have enough money to stop checking the price of something three times before buying it. 😂

Here’s a simple way to find skills worth learning: Pick 3 job titles you want. Find 20 vacancies for each. Create a list of every repeated skill and tool. The things that keep showing up? Start there. You don’t have to guess what the market wants.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you can start a new career, change your mind, start another one and still be a serious adult.

I used to read stories like this about other people. Now I’m the one sending my own feature to friends and family. Somebody pinch me! 😭❤️

Make your LinkedIn profile URL easier to share. A long profile link with several random characters doesn’t look particularly neat on a CV. Open your LinkedIn profile, select Edit public profile & URL, and look for the option to edit your custom URL. You can change it to a shorter version of your name, provided it’s available. For example, instead of a long random link, you could have something like linkedin.com/in/yourname. Copy the updated link and add it to your CV, email signature and professional portfolio. These are small adjustments, but they make your profile easier to access and share.

Turn on job alerts instead of searching manually every day. Go to Jobs on LinkedIn and search for a specific role, such as Remote Customer Support Representative. Apply filters for location, experience level and other relevant criteria. Look for the Set alert option on the search results page and turn it on. LinkedIn can then notify you when matching jobs are posted. Create separate alerts for different job titles. Someone looking for remote administrative work, for example, could set alerts for Virtual Assistant, Administrative Assistant and Executive Assistant.

Follow a recruiter before sending a connection request. Suppose you find a recruiter who regularly shares vacancies in your field. You can follow them to see their public posts without necessarily connecting with them. Pay attention to the roles they share, the skills they discuss and the companies they recruit for. When you eventually send a connection request, you have a better understanding of their professional interests and can start a more relevant conversation.

Use Boolean search to find more relevant job opportunities. Searching for one job title can limit the opportunities you see. LinkedIn supports search operators such as AND, OR and NOT. For example: "Virtual Assistant" AND Remote "Social Media Manager" OR "Content Strategist" Remote AND "Customer Support" NOT Internship Quotation marks help you search for an exact phrase. AND combines search terms, OR searches for either term, and NOT excludes a term. Try different combinations of job titles, skills and locations. You may discover opportunities that wouldn’t appear in your usual search.

After completing a project or working closely with someone, ask them for a LinkedIn recommendation. Mention the specific project or contribution you’d like them to highlight. It makes the request easier to answer.

A remote job can look perfect during the application process and become frustrating once you start working. Before accepting an offer, there are a few things you should understand about how the company operates. First, find out who you report to. Will you have one direct manager, work with several team leads or report to whoever assigns you a task? Unclear reporting lines can make even simple responsibilities complicated. Second, ask how the team communicates. Do they use Slack, Microsoft Teams, email or project management tools? More importantly, how quickly are employees expected to respond? Third, understand the working hours. “Fully remote” doesn’t automatically mean flexible. Some companies expect employees to work according to their headquarters’ time zone. Fourth, ask what success looks like in the role. What will you be expected to achieve in your first 30, 60 or 90 days? You need to know how your performance will be evaluated. Fifth, find out what onboarding looks like. Will someone walk you through the tools, processes and expectations, or will you be handed a laptop and told to figure everything out? Also, clarify how feedback is given, how leave is handled and whether the company provides the equipment needed to do your job. These questions aren’t signs that you’re difficult or overly demanding. You’re trying to understand the environment you’re about to commit your time and skills to. Getting a remote job is one thing. Finding a workplace where you can actually do good work and grow is another.