WAHM's - how did you get your job?

[minkajane]

I would love love love to work at home. I have an AAS in Human Resource Management and I'm about to finish my AAS in Medical Assisting. I'm hoping to find something like medical transcription or coding and billing to do from home. I don't even know how to go about it. I've looked online, but it seems like all the listings are those fake, "MAKE $1500 A WEEK FROM HOME! NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!" things.

My biggest problem is that I graduate from this program in March and I'm due in April. I'd love to not have to WOH at all after the baby's born, but I won't have any in-person experience at all except for my 3-month externship. Most listings I've seen that seem legit require a couple of years of doctor's office or coding or whatever experience.

Anybody have any tips? Places to look for legit WAH opportunities? Anything?

[cchrissyy]

Rather than search for "work at home jobs" the trick is to search actual employers for regular jobs that can be done from home.

I say this becuase a search for "work at home job" gets you 99% spam and junk, wereas a regular ole' job search will help you find actual jobs, some of which can be done from home.

Of the people I know who've WAH FT, most are self-employed / entreprenuers, everybody else working from home is with a big company. Fedex. Amex. Regional Hospitals. Salary and benefits. Those are the sort of organizations that already know how to make it work, and have the policies in place.

[sparklett]

I WAH for a teeny tiny environmental nonprofit, but it took a lot of years of building up experience to get this kind of autonomy. I sifted through literally hundreds of jobs before I came up with this one. The PP is right- instead of looking for "work at home" listings, look for a job in your regular market and wait for something that can be done from home to come up.

My HR rep. also works 100% from home, but that's becuase she has an illness that keeps her from being able to work in the office.

[greenemami]

I WAH as a medical transcriptionist. I took an online course for training that took me about a year and was lucky enough to get a job almost right away. Keep in mind that if you need a full-time salary, you will have to work full-time hours still-i.e. 8 hours a day, so you may still need childcare. I can't work unless I somebody is watching the kids or they are asleep. I work PT in the evenings and at night and don't make all that much, honestly, but that is from a combination of factors.

I also just started some freelance writing from home, which I hope will be fairly lucrative!

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! I feel very lucky to be home with my kids and still make some $$.

[1jooj]

I WAH but also WOH at my job. I WOH because I prefer it sometimes, but I have the flexibility to do either. I worked at the office as a regular employee for 3 years before getting the privilege of WAH. I negotiated it with my boss and HR.

[madskye]

Connections and luck! And I am a entrepeneur/small business owner as someone mentioned above. I consult in the field that I worked in for almost 15years. I found one small client and that led to other work. If you do end up working out of the home for a bit, just assess the organization and figure out what could be done from home and offer that. Or, figure out what kind of things people hate to do/no one else wants and offer to do that from home. Somehow doing annoying paperwork from my home is a million times less annoyng--because I am home!