Real work-at-home jobs not easy-money schemes

Q: I recently attended a training class and overheard people discussing how work-at-home jobs have become common. One was talking about using a computer to make money, but none could tell me how to get such a job. How can I find legitimate employers that hire people to work from home?

Nick's reply: While more and more people are working from home, they're not earning a living through one of those work-from-home schemes you see advertised.

There are about three legitimate home-based work scenarios: Your employer lets you do it. You're an independent consultant. Or you run a real, live business of your own. Otherwise, it isn't the option it's portrayed to be.

When people think of work-at-home jobs, they have visions of quick and easy money, and ads for such jobs play on that fantasy. People who do work from home successfully will tell you it's neither quick nor easy. It's often harder than having a regular job, and the hours are usually longer. There is no secret about such jobs, except they're not jobs. They're usually small businesses.

Those who say you can earn a living working at home with your personal computer are engaging in wishful thinking, or they're trying to sucker you into a pyramid scheme in which you spend your day e-mailing similar offers to other potential suckers. These "jobs" are nothing but a racket. Be careful.

You can work from home if you can start a business or if you can demonstrate to your employer that you can be relied on to do your work outside a conventional office. But beware: Few employers will let people do so because they don't know how to manage remote employees.

Now I have a question: Those people who waxed eloquent about earning a living at home using a computer: Why aren't they doing it? Sorry. Most work-at-home solicitations are scams.

The headhunter tip: Don't walk blindly on job hunt

From support personnel to executives, people venture into a job search with their eyes closed. They smile that "I'm your man" smile at employers they don't know from Adam.

These people search blindly. That's when you broadcast information about yourself to employers you don't know who don't know you and have no reason to care. Then you wonder why no one is impressed. You wonder why they don't call back.

• Know whom you're calling, or don't call.

• Ask someone who knows your target to introduce you.

• Send a résumé only when the employer has reasons to be interested in you.

• Never pursue jobs you "heard about." Pursue managers who have heard about you.

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.