Searching for Work from Home Jobs
Many of my long-time readers know that I posted legitimate work at home jobs here every week. When I was searching for those jobs and weeding out the phonies, I saw distinct patterns in what to look out for.
Basically, if you're going to search online for legitimate work from home, it's like any job search you'd do even for local office work. There's not much difference except that you really need to be on your toes and look for tell-tale signs that a job might be less than legitimate.
Your job search sources are the same - you can use About.com's job search powered by Indeed, search on CareerBuilder or Monster, or for tech jobs on Dice.com. You can also look through employment sites, like Robert Half, Net Temps, Kforce and others.
The real difference is in narrowing down your search to find telecommuting opportunities. So that means you'll be including search terms to specifically help you find legitimate work at home. Because different companies refer to telecommuting and working from home with different terms, it pays to be aware of some variations and work them into your search. For example:
- Telecommute
- Work from Home and Work at Home
- Telecommute
- Remote
- Offsite
- Virtual
In my years of experience filtering the legitimate jobs from the scammers, I've found telecommute and telecommuting to lead to the highest percentage of legitimate postings. Telework is also good, and is prominently used by Aetna Insurance and by the U.S. federal government. It seems like, for the most part, all federal job postings (or at least a vast majority of them) are now required to say that telecommuting is possible. Whether it happens or not may be a different story, and if you apply for such a position you'll want clarification of the chances that you'll actually be allowed to work at home at some point.
Unfortunately, using work from home and work at home yields the fewest legitimate telecommuting opportunities. Those two terms are very popular with scammers, so you need to be extra careful if you use them in search.
Job Search Aggregator Sites
Another practice you're likely to bump into when you're searching for legitimate work at home are the aggregator sites, which seem to crop up daily. If you see a job listing from one of these sites (you'll get to recognize them) try to go to the source site instead. For example, there are loads of sites that list legitimate work from home jobs from companies like United Health Care who aren't authorized to post the job. In order to apply, you may have to sign up, give up your contact information including your email address, and in some cases - worse yet - pay a membership in order to apply. That's a sucker's bet for sure. If you see a job posted with the name of the company, do a search for the company and use the job title in the search and you may be able to go direct to the employer's site and bypass the party who is trying to get your contact information or get you to pay for a membership.
In many cases you'll see the aggregator listings along with the legitimate search result from the company itself. Whenever it's available, always go direct to the hiring company or its authorized placement website.
For more information in this area, see:
Steering Clear of Work from Home Job Scams
In the vast majority of cases, legitimate work at home jobs shouldn't require that you pay anything for the privilege of telecommuting from home. There are a few legitimate exceptions where you may need to pay a membership fee to belong to an independent network of work at home professionals or you may have to pay a small amount for training or equipment that enables you to do your work from home according to the specific employer's telecommuting standards.
As always, tread carefully and do your homework on any company you're considering. Good luck, and here's hoping your legitimate work a home job dreams come true!
One final note. If you do get raked into a scam, you'll want to read, What to Do If You're a Victim of Work at Home Scam. In no event do you want them to get away with it, as they will only continue to scam others who are trying to find legitimate work from home.
Tell Your Story - Why Do You Work from Home - Or Want To?
Why Do You Work from Home - Or Want To? (Share Your Story)
Check the Latest Work from Home Poll Results
If you've already voted or just want to check the results, you can use this link:
Check the work at home poll results
to see where things stand at any time.
Participate in the Work from Home Discussion in the Forum
For those of you who would like to go into a bit more detail or voice your thoughts on work from home, I welcome you to participate in the discussion on this topic in the About Home Business Forum.
Let me know: If you've found work from home, how did you find it? Did you have a strategy or a work from home plan that worked? Do you have any suggestions for others who are looking for work from home?
More Resources for Legitimate Work from Home
While I'm no longer posting legitimate work from home jobs I find on these pages, you may get additional leads and information on working from home on the About Home Business Facebook page, by following me on Twitter or by signing up for my free weekly newsletter. Here are the links:
This page is part of the Home Work Guide (click to return)
<=== More Legitimate Work from Home Jobs Information on Page 1
