Legitimate At Home Jobs-avoiding The Scams

By Author: Elisee Verrier
Total Articles: 9
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Between preparing meals, chauffeuring, supervising, and attending children's activities, stay-at-home moms have enough on their plates. Yet, for those who choose to work from home, it can cost valuable time and effort wading through Internet scams to find meaningful employment. There is nothing worse than finding an advertisement for that ideal job only to discover that it's really a sales solicitation.

Fortunately, there are ways to tell at a glance which jobs are legitimate and which offers want something from you besides your work. Often there are specific catch phrases used by sales representatives that a true employer would not use. The most obvious is the term ‘Work at Home.' Though the expression may very well state what you want to do, it is not what employers would say to attract talent.

If you look on the job boards and in classified ads, the identifiers - the words in bold or capital lettering - announce the actual title of the position. For example an ad might start with ADMIN. ASSISTANT or CUSTOMER SERVICE REP. needed for Serious employers put the ‘work at home' part or ‘telecommuting ...
... okay' in the fine print. Because of all the sales predators it's difficult to find opportunities using the ‘work-at-home' search criteria alone.

Another dead giveaway is an ad that gives compensation information. Employers often wait to interview a candidate before discussing salary information. Some will even ask you for your salary requirements before you sit down to negotiate a rate. Alternatively, people who are trying to sell you marketing leads or work from home booklets will make promises of anywhere from $600 to $2,000 per week right there on the first line of the ad.

Beware of potential earnings that sound too good to be true. If you couldn't make that much doing that same job in the office, chances are you won't be making that at home. And never consider a job that asks you to pay money up front.

Serious employers will ask for your credentials and explicitly state what the requirements are. Take a close look at ads that say, No Exp. Required. More commonly employers use the phrase ‘entry-level' and they almost always ask for your résumé. On online job boards, most employers will refrain from listing their telephone numbers because the reply would be overwhelming. They do, however, list an e-mail address, fax number or physical address for you to send your information.

There is no single route for everyone on how to work from home, but these simple tips should help you optimize your job search.