This is a Home Office Careers Podcast, created to help you find a great Work From Home job. Whether it’s for full time or part time work, Home Office Careers is the leading employment resource for the new economy, and we’re dedicated 100% to helping our members find honest, good work they can do from their homes. So whether you are early in your career or have decades of experience, if you want to find a great home-based job, you’re in the right place.

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TRANSCRIPTION:

Hello, I’m Alan Klein, Chief Marketing Officer of Home Office Careers. I’ve been helping people fulfill their working potential and achieve success throughout my own long career in advertising. I’ve worked with thousands of people and with hundreds of different types of employers, and I’ve learned through experience how to coach and train all kinds of people in career management. And nothing gives me greater satisfaction than being here at Home Office Careers, helping people benefit from the growing trend among employers who are hiring more employees to work from home.

So let’s get started with today’s subject:  The 3 Most Important Steps To Landing A Work From Home Job.

As someone who wants to be able to work from home, you obviously want to be successful in getting a job that you will like, a job that will pay you fairly for your time and effort and will allow you to balance your work and family or personal life – after all, that’s why we want to be able to work from home. But getting that job takes work, and I want to be sure you are investing your time and energy doing the things that will help you to succeed. So, of all the things you need to do, based on our experience with thousands of jobseekers at Home Office Careers, the most important come down to answering these 3 questions.

The 1^st question is “How do I find the best job offers?” The answer is simple: Widen the job search to more categories. Let’s say you are looking for a job in data entry & typing. Your first step will be to go to the Search Jobs page, where all the job offers can be found. Look down the list and select the Data-Entry & Typing category and hit the filter button to bring up all the offers in this category. Now, once you’ve viewed all the jobs posted, you are not done – the possibilities are not exhausted! Go back to the categories, unselect Data-Entry and now select another category where Data-Entry jobs may be “hidden.” I say hidden because jobs like Data-Entry are often posted as Transcription, or in Human Resources, Healthcare and Insurance. By going into other categories, you will have not dozens, but hundreds of offers to consider.

The 2^nd question is “How can I improve the odds of beating the competition for the jobs?” This is an important question, because there may be hundreds of applicants for each job you are interested in. The answer is to increase the number of applications. Our own research, and U.S. Labor Department statistics show that, on average, it takes at least 40 applications, and in many cases, 50 or more before a favorable reply is received. This is why we tell our members to “Apply, apply, apply.” If you are sincere about landing a good work from home job, plan on submitting applications every day. I don’t recommend wasting time applying to job offers that you really are not qualified for; keep your focus on jobs that you really have a shot at. And then take that shot! Do it immediately – don’t wait for someone else to beat you to it!  Whenever the job offer description looks interesting, hit that Apply Now button and complete and submit the application.

Okay, the 3^rd and final question is: “How do I close the deal and get the offer?” Our recommendation is for you to make a practice of following-up with employers you have applied to. Let me explain how to do this: With each application, record the name of the company, and any contact information they provide on the application. Also note any job offer number or the exact job title. If there is no contact information on the application, then go to the employer’s Web site and see if there is a “Careers” or “Join Us” link. If not, go to the “Contact” link where there should be an email address, or a telephone number, or a contact form you can complete. Specify the job you have applied for and state that you are following up. This will let the employer know that you are a committed candidate and the HR manager or recruiter may give your application more attention. In other words, by “showing up” you can set yourself apart from the competition.

So, to sum up: Broaden your job search by looking into career categories outside of your usual category; increase the number of applications you submit; and take the time to follow up with the employers you have applied to. I hope you will use the social buttons to share this podcast with others, and please send any questions you may have for me to [email protected]. This is Alan Klein at Home Office Careers, wishing you success. Until the next time.