I have spent the last five years trying to work at home and have had
some success. The following are a few facts I have to share with
people who are either trying to or have given up trying to work at
home.
Q. What about places that put up "pay money to get a job"
postings?
Are they worth the money? Will I get a job if I spend the money?
A. If a job asks for money, then it is not really a job. Think of it
this way, would you pay to fill out an application for a job outside
the home? No, of course you would not, so why you would pay someone
for a work-at-home job? Let's say that a listing says "Buy
our
software and you can work at home." This probably means that you
buy
the software up-front and they give you a list of places that might
hire you. The software is usually something similar to what you
already have in your computer, like a word processor program or
something you could buy in a local office supplies store's
discount
section. The list of jobs they give you is usually a list of
companies they found in the phone book and you can find the same
companies yourself just by using the Internet Yellow Pages. And if
companies were really hiring work-at-home people, then why would they
give the software to another company to sell? They wouldn't! They
would list the software requirements in their help wanted classified
advertisement.
Fact to remember: If they ask for money, then it is probably not a
real job.
Q. What about these places that advertise "Pay to join our group
and
we will help you find a job" or "We have hundreds or
thousands of
jobs listed" sites?
A. I spent over $500.00 on those during my second year of job
searching and never did get a job. I'm not saying they are all
bad or
tried to rip me off. Some were an all-and-all-out scam. Others
honestly tried to provide a good job list for me to send my resume,
but if you don't have the requisite skills, it doesn't matter
how
many honest job listings are provided. Still others provided job
listings that were so old, they were no longer hiring or no longer in
business! These sites used old job listings so they could say they
had "thousands of jobs" listed. There were also some that
listed jobs
found listed by "monsters" and headhunters. My best advice is
if you
want to join one of these places, then you should go to a "work
at
home"-type message board and ask for other experiences with the
company. Ask questions like: Did you really get the material they
promised to send to you? What kind of jobs do the sites offer? Did
you find a job? Remember that the people who run these companies
often go to these message boards and reply to the questions posted by
people like you , so be sure and wait till you get several replies so
you can get to the truth.
Fact to remember: Do your homework before spending the money –
take
the time to ask around and check out the company with the BBB (Better
Business Bureau) to find out if there have been any complaints listed
against the company.
Q. Are Medical Transcription (MT) jobs good jobs and is this type of
job for me?
A. Just because you take the MT (Medical Transcriptionist) classes
doesn't mean that you will get an at-home job. I took all the classes
and got certified. I then tested for jobs for a year before giving up
on that type of work at home. This is not to say that it isn't a very
good job for some people, it just wasn't ever going to be the
right
job for me. I know several people who do MT work at home and love it.
Most MT jobs require that you have at least six months' to a
year's
experience at an in-house job before they will consider you for
independent, at-home production. Once you have gained your in-house
experience
(or you have been lucky enough to start out at home), you have to be
prepared to work eight hours or more in a row transcribing.
Most transcription jobs call for tight turn-around time (TAT). A
typical scenario is that they give you a set time to record their
audio using to your transcription-recording machine (either via phone
line or web site). Then you have a set number of hours to do the
transcription and send it back to the company. This means you have to
have these hours set aside five days a week to work, just like you
would if you when out to a job. Not all MT work will be consistently
supplied, so you might find that you work fast and furious on Monday
and Thursday, and have no work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
My best advice is if you are interested in becoming an MT, then you
should first check out the schools with the BBB. Go to an MT message
board and read what other people who do this type of work have to say
and ask them questions you might have. Also, buy training tapes to
listen to before paying for classes to see if you are the kind of
person who can listen to them all day and type what you hear (given
that an MT school will obviously teach you the necessary vocabulary
and formatting styles, etc.).
Personally, I found that I could barely understand half of what the
doctors. They talk very fast, some have foreign accents, and/or there
were high levels of background noise (maybe the doctor was dictating
while driving). I wish I had done my homework before I had paid for
the at-home course that I took. Now I have a $300.00 MT certificate
and a $250.00 transcription machine sitting in a box somewhere in my
garage.
Facts to remember: Be sure you really have the time the job requires
and the desire to do this type of work, check out MT schools that
interest you by asking about the school on MT message boards to see
who else has gone to these schools, and check with the BBB to see if
there have been any complaints made about the schools that were left
unresolved.
Q. I know HTML and made my own web site. Does this mean I can be a
Webmaster at home?
A. Probably not when it comes to jobs found through Internet job
searches. Even if you know HTML, can make frames, tables, can create
your own graphics, and use copy and paste JavaScript, you probably
will not find a web page design job just by doing a regular Internet
job search. I can write HTML freehand without an editor and am
competent at many other web-page-related skills. I have sent out over
1,000 resumes and have not even gotten one honest reply. Three years
ago I finally realized that if you really want to work at home doing
web page design, then you need to have at least a two-year of college
degree.
This is not to say there are no honest HTML at-home jobs for simple
skills like routine updates to web sites, but bear in mind that for
every job available for doing HTML out there, there are thousands of
people applying for it. I can't even imagine the number of resumes
that are sent daily for jobs listed for HTML skills! My best advice
is either go to college and get a degree in CGI, DHTML, Flash, ASP,
VB Script, Java Script, Flash, Database Interface, Oracle, and SQL
server (to name a few different skills and language codes) or try to
develop a clientele of small business owners, local to your area, who
need simple web sites and can't afford expensive
"professionals."
Many of small businesses would love to have web site, but either have
no idea where to start, believe it costs too much money, or that they
have to sell their product online (which they don't). They can use
the web page for advertising, promote sales, or offer printable
coupons. The best way to get this type of work is ask your friends to
tell any small business owners they know about your services. In your
town has a local newspaper or newsletter, consider placing an ad.
Fact to remember: If you all know is HTML, then either get a degree
so that you can apply to online jobs or hand out business cards to
friends and local small business to create a local clientele.
Q. I can make postcards, greeting cards, and write verses using my
home publishing programs. Can I use these skills to get an at-home
job?
A. This can be done on a freelance basis at home. There are books
that offer lists of companies that might buy your work. You can visit
your local library or book store to get Writer's Market 2001: 8000
Editors Who Buy What You Write and/or Artists & Graphic Designer's
Market 2001: Where & How to Sell Your Illustration, Fine Art, Graphic
Design & Cartoons.
Now you are probably asking, "So what do you do at home?" I
make my
money using affiliate programs. Affiliate program are online stores
that pay you per click, lead, or sale by placing banner and/or
products on your web page. I, by no means, make enough money to pay
the bills, but it is a nice little income to buy the extras my family
needs. To learn more about affiliate programs and web page designing
visit http://momsbreak.com/webmasters.html
There are jobs out there for at-home workers. However, no one is
actually going to find you a job unless you have a marketable skill.
You must know what it is you can do, and then you must find the
market for it. If you are looking for more ideas and suggestions
about working at home, please visit
http://www.janktheproofer.com/ArticleIndex.htm
Good Luck with your pursuit of a work-at-home job!
About the Author
Kimberly Hargis.
Help support a work-at-home mom by buying your birthday and baby
shower supplies at "They Grow Up Too Fast Birthdays & Baby
Showers"
at http://birthdays.momsbreak.com or just stop by and check out my
free printable invitations, card, calendars, games and more.