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03.08.04
 By
Pamela La Gioia
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? In the paragraphs that follow, you
will learn how to research and find home-based employment.
SCAMS
The first thing to be aware of is scams, such as when a person or
company poses as an employment firm, yet requires you to pay X amount
of money in order for you to be placed. Or, a 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 should follow the same
procedures that you did when you sought traditional employment: send
a resume, get an interview, fill out some tax forms, and agree upon
wages or commission. |
JOB
CATEGORIES
Thanks to the widespread use of computers and the Internet, working
from home has come a long way since envelope-stuffing and craft assembly,
To demonstrate, I’ve broken down different types of telecommuting
arrangements 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 go through the entire application
and hiring process online. Obviously, jobs under this heading will
require that you are very computer literate.
Typically, this is the hardest category of work to find because there
are trust issues. You will need to be very good at selling yourself
on your resume. Competition in this category is extremely high.
 2)
HALF IN/HALF OUT This category refers 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. Jobs in
this category will usually allow you to create your own hours, work
at your own pace, and work around your own schedule.
3) MAKING AN OCCASIONAL APPEARANCE some jobs may require that
you physically check in from time to time. Or you might need to receive
your initial training in person, or attend weekly, monthly, or yearly
meetings or conferences. If you aren’t local to the company’s headquarters,
you need to be prepared for occasional travel, sometimes including
overnight stays to accommodate meeting or training schedules.
When you show up for a company meeting, be aware that you will be
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?”
4) LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY Some companies
may allow you to work from home, but want to make sure that you are
physically accessible. Either that’s how they feel comfortable or,
perhaps, there are assignments that need to be delivered to you in
person. In this category, you will more than likely be under an employee
status, rather than an independent contractor, which is common within
the other categories. 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
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Once you have learned the various types of work arrangements that
exist, and you are able to avoid the scams, the next step is to actually
locate an actual job. For most people, this is the hardest part. There
are several good sources to use when you look for home-based employment.
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.
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 a company communicate. It also offers
the widest array of job-hunting sources. So, if you aren’t Internet
savvy it’s time to get that way.
JOB BOARDS
The most common online source that’s used to find jobs is what I call
Mega Job Boards. Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com are a couple examples
of Mega Job Boards. These are general job boards and they will post
any job, in any occupational category that a company pays them to
post.
While it is possible to find some good job leads here, you will have
to do a lot of screening. A simple keyword search such as “work from
home” will yield hundreds of results that are usually spam, scams,
or something in between. (We'll talk about how to do a quick scan
in a following paragraph.)
Fortunately, there are other job boards worth looking into. One type
is the NICHE job board, which only advertises jobs within a particular
industry or category. Retailjobs.com is an example of an industry
niche board. This site posts only job leads from companies seeking
retail-related workers. NetTemps.com is an example of a category Niche
board. Rather than posting jobs within a particular industry, they
post for any industry as long as the job are all for temporary or
contractual positions.
Another type of job boards is what I call SUPERNICHE job boards. These
boards focus on a single profession 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. IHireAccountants.com is
another example. Niche and Super-Niche boards carry a lot less junk
than the Mega Job Boards because moderators of these boards screen
ads more carefully before posting them. Therefore, these are good
sources for finding work-from-home jobs.
Now, when viewing search results from Mega Job 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 to ignore it. Or, if you see that one company
is posting dozens of the same ad for areas all over your country,
you should probably 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. 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. And, 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 fill. I suggest that you leave your
resume on every staffing firm web site you can find.
FEE-BASED WEB SITES are another option Due to the growing popularity
of telecommuting, there are some people who make it their business
to comb the job boards, online groups, staffing firms, and search
engines 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, there are also people who 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 these types of sites before
you simply read the sales pitches and claims, and then pay their fee.
You may not get what you pay for... go
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About the Author:
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 for the US, Canada, and the UK. 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
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