Locating a Telecommuting Opportunity… As easy as shooting a watermelon out your nose!

I can say that getting a solid telecommuting opportunity is not an easy
task. They’re out there, but locating them can be extremely difficult and
time-consuming. Even with all the e-books, reports, and telecommuting
packages you’ve probably purchased, it just doesn’t happen overnight.

— What can I do? —

The best way to break into a telecommuting situation is to locate an office
job that can be performed anywhere. This will help you develop a reputation
as a self-motivated, reliable, professional worker. Information-based jobs
with a minimum amount of required face-time are good prospects. Also, look
for jobs that are physically portable—that is, whatever the telecommuter
needs to do the job can be accessed over a phone line.

A few of the job categories best suited for telecommuting include:
Advertising & Marketing, Architectural and Computer Aided Design, Artists
and Writers, Billing and Collections, Credit and Collections, Customer
Service, Clerical and Secretarial, Data Entry and Transcription,
Engineering, Photography, Programmers and Database Administrators, Sales,
Telemarketers, Translators, and Web Designers and Developers.

— How do I smell? —

Whether you’re face-to-face or over the Internet, your cover letter and
resume are essential. In fact, they’re your only tools when locating and
applying for jobs on the Internet!

The cover letter can make or break the possibility of getting a job. It
gives the employer an idea of what you can do for them and what you’re
looking for in an opportunity. Remember, what you want and what they offer
have to match or you’re out. Your objective is to find a job you want to do,
not something you feel that you have to do.

Once they get past the cover letter, they will usually read the resume.
Employers want to hire people who can do the job. Make sure that your resume
is complete and reflects your abilities to handle the position. To enhance
the presentation, tailor the resume to the opportunity to show an employer
what you know and what you can do. After all, you’re going to get a
job—it’s just a question of which one.

— Locating Opportunities —

Locating a job is easy. Just go to one of the thousands of sites that are
out on the Web and start looking. It should only take you about three or
four years to search them all. I’m sure you have that much time!

The best way I’ve found to search for a job is to follow these steps:

– Make a task list that outlines your daily job-search activities.

– Find several well-known job sites and post your resume. Search the lists
of jobs and prepare the site’s job agents to help you locate various jobs.

– Keep track of all employers you contact, the date of your contacts, people
you talk/e-mail with, and special notes about the contacts.

– Apply to multiple companies on a given job site to save time.

– Always have a resume and cover letter ready to upload whenever a lead
comes your way.

– Follow-up leads immediately. If you find out about a job late in the day,
contact them right away.

– Tell everyone you know that you are looking for job. Stay in touch with
friends and contacts. Follow-up new leads immediately.

* Search Sites

Keep in mind that many job sites replicate data from other sites. Some sites
even post the contents of the USENET job groups on their sites as potential
job opportunities. This leads to the point that out of 1,000 jobs that you
search on the Web, more than half are duplicates copied from one or more
other sites. The easiest way to search for a telecommuting opportunity is to
stick to a few of the primary search resources. The primary sites that I’ve
found beneficial are shown in the following list:

– work — http://www.ework.com/
– eLance — http://www.elance.com/
– FreetimeJobs — http://www.freetimejobs.com
– Workaholics4Hire — http://www.workaholics4hire.com
– Guru.com — http://www.guru.com
– IC Planet — http://www.icplanet.com
– Jobvertise — http://www.jobvertise.com
– Headhunter — http://www.headhunter.net
– Monster — http://www.monster.com
– Net-Temps — http://www.net-temps.com
– Brassring — http://www.brassring.com
– JobOptions — http://www.joboptions.com

Some of the more relevant keywords I’ve successfully used in my searches
include: freelance, telecommute, telecommuting, telecommuter, ,
work at home, work from home, telework, off-site, offsite. The
keyword includes any keyword that would apply to your field or any field of
your choice.

* Other Resources

An additional resource is the USENET newsgroups. USENET provides 60,000 or
more newsgroups that contain thousands of postings. Several groups contain
important job postings that can potentially lead to a telecommuting contract
opportunity. One of the primary sites that provides a searchable front-end
to USENET is Google (http://www.google.com).

Other useful tools for Web and newsgroup searches are the WebFerret and
NewsFerret by FerretSoft (http://www.ferretsoft.com). Another great tool is
Copernic by Copernic Technologies (http://www.copernic.com/). These
applications provide user-friendly front-ends and search several servers
simultaneously from your local machine. I use these tools all the time for
job searches as well as research for my writing.

— Make Yourself Known —

Many employers search for potential employees on the various job boards
around the Web. It’s essential that you have an up-to-date resume posted at
these sites so you can be found. Some of the sites for successfully
acquiring jobs through resume postings include:

– eWork — http://www.ework.com
– Dice — http://www.dice.com
– Guru.com — http://www.guru.com
– Headhunter.net — http://www.headhunter.net
– Net-Temps — http://www.net-temps.com
– Monster.com — http://www.monster.com

It’s also a good idea to create a Web site that shows your portfolio of
work. Provide a couple of resumes targeting your desired jobs, a few samples
of your work, and an explanation of the type of job that interests you.
Promote the site and place the URL in your e-mail signature so that
prospective employers can locate the site and get a glimpse of your
abilities.

— The Interview —

One thing I always do before an interview is to learn as much as possible
about the company from their Web site. I learn about what they do and find
out about their key players. If the company doesn’t have a Web site, they’re
probably not going to support telecommuting.

Another way to find out information is to do a Web search on various
keywords associated with the company. For instance, searching for their
name, their product, or their industry topics will usually provide quite a
bit of background.

Once you learn about them, prepare a small statement that summarizes the
company. Also, prepare some questions related to your target job. When
you’re asked if you have questions, state your summary to the interviewer
and flow into your first question. This let the interviewer know that you
took the time to do research. Make sure that you ask for examples of what
you’ll be doing as well as information on benefits for telecommuters.

— Landing a Job —

Many potential employers will tell you that you’ll have to spend time in
their office. For the most part, that’s not entirely the case. Realize that
many companies are still in the mode of having people in-house.

You don’t have to accept every job that comes your way. For one, if you take
on too many things, you’ll never be able to finish anything to the proper
level of care required. Keep moving forward in your direction and your
search. Just remember, you’re looking for a telecommuting opportunity!