The word gets you interested. The location rules tell you whether the job is actually available to you.
You can filter for remote and still find a job you cannot take.
That is the quiet trick of modern job search.
Remote sounds simple. It sounds like a place you are allowed to work from, which is usually home, and home is usually where you already are. But job postings do not always use the word that cleanly.
Remote can mean anywhere.
Remote can mean anywhere in the United States.
Remote can mean anywhere in the United States, except for the states where the company is not set up to employ people.
Remote can mean remote most days, but close enough to an office for quarterly meetings.
Remote can mean you can work from home, but only if home is near New York, Austin, London, Toronto, or one of the cities the company already decided counts.
Tolkien gave us the line everyone knows:
“Not all those who wander are lost.”tolkien
He was not writing about job boards, obviously. But it fits. Not every job that wanders outside the office is actually free from place.
Some remote jobs still have a map attached.
Remote is not one thing
The issue is not that companies are lying. Sometimes there are tax rules. Sometimes there are labor laws. Sometimes there are timezones. Sometimes there are clients, travel expectations, licensing rules, data restrictions, or team rituals that really do require geography.
The problem is that the word “remote” has started carrying too much weight.
It can describe where you work.
It can describe how often you commute.