Since the beginning of the pandemic, working from home has become a new normal for many career paths. To help you take advantage, Cheapism gathered tips from employment experts and researched entry-level work that can be done from the comfort of your own home, tapping into skills you may already have.
The first thing you should do is look at remote-job boards such as We Work Remotely, JustRemote.co, and Flexjobs.com, as well as searching for remote jobs on more general job-listing boards. "Indeed or LinkedIn, Craigslist … any of those, using the search term 'remote' would bring the low-hanging fruit," career and executive coach Daisy Swan says. From there you can narrow the remote jobs to entry-level ones taking lots of applicants.
Since entry-level jobs require no experience, you'll be competing against the largest applicant pools. When you decide what kind of remote job you want, make sure your application stands out. Tailor your resume to fit the job you're applying for, and make sure your online profiles land in hiring searches. "Make sure your resume has specific keywords and phrases that are found within each posting," Evolution Coaching President Kristen Gilbert says. "This will help applicant tracking systems rank you as a matching candidate."
Standing out doesn't mean straying from the professional path. Keep your resume and application simple; otherwise, you might tweak yourself out of a job. Remember: Many of these companies will be using computers to sort through applications anyway. "Do not use a creative layout," Gilbert said. "Programs cannot parse and read the data about the candidate to assign a matching score for open positions. Use a standard (and professional) layout in Microsoft Word and freshen the resume content to include keywords and phrases found within the job posting that apply to the candidate's skills."
The more businesses that go remote, the more they need assistants to handle some day-to-day tasks. There are even businesses devoted to connecting virtual assistants with clients, such as Fully Booked VA, Time etc., and Fancy Hands, but you can search on any job site for business people looking for remote assistants.
Salary/rate: $19.29 per hour on average, according to PayScale
Insurance companies such as New York Life advertise no-experience-needed insurance jobs that will train you. Jobs selling insurance are all over regular job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor and Zip Recruiter.
Salary/rate: SimplyHired lists entry level jobs that can start around $40,000 with benefits.
If you can type, you can transcribe. Transcription is the process of listening to an audio recording and typing in what is said. Transcription work can include medical documents, police and legal depositions, and reality TV interviews. Most transcription companies test your typing ability and accuracy and train you on their software. Rev is the most used transcription company but also pays the least, so investigate competitors such as TranscribeMe!, Tigerfish, and Scribie to compare rates or find a transcription service in your area.
Salary/rate: According to ZipRecruiter, entry level transcription jobs pay just under $35,800 per year, but there's room to go much higher. Keep in mind that services such as Rev, which charge customers $1.50 per audio minute, pay transcribers a fraction of that.
If a company needs background information on a subject, it may hire people to do the research from home. You won't necessarily need to be an expert on the subject — just able to dig deep and find reputable material. You can use "research" and "remote" as job search terms. Ask Wonder and RWS are some companies specializing in research.
Salary/rate: Good Financial Cents says to expect anywhere from $8 to $35 per question you research.
Market research companies need people to gather data for their studies. Stay-at-home working mother Anna T. at Real Ways to Earn Money Online says Apptical, Ipsos, Advanis, and The Crossroads Group regularly have work-at-home telephone survey jobs, and other companies have more occasional or location specific ones.
Salary/rate: The real estate market research firm Yardi Matrix pays $6 hourly plus 50 cents per completed survey or at least minimum wage.
There are some companies that pay you to take surveys. Your mileage may vary, but they'll tell you up front how long it should take and how much it pays. Dream Home Based Income recommends Swagbucks, Pinecone Research, Toluna, Survey Junkie, Paid Viewpoint, and several more sites. Some pay in gift cards rather than cash, which can still help out around the house.
Salary/rate: The Balance Careers advises that most surveys pay only in gift cards or tokens to trade for prizes. Don't believe sites promising $50 a survey.
Many students seek one-on-one tutoring via live chat. Anna T. at Real Ways to Earn Money Online recommends companies such as Brainfuse, PrepNow, Tutor.com, or Aim-4-A Tutoring, and Yup for math, chemistry, and physics. VIPKid, GoGoKid, HAWO, and EF Education First tutor Chinese students in English. Remote.co also recommends YiYiEnglish, QKids, and Revolution Prep.
Salary/rate: Tutors.com suggests a starting rate of $25 an hour for those just getting started — but has seen rates set at up to $80 by people with experience.
Telephone sales jobs used to originate out of call centers around the world. Now telephone operators can work from anywhere, including their own homes. To call people to try to sell them a product or service, look for jobs through a standard keyword search on a job board. FlexJobs says industries such as rental car companies, biotech, health care, senior living centers, payment processing, and digital marketing firms need telesales callers.
Salary/rate: The Balance Careers and SimplyHired list positions starting at $10 and up.
Another phone job, but instead of trying to sell people something, you're getting calls from people who need help. Skip The Drive says companies as big as Apple, Capital One, and United Healthcare will let customer service agents work remotely. Flexjobs says roadside assistance calls can be done remotely too. Again, find these jobs with a keyword search on a job board.
Salary/rate: ZipRecruiter lists an average of $37,100 salary with a potential high of $67,500 but a possible low of $18,000.
People on the receiving end of these calls may lump sales into telemarketing, but telemarketing experts want you to know how much more comprehensive it is. Sites such as Market Business News and Virtual Sales say telemarketing adds lead generation, raising awareness of a product, gathering feedback, and making appointments. Find these jobs with a keyword search on a job board.
Salary/rate: U.S. News and World Report says the median salary for telemarketers was $34,480 as of 2023.
Some companies literally just need people to post listings for their products on a sales platform. These can include taking photos of the items and writing product descriptions. Use "product lister" and "entry level" and "remote" as search terms on a job board to find companies.
Salary/rate: Careerbliss says product listers can expect to make an average $30,000 annually.
If you speak multiple languages, look on job boards such as Indeed for translating jobs with the keywords of the languages you speak. Companies including Rosetta Stone and Responsive Translation Services hire native speakers to translate between languages. Companies such as LanguageLine Solutions hire telephone translators and provide training. In addition to direct translation, The Balance Careers suggests that companies such as Google need readers to evaluate their ads in multiple languages.
Salary/rate: According to PayScale, a translator can make around $21 an hour, although lows go to $14.
Similar to transcription, captioning adds dialogue or narration for subtitles to videos for the deaf and hard of hearing. Rev offers a captioning service, but again you might want to explore 3PlayMedia, Ai-Media, Captioning Star, or other companies for more competitive rates.
Salary/rate: Work At Home Wife says it's possible to earn $1,500 a month captioning, but again keep in mind companies offering bargain rates pay a fraction to their typists.
You used to have to go into an office for data-entry jobs to input figures into a company's computer system. Now it can be done anywhere. Flexjobs has a whole section on data entry jobs, and Indeed specifies entry-level ones. The Work at Home Wife and The Balance Careers recommend Clickworker, Working Solutions, and Capital Typing for regular data-entry work, as well as other platforms for more experienced workers.
Salary/rate: Glassdoor says the national average for data entry is about $36,967 a year.
The other side of online education is grading. When those students take tests, someone needs to grade their papers. The Offbeat Life says companies such as Pearson, ETS, Write Score, and Literably offer hourly work scoring tests remotely.
Salary/rate: Work At Home Adventures found companies that pay at least $12 an hour and sometimes several dollars more.
If you have good reading comprehension, you can proofread documents and pinpoint typos or misspellings. Proofread Anywhere is one portal to find proofreading jobs. The Offbeat Life and SmartCentsMom recommend Sibia, ProofreadingServices.com, Cactus Global, and Gramlee.
Salary/rate: Payscale says to expect $19.57 an hour.
This is a little more than just catching typos, although it often includes proofreading. Copy editing expands to include editing content and flow of a story, or even the layout on a page. You can do a job search for copy editing jobs, but Scribendi and Scribbr are popular editing services.
Salary/rate: ZipRecruiter lists an average copy editor salary at $69,250, with salaries of $22,000 on the low end.
With so much business online now, companies need to know their Web designs maximize efficiency. They may hire users to navigate their websites and evaluate search engine optimization for them. All you need to do is access their website. Appen is a company that specializes in remote jobs such as this. Others include iSoftStone, Lionbridge, and KarmaHub.
Salary/rate: Work at Home Adventures has pinpointed companies that pay $12 to $15 per hour.
These jobs are more dependent on election cycles. In an election year, candidates or organizations with ballot measures will need people to call voters to raise awareness for their campaigns. It's like canvassing, but you don't have to leave the house. These positions are listed on job boards as long as you know to search for the term "political outreach."
Salary/rate: Rat Race Rebellion says these jobs pay about $12 an hour.
If you're on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, or other social media services, you may already be ahead of the game for companies that need your help promoting their brand online. There are many entry-level social media jobs listed on job boards, including LinkedIn. Since you can post on social media apps from your phone, you can do these jobs anywhere.
Salary/rate: Glassdoor says even entry level social media jobs can pay $42,288 per year.
A social media or website community will need moderators to keep forums running smoothly and handle problem users. Anna T. at Real Ways to Earn Money Online says 99 Dollar Social and The Social Element are hubs that hire frequently. She also sees occasional openings at Ask.com, BabyCenter, Bazaarvoice, and more. Yelp sometimes hires moderators for specific local communities, but you can still do it from home. Work From Home Happiness suggests Crisp Thinking and ModSquad. You can also search for these positions on job sites.
Salary/rate: Glassdoor says moderators average just over $40,000 a year.
One specialized social media platform is Pinterest, which uses photos and text in a more coordinated way than Instagram's personal individual feeds. Many companies hire people to market for them on Pinterest. Companies such as Pinterest VA specialize in finding people jobs marketing on Pinterest.
Salary/rate: Pinterest Marketers begin charging at least $10 hour on Upwork, and sometimes much more.
Of course, there's nothing stopping you from becoming a YouTube or TikTok content creator on your own. All you need is a camera and computer, and if you get the views, you get participation in ad sales. Many companies seek talent to create videos specifically to amplify their products, too. Do a search on job boards to see if there's a company for which you could create.
Possible salary/rate: SimplyHired has listings starting at $15 an hour.
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