We live in an age where millennials can land their dream-jobs consisting of riffling through Instagram filters for pictures of their feet superimposed on a beach; the image only completed with a coconut drink containing a little umbrella, and a caption that reads “My office for the Day”.
The combination of easy access to high-speed fibre-optic Internet and powerful yet portable laptops has paved the way for an entire plethora of job descriptions which our grandparents cannot pronounce.
Thus, a virtual army of SMM experts, freelance web developers, bloggers, hackers, UX designers, marketers, startup entrepreneurs, and life-coaches alike are free to roam the world in search of exotic locations to live and work from.
Today, we witness the birth of the modern Digital Nomad. While our parents’ goal was to establish a permanent address and raise children, the millennial hipster prefers to be unreachable for snail-mail, opting instead to hop from place to place, with nothing but a clothes-filled rucksack on their back back, and a trusty Macbook at arm’s reach. Working remotely on projects, which pay them enough to continue this lifestyle indefinitely, all the while relying on tools such as Slack, Asana, and Streak to offer the same in-office experience.
With high broad-band Internet penetration, cheap cost of living, welcoming culture, access to amenities, and an atmosphere that screams “still Europe, but exotic enough to make my friends jealous on Snapchat”, Armenia is quickly bleeping on the radar for this new breed of Bourgeois Bohémiens.
With the secret now being out, Yerevantsis increasingly bare witness to strange scenes of bearded, backpack-wearing Europeans and North Americans, often sporting funny hats, flocking to discover Yerevan’s thriving underground art scene, bohemian melodies, and ballooning number of foodie-hotspots, including eco-friendly cafes, and trendy watering holes.
Some may even be spotted forking over hefty amounts of cash on haircuts that are designed to give off the impression that they just got out of bed.
Armenia’s allure as a Digital Nomad’s haven can even be measured, apparently. The online community nomadlist.com, allows such people to communicate, and share tips, and stories of writing lines of code while being hijacked in a desert safari, or blogging about fashion in the midst of the Arab-spring.
A quick look at the page for Yerevan, Armenia, however shows much to be desired.
Those of us who work remotely from Yerevan know that the Internet is faster, cheaper, and much more reliable than it was back home. We all have stories about how friendly and hospitable the people are. We’re well aware that we’re safer in Yerevan than anywhere we’ve ever been, and that we never go out partying in EVN to come home before 6 AM.
Yerevan just may be worth checking on your list of placed to work from.
Raffi Elliott
