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One of the advantages of being a freelance writer is the ability to work from home. I used to be a work-from-home rodeo clown. I tell you, I never had a rider gored in my house on my watch, no sir. But wearing clown makeup alone in my darkened house really creeped out visitors, so I quit.
Another advantage is how little I drive and how many carbon emissions I don’t have to produce. Also, I no longer spend my afternoons commuting, engine idling, in smoggy, traffic-filled Los Angles. My gasoline bills aren’t high. This helps offset the amount of money I have to spend insuring my own health, something a lot of corporate workers don’t have to do, but it’s not like there are many corporate employers clamoring for Fine Arts majors, so I feel lucky to have any job that doesn’t involve serving French fries. But enough about my wounded pride and my inflated sense of self-pity.
Here are some tips on how to find a telecommuting job.
1. 2workathome has a list of telecommunication-friendly corporations. These companies may or may not be hiring. Check out their easy-to-find websites for further details.
2. Craigslist is another great site for finding all sorts of work. Just go to Craigslist’s search bar on your chosen city page. Type in the word telecommute and set the category tab to jobs. Then peruse various cities for a wider selection. They also have a telecommute tab you can toggle when you are looking for a specific type of job. In Los Angeles, however, Craigslist is often referred to as Creep’s List, because some of the people who hire in the gigs section are clearly insane. I once worked as a sound editor for this guy who didn’t know that his blog was on the internet. I was like, "Well, a blog that’s not on the internet is just called a diary." Despite the weirdness, Craigslist is my favorite job-search site.
3. Worldwide Work at Home has an excellent job board that finds various telecommuting jobs from places like Monster.com and posts them into categories for easy browsing.
4. For those of you still deciding on a career path, How Stuff Works has an article about the most common jobs that allow people to work from home. If you don’t want to wear a suit to work-I wear an Aquaman outfit all day-one of these careers might be for you. Check out this list from ezines as well.
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