Work From Home Jobs
Finding legitimate work-from-home jobs is tough because – quite frankly – there is a lot of garbage out there. Searching for work-at-home jobs typically means sifting through page after page of scammy looking job postings and multi-level marketing schemes. Tags Companies Hiring Jobs New Job Remote Work Work From Home. Home 10 of the Best Companies for Working From Home. Also on Glassdoor: +30 Companies Hiring Like Crazy in June. 14 Awesome Companies With Unlimited Vacation. Top 10 Cities With the Most Affordable Cost of Living. Subscribe to our Blog.
Looking for real work from home jobs that won’t rip you off?
Team Clark has reviewed many of the options out there and come up with a list of what we believe to be the most promising legitimate work-from-home opportunities.
Check out these legitimate work from home opportunities
With the dramatic changes in the employment landscape in recent years, more people are looking for real work from home jobs and freelance positions.
The problem, according to money expert Clark Howard, is that the ripoff work-at-home outfits claiming they’ll find you a job — for an upfront fee — are too numerous to list.
“Many people want to do part-time work at home, especially when they have a newborn. But most work-at-home offers are scams. One stat that I’ve seen says that for every legitimate offer you may see, you’re going to come across 42 scams.”
One ally in the fight to find real work-from-home jobs is a website called FlexJobs. It’s different from most job search websites because it charges a membership fee starting at $14.95 for a month.
For that price, FlexJobs hand-screens every job in order to weed out all the junk, ads and scams. You only get truly legitimate remote, part-time, freelance and flexible jobs listings with this service.
Below are some sites and companies we’ve determined to be legitimate. Of course, you should check them out thoroughly yourself before getting involved.
It’s important to keep in mind that most work from home jobs are not a way to get rich; the majority of opportunities just pay enough to allow you to supplement an existing income.
Alorica at Home
What it pays: Between minimum wage and $10/hour
What you need to know: As with all work-from-home jobs that center around answering incoming calls, Alorica requires you to have some basic equipment:
- Computer: PC (no Macs)
- Latest version of Windows Operating System
- Minimum RAM: 1 GB or higher
- Headset
- Phone must be a feature-free POTS landline (no voicemail, answering machines, call waiting, etc.). Cell phones and VoIPs are prohibited.
- Internet Connection: DSL, cable, or fiber optic (no dial-up, satellite, or 4G wireless connections)
- A separate, distraction-free work space within your home designed to improve your productivity
You’ll receive paid training before starting, however, you’ll also be responsible for a background check that costs $31.95.
And while you’re not required to have a second phone line for this job, it is recommended.
Alorica “strongly encourage[s] all employees to use a second phone number for your work line, so that personal calls do not interfere with your customer calls.”
Amazon
What it pays: $15/hour
What you need to know: The e-commerce giant is often looking to fill hundreds of remote customer positions at a time. Popular job categories include customer service, sales, marketing, operations, HR, product management and software development.
A note of caution: You must be extremely careful when looking for work at home jobs from Amazon. That’s because tons of fake Amazon work from home job sites have been set up by scammers capitalizing on the company’s popularity.
Make sure you look for remote Amazon jobs and apply directly at the one and only legitimate site — Amazon.jobs.
American Express
What it pays: $15/hour
What you need to know: The credit card company hires directly for a variety of customer service positions.
Full-time positions involve answering incoming calls and addressing general and account-specific questions from customers.
In addition, there’s a generous benefits package starting on the first day of employment. It includes tuition assistance and retirement programs, plus comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans.
You’ll complete a 14-week paid training course for most positions. American Express also typically picks up the connection cost and monthly fees for dedicated telephone and internet service, which are requirements for these kinds of positions.
These positions come and go quickly, so your best best is to check the American Express Careers site and search for keywords like “work from home” or “virtual.” You can sign up for job alerts there, too.
Chegg Tutors
What it pays: Starting at $20+/hour
What you need to know: This site allows you to virtually connect with students in need of lessons and do the teaching right from your home computer.
- Subjects include the usual standbys of Calculus, Biology and Computer Science. But you’ll also find opportunities in things like Antitrust Law, Voice Lessons, Astrophysics and Zoology, among thousands of other subjects.
- Top tutors can earn $1,000+/month.
If you don’t have luck with Chegg Tutors, Tutor.com is a similar service you may want to check out.
Concentrix
What it pays: Starting at $10/hour
What you need to know: Be a home agent providing customer care, human resources and billing services. While requirements vary by job, you’ll need some basics:
- Internet Service – minimum of 10.0 mbps download and 10.0 mbps upload (no wireless or satellite connections)
- Basic landline telephone phone device (required during training and for production calls)
- A traditional, analog phone line (POTS line)
- No call features. Removal of all features is required and this may require contacting your provider
- Corded telephone headset that plugs directly into your telephone base
- Amplifier
- Mute button
- Noise-canceling microphone
- Monitor minimum size: 21.5”
Hilton
What it pays: $9/hour to $14/hour
What you need to know: Several times a year, the hotel chain will post job openings for remote reservation sales associates.
Employees work an average of 25 hours per week and must be available some nights, weekends and holidays.
Hilton will provide some of the equipment needed to perform in the role, but you must have a monitor, surge protector, high-speed wired internet service and a quiet work environment.
LiveOps
What it pays: Starting at $10/hour
What you need to know: This virtual call center offers home-based agents contract opportunities in sales, insurance sales, insurance claims, customer service, healthcare and roadside service.
Most client companies require applicants to undergo a comprehensive background and credit check that typically costs $65.
Independent agents will also need to meet technical requirements including the installation and maintenance of a dedicated landline telephone only to be used for LiveOps work.
You must be a resident of one of these states to be hired, however you can work from anywhere:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
- Washington D.C.
Sutherland CloudSource
Earnings: Pay rate is “competitive in the work at home industry,” according to the company website.
Work From Home Jobs Legitimate
What you need to know: Sutherland offers work from home customer service opportunities with some great perks:
- Paid training
- Paid time off
- Vision, dental and health benefits
- Basic 401(k) package for part-time workers
Sykes
Earnings: $10/hour according to Glassdoor
What you need to know: Sykes is a virtual call center provider using home-based customer service agents.
- Named #15 on the 2018 list of Top 100 Companies with Remote Jobs by FlexJobs
- Click here for a recruitment advisory warning about scammers pretending to be Sykes job recruiters
UHaul
Earnings: $10/hour, though bilingual sales agents can earn up to $15/hour
What you need to know: U-Haul offers opportunities for work from home agents in several fields — including customer service, sales and reservations and roadside assistance.
- Will hire employees under the age of 18
- If you’re at least 16 years old, you must currently be enrolled in school or have your GED/diploma
Williams-Sonoma
What it pays: $12/hour
What you need to know: The kitchenware and home furnishings retailer periodically offers popular work-at-home job opportunities that tend to fill up quickly.
Customer service associates typically work 30 to 50 hours per week and solve customer concerns such as returns, replacements, credits, orders and other inquiries.
The job comes with full benefits:
- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- 401(k)
Although this is a stay-at-home job, you need to live within 90 minutes of the company’s customer care center to attend some meetings and training.
Work From Home Companies Hiring Now
Work at Home Vintage Experts
Earnings: Pay rate is “competitive for independent contractors working from home,” according to the company website
What you need to know: Work at Home Vintage Experts is unique in the remote working community because it specifically focuses on hiring “pretirees” — folks who are 50 or older and don’t want to stop working just yet, but who want a change from the daily office grind.
- The application process is extensive, involving initial intake phone interviews and subsequent phone interviews with whichever company you’ll be working for to ensure the right fit
- Job opportunities are clustered in three industries: Accounting, human resources and insurance
- No hidden costs
WorkingSolutions
Earnings: $9/hour to $30/hour depending on assignment
What you need to know: Working Solutions was created in 1996 to provide legitimate work-at-home opportunities. The company serves industries such as consumer services, healthcare, retail, travel and more.
- Named to the Top 100 Companies with Remote Jobs list by FlexJobs for four years in a row
- Working Solutions educates agents — at no cost to them — in a client’s business through a program called Working Solutions University
- Not hiring in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington
Beware of these common work-at-home scams
Work-at-home scams are always in season. Here are a few common warning signs to look for:
- Social networks are a hot spot for work-at-home danger. One company called Easy Tweet Profits claims you can make up to $873/day online. They even claim one person earned $400,000/year using their method of tweeting your way to success. The catch? By signing up for their program you agree to be charged just under $50 per month! There are a whole host of other companies with similar names (usually involving “make money” or “make profits”) that suggest social networking can be a cash cow. But their game is all the same: Whether you’re talking about something you see on Craigslist, eBay, Facebook, Twitter or whatever’s the next hot thing, you’ve got to be wary.
- Phony job listings on legit job-hunting websites. One fraudulent group was listing fake jobs on CareerBuilder, which is an otherwise respectable site. The group was charging a big fee for a background check before consideration of any applicants. Federal, state and local authorities received more than 17,000 complaints filed by people who were ripped off by this particular group. And that’s just the number of people who found their way to complain. Who knows how many others were taken?
- Pitches to be your own boss. Our Consumer Action Center is hearing from a lot of callers who go to help-wanted sites, find an opportunity that looks good and then contact the supposed employer. It turns out to be a pitch for owning your own business, with promises of huge money. Unfortunately, the only ones making money are the people pushing startup kits for a fee.
Final thought
We hope this list helps you sort through the clutter when looking for work from home jobs. But, as always, keep Clark’s warnings in mind.
“You’ve got to be careful if you’re looking to work at home. Be sure to avoid the ads in the back of women’s magazines about envelope stuffing, doing medical office paperwork and the like. The one area that has proven legitimate over time is becoming a call center worker from your home.”
Meanwhile, if you decide you need to make some fast cash instead of applying to be a remote worker, be sure to check out our list of easy ways to make extra money right now.