Reading news articles that report a nearly 10% national unemployment rate can be discouraging. If traditional jobs are scarce, work-at-home jobs must be non-existent. The reality is that there are lots of work-at-home jobs available…right now. Here are 6 steps to finding a work-at-home job in a recession:

1. Know what you need to earn. Working at home in a job can change your budget significantly for the better. You can save on car expenses, child care, and grooming needs. Further there can be tax advantages that save you thousands of dollars a year. On the other hand, many work-at-home jobs pay less and often don’t have all the benefits that traditional jobs provide. You need to do a detailed budget so you can know what sort of wage or salary you’ll need to work at home.
2. Know what skills you have to offer. Despite what the scammers will have you think, you can’t just sign up for a job. Neither will a great offer show up in your email. Work-at-home jobs are like traditional jobs; you need skills and experience to get them.
3. Tailor your resume to fit the job. Generic resumes don’t cut it anymore. You need to make your resume specific to the needs indicated in the job announcement.
4. Be active and proactive. When the world is flush with jobs, you can submit a resume and wait for a call. But in this tough economic climate, there is no sitting back. You need to be searching for and applying to jobs daily. Talk to people using your network to help you find possible openings.  Contact businesses who can use the skills you have and share how you can save them money by working from home.
5. Understand that your employment status will probably be different. Most companies that are taking on home-based workers are hiring on a contract basis. That doesn’t mean the work is infrequent. It just means that the employer isn’t paying for all the other stuff traditional employers pay for such as taxes and benefits. Many people are afraid of contract work, but they shouldn’t be. In contract work it’s possible to get paid more, have a flexible schedule, and reap tax benefits that can offset losing employer perks.
6. Consider freelancing. Like contract work, many people fear freelancing. But finding work as a freelancer isn’t that much different than finding a job. The benefits are even better though when you consider that freelancers usually get paid more per hour than employees (so they can make more or work less), have a flexible schedule, can choose not to work with people they don’t like, and can opt to only do the types work they enjoy!

Work-at-home jobs are available. I find them online every day. But it’s not possible to sign up or submit a resume today and get a call tomorrow. You need to make yourself stand out from the crowd, be proactive in your pursuit, and flexible in the types of work you’re willing to take.

There are many reasons that I work at home. One of them is having a birthday today. My daughter Hannah was born 11 years ago to day (at about 3:00 pm). I was fortunate to have 3 months leave before returning to my social work job. But when I did return to work, it was very hard. Part of it was leaving my baby and pre-schooler with someone else. But another part of it was that Hannah was a challenging baby. She didn’t sleep well unless held and in fact pretty much cried most the time unless she was held. She was four … years not months… old before she slept through the night. Her dad and I were tired a lot.

Finding a way to work at home didn’t change her temperament, but it did allow our family to function much better. I could nap during the day to catch up on sleep lost during the night when she’d wake. I was able to give time and attention to both my kids because I didn’t feel drained after a days job and household duties. I would have to say that the flexibility that comes from working at home is the single greatest benefit…at least for me.

So Happy Birthday Hannah and thank you for being a catalyst in my work-at-home career!