Hello, and welcome to the first blog in a week-long series on the ground rules for working from home. These are the rules that are often overlooked by the flashy “Work at Home and Make Millions Each Day!” ads you see on TV, the ones who seem to care a lot about huge houses and red sports cars, and not so much about working until 3 am to get a project done on time, or having to stare at a computer screen so long you’re sure you’ve gone permanently blind. Work-from-home jobs can be wonderful, but they’re usually not mansion/red Corvette wonderful but more of a I-can-be-home-with-my-kids-all-day wonderful. Hopefully this series of blogs will give you a good basis for understanding the work-at-home market, and some ideas on how to tackle your own work-at-home job search.
First off, some people think that you can only work from home if you are a computer genius and can write computer programs in your sleep. Well yes, although there are definitely jobs out there for computer geniuses, there are also jobs available doing transcription, coding, customer service, research, data entry, or being a virtual assistant, just to name a few, and it can all be done from home. In the next couple of months, I will have an ongoing series where I will cover these jobs and many others. But before I get started in on the nitty-gritty, here are the ground rules you need to know before sending out even one application into cyberspace:
You Must Have Computer Skills. Almost all work-at-home jobs require that you have basic computer skills and your own computer. No, not computer genius skills, but something more than just knowing where your power button is at will be required. Although knowing where your power button is at is a good start! Your computer is your link to your job—it’s imperative you know the basics about running it. There are usually Continuing Ed classes taught at local colleges for a low fee—it may be worth it if your computer skills are rusty and in need of sharpening. And if your computer skills are nonexistent, you will definitely want to do the Continuing Ed classes, but also try to keep your search confined to jobs that don’t rely heavily on computer skills. Almost all, if not all, work-at-home jobs will require some computer work, but that level of involvement will vary greatly from job to job. It is something to keep in mind as you search the want ads.
Please see part two for a continuation of these ground rules, and good luck!