If You Work at Home, could you tell us what you do? (home jobs, company)

[lizziebeth]

I'm a corporate recruiter for a health care company. I've had three work from home jobs -- all for health care. I can't be in all of my locations so I'm in none of them.

When I was leaving my last office job, a guy who was leaving also to work from home and had done it before told me that at home, I'd get the same work done in 6 hours that people in an office get done in 8-9 hours. I'd say that's true though I'm still putting in at least 9 hours on most days. Nobody comes by your desk to chat, there's none of the never ending debate over where to go to lunch. Though I do miss the interaction sometimes, I love working in my jammies, saving money on gas and lunch and being able to throw a load of laundry in during the work day.

Several colleagues of mine in health care recruiting also work from home.

[redroses777]

Originally Posted by Forever Blue

Please no one do anything to cause this thread to close! For some reason, anytime there's talk about "working from home", it's like the topic is taboo or something & gets shuts down. I'd like to continue to hear all the interesting things everyone does!

So far, thse posts have been about regular jobs in which people have the option to work from home half or most of the week. I'd like to know who has a completely online work at home job, such as a home agent taking customer service calls from home for various companies that normally pays about $10/hour. That would be fine w/ me, I just want something to do on the side in the provacy of my own home & make a little extra money. An extra $500 at the least would be good for me.

Anyone can please feel free to PM me about this.

gypsydoc, thanks for clarifying how one makes money from blogging. I noticed that people do it & was sllightly starting to get interested, but it sounds like a lot of work!

Since you aren't looking to get rich and looking for extra side job money, check out Work at Home Jobs: Free Legitimate Work From Home Job Opportunities. There are some sources on there. There is also a book that you can buy on Amazon called Work From Home Now. It has some good information.

If you have programming, graphic design, web design skills, you can do okay working from home.

[gypsydoc]

I have absolutely loved this thread! Thanks for all who have posted here to confirm that working from home is possible - and that there are many industries and paths one can take to create an income.

Thanks!

[NewJerseyMemories]

Originally Posted by gypsydoc

OK... the good, the bad and the ugly. Yes, you can make a substantial income from blogging... BUT there is a lot of work and time involved. You can't just buy a domain name and begin. You need a hosting company - like hostgator, or hostmonster, etc. You need a blogging platform, like wordpress.org (you get to own your content on that one) or wordpress.com, blogger.com (you don't own your content on these).

You can blog all day long and not make a dime. Many people do that and have a fine time.

The money is made by "monetizing the site"... having related affiliate links, or amazon links, or links to your own products and services. When people sign up for a free give-away - like a report, or free recorded webinar, or e-book or something, then you have to have an autoresponder set up to send them information on some sort of regular basis and to build a "list" of subscribers who are interested in your topics.

After your links are in place, you still have to market the site. The old days of "build it and they will come" are long gone, for the most part.

The above is just the bare bones minimum of what blogging is about.

Sounds like you found some sort of "guru" trying to sell or give a course on how to blog, etc. Some of these are really helpful, but some are not.

If you want to explore the world of on-line marketing and the reputations of various "guru" teachers out there, this website is a great resource to check out the rankings of teachers before you spend any money.

www.IMreportcard.com


I am slowly building an online business. It has taken far more time than I thought it would.. but if you are determined, of course it can be done.

There is another site that is the largest internet marketing site on the web called: WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums Most of the long term members have been doing it for years and can be a bit cranky in answering questions from new people until they see you are serious and are doing a lot of the searching for answers yourself.

I have learned a lot from just reading posts and threads. It can also be confusing!! As with learning any new skill, take your time, read all you can ask questions, etc.

Most people who try blogging as a way to make a full time income - or any income are not successful, but many are. It will depend on you and your efforts and how quickly you are able to put all the pieces together. I love this subject, but want to be careful about totally respecting the terms of service here.

If I have overstepped, sorry... I'll stop now.

Everything you said is true, because I also blog and have made very little money but I've never done it for that. I've done it for the love of writing and the subjects I write about. It also convinced me to get a small digital camera and learn to take a decent photograph (I'm still working on those). I also bought a Kindle so that authors could "send" me their books so that I could review them.

Blogging is HARD work -- much harder than I thought it would be because sometimes I feel lazy. You have to keep up with it and post constantly and you must go on other blogs and comment. That's the best way to get a "following". The good thing is that blogging is free if you use Blogger or Wordpress.com. The only thing that I pay for is my domain name (about $10.00 a year) for each of my blogs.

I really wouldn't suggest blogging as a route to making money. Most people who do it for that reason never make anything because it takes time and patience. You really must love the subject that you're blogging about and you should love writing!

[Forever Blue]

Originally Posted by redroses777

Since you aren't looking to get rich and looking for extra side job money, check out Work at Home Jobs: Free Legitimate Work From Home Job Opportunities. There are some sources on there. There is also a book that you can buy on Amazon called Work From Home Now. It has some good information.

If you have programming, graphic design, web design skills, you can do okay working from home.

Me, not really that type of experience. I don't want to do any kind of site building, advertising, etc. I'll be happy being a home agent, wearing the headsets, & taking customer service calls for a company or two.

If anyone knows about home agent jobs, please PM them my way.

[gogonorth]

Originally Posted by fly_widget

I work in the global training department for a Fortune 500 company.

We have trainers who teach the classes and travel quite a bit so they all usually work from home when they aren't traveling. Our Instructional Designers (like myself, who design and develop/write the training) are about half and half, some work from home and some work out of Corporate Headquarters. I used to work at HQ but moved last year out of state.

I'm an instructional designer, but can't find work. Got any leads?

[New Wave Carpetbagger]

I am working from home as a freelancer for several different companies. No, I am not making a full-time income. I have applications and my resume sent out to at least 70 different online companies. Most have not contacted me. Some have contacted me, offered me a job as an independent contractor, and asked me to fax a W-9. Several of those have received my W-9 and never contacted me again to give me information I would need to log onto their system and work for them. I was doing quite a bit of work for a content mill/text company until they recently demoted me to a level where there is very little work and the pay is too low to be worthwhile. Additionally, I'm also doing some kinds of work that are legal, but have somewhat of an "ick" factor for a lot of people. Some of it is work I never, ever thought I'd be doing. I have a graduate degree and experience, but I'm over 40 and live in an area with about a 30% unemployment rate. I can't move because me husband has a decent job with health insurance, however we still need my income. My previous on-site job left the area nearly 2 years ago. I am still collecting at least a partial unemployment check because my income is so spotty.

[slackjaw]

I work from home as full time software developer. Occasionally I fly out to work at my company's HQ for a week or so, but mostly just wake up and shamble over to computer desk.

[grapegrape]

I'm a reviewer and I work from home. I mostly do book reviews, but also product reviews as well. It just depends on what the client wants. I read the book or use the product and then write about it. I earn the equivalent of a part-time job. I put in a few hours a day on most days, on others I work all day. The clients I have found me, so there isn't anywhere I could guide you except to tell you there are jobs like this out there. It takes a LONG time to get established and to start making any money though.

[jmferris]

I am a software engineering lead for a company that has around 40 global offices. While I currently work out of one our offices on the east coast, I am moving in a matter of weeks to a state that does not have an office presence. I've been fortunate enough to build a solid relationship with my employer so that when I discussed that I needed to move for my wife's medical conditions, they were eager to offer to allow me to work remotely, retaining all of my current roles and responsibility.

Our company is fairly receptive to understanding that, for certain types of jobs, it is completely possible for someone to make the transition. The difficult part, I find, is who the people are that are competent and self-motivated enough to do it. I have a few direct reports that neither my manager nor myself feel are capable of working remotely, except in extreme circumstances (i.e. weather-related, etc.).

I find myself fortunate, though, when I look at the broader picture. We have around 1,200 people in our company, and I am only one of three people who have been allowed to transition. For every one of us that is (or will soon be) working remotely, my understanding is that there are probably at least five people who have had similar requests denied by some level of our executive management.

I would imagine that the trend of allowing employees of companies to work remotely, and not just contractors/consultants, is something that we will see continue to grow. For example, I attend meetings via web cam, have a conferencing endpoint that I can use to set up impromptu meetings with my peers and subordinates, and have made efforts to make myself more available than I even am when I am physically in the office. The biggest obstacle I have seen to this approach in the past is around visibility and delivery of work.