Kick the Commute: 12 Home-Based Jobs
Want to work at home, but don’t want to start your own business? More home-based jobs than ever are available in a variety of fields. Learn more.
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Working from home definitely has its perks—zero commute time, more flexibility, unlimited access to the snack cupboard… But unfortunately, not every job can be done remotely. If you’re looking to make a career change and work from home permanently, we’ve rounded up 12 home-based jobs to consider. From marketing to programming to customer service jobs, there’s something for everyone.
12 Home-Based Jobs
Get your work from home setup ready, because you’re about to ditch the commute for good. Could one of these 12 work-at-home jobs be your next career move? Let’s find out.
Virtual Assistant
Behind every successful CEO is an organized, efficient, and resourceful administrative assistant. However, you won’t always find them sitting just outside the corner office—more and more assistants are taking home-based jobs.
Many business owners and C-level executives don’t work out of a physical office, so they rely on virtual assistants to keep things running smoothly. Your tasks may include things like responding to emails, scheduling appointments, managing digital files, making travel arrangements, and lots of other-duties-as-assigned type work.
If you love wearing many different hats and have a can-do attitude, this may be the perfect job for you. If you work on a part-time or contract basis, you can even work with multiple employers at the same time.
Project Manager
Taking any new product, service, or initiative from ideation to completion is considered a project. There are typically lots of moving parts and people involved, so companies need someone who can oversee it all—a project manager.
A project manager is responsible for creating a plan, coordinating people and resources to do the work, making sure everything is done according to the schedule, and staying within the budget. This person is extremely organized, communicates effectively, and is able to pivot quickly when things don’t go according to plan.
Project managers are needed in just about every industry, so no matter where you have past experience, you can likely transfer those skills into a project manager role.
Marketing Manager
Every business relies on marketing to attract customers and reach its sales goals. If you have experience in marketing, your skills may be put to good use as a marketing manager.
Marketing managers develop a company's marketing strategy and oversee its implementation. There are many different types of marketing channels to pursue—content marketing, paid advertising, and social media marketing being just a few. Depending on the size of the organization, you may be in charge of all of them or manage just one channel alongside other dedicated marketing managers.
Taking on a remote management role comes with its own unique challenges, so make sure you have experience leading a team before applying for a position like this.
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SEO Specialist
If you’re familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you’ll know that it’s an effective marketing tactic and one that many businesses rely on to spread the word about their product or service. That being said, it requires a dedicated person who understands how SEO works and is willing to put in the time and effort to build the company’s online presence.
As an SEO specialist, your main responsibility would be to improve the website’s ranking on search engines like Google to drive more traffic to the website. You’d do this by researching keywords, publishing relevant content on the company’s blog, optimizing web pages, and building the website’s authority through collaborations.
Since SEO is all about the digital space, this job can truly be done from anywhere.
IT Technician
If you have extensive experience and knowledge of computers, you could easily find remote work as an IT technician. Every organization relies on computers to get their work done, and they need people who can diagnose, repair, and maintain these machines.
Since most teams operate on a network, you very rarely (if ever) need to be physically present to get the job done—you can use remote access to troubleshoot any problem from the comfort of your own home.
HR Manager
Human resources (HR) managers are responsible for hiring an organization’s employees and overseeing their experience on the job. This includes things like maintaining job descriptions, reviewing applications, conducting interviews, organizing professional development opportunities, creating policies, managing benefits, conducting performance evaluations, and more.
A well-functioning HR department benefits the entire organization because it keeps employees healthy, happy, and motivated to do their best work. If you have a background in human resources and are passionate about bringing people together to work towards a common goal, you’ll do well as an HR manager.
This job can be both in-office, remote, or hybrid, but if the majority of the company’s staff are remote employees, it only makes sense for the HR department to be remote, as well.
Sales Agent
Many companies rely on sales agents to close deals and move the business forward. They’re responsible for researching potential customers, contacting them, identifying their needs, and delivering a personalized and effective sales pitch.
Since most people like to be contacted over the phone or email, rather than have someone come to their doorstep, this is a job that can be done anywhere, as long as you have a stable Internet connection.
Successful sales agents have great people skills, are effective communicators, and have a knack for persuading people to buy their product or service. If you love a challenge and have a competitive personality, you’ll love racing against the clock to see how many deals you can close.
Customer Service Representative
Customers are the heart of any successful business, and keeping them happy and satisfied with their purchases is an extremely important job.
As a customer service representative, you’d be responsible for speaking with customers to answer questions, address concerns, and troubleshoot problems. Since customer support lines are typically set up through email, phone, or online chat, this can definitely be a home-based job.
A pleasant customer service interaction can make someone’s day (and yours, too), so if you love solving problems and helping other people, this may be the perfect job for you.
Web Developer
From large corporations to one-person companies, everyone needs a beautiful, effective website to grow their business. Web developers are responsible for designing, building, and maintaining these websites.
Web developers who’d like to work from home can work on a freelance basis or get hired full-time by remote employers. They typically need to have a background in computer science or plenty of relevant experience.
The great thing about working as a web developer is that their skills are highly sought after in just about any industry and almost anywhere in the world, so you’d have a lot of freedom in choosing what to work on.
Journalist
When you think of journalists, do you picture a cramped newsroom full of writers desperately trying to meet deadlines? Though this may still be the case at some media companies, it definitely isn’t the case everywhere. Because so many of today’s news outlets are digital-only, more and more journalists are finding home-based positions and are free to write whenever and wherever they want.
As a journalist, you’d spend your days gathering information, interviewing subjects, and of course, writing articles. The kind of work (and the amount of it) will depend largely on the publication you’re writing for, but most journalists eventually find themselves writing about topics they’re personally passionate about.
Keep in mind that this job may not be entirely home-based—you may need to travel to conduct interviews or meet with sources, but you can often do these over email or phone, too.
Graphic Designer
In a world dominated by digital media, graphic designers play an important role in helping companies communicate their ideas through visual concepts. They combine colors, fonts, imagery, graphics, and design elements to help convey a company’s brand, evoke feelings, and deliver a message.
You can work as a freelance graphic designer, look for full-time work on a marketing team, or work with an agency. You may be responsible for creating things like logos, posters, brochures, digital banners, social media posts, e-books, reports, or websites. You may also be in charge of managing the company’s brand and ensuring that all materials follow brand guidelines.
To work as a graphic designer, you need to be proficient in industry-standard design tools (for example, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign) and have a portfolio of past work you can showcase. But with the right tools under your belt, finding home-based jobs as a designer is a great bet.
Data Scientist
Do you see patterns where others see nothing but random numbers? Companies today collect copious amounts of data, but it’s of no use without someone to interpret it and translate it into meaningful insights. That’s where data scientists come in.
If you’re skilled in computer science, math, statistics, and modeling, you’d likely do well as a data scientist. It’s a role that’s in high demand in just about any industry, and you can do it from anywhere. Your responsibilities would revolve around analyzing data, extrapolating it to predict future results, and recommending actions to help achieve a desired outcome.
Will You Choose Home-Based Jobs?
Hopefully, this list of home-based jobs has given you something to think about. Is there a way that you can use your past experience to land one of these roles?
Once you do, be sure to check out this list of 21 essential work from home tools to help you succeed.
Best of luck with your job search!
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How to Get a Job: A Step-by-Step Guide | Learn with Glassdoor
Sayana Lam
Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.
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