Good Jobs From Home

It seems that these days, everyone is looking for a way to work from home. I can certainly understand why. Being able to wear whatever you want, wake up when you feel like it and not have to deal with traffic are all pretty appealing prospects for me, but I personally, like having a place to go during the day. For those people that are looking to do something where they don't have to leave the house, a number of good jobs from home are out there.

One of the jobs from home that I have always found the most interesting is that of tutor. I have a friend who teaches piano lessons to young students. She has the patience of Job, and is very well respected in our community. She also has a massive house and a very nice car. She learned to play piano in college where she majored in music, and never had any desire to anything besides give private lessons, She charges $30 an hour and has 48 regular students who practice weekly, so it is not hard to see why she is doing so well for herself.

For a number of years, I had one of those jobs from home that many of my friends were jealous of, and that was working as a freelance writer. I covered sporting events for local schools and wrote features and news stories. While this required me to go out into the field occasionally, the vast majority of work that I did was from home. It was great, because I could sleep until as late as I wanted and set my own work schedule. I always knew that if I worked hard, I would make good money, and if I slacked off, I would not. I love the simplicity of it!

One of the most interesting jobs from home that I have heard about recently is working as an architect. My uncle does this for a living, and while he does have to go to the construction site occasionally to make sure his plans are being followed, for the most part, he works out of an office in his basement, and does so well for himself that he will often take three or four vacations a year. By that, I mean he takes his family all over the country and world three or four times a year.

There are a number of jobs from home that can be fun to do and allow you to make a pretty good living. I have worked from home, and I loved it when I did, but have also worked at an office, which I really enjoy as well. I guess it really comes down to what one is looking for in a profession.

The Creative Ways of the Job Scam Perpetrators

In a job market that's as short on jobs as the current one, you can expect job scam perpetrators to really try hard. Only, they don't really have to try hard these days. Everyone's so desperate for a job that they will seemingly believe anything. The Better Business Bureau believes that 2011 has been a record of sorts. Job scam perpetrators have never been as relentless.

The best way to stay safe from these efforts by the scammers to defraud you would be to look at as many examples of these attempts as possible so that you can recognize how they operate. Another way to stay clear of these would be to look up every job offer you come by on the Internet. If it's a scam, someone will have said something about it.

You mustn't think that every job scam is just about asking you for a little money up front. Scammers can put a lot of effort into every job scam that they pull.

For instance, consider this job offer - a large hotel corporation wishes to hire HR managers for several new properties that they plan to put up, and the only need is a good background in HR management. This sounds legitimate enough, doesn't it?

They call you in for an interview locally, and once you go there, they seem very eager to give you the job. Only, they want you to wire transfer money to their account for airplane tickets to another city where the job actually is.

There are two things that should send up red flags here - no company is going to actually ask you for airplane ticket money. And certainly they aren't going to ask you to wire it. People who fell for this job scam also report that the interview was quite unconvincing. It was in a small, cheap, makeshift place, and the person conducting the interview didn't really seem to know what he was talking about. But they were so desperate for a job that they didn't mind.

Another kind of job scam ingeniously tries to get your personal information and makes no demand for money. The scammers just put out a job advertisement with a great pay package, and on the day of the interview, hire a reasonably nice office, go through the motions of an interview, and then, in the end, tell you that they need your personal information. Since this is for a job, you figure that they probably need the information to conduct a background check or something.

You just have to remember that job interviews never ever come with requests for personal information - certainly not credit card information. Whatever information regular jobs ask for, they ask for it only when you're actually hired and are actually working in the office.

Freelance Writer Jobs Are Diverse

I have worked as a freelance writer for the last 10 years and have done many things in that time. I have written for magazines, newspapers, newsletters, brochures, manuals and so forth. Having contributed to so many different styles of writing, I have come to learn that freelance writer jobs are diverse and can come in many forms. Since I have written in many different formats and for many different publications, I have experienced this first-hand.

One of my first freelance writer jobs was working for my college newspaper. I made a paltry $15 per assignment for the paper, but to me, it was well worth it. I loved chasing down stories and interviewing the people involved. I would often spend hours fretting over a 300-word article to make sure that it was absolutely perfect. It was one of the lowest-paying gigs that I ever had as a freelance writer, but it was one of the most memorable and enjoyable jobs I ever had.

When I started to make a living through freelance writing jobs, one of the best-paying gigs I had was through a magazine. I distinctly remember on one occasion in particular, I had a whole slate of assignments to work on for the week when the editor of the magazine for which I wrote called and asked if I could have the story to her by Wednesday instead of Friday, the original deadline. I told her I was not sure, as I had a number of other stories to write that I was working on as well. She casually informed me that she would bump my pay from $300 to $500 for the assignment if I would have it by Wednesday. Needless to say, I had the assignment to her by Wednesday!

When I became a part of our neighborhood association, I found out that we had a monthly newsletter that went out to everyone in our association. I thought this was really cool, and was going to offer to write for free, but then the president of the association found out that I worked freelance writer jobs as one of my sources of income. He informed me that there was a budget allotted for the newsletter and offered to pay me $100 each month for a feature on a local young person. I snapped that right up!

Freelance writer jobs are many and diverse. I have written for so many publications and in so many styles that I can't even remember them all. If one enjoys writing, there are a lot worse things to do with your time.

Are You a First Time Manager

When you're the star performer on your team and you always get all the accolades for a job well done, at some point, it's probably occurred to you - I'm star performer of this team. I deserve to be the manager of this team. One day, it actually happens. They promote you, and now, you have a team of your own. What is it like as first-time manager?

It feels pretty good at first. Until you go in and then you find out that being a great team player isn't quite the same thing as being manager. You have entirely new responsibilities.

Even if your job still somehow has to with the kind of tasks you used to pull off with panache, now, your main responsibility is dealing with people, above all. Your job is to do with other people who do that kind of thing. Come to think of it, yours is a totally different job.

As first-time manager, this is what you need to remember. Your job is people now - not details to do with the actual work at hand. When you deal with the people on your team, it is your job to help them do their job well. You have to use your experience working with these people to know where they are slipping up, and how you can give them to advice or whatever it is they need.

You need to focus like a laser beam on what it is that your underlings have trouble with. Their problems are your problems. That's what you need to learn first of all - you're no longer in the business of getting tasks done. You're in the business of helping people.

As first-time manager, you'll probably find yourself a little lost at first. If you were part of the team, you would work really hard on something, and that would be your contribution. You would be able to hold that up and say, see, this is what I did. When you're a manager, you're kind of behind the scenes. The people who do the actual work are the ones who get to take credit for what happens. You are the facilitator. What exactly do you take credit for?

It's a paradigm shift. And you need to get used to this. You'll need to learn to be happy about how your work shows through the work of others. That's the life of a manager.

As a first-time manager, you need to be aware of the mistake that most first-timers make in expecting to really make an impression right away. You can understand how this happens.

When you start out at the new job, you always want to really make an impression. The problem is that this is quite likely to get you into trouble. The manager needs to be assertive, of course. But that's not as important as being someone who can quietly absorb what's going on around him so that he can understand what to do before he makes a move. It's gently allowing your environment to help you develop your own style. That's what gets you places.

Cultivate An Attitude In A Depressed Economy

The news reporters are constantly spreading the word of the bad economy and the ways everyone must be concerned regarding the state of this country. Of course, there are many natural disasters such as flooding, hurricanes, wildfires and much more that only add to the distress of the country and individuals in particular. Many people have lost their jobs, their retirement investments, and, generally, have little hope for a brighter future. There are many indications that finding any future happiness will not be forthcoming anytime very soon.

People in any of these distressing situations must take charge and control of their emotions and their circumstances. Yes, times are challenging and there are many obstacles regarding making good decisions involving life skills and living life correctly. However, with just a little preparation, circumstances can be changed and significant strides can be made.

One way to avoid feelings of despair is to simply shut out bad feelings from the mind and to think of positive attitudes and ideas. Concentrating on the goal of having found a job and how that would feel sometimes can bring on the reality. Believing in the outcome and believing in the conquest of finding a job, will make the hunt and the job interview much more important and more realistic. Visualizing the desired outcome of finding a job and the way that would make a person feel, can only produce good attitudes and good vibrations.

Preparation for the job search is important to the process. Locate companies and firms that are in the desired areas of employment. Prepare a high quality background and list of the achievements of your former jobs and your contributions to the company's successful fulfilling of their contracts. Helping the new employers understand your contributions to your old manager and job, will help the supervisors know their company will have a new employee that can be relied on for great support and ideas. It is very important that circumstance and contributions to being interviewed are both positive and concrete and valuable. Broadcasting the intellect and creativity of a positive attitude will put your application and interview above the general pack of applicants.

Networking with old associates will also help keep an ear to openings in the employment market. Keeping in touch with anyone with a lead or even a recommendation, becomes very smart and important in today's economy. Providing any small advantage just might be the deciding factor in a hiring situation.

Keeping a cheerful and encouraging attitude will not only help manage the circumstances of unemployment, but just might also get the position desired in a much shorter period of time. Knowing that the economy and circumstances are not in favor of the unemployed today, only shows that a special and different attitude will certainly catch the eye of a future employer. Doing everything possible to differentiate yourself from the others that are unemployed could just result in a very favorable outcome for your situation.