Telecommuting Jobs - How To Find A Real Telecommute Work At Home Position

Please note: There is a lot of content on this page related to working at home. If you are looking specifically for the links to real work at home telecommuting jobs and companies, you can find them closer to the bottom of the page. If you enjoy the information or find it useful, please leave a comment, or vote it a thumbs up at the bottom of the page. You may also want to bookmark this page. Or you could Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive updated Telecommuting and Work at Home Articles by Me! Thanks!

If you are looking for a REAL J.O.B. that pays you hourly or a flat rate for your efforts from home, then you are most likely looking for a telecommuting job. Any other type of job (where you create a residual income or work for yourself) is considered more of a home based business. So, that is the major difference between the two.

Before you even begin your searching process, you need to identify you skills and what type of position from home you would like. Then you need to create a professional resume. If you need help identifying the difference between a telecommuting resume vs. a standard one, as well as how to create one, here are two great articles:

Telecommute Resume Represents You

Telecommuting Resume Help 101

You will also find some links to other telecommuting resume help in the Telecommuting Links section (below). Some places give you free pointers and tips, others will compose your resume for you for a charge. The decision is yours regarding how you would like to compose your resume (or have it composed). Please, just remember that work is not guaranteed.

I searched online for YEARS for ways to find a legitimate work at home job. If you're like me and you've been searching you're probably wondering...

Why do I keep coming across all of these home based business ads or ways to make money (that require an investment) when all I really want is a J.O.B.?!

Most likely, it's because of the keywords you use when you search. There are, on average, about 300,000 searches per month for the phrases "work at home" and "work from home." Then as work at home searchers (like you and me) become "hip to the game" they start trying specifics, like "data entry", and wind up still landing on Scam ads. That's because most marketers usually pay for, or use, programming that figures out which keywords match their business and/or receive the most search requests. They then use these keywords and go and place attractive ads that usually result in massive amounts of sales.

The biggest problem with searching for telecommuting J.O.B.s is it can sometimes take a long time to even get a response to a resume or application submission. When I was using this method to search for a J.O.B., there were times I went as long as 6 months before getting a J.O.B.

When searching for a legitimate at home telecommuting position, besides knowing which keywords to search (see below) you will want to stay organized. Make sure you have a resume that highlights the skills of the position you are applying for. If you have experience in different fields, customize each resume for that field. So, for example, if you are looking for either a data entry job or a customer service job, don't just compose one resume with both experience and skill sets listed on it. Compose two different resumes customized to each specific job category.

Some rules of thumb (although they don't always apply, they are nice to know):

• Many companies don't advertise their positions because they then become inundated with responses - most of them unqualified candidates
• You want to have the proper skills to apply for the job - just as you would in the traditional job marketplace. Don't apply for a data entry position if you have no experience doing data entry work.
• Freelance writing is soaring with home jobs - great if you like to write and have experience doing it/can show some work that you are a good writer
• Medical tranacription is also another great industry to get into or find a work at home J.O.B.
• Remember: there is a great amount of competition, usually around 1000 or more applicants per advertised position. So, it may take you some time to secure a position.
• If you don't feel you qualify for the "traditional" work at home J.O.B., you think the competition is great, or you want to create a steady flow of income, you may want to put your skills to work for you with some other legitiamate work at home options

Here is a brief list of some of the different kinds of positions you can search for, including keywords (the most popular ones are listed first):

Telecommute/Telecommuting: This word describes at home J.O.B.s in a whole. Various positions fall under this category. Basically, telecommuting just means the employer is willing to pay you to work outside the home.

Customer Service: There are a lot of positions available for at-home customer service. Most of these positions are inbound or outbound call centers. You would be working from home, however, as opposed to in an actual out of home call center. The positions range from telemarketing to inbound customer service calls. Some companies don't require experience to get started in this field and many are always hiring. So if you are looking for a way to make money ASAP, this is usually where you will want to get started, but continue researching and applying to other companies in the meantime. You will need a quiet environment and some home office equipment (computer, usually high speed internet connection, some even require an additional phone line - you can find the specifics for each job when you apply).

Data Entry: I think everyone know what data entry is! :) Just in case, it's basically entering data into a source or transferring data from one source to another. This is really a hard field to get into because there is so much more competition than demand. You also have to be very careful when searching for data entry positions because there are a lot of Scams. See our Telecommuting Links section to help you find reliable data entry positions.

Transcribe/Transcriptionist: There are a lot of J.O.B.s for Transcription - most require some type of medical or legal experience or training. In this category, you will also find Medical Transcription, Billing, Coding...see below for more.

Freelance: This field is growing extremely rapidly. Freelance writers are those who write for everything from online publications to offline publications (i.e. books, magazines, websites, newsletters, more). If you have experience writing, or can show that you are a good writer by being able to provide some sample writings, this is a great opportunity.

Other common telecommuting positions you can search for (by keyword): photography jobs, homebased writing, paralegal, computer programming, web and graphic design jobs, marketing, mystery shopping, call center, accounting, clerical, customer service, crafts, product assembly, proofreading, editing, research, sales, telemarketing, system administration, translator, travel, web design

Below are some sites where you can find REAL J.O.B.s. There are more sites out there, these are just the ones I've tried and liked. Next to each site you will find what kind of J.O.B.s they offer and the price for membership (if any). As you take a look at the various sites, just remember to book mark which ones you like best, or you can always refer back to them here. Some sites are better than others.

Please note: Just because you have to pay for membership to a site, that does not mean you are guaranteed work. I have just personally found it more cost effective to pay for some of the services and jobs to be emailed to me at times because, as you too will learn, it takes a lot of time to search and even sometimes find a position that you would like to apply for. Most of the paid services sites (at least the ones I've listed below) have pretty good quality jobs and a broad variety, allowing you to maximize your time. That's my opinion - you can still find quality jobs on the free sites.

These are just the sites that I recommend and have used in the past. There are many other sites out there that have legitimate work-at-home job postings. If you find any that you like, please let me know so I can update my list.

(The ones I have * are the ones I liked most and recommend most. Also, just a heads up: you are most likely going to want to bookmark this page, because when you click on any of the following links, it will take you to that website. Also, please check out my other articles that are related to this topic and provide additional links.)