Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Where to Find Genuine Work From Home Jobs
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs more employers and businesses are opting to work remotely, an increasing number of opportunities to work from home jobs are becoming available. However, with this comes plenty of false advertisements and job scams. We’ve put together tips of our best ways to avoid falling for scams and find genuine work from home jobs.
- Increase in Remote Working
- Work From Home Jobs: Scam or Genuine?
- Resources for Genuine Work From Home Jobs
- Work From Home Job Ideas
- More Useful Reading
Increase in Remote Working
One of the key impacts of COVID-19 is how its changed our working landscape. So many businesses and employers have had to adjust to the majority of their workforces suddenly working remotely, and this change may be implemented for good.
Remote work has significant benefits for both employers and employees, not the least of which is increased productivity and better work-life balance. Employees value being able to work from home. And as more and more companies switch to a remote-first, or fully-remote model, job seekers have an even better chance of finding (and landing) the ideal work from home positions.
Work From Home Jobs: Scam or Genuine?
Unfortunately, for every legitimate job out there, there are also dozens of scams. Working from home is highly desirable and scammers will try to exploit this with fake job advertisements and scams, making it difficult to spot a genuine job from a fake one in your job search.
As well as always listening to your instincts, these are some of the key tell-tale signs you can look out for to avoid job scams.
Key Signs of a Scam
- If the “employer” asks for personal financial information early on in the job application process.
- If something appears to be too good to be true, it always is. Plenty of job scams will claim to pay a lot of money for very little work, or say you have complete flexibility over your working hours.
- If the key contact information doesn’t seem like a legitimate business, like the contact email address being a personal one rather than a business one, for example. Or if the job description doesn’t include much detail about the business, and the specifics of the job role and responsibilities.
- If the job is too easy to get. A recruiter might offer you the job immediately without checking work experience or references. Which is not the actions of a responsible and reputable business.
- The job requires upfront costs and expenses from candidates. This is an immediate no, you should never have to pay out to apply for a job.
Resources for Genuine Work From Home Jobs
With so many job scams out there it can sometimes be a struggle to find legitimate opportunities. However, some of the key places you can go to, and rely on, are:
- Indeed – the number one job search site, it’s a great place to find thousands of job opportunities. Indeed have tools and regulations in place to try and keep out predatory content, but remember to always keep an eye out for signs of a scam.
- FlexJobs – for over a decade FlexJobs has been the number one site to find remote work. Every job is screened with information provided on each company so you’re better advised on whether the job could be a fit for you.
- LinkedIn – with millions of users and job postings, it’s a great place to conduct your job search and find and connect with others in your field.
Browsing company pages and searching through company websites is another way to help aid your job search. Nowadays you’ll find that most businesses have a designated careers page where you can view the latest job opportunities, too. Although nothing may be available immediately, some sites have the option to sign up to be alerted to future opportunities.
Look up your industry association or trade group. Almost all job industries have a professional organisation that can provide valuable resources, especially when looking for a new job. How they’ll each be able to help will vary but often you can find new job listings, as well as useful tools and guides to help find jobs within that particular industry.
Again, most industries have some sort of trade publication, magazine, or newsletter. Sign up to it to browse their latest offerings, advice and information. Plus, there are even some publications dedicated to helping people find jobs, like Recruiting Times and The Lady.
Work From Home Job Ideas
Although Covid has proved to us that the large majority of jobs can be carried out from home when necessary, there are plenty of other job roles designed to be carried out from home.
- Virtual Assistant– A virtual assistant is someone who provides support services remotely. Plenty of businesses need assistants and are opting to employ people to work remotely. Plus, it can pay really well with the potential to earn up to £25 an hour!
- Freelance Writing– Writing can be your main source of earnings or a great way to supplement another income. Freelance writing can include anything from writing copy for marketing campaigns to novels, and anything in between. It’s a great industry to work in as there are plenty of opportunities and is a skill that’s always in demand amongst businesses.
- Tutoring– Tutoring is another skill that’s always in demand. It also has the bonus of being very flexible, allowing you to fit it in around other work or commitments.
- Social Media Manager– The increasing popularity of social media has seen rise to the blogger and influencer culture, and quickly become a very lucrative way to make money online. Whether you want to make money from your own social media presence or manage social accounts for a business, there are plenty of opportunities in this industry to get involved whilst working from home.
- Matched Betting– Although not technically a job, it’s a completely legal and risk and tax-free way to make extra money on the side. Matched betting works by taking advantage of welcome promotions and other offers that bookmakers will give out to customers.
More Useful Reading
For more tips, tricks, and useful advice on how to manage working from home, check out these articles next:
- What Everyone Should Know About Working From Home
- 10 Easy Money-Saving Hacks for Working From Home
- 5 Ways to be More Productive at Work (Even While at Home)
- 7 Tips to Manage a Freelance Work/Life Balance
A good article helping explain a confusing subject.
I have to disagree about Indeed. Most of the jobs I’ve had responses from have either been elaborate scams, or just trying to get free work out of me.