My name is Jenn, and I'm a 27 year old married and babied chick. In addition to a husband, a seven year old daughter, and a five year old autistic son, I also have four cats, three hermit crabs, two frogs, a few fish, and one snorty little Pug. I work from home doing a variety of writing and even some web design. I love blogging, digital photography and web design.
One minor pet peeve of mine is when someone finds out that I work from home, because the bombardment of questions almost always follows.
How much do you make?
How many hours do you work?
Is it worth the time?
How can I do that?
What do I need to do?
I don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say this, but nine times out of ten, the person I’m talking to do does not have the time, skills, resources, or all three, to do what I do. It’s one thing to write a quick article about conjugated linoleic acid cla (whatever that is), or throw up some random links in a blog entry. Almost anyone can do that. But when it comes to web design, blog maintenance, SEO (search engine optimization), SMO (social media optimization), and the kind of intensive writing I do for a few clients, there’s no way you can just pick it up and do it whenever the mood strikes you. I may work from home, but I invest a hell of a lot of time in doing what I do. I’ll spend hours researching and writing articles for Demand Studios, I’ll spend hours doing the writing work that two of my clients in particular require of me, and I devote a lot of time and effort to web design and the various coding requirements that I’m called upon to live up to on a near daily basis.
One person in particular has three kids under the age of four and a drug habit, and from talking to her, an education that falls short of the high school level (note: I am not bashing high school drops out or those who were unable to complete high school or get a higher education. I’m bashing stupid people.)… there’s no way in hell she’d have the time, skills or ability to do what I do!
Sorry… I just re-read this blog entry and I sound like such a snob. I don’t mean to be. I just hate how people think it’s something so easy and simple and that you can just jump into it. Besides needing time and knowledge and commitment, you also need contacts… these jobs aren’t exactly laying around waiting for you to discover them! With all of my clients, THEY found ME. Not the other way around!
I know how you feel, every time I say something to someone, they act like they can just jump and do it too. Like its no big deal and when I start explaining the basics of it, they give up and just result in telling me its a waste of time and I’m stupid.
I’M stupid? Who’s the one who couldnt understand basics?! Some people just arent worth explaining things to!
I work at home full-time (8+) hours a day doing medical record coding. I have an associate’s degree for this. I started working at a hospital and then they computerized there medical records and sent us home. I didn’t seek out working from home, just kind of fell into it. Now that I have 4-year-old, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Whenever I tell random people that I work from home, they first assume that I do transcription. When I correct them on that, they start asking me all kinds of question like they are interested in getting into it. It annoys me because medical records coding requires a certain kind of personality type because it can be very tedious and requires much more than just the desire to work from home. It also requires additional training and in the case of my employer, prior experience.
It sounds like your work is even harder to get into! People shouldn’t pursue these types of careers just for the work at home aspect because if the job is not something your good at or don’t like, you still won’t be good at it or like it just because you are at home doing it.
You don’t sound like a snob at all. My best friend texted the other day and asked how many DS articles I write a day. After I told her, she asked if it was fun and said she wanted to do it. I literally LOL’d before nicely telling her that knowing her for 21 years, I know she’s not motivated enough to be her own boss. So, I COMPLETELY understand.