If you really want to work from home but have little or no experience in anything, it can sometimes be difficult to get your foot in the door for the jobs you want. Fortunately, there are a few options. We all have to start somewhere! Today we are talking about work from home for beginners.
Keep in mind that working from home for beginners also comes with lower pay rates in most cases. In fact, sometimes you’ll even have to juggle two or three of these jobs at once to earn anything close to a living wage. This is something I had to do from the start!
The good thing is that you gain valuable experience that helps you guarantee your landing. better paying jobs like these all the way!
Before entering the list, be sure to subscribe to my work at home email updates here! These are free, and you’ll find new information about remote jobs and more in every email.
And my e-books you can see here are a good alternative to this if you just want one-off information rather than regular updates in your inbox.
Work from home that accepts beginners
Below are a few different industries and companies within each industry that might be willing to work with you as a beginner:
Transcription
As a work-from-home transcriber, you will listen to audio files and type what you hear. Although it may seem easy, there is a learning curve.
Additionally, most transcription companies have very specific formatting rules that you must follow and these will not necessarily be the same from company to company.
Transcription can pay well, but the highest-paying companies usually want proof of past experience.
The companies I’ve linked below for you aren’t known for paying well, but they will consider beginners who pass their skills tests.
If you are interested in transcription training, I recommend General Transcription: Theory and Practice created by Janet Shaugnessy. Here she offers a free workshop that you can take to make sure it’s right for you..
Translation
As a work-from-home translator, you will convert information (written or not) from one language to another. So if you are fluent in multiple languages, this could be a viable work from home option for you since this job can be done remotely.
Just like with transcription, you earn more as a work-from-home translator with previous experience. But if you’re just starting out, there are still a few options to start gaining that experience.
The companies below will consider workers without prior translation experience, although you may be required to pass a skills test before being accepted.
Virtual assistance
As a virtual assistant, you are a jack of all trades. What your job entails can change dramatically from one day to the next, simply based on what your clients ask of you.
Many companies hiring virtual assistants prefer workers with previous administrative or virtual assistance experience, but not all!
Below I’ve linked up some companies that are very open to virtual assistants who have never done this job before.
My e-book, Your Quick Guide to Working From Home as a Virtual Assistantlists 50 companies that are hiring and some of them also accept beginners. It also explains how you can go into business as a virtual assistant.
ESL tutoring
ESL tutoring involves teaching the English language to people who do not speak it.
Although it was a booming industry for a while, with Chinese companies hiring many people from English-speaking countries to teach/tutor children in English, it has somewhat stalled. China recently banned for-profit tutoring in its country.
Despite this, there are still a few sites you can join as a tutor that are not based in China and still need workers.
Some of these companies only require that you speak English as a native language, but most want a language certification, such as TEFL or TESOL. You can complete this online training fairly quickly and easily, but again, not all companies require it.
Below I’ve listed the few ESL tutoring opportunities I know of that you can still work for as a beginner.
Academic tutoring
As an academic tutor, you will give private lessons to elementary, middle, high school or even middle school students in various subjects and/or offer homework help.
Although most companies prefer to hire people who are pursuing or already have a college degree, you can still find work even if you have never taken private lessons before.
The companies listed below are frequently looking for online college tutors and are open to those with no experience.
Independent writing
Freelance writing is what I did years ago to earn an income from home, and I was able to earn an income without any prior experience or even a degree!
Many companies will consider candidates based on their skills alone: your past experience won’t always matter if you can prove that you are an average to good writer.
The companies below don’t pay very well, but you have a chance of being accepted if you know how to write.
Another option, of course, is to go freelance and find high-paying clients to write for directly.
You can do this if you are a good writer – past experience or not – and you will earn more than the content sites above would ever pay you. But it takes time.
Telephone Jobs
Home phone jobs involve providing customer service, sales, technical support and more to businesses in need. Although many companies don’t like to hire people without proven experience, there are still a handful that are open to entry-level workers.
Phone jobs aren’t ideal for everyone. Most companies you work for don’t require any background noise. This is almost impossible to guarantee if you have children or noisy pets.
If you think working over the phone may be right for you, check out the companies below who might hire you even if you’re completely new to this field:
Task sites
Task sites are mostly great for a little extra money, and I often recommend them as something to do in between a better paying job.
I used to do research assessments and tasks in between my freelance writing gigs at the time, and it helped supplement my other income.
It’s pretty easy to get accepted to work on task sites, and the work you do will simply vary based on what’s posted.
Below are the sites you should check out if this interests you.
Proofreading and editing
If you’re good at proofreading and editing but have never done it professionally, it can actually be a little difficult to find a company that will pay you for it. But all hope is not lost: After a lot of research, I found a handful of companies that will hire you without prior experience.
Keep in mind that they will test your skills before allowing you to proofread and that (usually) a college degree is required.
Just like freelance writing, you can run your own business or work on the side as a proofreader or editor. It takes time to build a base of high-paying clients who trust you and your skills, but in the long run, it’s what will pay you the most.
When people ask me for side-reading training, I always send them here.
This is an online course aimed at parallel proofreading in general, and if you’re interested you can watch the 76 minute webinar here that explains a lot.
In conclusion
So, as you can see, you have some work from home options as a beginner in most industries, although some of the companies above still won’t accept your application without proven skills.
Looking for even more legit remote jobs?
Flexible jobs is one of my favorite sites for finding remote jobs and discovering new companies that are hiring remotely.
Most of what I see out there when I check the ads pay well above minimum wage and are well-known companies.
The best thing about FlexJobs is that they guarantee that ALL ads are scam free. They list hundreds of jobs, all remote or flexible, five days a week.
There is no advertising on the site either!
Since there are no ads, they charge a membership fee, as that is the only way they will see a return on their job search efforts.
But it’s cheap — you can access it for a few weeks for just $2.95 for a full 14 days!
If you sign up and don’t like it, it’s very easy to cancel immediately so you don’t get charged again. You can do this at any time during your 14 day verification period.
Go here to view FlexJobs.
Good luck to you!
Featured image credit – © enginakyurt, 123RF Free images
Anna Thurman is a work-from-home blogger and mom of two. She has been researching and reviewing remote jobs for over 15 years. His findings are published weekly here on Real Ways to Earn.
