Work at Home Community

It seems everyone wants to do it: Work from home, that is. Whether it?s being able to work in their pajamas, or getting to spend some extra time with their children, something is prompting people to consider giving up their day job to look for this “alternative” form of employment. The only problem seems to be actually finding a work-from-home job! Where are these companies that have openings for telecommuters? And how does one go about finding them?

As the number of people wanting to work from home grows, so does the number of opportunists who hope to profit from this group that seems to be so naive. (And, at times, so desperate.) Advertisements appear almost everywhere claiming to be the answer to people’s work-from-home dreams. Most of these claims end up costing want-to-be telecommuters more money than they will ever make from actually working at home. Despite the best efforts of the government, these opportunists (AKA “Scammers”) seem to be gaining momentum. Is there any way for job seekers to avoid them and actually find a home-based job?

The answer is “Yes”. How? Information. Information that doesn’t cost anything, and that will teach a job hunter how to find their own home-based job. Learning how to research can be the best investment a job seeker can make. In the paragraphs that follow, you, the reader, will learn how to research.

SCAMS
The first thing to be aware of is what makes a job lead a scam. There are business ?opportunities?, and there are actual scams, such as when a person or company poses as an employment firm, but requires you to pay X amount of money in order for you to be placed. Or, the company claims to be a hiring company, but requires you to pay X amount of money in order to
?process your application?.

If you are looking for a home-based job, you need to follow similar steps that you used when you sought traditional employment:
1) You send a company your resume tailored to the position for which you are interested.
2) You go through some sort of interview.
3) You get hired, sometimes signing an independent contractor agreement form.
4) You complete the necessary tax forms.
5) You do the work you were hired to do.
6) You receive a paycheck of a predetermined amount, either as a commission, or from performing for a certain number of hours.

A real job does not require you to pay them to train you (either you have the skills, or you don?t); or for the materials you may need to do the job (either you should have them or they will GIVE them to you); or for information about the position. In sum, you don’t pay a company to work for them; they pay you!

DIFFERENT JOB CATEGORIES
When searching for a home-based job, keep an open mind. Working from home has gone way beyond envelope-stuffing and craft assembly. In fact, thanks to the widespread use of the internet and e-mail, the possibilities are almost endless. To simplify things, I?ve broken down the different types of telecommuting jobs into four categories.

1) 100% REMOTE OR VIRTUAL
Virtual or remote work typically means that you will never personally meet your employer or your client. Your location is irrelevant. You will apply for the job online, perform an online ?interview?, such as a test, or maybe do a telephone interview; and your work is delivered to your company via e-mail or through a network. Obviously, jobs under this heading will require that you are very computer literate.
Jobs that fit under this category include:
– Some research
– Customer service and other telephonic-oriented work
– Web design
– Online tutoring
– Transcription
– Writing
– Telesales/telemarketing

This is typically the hardest category to find work in because, even though the job is virtual, you are still dealing with real human beings and there are trust issues. You will have to be very good at selling yourself on your resume to get such a position. Competition is also high in this category, so having a professional resume and good interview skills are crucial.

2) HALF IN/HALF OUT
I use half in/half out to refer to work that is based from home but requires you to leave your home to complete important functions of the job. You still might never have to visit your company?s office, or even personally meet anyone that you work with or for. However, portions of your job must be performed away from the home. This is a very good option for people who are want to work from home because they value independence and do not like commuting to an office every day. Jobs in this category usually allow you to create your own hours and work around your own schedule.
Examples of half in/half out jobs are:

– Mobile notarizing/signing
– Some consulting positions
– Estimating
– Probate research
– Investigating
– Merchandising
– Mystery shopping
– Social work or nursing Case management
– Insurance or mortgage appraising

3) MAKING AN OCCASIONAL APPEARANCE
Some jobs allow for working from home, but require that you physically check in from time to time. You might need to receive your initial training in person, such as when you are selling something very specialized. You may need to attend weekly, monthly, or yearly meetings or conferences. If you aren?t local to the company?s headquarters, you may need to be prepared for occasional travel, sometimes including overnight stays to accommodate meeting or training schedules.
Examples of making an occasional appearance jobs include:
– High end sales
– Consulting
– Real estate or insurance
– Medical
– Recruiting
– Legal work
– Certain business-oriented jobs.

When showing up for a company meeting or conference, be aware that you are also being re-evaluated. Be prepared to continue to sell yourself as a valuable employee. Your boss will be asking him or herself, ?Why should I keep this employee?? during every meeting. You will have to prove yourself a lot.

4) LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY
Some companies will allow you to work from home, but want to make sure that you are easily accessible. Either that?s how they feel comfortable, or often they have assignments which need to delivered to you in person. In this category, you will more than likely be under an employee status, not operating as an independent contractor. You might have to pick up your work assignments every day or week, and then deliver completed work to them personally at a determined time. For these companies, it would not work to use a totally virtual employee, or even someone fitting under the other two job categories.
Examples of jobs that tend to work for local candidates only are:
– Sewing or piecework
– Data entry work
– Transcription
– Art jobs
– Clerical
– Craft work
– Babysitting

Some of the jobs listed under one of the above categories can also fit under another one. Transcription work, for example, can be Local Only or 100% Remote. It all depends on what is most practical and comfortable for a particular company. How a company chooses to operate can also change after working with a person for some time. As previously mentioned, trust is a big factor in how a company decides to employ a home-based worker.

Once you have learned the various types of working from home opportunities that exist, and you are able to avoid the scams and “joke” jobs, the next step is to actually locate an actual job. For most people, this is actually the hardest part: finding a company that allow them to work from home in the first place!

There are several good sources to use when you look for home-based jobs. They include:
1) Job boards
2) Staffing firms? web sites
3) Fee-based job sites
4) Work-from-home sites
5) Freelance web sites

The first place most job seekers look when they want to find employment is in their local newspapers. However, if you find even one legitimate work-from-home job ad there, you?ll be lucky. Companies rarely advertise at-home positions in newspapers.

Most likely what you?ll find are ads, such as, ?Earn $1,000-$5,000 a week from home! No experience necessary!? This seems like an obvious one, but it is actually common. I?m sure you?ve seen this type of ad. I suggest that you steer clear of these and not even check them out hoping that they are real jobs. Trust me, they ARE too good to be true.

The internet, word-of-mouth, and creating a job are the best ways to find a home-based job. For one reason, the internet is the primary way a home-based worker and their company communicates. Whether it?s through e-mail, or logging on to a company?s network to make reports, almost any job–even the least technical one–will probably require you to use the internet. The internet also offers the widest array of sources for job hunting. You can use job boards, or visit actual staffing firms through their web sites. So, if you aren?t internet savvy it?s time to get that way.

JOB BOARDS
Within the internet there are several excellent sources. The first and most common online source used to find jobs are the Job Boards. There are many different levels and categories of job boards. Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com are a couple of the biggies. They are general job boards, and they will post any job, in any category. (Such as accounting, psychic reading, or nursing jobs). These boards will post any job lead that a company pays them to post.

You can find a lot of good job leads here, but because they post any job a company pays them to post, you?ll also have to do a lot of screening. Start out by entering specific keywords, such as ?work from home?, and you will be presented with about a thousand job ads. However, of those thousand or so results, most of them will be scam or junk ads. You will still need to scan through those ads quickly in order to get to the real telecommuting job ads. (We’ll talk about that in a following paragraph.)

There are other job boards worth looking into, too. One type is called NICHE job boards. These are boards that advertise jobs within a particular category or profession. Retailjobs.com, is an example of a profession niche board. This board posts only job leads from companies seeking retail-related workers, such as clerks, merchandisers, stock personnel, and so on. NetTemps.com is an example of a category niche board. Rather than just posting jobs within a particular industry, however, they will post for any industry as long as the job ads are all for temporary or contractual positions.

Another type of job board is what I call SUPERNICHE job boards. These boards go beyond job postings within one industry. They focus on a single job category within an industry. iHireNursing.com is an example. This site focuses strictly on nursing jobs, and does not post jobs for the entire medical field. Accountants.com is another example. Ads on niche and super-niche boards carry a lot less junk and scams than the general boards because moderators of these boards screen their ads more carefully before posting them. Therefore, these are good sources for finding work-from-home jobs.

Now, when viewing search results from these bigger boards, you can scan these ads without actually having to read all of them. Look for some common denominators, so to speak. For example, if you have 50 job results on one page, and most of them start with ?Work from home! Easy work!?, you know not to even bother looking at those. Or, if you see that one company is posting dozens of the same ad for areas all over your country, you will probably want to avoid those, too. (Such ads are probably ads posted by a webmaster or affiliate in an effort to lure to you a site to purchase something.) Look for ads that advertise specific positions, posted by a real-sounding companies or staffing firms. For example:

Case manager needed for adolescents.
Orange County Appraiser needed.
Account executive for Northern territory

Legitimate jobs rarely put ?work from home? in their job title. Why? Because working from home is a benefit, or perhaps a requirement. It is not a job! So, scan past all the amazing results and focus on the jobs.

Another internet job resource is STAFFING FIRMS? WEB SITES
There was a time when, if you wanted to apply for a job through a staffing firm, you would have to actually visit a firm in person. Now, you can simply visit their web site. The whole process is completely virtual. You can browse their lists of jobs–even using search words, like on the bigger job boards–and submit your resume for their database in the event that they have a position that meets your criteria. Also, since these companies are hired to find people to fill job openings, they will actively seek you out if you are qualified for a job they’ve been asked to find people to interview. l. I suggest that you leave your resume in every staffing firm web site you can find.

FEE-BASED WEB SITES are another option
Because of the growing popularity of telecommuting, there are many people who make it their business to comb the job boards, the newspapers, online groups, staffing firms, and the usenet for good job leads; and then arrange all their information into sensible formats so that, for a fee, you can simply log on to their web sites and view nothing but legitimate work-from-home jobs.

Unfortunately, many people are think they see a quick profit by promising job seekers that they can help them find this difficult-to-find type of employment. Be careful to research each site before you simply read the sales pitches and claims, and then pay their fee. You may not get what you pay for.

If you come across the right fee-based site, you are doing good. You will have a flow of home-based job leads at your fingertips at all times. However, if you buy into the wrong one, you?ll end up in a mess: applying to companies that don?t really hire home workers, or no longer exist, or do not want their job ads posted on work-from-home web sites. Investigate each site before you pay them their fee.

Just like spotting for scams, there are some points to research before you join a fee-based lead site. In brief, you need to check into the following:
1) Their guarantee of employment
2) The type of advertising they do
3) Their reputation
4) The length of time they?ve been in business
5) Verifiable references they provide
6) Contact information

Guarantee of employment
If a fee-based job site offers you a guarantee that by joining their site you will get a home-based job, run. No one can promise that you?ll be hired! In fact, whether home-based or other wise, I think we all know that being employed is probably the last thing we can bank on these days!

The type of advertising they do
If you find that a company advertises itself on job boards as a company who is hiring, be wary. There?s nothing wrong with advertising; however, if they are getting you to their site by posing as a hiring company just to sell you their services, take that as deceptive advertising. If they can?t be upfront in the beginning, then don?t trust that they will be upfront throughout your membership.

Their reputation
Before you invest in a fee-based site–no matter how low their fee is–ask around. Visit work-from-home message boards and chat groups and ask members what their opinions are of a particular site. Members love to blast a scam, so they?ll tell you if they know of someone who was disappointed by the service or actually was scammed. On the other hand, they?ll also let you know if the site is valuable, or at least worth a try.

Find out how long the site has been in business
Just because a site is new doesn?t mean it isn?t valuable. However, if they make claims that they?ve helped thousands of people, and they?ve only been operating for three months, then you should stay clear. You can check a site?s age by looking at the copyright date on their homepage, or, better yet, looking up their information on whois.net . Another problem with new companies is that they might have the best intentions, but because of unforeseen circumstances, might not last. If you invest money into their membership, and they fold in three or four months, you?re back to square one.

Verifiable references
Testimonials look nice on web sites, but are they real? Ask the site owner/manager if you can actually contact previous and current customers. Are they open to letting you hear from other members? Or are they reluctant? There is nothing wrong with doing this. It?s just like any other service. Find out from these references if they ever found work through the site in question. If not, were there at least an ample amount of leads that could have helped someone? Also find out what kind of support was available to members. Was there someone to talk to when they had questions? Where their e-mails answered in a timely fashion?

Contact information
I can hardly tell you how many times visitors of my own web site have called and then said they couldn?t believe they were actually speaking to me. It wasn?t a miracle; I simply posted out my real contact information. Unfortunately, many sites don?t do that. If a site is asking you to pay for their service, yet doesn?t provide a way for you to reach them to ask a question, or place a complaint, be leery. You have the right to know who?s behind the service you are paying for. There?s no reason you should have to go through a fill-in-the-blank form and then be clueless of where it goes when you hit the Submit button.

Take the time to look into these points before you sign up with a fee-based job site.
It?s your money; don?t lose it trying to earn money.

WORK-FROM-HOME WEB SITES
Another option that you should look into are the numerous free work-from-home web sites out there. These sites are usually graciously run by stay-at-home moms, for other moms. Although they have only a fraction of the job resources that a good fee-based web site has, and they are typically loaded with banner ads and non-work related information (such as breastfeeding), but they are still worth looking into. If you find just one applicable job lead, you haven?t wasted your time.

FREELANCE WEB SITES
A growing type of web site is the freelance site. These have developed tremendously over the past three or four years, and are good resources for people seeking home-based employment on a contractual basis. AllFreelance.com is a one such site. The jobs posted on this site typically are projects, as opposed to long term, steady employment. Employers/companies that have projects that need to be done, such a writing a manual, sewing a line of dresses, or creating a database can post their project online, and then freelancers can bid on the project. The person who seems the most qualified at the right price wins the job.

If you are highly skilled in a particular area, this is a good type of site to seek home-based employment. If you do a job well, you will get a good reputation and will soon be in high demand. I suggest placing your profile on these sites if you have a specific skill that is marketable.

CREATE YOUR OWN JOB
Staffing firms, job boards, and job lead services are all valuable tools to use when seriously looking for a legitimate home-based job. A final option is to create a job for yourself.

If you are a technical writer or medical transcriptionist, for example, why not contact a company who is looking for such a person to work onsite, and then meet with them to discuss working for them from your home? Like I mentioned before, companies are sometimes leery of using home workers; but, if you get an interview and go in with solid qualifications and a clear blueprint on how this type of work arrangement will actually help them, you have a pretty good chance. This works particularly well with very small or very large companies.

Just remember that you not only have to be qualified enough for someone to hire you for a job onsite, but you must demonstrate how you will be able to perform your duties just as well–if not better– offsite. To help negotiate the arrangement, be willing to make a few sacrifices, too. For example, since you won?t have the commuting costs that other workers might have, maybe you could agree to take on an extra project, or actually come in the office on a Saturday. This will help you get your foot in the door, at least.

There are numerous jobs that can be performed from home. With the computer, the telephone, and a fax machine, there is almost no limit to the jobs that can be done remotely, partially from home, or occasionally from home. If you are clear on what your skills are and if you can sell yourself properly on a resume and in an interview, you can use the vast online resources to find a home-based job. It takes effort. But if you use the points we?ve discussed here, you can find a job that?s suited for you.
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Copyright 2004, Pamela La Gioia
Pamela La Gioia is Founder and Administrator of Telework Recruiting (http://www.teleworkrecruiting.com ), a premier job-lead web site that provides thousands of job leads and job resources. She is currently writing a workbook on telecommuting, which offers step-by-step guidance on finding real home-based employment. Questions or comments are welcome and can be sent to Pamela at pam@teleworkrecruiting.com .