New to Digital Nomadism // Interview with Outsite Member Eva Tang
We sat down with Eva Tang - an avid traveler, product manager and digital strategist, as well as Outsite Member and a regular at our houses worldwide.
Eva Tang is an avid traveller, product manager/digital strategist for remote companies, and an Outsite member. She sat down with us to share her story and advice for other workers with the travel bug.
Outsite: Why did you decide to become a digital nomad?
Eva: I don't really like to call myself a digital nomad, because home is incredibly important to me. Family, friends, Toronto as a city. So I try to split my time, 50% in Toronto and 50% elsewhere in the world. I think that's given me the best of both worlds -- I get to satisfy my unquenchable thirst for adventure and perspective in my travels while never being away long enough to feel homesick.
And in terms of why travel and work? Well, I've always gained some of the most valuable perspectives while being in other parts of the world. That, and I tend to focus better when I'm away -- it sounds a little counter intuitive but there's less distraction for me. I don't feel obligated to hang out with friends or family if I don't want to, I don't have to do chores like take out the trash, so it frees me up to go all in on my work.
How did you land your first remote job?
I never actually sought out the remote job, it was an opportunity that showed up in my inbox. More on that here.
What has been the most challenging part so far?
I think the most challenging (and exciting) part of travelling somewhere to live and work for weeks at a time is finding likeminded people that you'd be friends with. A way I've done that is through local coworking spaces that offer drop ins and it's worked well but it's not always a perfect solution!
How does Outsite fit into your remote lifestyle?
Outsite has been a great resource as a solo traveller when I was in California and it's been a fantastic resource for our smaller team retreats. If given the option of Airbnb + coworking space or Outsite, I'd likely go with the latter or a mix of both -- you guys just have to expand faster into new cities :)
Haha, we are working on it! Any advice for 9-to-5 workers looking to make the leap to nomadism?
I think my one piece of advice would be to be aware of the tradeoffs. Generally speaking, I think life as a whole is made up of tradeoffs but we can leave that for another piece. Depending on the style of your nomadism (whether you're gone for 9 months at a time, or you're 50/50 like me), you're trading some version of security, familiarity, comfort for adventure, unknowns, experience, etc.
There will be times in which you feel lonely that you can't drive over to your sister's house to see your baby nephew, but the next day you get to work from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. It's a tradeoff, so it's important to be conscious of what you value more today before you jump all in.
