Two days ago, I talked about people not having any experience or skills wanting to find the “perfect job” for them. Although I stand by everything I said in that blog, I realized that I was dispensing general advice, with no concrete links to follow or advice to follow up on. Last night, I discussed the no education part of the equation, and today I thought I would write up some fake stories about fake people who find themselves trying to work from home so y’all can see how I would approach the problem, in a fake world of course. 😛
Suzy Smith graduated from high school with okay grades, and started off to college but after only one year of schooling under her belt, she dropped out to get married and have babies with Fred Smith. (Hey look, she gets to keep her last name! How nice.) After ten years of being a stay-at-home mother to her three kids, she’s decided that since the kids were in school part of the day, she could go to work. She has no college degree, no writing skills, and no real experience in the workplace. Can she get a job? Heavens yes. Many call centers are outsourcing their work to people working from home. All Suzy has to have is a computer that is up to date (nothing over three years old,) a landline she can receive phone calls on, and Internet access that she can access while still being on the phone–either another landline with dial-up, or cable Internet, wireless Internet, or DSL. If possible, I would suggest that Suzy have a landline for the phone calls and then high-speed Internet for the Internet, because many companies require high-speed Internet. There are companies that allow dial-up, but the job search will be easier with high speed. Customer service companies require the employee have a quiet place to work, but since Suzy is doing this while her kids are gone to school, that won’t be a problem.
Okay, how about Jane Doe. Jane Doe graduated from high school with great grades, and went to college to become a teacher. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, but after only one year of teaching, she decided to stay home with her kids and raise them instead of working outside of her home. Things get tight and her husband tells her she needs to go get a job to make ends meet. She is dead-set against working outside of the home but cannot do phone work because her kids are still at home and she can’t keep them quiet while she’s on the phone. Can she get a job? Yes, and she’ll have a wide variety to choose from too. With a teaching degree and experience, she can be a tutor online which actually pays fairly well and does not require a quiet place to work. There are also companies that hire people to grade papers and essays online. There are companies that hire people to help develop curriculum, and they want teachers to analyze and give feedback on that curriculum. There are many opportunities for people with teaching degrees. Just because you cannot teach outside of the home any longer doesn’t mean you can’t use that degree.
Well, what about Jennifer Jones? She loves kids, has a couple of her own, cannot work outside of the home, and cannot do phone work because of her children. She has no degree at all. This one has a stay-at-home answer: Run a small daycare in your home! Just two children a week, not anything overwhelming, but the extra income will be a real boost to the family income.
Then we have Wilma Wally. She has always loved writing and wants to be paid to write, but she has no formal training to do so. She would feel most comfortable writing simple articles about gardens, decorating, cooking, relationships, cleaning, etc. She doesn’t want to write college thesis papers sort of thing, but instead just simple easy topics. She has three small ones under the age of five, so she needs something extremely flexible. Well, if she has good grammar, can spell, and knows the difference between ; and , she’ll be just fine as a blogger. I wrote an entire series on becoming a blogger for Families, and although they are not hiring right now, there are many sites that are. And since blogs can be written beforehand and postdated throughout the month or even year, this kind of job gives the ultimate flexibility to the employee.
I could keep going, but this blog is much too long as it is–someone is going to take my keyboard away from me soon, I just know it. 😉 Honestly though, almost any situation has a solution; the wanna-be employee just has to be willing to make it happen. That’s your cue to go hit the job searching boards and find what will work for you.
Good luck!