A Reader Asks, "How Do I Find Work at Home?"
LT Writes:
Hi, I've found your articles and have spent the last 2 hours reading them. It is some good and logical information, except the w-a-h jobs I think are legit still ask for a credit card at the end of filling the forms out. I have yet to run across one that doesn't ask you to pay them. I believe with you that a legitimate company shouldn't ask for payment.
Perhaps, I've become too leary; but I am still searching hoping that the right position will turn up for me.
If you can help me with any advise or direction so I can hopefully begin working at home I would be so appreciative.
My reply on finding work at home:
A lot depends on the kind of work you're qualified to do - is it something that lends itself to working from home?
You are absolutely right - you don't want to give out credit card information or pay for the privilege of working at home - with one possible exception. Some telecommuting job and freelancer sites - for example, Guru.com and eLance.com - offer more features and more positions if you register with them and pay a membership fee. That's how they make their money. Although sometimes you can get a free basic membership, you'll find that the information you can access and the projects you are allowed to bid on are severely restricted unless you opt-in for a paid membership.
A work at home job site like TJobs.com requires you to pay a small annual membership fee - the last I checked about 10 or fifteen bucks for a membership password good for one year - to access their job postings. Some of the virtual assistant websites and other job registration sites also work that way. So while you might consider paying a registration or membership fee for a site that offers job postings in the area you're interested in, you never want to pay an "employer" directly for a job - those are just scams.
Good Places for Work at Home Jobs
Three of the best sources for searching legitimate work at home jobs in my experience are www.wahm.com, www.craigslist.org and the aforementioned www.tjobs.com.
While you'll never have to pay wahm.com or Craig's List to search for work from home jobs, as I mentioned Tjobs does charge a nominal annual fee.
Paying for Access to Work at Home Jobs Doesn't Guarantee Anything
Whether you pay a fee or not, you still need to be on the lookout for scams.
Many of the jobs on wahm.com have been picked up from what the editor believes are legitimate job postings on Craig's List and a few other sources. But the jobs posted there are just a small subset of the work from home jobs posted around the country and around the world on Craig's List, so it often pays to search Craig's List on your own.
Searching Craig's List for Work at Home Jobs
Just go to www.craigslist.org, select a city, state or country from the right hand side of the page. Then click on any jobs area under Jobs and/or Gigs. Once that page loads check the telecommute box and then select either All Jobs or All Gigs from the in list and then click Search.
By leaving everything but the Telecommute check box blank you'll get the best collection of listings. You may need to wade through some obvious rip-offs, but you may be less likely to miss the work at home opportunity you're seeking.
The Downside of Searching Craig's List for Work at Home Jobs
In my opinion, there are two downsides to Craig's List. First, you can't conduct a single search that looks at all states and metro areas at once. If you're looking for a 100% work at home arrangement, you probably don't need to restrict yourself to your local area when conducting a Craig's List search for a telecommuting position. For 100% telecommuting, you'll probably have better luck searching the biggest job areas - New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc. - or at least those areas of the country that are most receptive to letting you work at home (I'd add San Francisco, LA and Washington DC to that list) - regardless of where you live now. This can get time consuming, so I recommend you pick several areas one day and then several more the next, and so on. You could even set up a schedule to list the areas you'll check each day or each week.
The second downside is that although Craig's List provides visitors with the ability to report scams, scam operators can and often do post here as well, so you still need to remain vigilant for phony and sometimes even illegal job offers. But I think nowadays you have to do that no matter where you look for work from home jobs or which website you visit. After all, even though I post weekly work at home job listings that I believe are perfectly legitimate, I've been fooled at times, too.
On the plus side, Craig's List fosters a strong community among its users and if someone uncovers a scam artist, Craig's List makes reporting the culprit fairly easy. That's why when you click on some of the links to work at home jobs on Craig's List, you'll see a message that the posting was removed.
Keep visiting my site and continue to use the links I provide on the site for additional work from home jobs search tools as well. Again, since anyone can post and get away with it for at least awhile, you need to remain vigilant for con artists. Unfortunately, they are everywhere.
Do your best to keep a positive attitude and don't give up. When you finally find a legitimate work from home opportunity you'll want to project a positive, can-do attitude to improve your chances of nailing it down.Participate in the Work at Home Poll
Poll: Did You Find Work from Home or did it Find You? - Click One:
- It Found Me
- I Went After It and Got It
- A Little Bit of Both
- I'm Not Working from Home But I'm Looking
Check the Latest Work at Home Poll Results
If you've already voted, you can use the following link to check the work at home poll results to see where things stand at any time.
