18 and skipping college, trying to build a remote career with actual flexibility. Looking to talk to people who've done this

Hey everyone. I'm cross posting this in a few different subs since I know a lot of you probably overlap, so sorry if you see it more than once. Figured it's better to ask in a few places instead of blowing up one sub with a giant thread.

Little bit about me. I'm 18 and just decided to skip college. I'm trying to figure out how to actually build a remote career that has real flexible hours and pays decent, not just "remote" on paper while I'm still stuck to a strict schedule or working 60 hour weeks. I'd honestly rather take it slow and build something sustainable than rush into something that burns me out before I even get going.

I'm leaning toward stuff like freelance editing, marketing, or other service based online work. Not really trying to get into cold calls or heavy sales, more interested in something where I can actually build a skill, work with clients, and have control over my own time. That said I'm not dead set on freelancing specifically, I'm also totally open to just landing a remote job with an actual company if that ends up being the better path.

I don't have a portfolio or any real experience yet so I'm not expecting anyone to just hand me clients or a job. Mostly I just want to talk to people who've actually done this, either side. What worked for you, what didn't, how'd you land your first few clients or your first remote job, how long did it realistically take before it started paying real money, and what do you wish someone had told you at 18 before you started.

If anyone's cool with answering a few questions or just chatting for a bit I'd really appreciate it. Not trying to find some shortcut or get rich quick, just want to actually learn from people who've done it instead of guessing my way through everything.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

ps im from the usa

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Classic-Parfait-5458•2 days ago•1

What editing, marketing, and service experience do you have? What would make someone pay you to do something? First step is to get good enough at something for it to be worth someone’s money. Then figure everything else out after that.

I do social media, ads, and SEO fully remote. I also worked for a company for 4 years before ever going out on my own and that experience made it really easy to sell.

My honest advice is forget about remote work and freedom for now and take whatever job gives you the most experience, regardless of pay. Learn on someone else’s dime then when the time comes use what you learned and start your business.

Etab•1 day ago•1

What are you good at? What do you enjoy now?

I did not go to college, and I was insistent on not going. I graduated high school in 2007 (also USA), which was the prime “omg young genius founder!!!” era. That definitely contributed to my decision.

I got extremely lucky and got a role at an agency after school while I was a senior. It was an unpaid internship (I know those are bad for many reasons and I recognize it was a privilege to be able to do this) and I went from 3-5 a few days a week, initially just to shadow. That ended up becoming doing odd jobs like patching holes because the lease was ending in the office space. Nobody really knew why I was there.

This was a digital marketing agency. I was interested in marketing, which is why I was at the agency, but I also had quite a bit of hobbyist experience doing web design/development — their bread-and-butter product. When I realized they were in a crunch on a project deadline, I offered to help integrate content into their CMS. They were puzzled and didn’t realize why the teenager who was spackling holes in the wall was offering to help do content integration work, but I did it and it went well. Really easy work from my end, and it was done accurately and efficiently (and for free, lol). They realized I was also skilled with frontend dev work, which filled a gap they needed, and by the time I graduated high school they offered me a full-time position as a frontend developer. The agreement was that it was only for a temporary period of time and that I’d definitely enroll in college and attend part-time. I did not do that, and kept working at the agency for 11 years, while the agency grew, and I grew with it into leading a UX team.

While all this was happening, I got a side position doing freelance content-creation work for a major professional sports league (remotely). I was “noticed” on social media and got an offer from there. That’s another whole topic, but the takeaway from getting that opportunity was consistently creating and publishing content/tools/a presence that became recognizable, to the point where the league wanted me to do to the same thing for them, and get paid for it. I ended up leaving the agency to work in my dream position at the league for a few years, when I was able to focus full-time on my own software company, where I’m working with a wonderful team I’m leading today — also remotely!

This was almost 20 years ago, and it was an extremely unlikely thing to happen even then, so I would think things have only gotten more difficult for people without experience.

I think if I had to offer any advice:

  • Be remarkably good at something that sets you apart. Something of which you can be the authority. More than ever, I think this should be something uniquely human and requiring your skill that distinguishes you. I know this is vague, but I’m applying it to my example & experience where something like content integration and frontend web dev has almost become commoditized. You probably won’t stand a chance trying to build a career in something that anybody can do, including being outsourced for cheap or fed into an A.I. app (groan).

  • Ask around to shadow for a half day. There are probably small agencies near you and they’re usually churning through people and want to keep contacts of future “free agents”. I know you want to work remotely, but having a home base is nice, especially if you’re shadowing. With shadowing, you can get a gauge for the type of work and environment you like, but more importantly, get yourself on an organization’s radar. (“What ever happened to that person who shadowed us for a half day a few months ago?”)

  • Related to that, network. I know, it sucks. I never wanted to network and I was really sure I could make it without it. I’m terribly awkward and uncomfortable. But when I started forcing myself to meet people, it opened up opportunities. You want to remain in people’s minds — and, to the first bullet point — ideally associated with the thing you’re good at.

I have a solid and stable career now after skipping college, but I had some seriously unlikely and lucky breaks along the way. I think anybody trying to do it in 2026 will, generally, need a lot of luck to repeat that, too. But I also think you can set yourself up for success by first making your name mean something & be associated with something you’re good at — something that social media can give us today that it couldn’t 20 years ago.

There have been times where I’ve wondered if I missed out on college, and no shortage of times now at 36 where I’m hanging out or catching up with people and I feel weird about being the least formally educated. (Normally when I tell my story people think it’s cool, but idk, feels weird to me or like I cheated somehow sometimes.) But at the same time, I’m glad I don’t have student-loan debt.

The other thing is that you absolutely must commit to being a problem-solver. You have to figure things out on your own because you are on your own. This was actually advice somebody on Reddit gave me probably 18-19 years ago (oh god I am old) that changed a lot of my outlook — I think I asked about getting started in programming (I was only working in presentational frontend HTML/CSS/JS at the time) and somebody said that by simply asking the question on Reddit that I wasn’t going to make it as a programmer because I wasn’t willing to work to solve the problem on my own. I carried that with me long after I deleted the post, and tbh I think it applies to your situation, too. You have to work for it and get creative and try things for yourself — there’s no guidebook on how to do it this way. It sounds tacky, but you have to have the audacity to believe in yourself. Looking back, all of the best things that have happened to me in my career have been the ones I’ve had the nerve to take a major chance to just go for it.

Good luck! Happy to answer any questions if you need.

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