20/20 Research Review

Types of Telecommuting Careers

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Telecommuting is not new, it has actually been around since the 1970's, it just was not as well known or publicized. Wives of military personnel often times needed to find work that would allow them to work from home to take care of the children and contribute to the household expenses.

Soldiers who were stationed over-seas for long periods of time created a challenge for the family. The wife needed to adjust to the new living conditions, possibly learn a new language and due to the limitation of working conditions could not work a traditional job.

Some of the more well-known types of telecommuting careers include:

1. Call Center Agent
2. Medical Coding/Transcription
3. Loan Document Processor
4. Legal Virtual Assistant
5. Headhunter Executive Recruiter
6. Data Entry Specialist
7. Telemarketing Phone Sales

These are just a few of the types of jobs you can work from home from legitimate employers. Many of the positions mentioned in this list will require that you have a work history, background experience and a resume to submit to job openings. Some interviews are done over the phone after you fill out a job application.

Turn your traditional work-related skills into an self-employment opportunity.

Paul and Sarah Edwards were the self-employment experts of the 1990's and they wrote plenty of books about working from home and working from a computer. A popular book from them is entitled: The Best Home Businesses of the 21st Century you can read more about this book on Amazon: The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century.

My Experience Working As A Teleworker

Entry Level Pay and Being On Call

My first experience of telecommuting for my job was out of college. I was hired to provide assistance to my office manager at the time. My title was as a data entry clerk, fortunately for me it allowed me to work remotely from my computer. My duties included entering my bosses notes that she would record at business meetings while traveling.

This is how I learned how to transcribe what is known as "meeting minutes" which entails typing the things being discussed during an office meeting among executives and program directors. The pay was entry level and I was on-call meaning that I only worked when my supervisor had her weekly meetings in various cities across the U.S.

It wasn't the highlight of my career but it was a great learning experience. I was able to learn how to be hyper-focused on the audio recordings being presented and documenting the main points being discussed that would later be included in a report that was distributed to all the attendees of the business meeting.

After about 6 months of doing this very tedious and boring job transcribing minutes, I found another job that payed better and gave me a regular 9 to 5 schedule. As you can see this was my first experience with telework in the beginning of my work career and before I started writing online.

The Global Workplace

Telecommuting Trends

Working from anywhere in the world may sound like an exciting option. Depending on your career field it may be one of the ways that you can get a promotion and advance in the company. Thought-leaders who seek global opportunities will be in demand.

If you are willing to relocate and travel to parts of the world that are short handed in areas of medicine, technology and business it may be to your advantage to become a teleworker. Corporations have locations all over the map and they need trained personnel who can complete work tasks from remote offices.

In this case you will be among a growing number of employees who telecommute for work. Using the latest technology such as the Apple Tablet, Mac Laptop computers, Wi-Fi, Teleconferencing with the help of Skype you can do everything that you normally would in the company office.

In an effort to be more mobile you can set your own hours and schedule your time with your family to fit a well rounded personal and professional lifestyle. Stay at home moms and stay at home dads now have options available that were not even a consideration years prior. It just may be more cost-effective to have individuals who can work from home, it saves on car fuel expenses along with healthcare costs.

In the event of all the advantages it is important to realize that this is not an option for all work professions. It usually only works for careers that require some sort of technology either with a computer, smart phone or digital and electronic communication.

Other types of careers that fit best with tele-work is going to be one's that require frequent traveling internationally or from state to state. Meeting clients and conducting business at conferences where work can be easily transmitted through fax or cloud computing.

If your employer or job does not lend itself to a mobile working environment you may want to consider a career change or even going back to school for advanced technical training in a new field.