A surprising number of people come to this website looking for information on real, non-scam, work from home jobs. Unfortunately, many of them leave discouraged, because there are so many work from home scams out there. That does not mean that there are no work from home jobs, there are actually tons of real work at home jobs, they are frequently referred to as telecommuting. What are almost always scams, are jobs that only require a few hours, no skills, not much work, and have high pay.
Honest Work From Home Job Opportunity
I happened to come across a news story about Amazon hiring work from home customer service employees for the holiday season. These are seasonal jobs, so they may just be temporary, but they are real telecommuting jobs from a real company. If you look at the job’s posting, you can see how to spot the difference between a real job offer, and a fake work from home job.
First up, note the pay. This is no “Make Six-Figures Working From Home!” job posting. The pay is $10 per hour. Whether that is enough or not, is a personal decision, but it is realistic. An entry-level customer service position like this would pay somewhere near that $10/hour figure even if it wasn’t work from home. This is the key. Companies don’t usually pay much MORE for work from home positions. They may pay a little more, especially if you have to supply your own computer, internet connection, or other equipment, but no one pays an on-site employee $20 per hour and the work at home employee $80 per hour for the same position.
Second, note that as a real job, it has real requirements. You have to live in certain states (this is because of Amazon’s tax status in some states, not because they need you in that state.) You also have to work certain hours, and those hours will include weekends and holidays. Compare that to those postings that say you can make $10,000 per month working just a few hours per week from your home.
Finally, there a skill and legal requirements. They want a high school diploma. You have to fill out an I9 Form (proof that you can legally work in America). You need to be able to type, and so on.
Scam work at home jobs need as many suckers as possible, so they read pretty much the opposite of this one. This legitimate work at home job has requirements, and demands the ability to be flexible with hours and weekends, as a way to screen OUT applications. Non-legit work at home jobs want you to think that you qualify, no matter who you are, so they can start running the con on you as soon as possible. They won’t care about applications, diplomas or degrees, typing skills, or the ability to fill out legal paperwork.
Real Work at Home Jobs
Knowing the company helps when it comes to finding legit work from home jobs. Amazon makes billions as a legitimate business, it doesn’t need to try and scam you out of $50 or $100. Other major companies offer similar remote positions, or telecommuting positions. Legit work from home opportunities always follow these rules:
- Realistic Pay – Work from home almost always pays a similar amount to the same position if worked in a typical office setting.
- Actual Hours and Requirements – Any job that is a “work whenever you want” type job is going to pay by the deliverable. That is instead of $20 per hour, or $1,000 per month, the pay would be $25 per case completed, or something like that.
- Actual Skills – Companies don’t pay for nothing. If it seems that there are no skills necessary, and literally anyone could do the job, then either it isn’t an actual job, or it’s something that you would pay very little for. (It could also be illegal or unethical.)
- Real Application – Most companies want to interview you before hiring you. An employer hiring you remotely, may never actually meet you. That means they’ll need a way to find out if you are right for the job. This usually requires an application, and maybe a phone interview. Beware any job that seems to be looking for any warm body, and not a “good fit” for the job.
If you are looking for seasonal employment, now is the time to start watching for job postings. Companies want to have people trained and ready BEFORE the holidays start getting busy.