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10 Work From Home Careers You Should Know About

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By Gargi Ghosal

If you’d like to work from home but aren’t sure which careers let you operate remotely, here are some of the best ones you should know about.

Even a couple of years back, work from home seemed like a perk for freelancers—not the rest of us. However, with the steady evolution of technology, more and more jobs can now be executed remotely.

Though you can’t extinguish fires over Slack or repair cars on Zoom, there are a number of remote jobs that you can do. If you’re hoping to work remotely, here’s a look at some work from home careers that are in-demand because they pay salaries comparable to on-site jobs.

1. Blogger or Writer

You no longer need to choose between a profitable career and your love for writing. With most companies striving to develop an online presence in the digital world, writing jobs are in high demand.

If you want to get your foot through the door, starting off with blogs might be a good idea. If you’re persuasive, you can try copywriting, and if you’re well-versed in technology, technical writing might be a good fit. With digital products on the rise, UX (User Experience) writing is a booming field. Your problem-solving skills and technical proficiency can come in handy.

Interestingly, there’s one skill that binds together all successful writers: they must be proficient in the use of technology and in a position to leverage it through and through.

2. Digital Marketing Consultant

A digital marketing consultant develops, implements, and monitors a business’ online marketing strategies. They focus on building marketing initiatives and play a crucial role in understanding a company’s target audience and their behaviour.

Their job is to create a high-converting sales strategy that helps grow your business through strategy, planning, and the efficient use of digital tools and techniques.

3. Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant does everything from conducting research, scheduling appointments, to creating presentations. While some positions can focus solely on administrative tasks like invoicing clients and managing calendars, others can require copywriting and social media management skills.

Most virtual assistants work with a number of clients at a time, from a location that fits them the best. In that regard, the career offers flexibility and versatility to job-seekers.

4. Web Search Evaluator

A number of companies hire web search evaluators to give feedback on internet search results. To elaborate, a web search evaluator helps companies assess whether internet search results are accurate, timely, and comprehensive. Mostly popular as a work from home position, web search evaluator roles don’t require a lot of experience.

a person browsing the web

It can be quite a rewarding option for people interested in computer science, research, analytics, and market trends. They rate websites, videos, web pages, maps, and images based on a key performance indicator (KPI) to demonstrate how effectively the rated website or image ranks in internet search results.

5. Captioner

As captioners, your job is to transcribe pre-recorded audio, video, and live television programs. You must be able to type accurately as well as quickly to become a captioner.

While some of your work involves transcribing parts, captioning involves specialized transcription and is perfect for individuals who’d like a work from home career that’s not entirely mainstream. Also called steno captioners, captioners use stenotype machines and phonetic keyboards for accuracy.

6. Web Developer

Web developer roles used to be on-site roles, not long ago. However, with the popularity of digital nomads and remote roles, web developer positions are now suited best for a work from home career. As a web developer or a programmer, your job is to create software and applications by writing code, debugging it, and deploying it.

You employ one or more programming languages to build a product or service, or specific parts of it. While web developers operate in agile teams, everyone has specific tasks they are assigned to.

7. Social Media Manager

With almost all companies now having dedicated social media accounts, social media managers are in demand. Companies hire them to maintain their accounts or develop a complete social media strategy involving everything from social media campaigns to brand voice development.

If you’re creative, have fresh ideas, and are great with new tools and digital mediums, social media management could be a good fit. You’ll be responsible for increasing engagement, social media traffic, and building brand recognition. Many social media managers work for a number of companies, as the position is flexible and remote.

8. Online Educator

The role of an online educator is identical to traditional teachers in developing curriculums, monitoring student performance, and providing instruction on specific subjects and specializations. The key difference lies in the medium in which the educators operate.

Perfect for anyone with a teaching degree or specialization in core competency, online educators teach students via online platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams.

9. Graphic Designer

As most companies are trying to increase their digital presence, the demand for good graphic designers in computer systems designs and related services is on the rise.

RELATED: The Top Free Graphic Design Tools You Can’t Live Without

Almost all graphic design jobs are going remote, thus giving designers the flexibility to work from a place of their choice. You can also create and sell templates, be a design consultant for a number of companies, or design fonts, pre-made logo packages, and printable items.

10. Product Reviewer

a woman reviewing products

You can make a decent living, and that too from home—reviewing products that you use. So, you must begin by picking a niche and registering yourself in a site that provides product review gigs. You have to come up with ideas for new products, review products, provide opinions on advertising campaigns, and more.

Companies also hire product reviewers to review products that are in the testing phase. They ship you the products and pay you an amount that’s mutually agreed upon in return for real user feedback.

Work From Home Careers Are Fast Becoming the Norm

Work from home careers are only expected to rise as they are being preferred by employees and employers alike. They increase productivity, decrease stress, and allow a better work-life balance for employees, while they increase revenues and decrease costs for employers.

The jobs listed above are only some popular work from home careers that are gaining traction. You must choose the one that best fits your skill sets, relevant experience, and interest areas.

By Gargi Ghosal

Gargi is a writer, storyteller and researcher. She specializes in writing compelling content pieces on all things Internet for clients across countries and industries. She’s a Literature Post-Graduate with a Diploma in Editing & Publishing. Outside work, she hosts TEDx shows and Literature festivals. In an ideal world, she’s always a minute away from heading off to the mountains.

More From Gargi Ghosal

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How to Build a Career-Boosting Online Presence

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By Maxwell Timothy

Have you been job hunting? Check out these tips that can help you build a job-ready online presence.

If you’re serious about building a successful career in tech, your online persona is one of your most valuable assets. Key decision-makers, potential employers, and business partners that matter to you are all online. Which better place to sell yourself than where they can see you right away?

A well-crafted online presence will provide recruiters and relevant professionals within your industry with a glimpse of your skills and personality. It builds your brand, promotes you, and makes you much more attractive to the people that matter in your career.

Here’s how to build an online presence that can supercharge your tech career.

1. Set Up a Personal/Portfolio Website

You don’t have to own a tech business before setting up a website for yourself. If you’ve lived with such misconceptions, it’s time to rethink. A personal website is an indispensable asset for tech professionals who want visibility for their skills and tech career.

It’s one of your most significant assets for self-promotion. With a personal website, you can outline your skills and vision, prove your experience by showcasing work you’ve done in the past, and share projects you’re currently working on with the public.

Whenever people search for solutions to a problem your tech skills can solve, a personal website can serve as a channel to connect them to you. That’s not all; setting up a portfolio website for yourself ensures:

  • You look professional.
  • Increased credibility and authority within your tech niche.
  • Clients and recruiters will be able to find you, rather than you trying to find them.
  • A chance to show off your soft skills and personality.

With a few hundred dollars, you can hire someone to build a website for you. Or, you can do it by yourself. Thanks to free and easy-to-use website builders, you can set up a professional portfolio website through simple drag and drop operations—no coding required. Wix is an excellent website builder for building a portfolio website. Weebly is another popular option.

A personal website for a tech career should ideally include:

  • Your skills: help visitors understand what exactly you can do for them
  • A photo of you: clients and recruiters would prefer to see the face behind the words you share.
  • Current projects: Show clients that you’re still active and passionate about your technology field.
  • Videos and images: capture your potential employer’s attention much faster. It can also send clearer messages.
  • Testimonials, downloadable resume, contact information (email and phone number), social media handles, educational qualification, and relevant industry certifications.

2. Create a Personal Brand

personal branding

You’re not the only professional within your tech field. You’ll need a personal identity that separates you from the others to stand out. Your brand will help you stand out. Your brand is the first thing people think of when they talk about you in a professional setting.

To create your brand, you’ll need to:

  • Pick a niche: you can’t tie your identity to everything. To stand out in tech, you’ll need to pick a niche and stick to it. Get clear on what you want in your career and build your online presence around it. When people associate you with a niche, you amass trust and authority within that niche. If you mention the name “Neil Patel” to bloggers, the first thing that comes to their minds is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That’s because Patel has built his personal brand around SEO. This has helped him amass so much authority and trust that most of what he says is taken as an unquestionable fact.
  • Be laser-focused on your key message, and be sure to make a lot of noise about it. Once people start thinking of you as the “SEO guy” or maybe the “iOS guy,” you’ll know your identity is beginning to stick.
  • Increase your online presence: a strong personal brand does not end with your portfolio website and a Facebook page. You need to be where the action is. Join forums and social networks that have your ideal audience. Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and even Reddit, and Quora can help supercharge your visibility in tech.
  • Stay active online: constantly interact with relevant Reddit groups, answer questions about your tech niche on Quora, post regularly about your projects on LinkedIn, and share your knowledge in YouTube videos. The more relevant audience you reach, the more awareness you create about your brand.
  • Ensure to use the same name on all your social media accounts. This is very important. This makes it easier for people to find you across different social networks, while also reinforcing your identity and niche authority.
  • Start networking: networking gets you the visibility you need to grow your professional identity. Attend tech meetups, virtual conferences, and seminars. Interact with relevant industry professionals and spread the word.

3. Power-Up Your Social Media

Illustration of social media profiles and their managament

Social media is where most of the heavy lifting for your personal identity happens in today’s digital world. It provides potential clients and employers with an up-close view of your personal and professional persona. This is why you need to be intentional about your social media presence.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are all important. However, if you have time for only two, it should preferably be LinkedIn and Facebook. If you are building a career in tech but don’t have a LinkedIn account, stop reading right away and create an account now. You’ll find LinkedIn to be a rich resource for job seekers.

According to Kinsta, 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn. In other words, 87% of people that might matter to your career are on LinkedIn. Being active on the platform brings you closer to them.

Similarly, with more than a billion people on Facebook, the social network represents a goldmine for visibility.

Below are some tips to optimize your social media for career enhancement and visibility:

  • Clean up your social media. Go through your timeline and delete post items—articles, pictures and videos—that might hurt your personal identity.
  • Follow as many relevant accounts as possible, and keep non-relevant ones to below 30%. Remember, what you do with social media is influenced to a great extent by the accounts you follow.
  • Jump on trending issues within your tech niche and share your thoughts and ideas.
  • Learn to use hashtags. They can help you keep track of trends and contribute to relevant topics.
  • Keep your followers engaged. Reply to messages and comments as soon as you can. Create polls, host mini-contests, and do giveaways if possible.
  • Initiate conversations about your tech niche and share relevant resources with your friends and followers. Giving out books, sharing important tips and how-to guides is a good way to start.
  • Avoid politically or religiously heated topics, and stay away from insults.
  • Not all social media are the same. Go online and search for courses on how to use specific social networks. Learn what works and what doesn’t.

4. Create Targeted Contents

Create targeted contents to grow on social media

The internet is powered by content. To get the visibility you crave, you’ll need to provide contents that appeal to your target audience. Therefore, it would be best to be intentional and targeted with your content strategy.

The best way to put yourself out there with your content strategy is to think about your audience before yourself. You need to make yourself a useful part of your community by being on the helping end. Share insights, ideas, and help. Research what your audience needs and serve them. However, whatever content you share must align with your end game.

  • Do you want a job in the food industry as a techie? You could design and share food-related icon sets and infographics.
  • Want opportunities in tech education? You could be noticed by running a tutorial blog.
  • Want to break into the fintech industry? You could write and share fintech articles or create free resources like cheat sheets for your followers.

The key is to be targeted in your approach to content creation. Even if your audience is limited, they’ll undoubtedly be those that matter to your career and goals.

Be Consistent and Create Value

Whatever your career direction may be, there is one sure way to get visibility online: build a brand, be consistent and provide value.

Create and share valuable content, and your audience will naturally spread the word. As long as you stay consistent, people, that matter will eventually reach out to connect with you.

By Maxwell Timothy

Sourced from MUO

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Want to get — and stay — employed through 2030? 10 jobs to consider

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This post is part of TED’s “Build Back Better” series, featuring thought leaders and change agents evaluating our systems and practices to create a more sustainable, efficient and just world. To see more ideas from the series, go here.

What will the world — and specifically, the world of work — look like over the next decade?

While most of us are content to guess, there are other people who are actively figuring it out and their findings and educated assumptions could help us all prepare for the future. Among them is Ben Pring, IT futurist and cofounder of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work, which tracks trends across technology, business and society.

Practically every industry in the world has been forced to adapt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown and economic fallout. It’s an understandably disorienting time — but it’s also one in which new careers and jobs are emerging.

“If you can position yourself and acquire the right skills, there’s a lot of opportunity, certainly if you’re a tech-centric person,” says Pring. “There’s a huge explosion of education and training material available to every one of us. Why not take advantage of that? There’s so much you can learn.”

So, which new jobs will be created in the coming years? Which jobs have already been invented in the last three months?

Here are 10 potential career paths that could become highly relevant, according to Pring.

WFH (Work From Home) Coordinator

During lockdown, millions of people had to quickly learn how to set up their home office, manage their schedules, and interact with their children and family members without getting distracted. These challenges could be made easier with a guide or assistant. “For big businesses who are suddenly scrambling to manage a huge explosion of people from home, this is becoming a dedicated role,” says Pring. This coordinator needs good managerial skills in order to support a company’s collaborative culture and morale, while also helping employees maintain their productivity.

Virtual Sound Mixer

If a baseball player hits a home run but there’s no one in the stands to see it, does it still make a sound? Thanks to the work of virtual sound mixers, the answer will probably be yes. Pring noted that European soccer leagues have been the first sports teams to come back, but their stadiums are empty due to social-distancing concerns. But while watching a recent match, he noticed that the empty stadium was far from quiet. To give it a sense of atmosphere, the producers added sounds that were sophisticated and relevant to what was happening. “I could imagine the sound engineers doing that real-time mixing,” says Pring. “Five weeks ago, no one ever thought of that job.”

Voice UX Designer

Where do you think Alexa gets all her answers? Someone has to write dialogue for voice-activated devices, and demand for this already-existing job could be accelerated by our current reality, says Pring. As people want to touch fewer items around their house and in public, they’ll be turning more and more to voice-activated gadgets. This job is good for playwrights, creative writers and journalists who can script human-like conversations.

Telehealth Facilitator

“While there’s a lot of technology in health care, the consumer experience of it has been really unchanged for a long time,” says Pring. Until now. Since doctors’ offices were largely closed — except for emergencies — in recent months, many people turned to telehealth consultations which was a radical change for most practitioners and their patients. “For millions of people, telehealth has completely changed the healthcare experience, and I can imagine the genie doesn’t go back into the bottle,” he adds.

Chief Purpose Planner

“Today there’s a need for businesses to articulate their purpose much more clearly,” says Pring. This person would set the high-level strategy and direction of a company. A creative role that’s similar to marketing and public relations, this job could help banks, airlines or other large, international corporations craft top-line goals and ideals.

Clean Hygiene Consultant

Who among us walks outside without carrying hand sanitizer now? With the public’s greater focus on health and cleanliness and the expectation that pandemics will keep occurring, there’s a growing need for people who can turn making the world a cleaner place into an actual career. “Wellness consultants” have been around for a while, and this would be its newest iteration — one that fuses well-being with public health. For this group of people, their mandate would be to make the world a cleaner, healthier and more livable place.

Virtual Events Planner

Video conferencing platforms like Zoom and BlueJeans have exploded in popularity since the pandemic began. However, as anyone who’s been to a glitchy Zoom party can tell you, there’s a lot of room for improvement. “People are thinking about how to create a virtual event that’s more sophisticated” with better socializing and networking, says Pring.

Subscription Management Specialist

Many people have reevaluated their budgets and tightened their belts during the last few months. What if there was someone who could do it for you? Pring imagines this idea as an online service or app that people would use to look at all of their subscriptions and see where they could cut their expenses. It would also simplify the subscription process and facilitate relationships between brands and customers. The skills for this job would align with those of social media managers, business analysts, or product managers, according to Cognizant.

Socially Distanced Office Designer

“Companies and hotels are having to think about redesigning their offices very seriously and in a very strategic way,” says Pring. If many workers continue to work from home, that will lead many big businesses to have excess capacity in their real estate portfolio, he says. As offices condense their holdings, they’ll need interior designers who can recalibrate and redesign interiors for a safer and more efficient and more flexible future.

Uni-for-life Coordinator

This job doesn’t really exist yet, and it depends on a major shift in college education. Traditionally, young people go to college for four years, where they study a particular field and then try to monetize their knowledge for the rest of their working lives. But Pring points out this model has been eroded by many factors, including the gig economy, rapidly changing technology and the high costs of higher ed. He wonders: What if instead of going to university for a single concentrated period, you’d go through alternate periods of learning and working after graduating from high school? Coordinators could offer “lifetime learning for all alumni,” according to Cognizant’s prediction, and they’d help manage a person’s learning over the course of their life. “This might be a completely new job that would help reconceptualize higher education to align it with change and volatility,” says Pring.

Go here to learn more about Cognizant’s Future of Work and Ben Pring’s work.

Feature Image Credit: Jenice Kim

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Kara Cutruzzula is a journalist and playwright and writes Brass Ring Daily, a daily motivational newsletter about work, life and creativity.

Sourced from IDEAS.TED.COM

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6 Strategies to Market Yourself and Get a Job

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By Madeleine Burry

Here’s a harsh reality: For any job posted, many, many candidates will apply. Some of these candidates will be less qualified than you are… but others will be just as qualified, or even more so. Faced with this volume of competition, it’s essential that you sell yourself. That means making it clear why you are the best candidate available. Selling yourself can feel uncomfortable, but it’s truly essential.

To get past any feelings of shyness, modesty, or discomfort, think like a marketer. Develop a marketing and sales campaign for your job search exactly as if it was one of the many toothpaste options in the drugstore aisle. Doing this will help you assess your strengths, strengthen your performance throughout the application process, and develop a strong brand that will make you stand out from the sea of applicants.

6 Strategies to Market Yourself and Get a Job

Follow these strategies used by marketers to see how to sell yourself as a candidate, and increase your chances of getting hired.

1. Identify Your Strengths

Think of this step as defining the product — in this case, that’s you!

When do you shine in the workplace? Consider the tasks that you perform well and try to recall on-the-job compliments. Look over your resume and list your strengths, skills, and accomplishments.

Also think about why you’ve pursued your career: Why does it interest you? Try to put into words what excites you about your career along with the work-related responsibilities you enjoy the most.

It’s worth spending time on this activity. Your insights will help you later on while writing your cover letter, and answering interview questions like “Why do you want this job?

On your resume, it’s smart to clearly identify your skills, either in a bulleted list in your skills section or in the write-ups for each job you’ve held.

When you write your cover letter and answer interview questions, however, go beyond a list of skills — share examples and tell stories that demonstrate your abilities. For interviewers, this creates a more persuasive, engaging experience. (Think about how commercials make a case for products — a pasta sauce ad doesn’t feature a person talking to the camera about its attributes, but rather, a family enjoying dinner together.)

So, instead of saying, “I have strong communication skills,” you can say, “In my last position as head of marketing, there was a real breakdown in communications between the marketing department and sales. I met with key leaders on both teams, and after getting feedback, instituted an annual survey in the sales department. This helped marketing know precisely what sales required. Next, the marketing department began to distribute a monthly newsletter highlighting new assets, and also highlighting sales deals. Since instituting these practices, sales have climbed, and the turnover in the sales department has decreased.”

Not sure how to frame examples of skills as stories? Try using the STAR method (that stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result) to develop a narrative.

3. Develop Your Brand

Don’t fear: Creating your professional brand doesn’t have to involve slick advertisements or daily, witty posts on social media. Here are a few simple steps to take to establish your brand:

Write a branding statement: Write a one- to two-sentence summation of your career goals and strengths. Your branding statement might be “A detail-oriented lawyer looking to join a law firm on the partnership track.” Or, it could be “An experienced editor looking to transition into a full-time writing role.” You can use this statement in the LinkedIn summary section, on your resume and when you interact with people and want to share your job search info.

Create an online presence that supports your brand: Your job search goals and career choice can help determine the best online outlet. If you are in a field where you create something — articles, artwork, website designs, etc. — create an online portfolio to promote samples of your work. In many fields, it can be helpful to have a presence on social media sites, such as Twitter or LinkedIn, or to develop a personal newsletter. (Here are 9 tips for a strong LinkedIn profile, how to choose a good professional photo, and details on how social media can help your career.)

Or, you may just want to have a website with your resume and experience clearly written.

Documents, business cards, and other marketing materials: Think of your resume and cover letter (as well as an optional job search business card) as a suite of marketing materials all aimed at selling you. That means it’s a good thing for them to look consistent — use the same font on all documents, as well as the same header and style on each. These documents are like the ads in online and print media; make sure they look sharp and easy to read.

4.  Dress the Part

Your talents are more important than your appearance, but it is a reality that the way you dress and carry yourself does play a part in your job search success. (To think again like a marketer, package design matters — often, the biggest difference between two shampoo bottles is price or packaging, and not the actual formulation of the shampoo.)

Make sure to wear appropriate outfits:

Plus, here’s what you need to know to make a good first impression during a job interview and information on nonverbal communication during job interviews.

5. Develop an Elevator Pitch

Your elevator pitch is a short — under one minute — speech about your background and experience, and what type of job you seek. You can use your elevator speech during networking events, social occasions, and career fairs. Essentially, any time there’s an opportunity to introduce yourself to a potential job search contact, you can go through this pre-prepared spiel.

6. Fish Where the Fish Are

Once you have all of this in place — your professional brand, your outfit, a good sense of strengths and talents, etc. — you’re nearly ready for launch. But don’t just apply to jobs and attend networking events indiscriminately. Instead, target your efforts and use your time wisely. A marketer would identify the right potential purchasing audience for its product; you should do something similar.

Consider creating a targeted list of companies where you want to apply for jobs. Join only relevant professional groups and attend in-person networking events in your industry. At this events, use the elevator pitch you developed, bring along a copy of your resume, and follow up afterwards over email or LinkedIn.

More Tips for Getting Hired: How to Get Hired By Your Dream Company | 15 Quick Tips to Get Hired Fast

Feature Image: FatCamera / Getty Images

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