I have heard of people working at home, over the phone, in sales and stuff. Is this true? How do you do this? (insurance, internet business)

[becky111390]

I have heard of people working at home, over the phone, in sales and stuff. Is this true? How do you do this? What kind of jobs are there? How do you get a job doing this?

[sunsprit]

Manufacturer's rep, insurance sales, or similar sales type jobs may present an opportunity to work from home.

Getting these jobs depends a lot upon the requirements of the company you are seeking to work for. Some have no requirements except to be available and willing to work, some require degrees, some require industry experience, and so forth.

Many of these jobs are strictly commission paid independent situations. You are essentially in business for yourself, and all of your expenses are yours to pay. The potential income you realize from these jobs is the differential between what it costs you to be in business and the gross income from your commissions.

FWIW, these job opportunities don't work out for a lot of people who need a more structured environment to work in, or a salary or some sort of assured income stream. If these situations were as easy as some folk are lead to believe they are, many more folk would be doing this type of work ... but they don't. I've seen a lot of independent commission paid folk work these situations for a short time and then return to more conventional employment.

[myrc60]

I know several major manufacturers that have home workers for their account executives. Many require travel and lots of hours to keep up with your accounts. Think of the big manufacturers and check their career sections on their websites. Who makes Tide?

[Karianne]

You can find some job listings on the work at home mom forums, wahm.com. There are tons of sites with listings, but if you are expected to front any money or pay any fees to work from home then it is a scam and not a real job offering. A real job will not expect you to pay anything up front.

[gomexico]

Almost all such offers and testimonials are frauds.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by gomexico

Almost all such offers and testimonials are frauds.

^This. No *good* job starts with anyone "working at home"...
and rather few real jobs.

[Moonlady]

Originally Posted by becky111390

I have heard of people working at home, over the phone, in sales and stuff. Is this true? How do you do this? What kind of jobs are there? How do you get a job doing this?

There are legitimate telecommuting jobs and they are usually advertised as a telecommuting job. A friend of mine recently hired into a customer support role with Apple taking service calls and she works from home. Our company employs telecommuters, but mostly it's because they have to travel, a lot, and they usually worked their way into that job as opposed to being hired into it. I agree with what others said about avoiding fee based advertiements.

[Coldjensens]

I worked at home most of the time for almost three years as an attorney. Of Course I had to leave for meetings, depositions, trials, but most of my work is ont he phone, internet or computer (Word). It was wonderful. Sometimes I just stayed in my bathrobe all day and took a shower before dinner. With no commute I got a lot more done, even though I would take a half hour off when the kids first came home and then go back up to my office.

The only down side is that it was not very social. I live on a large island and one summer I left the isalnd only four times to go to the airport and a few times to visit my parents. Still I miss it.

[ragnarkar]

Hate to sound like an arrogant prick but if you're asking this question, you're probably not gonna be successful at the "work at home" venture or may likely get scammed. I learned it the hard way during my college days.

There are very few legitimate corporate jobs that are "work at home".. many of those advertised on the internet are MLM's or even overt pyramid schemes. Some people work at home for their own internet business which they've worked HARD for years to develop and become profitable.

[duster1979]

There are some call center jobs through companies like Alpine Access that are legit, but they aren't great jobs; maybe $8-$10 an hour, generally less than 40 hours a week, and although you are at home you are tied to your telephone and computer while you are "on the clock" so it's not like you can keep young children at home or watch soap operas while you do it.

The people I know who have really good jobs working from home started out in an office and developed a system that allowed them to do the same job from home.