Telecommuting Jobs
and Work from Home Ideas:
A Bit of Counsel and a Few Links to Get You Started
Telecommuting and earning an income from home are
appealing concepts which require thoughtful preparation.
You may have landed at WorkOptions.com looking for
telecommuting jobs. Though that's not its focus—it's
for individuals who want telecommuting and other flex
work at their current job—I'd
like to help just the same.After my four bits of
counsel just below, you'll find a few links to sites
which can guide you on the work from home pathway.
Keep In Mind the
Following Four Points
1. Most employed telecommuters work for
an employer where they've held an established
position prior to restructuring their job to work from
home. They usually telecommute one to three days a week.
This approach is the most common way to be an employee
who works from home. Getting agreement from your manager to
work from home generally requires an outstanding
proposal, which is why people use
Telecommuting Flex Success.
Start by proving you can do some of your job tasks
from home. I recommend GoToMyPC.
Click here to get your free 30-day trial of GoToMyPC,
 which
allows you to be in front of your office/work computer
from your home.
2. It's unusual to be hired as a new employee
who is offered or allowed to telecommute from the
start.
This is slowly changing, but still far from
mainstream. There
have been encouraging reports in The Wall Street
Journal and other sources
that the trend to allow new hires to telework is
improving. (There are Web which list telecommuting jobs,
but it's tricky sifting the few legit sites from the
scams sites. See the next section for links.)
Meanwhile, consider taking on a new job in a
traditional in-office arrangement, then in six months to a year, after having
established your skills and position, negotiate to work
from home part of the week. See # 1. 3. WorkOptions.com and Pat Katepoo do not offer
telecommuting jobs and do not do any type of job
searches or job placement. Please use links to other
resources and the counsel herein instead of inquiring
here about jobs. Thanks.
4. Millions of individuals who work from home are
free-lancers or otherwise self-employed. If you go
that route, do so out of passion for your work for which
you've determined there will be paying customers on a
regular basis.
Avoid so-called work-from-home “opportunities” that have
nothing to do with your God-given talents and usually
appeal to a sense of greed.
Even with those which appear legitimate and that relate
to something you really have a desire to do, do exercise
caution and due diligence when exploring them. Do not
pay someone for their “secrets”
to self-employment. Get more advice and resources from
this Wall Street Journal
article. Telecommuting Jobs and
Work from Home - Where to Turn?
A legitimate place to start to explore telecommuting
employment or free-lance-type jobs is at
About.com's Job Search
site. Type in “Work from Home Jobs” in their
Search box and you'll
get a listing of articles including how to find work
from home jobs, job listings, and how to avoid scams.
Women for Hire has an extensive
work-from-home resource page with lots of
job suggestions and links to more information.
HBWM has a solid reputation. Just be
careful to vet the opportunities presented in paid
advertisements.
You may be familiar with free-lance projects
sites on which you can submit bids to do work being
outsourced by various companies. Well-established ones
include
Elance and
Guru.
Self-employment can be gratifying if done the right way.
I highly recommend the books of home business experts, Paul and Sarah Edwards, as starting points. Review their
titles at any online book store. An online business
is a viable way to reach work-at-home freedom—it's
the path I took—but don't waste your time getting caught
up in the Get Rich Quick mirage. Instead,
go with an established business
that can help you build your business over time, based
on a topic that you know.
There are a few flexible work staffing firms around the
United States which may match your needs.
Flexible Resources is a staffing and consulting firm
founded in 1989 to champion flexible hiring strategies.
They have several offices on the east coast and focus in
the areas of finance, HR, law and marketing.
Flexperience is
a boutique firm that connects experienced marketing,
human resources, and finance professionals with
opportunities for part-time, flex-time, or project-based
work with clients in the San Francisco Bay area.
MomCorps bills
itself as a matchmaker between companies looking to
recruit and retain top talent and experienced
professionals looking for flexibility. This may or may
not include telecommuting.
I hope this helps get you started. All the best!
Redesign Your Job to Telecommuting: Free self-paced
planning exercises right on this site.
Start here.
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