It appears we are on the cusp of a long-term shift in regards to where we work. Many people have jobs that require extensive travel or long hours in an office environment. Then, the global pandemic forced many workers to work from home for a few short weeks initially.
The temporary home office is becoming a permanent fixture as numerous companies encourage remote work. For instance, Google +1.8%GOOGL is extending its work-from-home policy until next summer—and possibly later.
Some careers can quickly adapt to a remote setting. However, other jobs require you to work in-person and your circumstances may no longer permit you to work away from home. Perhaps your employer is permanently closing their doors and you need a new job.
The best work from home jobs need talented workers. You can use your work experience and skills to work digitally for these top employers with regular hours and good pay.
Here are ten of the best options for 2020:
1. iSoftStone
iSoftStone is a global data solutions and services company with part-time and full-time positions. A few of the services that iSoftStone offers include accessibility compliance, business automation, cloud and application development, and data and analytics.
Some of the current openings include:
- Full stack developer
- Frontend web developer
- Mobile system verification engineer
- Nuxeo architect
- Associate accountant
The job descriptions extensively describe the necessary skills at what to expect. Here’s one statement from the Kirkland-based Full Stack Developer opening: “a hard-core developer who likes to get into the details of complex algorithm design and implementation.”
Fully-remote positions are available but most openings are only remote-based for at least the first six months. In-person work is necessary at a later date for most openings at their North American headquarters in Kirkland, Washington or Santa Monica, California field office.
You might find an entry-level posting as a search engine evaluator where you test the relevancy of keywords for search engine algorithms. These evaluator positions are contract-based and you’re more likely to find these openings on online staffing agencies such as Teemwork.
2. Amazon AMZN +2.6%
In addition to its nationwide physical locations, Amazon has “Virtual Locations” across the globe. You can find open positions in the United States, Costa Rica, and Europe.
Multiple positions are entirely remote, but others require you to live in a near a regional office or periodically travel. Full-time remote jobs in the United States have the “US, Virtual” phrase in front of the Job ID number and do not include a state abbreviation like CA or VA.
Most of Amazon current work from job openings are in these categories:
- Business and merchant development
- Data security
- Operations, IT, and Support Engineering
- Sales, advertising, and account marketing
- Software development
- Solutions architect (i.e., Amazon Web Services and Alexa)
3. Aerotek
One of the most time-effective ways to find remote jobs in the “gig economy” is by using online staffing agencies like Aerotek. You’re an independent contractor meaning the work is more likely to be temporary but you can work multiple jobs if a better offer comes along.
There might be a local Aerotek branch and you can find work from home jobs online too.
Most online listings are for physical businesses like factories and call centers. Enter “remote” into the search field to find remote jobs near you.
Some of the remote-based jobs you can do from home include:
- Clinical manager
- Chemist
- Contact tracer
- Loan closer
- Mortgage underwriter
There are plenty of career niche openings as you see.
4. Kelly Services
Kelly Services is another well-known online staffing service that connects independent contractors with the world’s largest companies. Manager-level positions are available too. Many openings are temporary although some employers will directly hire.
Use Kelly’s work from home search engine to find jobs in these categories:
- Accounting and finance
- Banking
- Biotech
- Business
- Customer service and virtual receptionists
- Education
- Engineering
- Human resources
- Science
It’s also possible to work for Kelly from the comfort of your home office. Browse the Careers at Kelly page to find current openings for sales, recruiters, and account executives.
5. Teemwork
One of the quickest ways to work in “big tech” is by joining Teemwork. Large companies like Microsoft MSFT +2.9% and Google hire independent contractors for many remote positions. Here’s the catch—you don’t know what company you’re working for until you receive a job offer.
Three recurring openings include:
- Ads evaluator. Rate the relevancy of online ads for searches and where you live.
- Crowd worker. Complete online micro-tasks like data verification and corrections, speech collection, and natural language data collection.
- Search engine evaluator. Test search engine queries for pre-defined keywords and websites. You rate the relevancy of the search results based on your local knowledge.
All of these openings let you work from home on a part-time basis. You may need to live in a specific city to qualify. Some positions may require you to use a particular smartphone operating system like Android.
Most companies provide free training for these jobs. But you may need to pass a rigorous test covering the best practices to verify that you can accurately evaluate your search results.
6. Dell DELL +0.5%
Dell has multiple openings for remote positions in these sectors:
- Cloud engineering
- Cybersecurity engineer
- Data analyst
- Legal counsel
- Machine learning operations engineer
Several positions are location-dependent. You might spend more time finding remote-ready listings than with other companies as a result.
7. Pitchup
World travelers may not be flying around the world for the near future. Frequent flyers are redefining how they travel by camping instead—it’s easier to socially distance.
Many people are avoiding hotel rooms and using self-contained RVs or campers to travel and prevent excess public contact. However, they may need help finding a campsite with adequate amenities and competitive prices.
Pitchup is an online booking site for campers and currently needs “remote outbound sales executives” to find new campgrounds and RV parks partners. You onboard different campsites so aspiring campers can use the Pitchup booking portal to make their travel reservations.
8. Kaplan
Educators can teach courses online or tutor virtually at Kaplan. It’s also possible to mentor students as a student success manager for university students or prepare future Kaplan test prep material.
Many course areas including accounting, engineering, and real estate currently need part-time instructors. Each job listing includes the prerequisites to qualify. Other listings mention your potential pay range and the number of weekly hours.
9. Health Information Alliance
Remote medical positions are an accelerating trend as more people gravitate to telemedicine to save money and avoid public spaces. Health Information Alliance has numerous remote openings for health care professionals:
- Certified home health coder
- Emergency department coder
- Pediatric surgical clinical reviewer
- Pediatric tumor registrar
- STS abstractor
- Trauma registrar
These remote positions may only have you work on a PRN “as needed” basis. (PRN stands for pro re nata, which is Latin for “as the situation demands”)
Most positions require a minimum of three to five years of relevant experience. If you’re trying to transition from a medical office to a home office, these positions are worth a look.
10. Rev
Do you have a gift for transcribing audio and video recordings? If so, Rev can use your ear and typing skills. Highly-qualified transcribers can earn up to $1.10 per audio/video minute.
You might transcribe focus group interviews, podcasts, and other audio recordings. Captioning videos can be an exciting opportunity. You will need to sync the audio to video while incorporating sound effects and music cues into the closed captions.
As so many people want to work from home, there can be a waitlist to be a freelance Rev transcriber. Like other companies, you can start a remote career at Rev if you have computer coding or corporate account management experience.
Conclusion
Work-from-home jobs are available for a variety of career fields and different-sized companies – we just included ten but there are so many more out there. Your only option might be working as an independent contractor if you have minimal experience. However, we all need to start somewhere and then perhaps move towards a long-term work situation.
If you’re worried about changing jobs too quickly, the average American worker has close to 12 jobs in their career. It’s perfectly normal, despite what “conventional wisdom” may have you think.
Online jobs are competitive as you compete with many candidates from across the nation. Like any in-person interview, promote your strengths. Consider improving your skills or learning something new so you can be the ideal candidate for years to come.
