With AI shaking up a lot of industries online, and likely more competition worldwide from other freelancers in developing countries coming online, what profession would you get into these days to become a digital nomad?

Ideally something you can build a portfolio independently while working a regular job and start making money from in less than 2-3 yrs.

Want to base myself in Thailand or the Phillipines before 2026-2027 ideally.

Already have a basic portfolio in web design and digital marketing, should I keep going and look for a job in this field or will it be too saturated in the future?

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Software engineer or Ecom. Best of luck starting the latter until 2025 or so though.

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Probably just stick with the web design. Identify a specific niche or two and then knock out the sites quickly for a low price.

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Let’s say you’re from the US. I’m thinking something you can do over a video call with a client in the US, like a therapist, some type of coach etc. It’s personalized, has the potential to pay well, can’t as easily be replaced by AI, and you’ll have a leg up on the competition from other countries if clients are looking for someone who speaks native English and is also from the US.

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Yeah this makes the most sense to me, I think being some type of “trainer” or “consultant” whether it be upskilling staff on a certain business function or software would be an easier sell than being just another generic software/marketer freelancer.

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therapist

Check your licensing requirements before doing this!

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don’t go into a career with the goal of working remotely. if you do that there’s a good chance you’ll hate your job. 40 hours of being miserable every week is going to suck, even if it’s in a place you love.

find a career that is fulfilling to you and then try to find remote work in that career.

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You have to start with the end goal in mind.

Look at careers that are remote friendly, decide which ones appeal to you, and then move in that direction.

If you choose wrong up front, and there are definitely wrong choices, it will make it a lot harder on the backend.

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yeah that makes sense, do you work remotely as a digital nomad?

I want to find something fulfilling, I like the entrepreneurial side of business strategy, building a website and marketing, just haven’t quite found the right niche yet which makes sense to work remotely.

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Eh I went into software engineering because I wanted to work remotely, not because writing code is my dream. But I have no regrets.

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I think this is short-sighted. The vast majority of careers are not WFH friendly. If travel is the goal, then OP needs to focus on travel friendly careers.

Sometimes us DNs hang out with tech people and we forget that the huge majority of the workforce is in retail, transportation, and manufacturing. If OP loves construction, that’s great, but they will never be traveling abroad to do it unless they immigrate.

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Software Engineering still is a good choice.

Specializing in actual AI integration can be good as well (even as a non-engineer). Being good at seeing what the AI can do and what it can’t and adjusting systems and people around those.

It’s already been good for a long while. People that help companies (internal or external) automate away the tasks they can to focus humans on the tasks they can’t.

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