Legitimate Work At Home Jobs

by Brianna
(Chicago, IL)

Question: I'm a mom looking for a flexible schedule, maybe working at home. Are all work at home options scams or are there any legitimate work at home jobs? If there are some legitimate possibilities, where do I find them?

Answer: There are definitely legitimate work at home jobs, but you do have to be careful because so many advertised work at home "opportunities" are scams. In fact, the work at home job experts at RatRaceRebellion.com estimate that the scam:job ratio is about 60:1.

To help you avoid falling for a scam, you might want to get the book, "Work at Home Now: The No-nonsense Guide to Finding Your Perfect Home-based Job, Avoiding Scams, and Making a Great Living," by Christine Durst and Michael Haaren. The authors warn you to steer clear of jobs where you are asked to pay an application fee or make an upfront investment, where the ad says that no experience is necessary but the implied earnings are unrealistically high, where the prospective employer asks for personal financial data, or the posting itself creates false scarcity by stressing that only a few openings exist.

There are three legitimate work at home jobs sites that I like for exploring work at home options:

RatRaceRebellion.com - Free
FlexJobs.com - $9.95/month quoted on 12/09/09
VirtualVocations.com - $15.99/month quoted on 12/09/09

One thing to know before you start your job search is that flexible work expert Pat Katepoo says that most people who telecommute are able to do so only after convincing their boss at their current full time job to allow them to do so, and most such agreements involve telecommuting one to three days per week rather than 100% of the time. Ms. Katepoo runs the excellent Web site WorkOptions.com and she sells reasonably priced proposal templates to assist employees to negotiate flexible work schedules such as telecommuting, compressed work week, part time, and job sharing.

Another option for people seeking work at home careers is to be self-employed and to offer expertise to customers or clients. My favorite book about starting a home business is, "Best Home Businesses for People 50+" by Paul and Sarah Edwards. My review of the book is here. Don't let the title fool you...the book lists great home business possibilities for everyone, not just people older than 50.

While finding or creating a flexible schedule might be challenging, please don't give up. It is worth some effort to find the best solution for your work/family balance.

Hope this helps!

Dr. Janet Scarborough Civitelli at VocationVillage.com