What working-from-home is not

As already hinted, working-from-home does not mean having a location-independent job or being able to relocate if/when you wish.

Instead, more often than not, you are literally "grounded" in your own place to an internet connection (sometimes even to an IP address if your company makes use of a VPN) and/or to a land line.

Sometimes, you even need to be available to reach the office by 1 hour or so, in case of an emergency.

So, normally, no freedom of stay at friends or relatives for a week, unless differently specified.

For the same reasons, working from home is not necessarily "for those who love to travel" unless your job doesn't allow you to work "on the go" or to visit customers and prospects on a regular basis but do you consider business trips, maybe to the same place over and over again, a travel?

I will talk soon again about the other types of unusual jobs.

Work-from-home jobs

Accidentally, the expression work (ing)-from-home has many synonyms: work (ing)-at-home, home-based, telecommute (ing), telework (ing) (in British English and Europe in general), e-work and e-commute(ing) (if related to computing jobs) and you will even find the shorts: WAH and WFH.

Work-from-home indicates a way of working, not a job in itself (obvious, I know but...) and means working while you are - as the word says - AT HOME.

According to the job, you may be sitting in front of a computer and/or a traditional telephone connected to a land-line or in a studio with tools you need to use (a sewing machine, watercolors, yarns, i.e. if you get a crafty job).

You will be able to have a coffee, a chat with the neighbour and lunch breaks with the same pace which is tolerated into your office.

They are obviously not jobs where you can take a nap, babysit, play with your cat, walk your dog, watch TV or shop during working hours.

But even if it's not about having great fun, you do avoid commuting which might be stressful and extremely time consuming for some. It's also great when you need to receive a plumber or electrician at your place or need to run errands which need to occur during office hours (if you have an appointment with someone at the city hall, etc.).

Working from home is mainly domain of self-employment especially in recession times when professionals cannot afford renting offices any longer.

As a matter of fact, employment is rarely 100% work-from-home type and even more seldom employers hire directly work-from home workforce (but this is not impossible as I will show you) or if you live very far form the company or in another country.

And I stop here: I wont go into explaining advantages and disadvantages for you and the society, if you are suited/not, tips & tricks of working from home, how to start a home based business also because there are tons of books and websites out there which explain all the above and others much better than me (or worse, uhm...)

Any query, please do not hesitate to comment this post.

Unusual Jobs...location independent jobs

After consideration, unusual is a better word (than anomalous) for all those jobs which are not done in a traditional working environment.

In the meanwhile, I have been browsing on the internet and found lots of confusion with what I call "unusual jobs": webmasters tend to mix them all together even if these types of jobs might be very different from each other.

So they title a page/website "location independent" jobs but they link to work-from- home opportunities (some of them are clearly spams) and to jobs on cruise ships and for travel agencies which are totally unrelated to you being able to work "location independently", in other words where the h... you prefer.
That's a bit annoying.

I am afraid this is done intentionally though: I have the feeling they aim to fill the blanks of careers which are sadly not in high demands. Careers where you can more likely make money from those who search for them than from those who offer employment. Very Sad.

I know I ought to provide you with a link to the aforementioned websites (at least, for you to ban it from your lists) but you know how it works: they might be bigger than me and with a good lawyer, so better avoiding it (well, exactly as it is in real life, after all :-D).

See you soon with some definitions...

Unusual Anomalous jobs

I do not know how appropriate is this adjective "anomalous".
UPDATE 14.jul.10 Changed attribution into unusual. Anomalous gave the idea of something wrong associated with it.

With that, I refer to all those careers which are not performed in a job-dedicated environment; jobs which do not happen in offices, factories, studios, labs, etc.

Among the anomalous jobs are the work-from-home jobs, the jobs where you travel, the jobs where you move to a certain place/house or a combination of the above.

But among the anomalous careers the top is the location-independent job: a job you can run from anywhere in the world either from your in-the-middle-of-nowhere secret spot or from the other hemisphere while you sail.

I will ramble some more details about these later.

So far, food for thought.

My plan

This is what I am going to do with this blog: I am going to apply for job positions and will report here the feedback from those applications.

The jobs I have in mind for over here are those specifically thought for my scanner personality (also following Barbara ideas) and those who simply inspire me.

I will keep out instead job positions specifically relevant to my resume, skills and expertise only, as i want to keep this blog to be generic enough to be useful for many.

I am also willing to ask for suggestions on what to answer and how to proceed in Barbara's forum if I need advise or am stuck as many brains together works better than one!

Well, let's see how it goes.

Introduction

Well, I am supposed to spend a few lines introducing myself.

I am Anne (well Anne is a nick, actually) and am having a hard time in coping with unemployment.

This blog wants to document my journey to find a (possibly good enough) job, an income, a revenue.

As I am also following Barbara Sher concepts, my job search will often be inspired by her ideas.

For those who wonder what do I have to hide behind a nick, that's unemployment:
it would not make any good informing possible employers/job agencies of all rejections and letting family and friends know about the situation, unless one does not like being pitied.

On the other hand, all this might help or direct others in the same situation, that's what makes it worthwhile.