Legitimate work at home jobs?

ajc07

Anyone have a any personal experience or opportunities for working at home?

 Thanks!

Andrea

RondackHiker

I just started working from home. I'd been with the company for two years when my husband was starting residency and we had to move a few states away.

The company chose to offer me a telecommuting position rather than lose me.

DS is in daycare and I have a small office set up in the living room. I couldn't do the job with DS at home. I wouldn't be a good mom or a good employee. 

SpaceGirlSpiff

I used to work at home and watch DS ... my company is small and I have the freedom to work at home or in the office...anywhere I can set up a computer and phone.... I know that is somewhat unique compared to other companies, though I think more and more some businesses are offering the option.  What kind of work do you do?

However, if you're looking to work from home so you can also take care of your child, I would caution against it.  I did it for 18 months, and I regret it.... at the time, we didnt really have much option, but eventually we shifted things around to make it work so DS can be in daycare full time now....he is a million times happier, and so am I.  You just cannot be a good Mom and a good employee at the same time, not on a full time basis... I'm sure there might be exceptions depending on what you do, but I have a hard time imagining it...ESPECIALLY when they become mobile and then toddlers.  That's when it crossed the impossible line for me.

SpaceGirlSpiff

Oh and FWIW... I MUCH prefer to go to work at the office than WAH.  I find for me, it was hard to let go of work each day when I was "off the clock" (I'm salary, but you know what I mean), I felt like it was always staring at me and taking over my living room.... I just love to be able to close the door and walk away at the end of the day

WAH is not necessarily what it's cracked up to be.  It can be hard to focus from home. 

katieh1017

I'm a Recruiter and work from home. Lillian is in DC full time. I can't get anything done if she is here. If I'm at my computer she wants to be sitting on my lap typing and grabbing everything. 

LoCarb

do you have a sexy voice? phone sex operator

boggs507

Inkogneetoh:

Someone on Nov 13 posted that they did medical billing or coding.  You can make your own hours, as long as your work gets done.  She said she did it when her LO slept.  Just be careful and do your research because some of those postings/schools are scams.

I'm also in medical billing/coding, but from an office. I do have the flexibility to be home when I'm too sick to come in, but still able to work, or when DS is sick, but they prefer us at the office.  Working from home, at least in this field, is kind of hard to get in to.  Also, most places will require certification - and it's usually a certification that comes with a specified college program. 

ajc07

Thanks for your replies!  Yes, I agree with you. I wouldn't dare try to work at home with little man running around.  I love getting out and going to work-I just get sick of all the negative gossip going around the office all the time.  I think I'm just having a bad day.. Hopefully I can work something out with my company to telecommute a few days a week....

 

Thanks again ladies!

Andrea

Ya Never Know

I work from home in elearning development. I have also worked from home in graphic design and web design. All very legit.

NavyMom77

Ya Never Know:

I work from home in elearning development. I have also worked from home in graphic design and web design. All very legit.

Not to jump in on the OP, but could you give me some resources for finding out more about WAH elearning development opportunities? I'm working on my Masters in that field and would love to find something that could cut my current commute!

Ya Never Know

mystererae:

Ya Never Know:

I work from home in elearning development. I have also worked from home in graphic design and web design. All very legit.

Can you recommend any resources to learn more about e-learning development? I've worked in a somewhat similar industry for awhile so this sounds interesting.

OP - Hope your company decides to be flexible with you! When I was in college I was able to negotiate partial WAH hours due to the commute after about a year with the company. (At the time, I worked in property management, so it wasn't even the usual type of company that would grant such privileges.) 

 

There are a few sides to e-learning development. I am more on the design side, so putting the courses together, putting the content in to the screens in html/css, rapid development programs - that sort of thing (which we refer to as production). Prior to taking my first e-learning job, I had no formal education in e-learning (nor were there any programs here to learn it). I took Advertising in college, majored in Graphic Design, and because of the mix of marketing/design skills that I have, it's been a good fit for e-learning development on the design side. If you wanted to do this type of development, you would need to know:

 

• Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver at the very least)
• Have a sense of design/skills in design
  
• html/css
• SCORM would be good to have some knowledge of
• Not all companies use rapid development programs, but if they do, the most common are Articulate Studio or Articulate Storyline, and Adobe Captivate
• If you want to learn Captivate in particular a good resources is Lynda.com for training.

 

Most of what I know comes from the background of my education, and just having fallen in to an e-learning design position several years ago.

There is also e-learning development in terms of taking content provided by clients and story-boarding it all for the person who will eventually put it in to a course (me). That person's job (which we refer to as ID) is to develop the content to make it make sense in an e-learning environment. There are also SME's (subject matter experts) who go over the content for courses as well. I don't have resources for this though since I'm the person that gets the work after these guys go through it, but you can try searching Instructional Design (ID), or SME (Subject matter expert) as it relates to e-learning.

I've worked in 3 e-learning positions. Two of them were in office, this is the first one where the entire company (of 18 employees) works at home. While I worked at an office in my first e-learning job, they did allow us to work from home from time to time because they had the capability of operating in a virtual environment. Not all of these companies do.

Hope that helps.

Shondra1510

I recently started working from home 2 months ago. I was able to make MORE money than I did in working the full time 40 hours a week, so i can be a full stay at home mom & not have to worry about my income because the more i work from home the more money i make with the company I am with Working from home has been a good experience for me being so young.!