Working from Home

Married women with families face the dilemma: to work outside the home or to be a homemaker. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

If you work outside the home, the skills you have acquired can make a positive contribution to society in general. You can also bring in additional income to the family. This is always welcome because it means a better lifestyle, acquiring your own home earlier and affording better education for your children. On the downside, children are left at the mercy of domestic help at a stage in life when they are particularly vulnerable, or left with grandparents, which has its share of disadvantages.

Fortunately, alternatives are opening up. Modern electronic communication has changed our lives in a dramatic way. An enormous amount of information is readily available, and acquiring it is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons. Documents can be transferred instantaneously. Everything from booking tickets and ordering pizza to knowing what your friends are up to can now be done in real-time – through the Internet.

Innovative technology has also affected the way we work. Because of the proliferation of smart phones, iPads and broadband internet connectivity, the need for physically assembling people for face-to-face meetings is less. Meetings can happen virtually, in cyber space. In today’s predominantly knowledge-based activities, individuals by and large work alone (possibly from home) and interact with others only at occasional meetings.

What are the kinds of jobs that can be done from the home?

Here is a partial list:

Medical Transcription

Doctors require their diagnoses, prescriptions, prognoses, observations, instructions, etc., to be documented for themselves as well as for viewing by other specialists. Having doctors painstakingly type these out is a waste of their precious time. So, in developed countries, doctors dictate these into recorders which are then transcribed by less qualified staff. Because of the high cost of staff in developed countries, even transcription there is expensive. It can be done, for example, in India. The doctor, after dictating, sends the audio file over the Internet to the transcriptionist in India, who receives it, transcribes it (sitting at home) into a word document, and sends it back, again through the Internet. Knowledge of medical parlance of course is required in this line.

Programming

Software programming is another area that lends itself to working from home. An enormous amount of software is generated each year for a multitude of applications. Today, in addition to computers, software is needed for smart mobile phones and tablets (iPhones, iPads as well as Android). Such software is generated by individuals with a few discussions for coordination. Individuals can work from home, with occasional meetings in an office or in cyberspace.

This job requires you to have the necessary skill-sets for doing programming.

Translators

Many documents need translation from one language to another. This, again, can be done individually by persons working from home. Documents can be transferred back and forth over the Internet. This work, of course, requires familiarity with foreign/ Indian languages. If the document to be translated is of a technical nature, knowledge of the subject matter would be a great help.

Tutors

This is a good opportunity for women who have teaching experience, especially in the higher classes. Students who require help, and who have computers with Internet access at home, would welcome online assistance. In addition, there are companies that produce audio-visual aids to teaching that can be used in classrooms to help students to master difficult subjects. While the companies have the expertise for creating animations and visuals, content material has to be provided by teachers with thorough knowledge of the subject.

Affiliates

Millions of people search the Internet for answers to their problems. At the same time, there are lakhs of companies that have solutions to many of these problems. As an “affiliate”, you associate with a company and direct seekers to the company’s website. You are paid on the basis of the number of visitors to the company’s website, or by the number of persons that actually avail of the company’s products or services; and all of it is done over the Internet.

For more help go to www.Workathomecareers.com

Caution!

The Internet has its share of scamsters. You should do research before signing up for working from home and ensure that the organization for whom you are working is reliable, trustworthy and will pay you for the work you do.

–  T. J Joseph

T. J Joseph is a consultant to the Electronics Industry. After his postgraduate studies from North Texas State University, he worked in the US and UK for about 10 years before returning to India. Employed in the corporate sector, he became Executive Director of a French company. Mr. Joseph is also a writer and contributes articles for newspapers on different topics. He has a regular column on careers for students in a leading South-based newspaper.