Home with the Kids Newsletter August 22, 2006

The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Finding a Work at Home Job Without Experience
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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter

This is it! The end of summer vacation for Ariel! School starts on Friday for her, not that it's much of a day. Just half of her regular preschool day, or about an hour and a half to get used to the class with Mommy present. She doesn't even have to get there early the first day, as we don't go in until 9.

This is going to be such a switch for us. Ariel has never in her life had a consistent time she needed to get up, and now she will have to get up by no later than 7 to be at school by 8. It's going to be an adjustment for all of us. She's excited that she will get to use her alarm clock... was I EVER excited to use an alarm clock??? That's kids for you. We'll see how she feels about it Monday morning.

I won't be gaining much work time from this. Gage will still be home, after all, and he takes quite a bit of time. I'm hoping Ariel will finally find some friends in our neighborhood. That was the trouble with preschool last year; since we weren't at the nearest school, all her friends were 5 or more miles away!

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Feature Article

Finding a Work at Home Job Without Experience

One of the more common problems I see people having when they want to work at home is lack of experience. In this case I don’t just mean lack of experience working at home, which is certainly a challenge in the work at home job search; I mean a more or less complete lack of work experience.

Now, the easiest answer is to take a look at your interests and start a home business. No experience required; after all, you’re your own boss. But not everyone wants to own a home business. There’s a lot of risk and no guarantee that you will ever earn anything with a home business.

Landing any job without experience is difficult, short of applying at fast food restaurants and such. Landing a work at home job is even more challenging. However, if you are willing to take some time to pick up a few skills, you can improve your chances.

The first skill you need is typing. How fast can you type? How’s your accuracy? Spelling?

You’ll want to be typing at a bare minimum of 40 wpm, but the faster the better. If you aren’t at least that fast, search for free typing tutors and you’ll find plenty online. Build your speed up. You will spend a lot of time typing at pretty much any work at home job.

If you’re interested in data entry, you’ll also want to work on your 10-key skills. Data entry often involves a lot of numbers, and if you can use the 10-key part of your keyboard effectively you will improve your productivity. Most work at home jobs pay on production, so this skill can help you to earn more money.

Perhaps more important than either of these two skills is your comfort level on a computer. Most work at home jobs require a lot of time on the computer. Fortunately, you’ll be using the same programs over and over, but you need to learn to use them quickly. Just work on your computer skills, learn to use a word processor and maybe a spreadsheet such as Excel. Get comfortable with your internet browser. You probably use Internet Explorer. Make sure you are good with your email program as well.

These three skills will be good for you in many work at home jobs. Now you need to look at the particular kinds of jobs you are interested in to figure out what else you need to learn. If you want to do medical transcription, for example, you’ll need to look into the better medical transcription schools.

The challenge when you lack experience is proving that you do indeed have the skills required to do the job. Fortunately, there are ways to prove yourself before landing a job.

Head on over to Brainbench . You might have to pay for the tests, but you can take tests that will prove you have skills relevant to the job. Most of the tests cost about $50 each, but some are free. They recommend about seven tests in the customer service category, but I don’t believe you would need to take all of them just to get a job, so don’t panic. Definitely take the typing test; it was free when I checked. Only pay if you think you need to prove a skill and you can afford it.

Can taking tests really help you to land a job? It certainly can’t hurt. When you lack experience you need to find other ways to show that you can do the job. Take a look at the job requirements and try to figure out how you can show those skills in a resume.

If it's more creative work you're looking for, and you need a portfolio, one of the best ways is to find someone who needs a small job and do it for them for free. You'll get something you can refer to as experience, and they'll get the work done. Don't make a habit of working for free, of course, and in fields where you don't need a portfolio, this won't help so much.

Finally, keep in mind that even people with great work experience often take several months to find a work at home job. It is not an easy task. Keep trying and work on your skills.

Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.

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