Using a Work-from-Home Job Finder for Legitimate Careers

New to work-from-home job finders and not sure what to expect? We can help you understand the basics when you’re using job finders like ours to find careers in remote work. Here’s how to set yourself up for success and only sign up for legitimate job opportunities.

Prime Yourself to Find Work-from-Home Jobs

1. Update Your Public Profiles

While this is important for in-office job hunting, it’s especially valuable for trying to find a remote career. Your profiles are often the first impression hiring personnel and recruiters have of you.

Make sure you update all of these, whether they’re public or if you’re distributing links to them with your applications:

• Online resumes
• Digital portfolios
• LinkedIn profiles
• All other public social media profiles

If it has your name on it, you should update it to show the best version of yourself. This will allow you to establish a good first impression with any employers who try to look you up online ahead of an interview for a remote job.

2. Check (Legitimate) Job Sites

There are plenty of job sites out there, from aggregators like Indeed to dedicated regional and industry-specific job boards. Check them often, and be on the lookout for potential scams. We have some tips at the end of this post to help you spot them.

However, many sites have legitimate jobs and plenty of ways to filter for the exact type of remote work in the industry you’re looking for. Simply apply for remote jobs the way you’d apply for in-person work, and be sure to describe any remote work experience in your cover letter if you have it!

One of the reasons so many people trying to find jobs working from home choose SkillUp is because we only post jobs with a living wage. We also like to put emphasis on full-time remote careers that don’t require a university degree.

3. Research Companies

4. Comb Through Listings Carefully

If you’re looking for careers that allow you to work from home, it’s important to look specifically for jobs that are fully remote and fit your skill set. Look closely at the listings that catch your eye and make sure there aren’t any surprises hidden in the fine print.

This can keep you from encountering any unexpected surprises, like companies that want you to eventually be in the office full-time even if you aren’t interested.

Filtering your job search results can make this a little bit easier. For example, you can filter out part-time or contract positions, those involving specialized certifications, or those requiring a college degree.

5. Ask for References

Yes, you can ask companies to give you references, just like they can request them from you. In fact, we encourage doing so when you’re hitting the digital pavement!

The company should be willing to provide a few references. Otherwise, review sites like Glassdoor or RateMyEmployer are helpful for getting a clear view of what current and former employees think of your potential employer.

How to Spot a Remote Work Scam

Not every remote job posting is a scam. However, when you learn about some of the common signs that a job is a scam, you’ll be able to spot them more easily. Some of the most common signs a post is a scam include:

• Obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes: The company should be trying just as hard to make a good impression on you as you are on them. Grammatical mistakes should be minimal. Their spelling should be immaculate. Otherwise, it could possibly be a scam post.
• Dubious email addresses: Some scams rely on people not looking closely at the email address when they reply to your application. For example, if someone posing as an HR director at the machinery company Caterpillar has an email address of “jdoe@careerscaterpillarcat.com” instead of “janedoe@cat.com,” which is the company’s actual email domain in the US, that should be a major red flag.
• Payment requests: If a company is hiring you, they should be providing you with what you need to do the job instead of making you purchase yours. Beware if they ask you to send a check or money order to them in exchange for a laptop or other office equipment—they’ll walk off and pocket the cash before you know it.
• Immediate job offers: If you didn’t go through an interview process or only spoke over chat, the phone, or even if you’re getting an email out of the blue, it could be an indication someone is trying to scam you.

Ultimately, if something about a job sounds too good to be true or is trying to request money from you right away, they may be after your identity or bank account information. There are plenty of legitimate jobs though, and SkillUp takes great care to vet job entries so you can guarantee the posts you find are from companies who really want to offer you remote work.