What to do when you don’t have a work at home experience

One of the issues you will face as a person when looking for a work at home Job is the issue of work at home experience. People who hire for work at home positions are often seeking for those who have the work at home experience.

If you are someone who is used to working in the office and you want to transition to working from home, you may wonder, whats the difference? work is work, right? once I have the right skills you desire why do I have to have the experience of working from home before I can be hired?

The difference between working from home and working in the office is that the Job you do in the office is supervised by someone and you are provided with the necessary gadgets with which to work with. Also, the environment is set for you, but in working from home, the environment is set by you the worker, therefore the employer needs to be assured that you have the necessary environment that meets their need.

For example, employers that want to hire call center agents who have to be on the phone always may want to know if you have a quiet environment where you can work from.

A second reason is that they need to know you understand the challenges of working from home. For example, while at your office you have to concentrate at work because you have nothing that detracts from the Job.

At home, it is a different cup of cake, employers need to know that you understand that when you say you are going to work for 5hours for them, you must put in that amount of time without distractions. You are also to arrange your home to ensure there is a minimal distraction when work is going on.

To help some of you who may have struggled to come to terms as to why you can’t seem to get a work at home Job even though you were an A-lister when it came to the office Job. Here is what you need to do to get a work at home experience to put on your resume.

Offer your Services or Skills in exchange for a review:

If you are on Linkedin today you will notice that there is now a section for reviews and endorsements written by past co-workers or supervisors stating their experience in working with you. This is a very vital factor in securing your Job because employers want to know what your past work history is like.

I believe that you can have a place for recommendation or endorsements written by those who have had the opportunity to work with you in other to build up your work at home experience Resume. By offering your services or skills to people who need them, they are able to write a positive review for you that could count as a work at home experience.

Join Facebook Groups that need your skills:

If you already have the skills you need in transitioning to a work at home Job. All you need is to offer those skills to people who need it in Facebook groups. People are always willing to accept free services, for example, you may be a graphic designer who wants to work from home. By offering your services free to those in the groups so mentioned you can gain the experience of using your skills to solve people’s problems from home hence counting as a work at home experience.

You may ask what is the difference between the first point and this second point, this second point stresses offering your skills without asking for anything in return. This is because FB groups are always wary of a member seeking to profit from them but when its free, it is seen as contributing to the wellbeing of the group.

Look for someone to understudy:

If you do not have the skill and you need to learn how it is done, then you can look for someone who is already into the type of job you desire and ask to understudy them. In doing that you learn the skills required and also understand the challenges that come with working in that terrain, that way you can give relevant examples on how to solve issues that arise due to that job. This can be likened to an apprenticeship sought of.

Take a course related to the Work at home Job you want :

In this days of the explosion of online courses, there is hardly any Work at home Job that you may want to do that does not have an online course you can go through and learn from it. In fact, taking a course is one of the easiest ways to gain experience. A well-written course will take you through the motions and also simulate the likely experience of one who has been through the Job should have. The only issue is that you have to invest some amount to learn. In fact, one of the offshoots of taking a course is that you can ask the course writer to send you some real time Jobs to do so you can bump up your experience.

Join Freelance Job sites :

Freelancing for any type of skill has become a way of living right now so if you want to gain Work at home experience for a specific Job type you can join freelance Job sites and set your profile to seek that specific Job you are targeting that way you can have a real life experience which you can showcase on your resume. For more on Freelance Jobs, please read my post on 10 best sites where you can find work at home jobs

Ask your Former Boss for Volunteer Jobs:

I am yet to see offices that reject free works to be done for them, so if you are on good terms with your former boss. You can ask for Jobs to be sent to you which you can do from home. This will enable you to gain a work at home experience while you search for that Job. For example, if you were working in the Medical field as a Medical billing or coding specialist, and you had to resign because your kids need you at home. You can ask your former boss to send you some part of that Job you were doing so you can do it on a Voluntary basis. With that, you can still use them as a reference and still state that you had the experience of working for them while working at home. You get a double deal in that you have a great reference from people who already like your work.

Do you have any more ideas on how to gain experience for work at home Jobs? leave a comment below.