After running a successful telecommuting site for over 8 years and an employment agency before that, I still get that one question over and over.

“Why have I not been able to land a work at home job?” My first answer is always the same. “Let’s look at your resume”.

So, inevitably, I take one look at their resume and know exactly why they have not been able to obtain the job they have been seeking. I call it the Lazy Resume Syndrome.

Case in point, one person, who will remain nameless, wanted to obtain a work at home position as a Customer Service Rep but had not pointed out any experience (although they had this) in customer service either in their objective or job experience. Another person who sent me their resume wanted a clerical position but in their objective had put that they wanted to use their management experience to obtain a job. Well, needless to say, that was not going to get them the job.

People just tend to use the same resume over and over for every position they apply to.

Being in the employment business, I have literally looked at thousands of resumes and I am still amazed at the lack of understanding of the importance of your resume matching the job you are applying for. The employer is going to reject you flat out if they do not see the skills they are looking for in the first 20 seconds.

So in this article, I hope to address how to put together a successful resume that will help you to land that coveted work at home job.

First off though, let me stress that you do need skills to obtain one of these positions. There is not a real work at home job that will say that you do not need skills. If they do they are most likely ad typing scams or other schemes that are launched by unethical individuals to lure you into ‘seeming’ employment with them when they are only out to scam you out of money.

So, with that said, let’s start with the most important part of creating your resume for telecommuting.

THE OBJECTIVE

Your objective is so very important because this will be the first thing the employer sees. Your objective should be focused on ONE job. So you may need several resumes, each with a different objective, for different jobs.

Ok, let’s say this person wants to obtain a Customer Service position that they can work from home. In this position, say they would be taking orders over the phone and inputting them at the same time into the computer.

It should be obvious to a person that their objective should now focus on this skill and reflect this in their objective but many people miss this point.

So let’s go with a few examples of objectives based on that particular job:

BAD:
Seeking to gain employment with a company using my management, administrative and clerical skills.

GOOD:
To obtain a telecommuting position using my 5 years of customer service and data entry skills.

BETTER:
To obtain a Customer Service Rep / Order Taker position that will utilize my 5 years of customer service and data entry experience.

So, now of course you can see which one the employer is going to see as the better match for their position.

The first objective has a myriad of skills that the employer isn’t necessarily interested in. The employer is not looking for a manager, administrative assistant or for clerical help for this position. Yet I see this time and time again where people do not take the time to focus the objective on the job.

So, to sum it up, your objective should closely match the job you are applying to.

Some people like to put a summary of skills right after their objective but I think it is not necessary and somewhat distracting. I think the next thing to list is your job skills.

Now, I am going to make a very important point. Your job skills need to match your objective. So in the previous case, your job skills should immediately reflect this experience in the first few points.

Using the previous case, then their employment history should read something like this:

Job History

Customer Service Rep
The Company 2003 – 2007
* Assisted customers over the phone with problems, issues.
* Helped customers with phone orders.
* Input customer data into computer system.

Now, not everyone is going to have a perfect job title that will match the objective but there are ways around this. You can either shorten your previous job title or change it slightly to try to ‘inch’ this into the title. For instance, say your actual job title was actually, Support Administrator, but you actually provided customer service to customers. You could change this to Support Admin / Customer Support. As long as you stay fairly close to the truth, I do not see anything wrong with this. I think what is most important is that you do have the skills to do the job.

So on the first two or so lines of the job skills, you should always list the skills that match up with your objective first.

I suggest using a bulleted format when listing your job skills. I think this is easier to read and also easier for the employer to spot the skills they are seeking.

Next, if you are looking for telecommuting work, I suggest listing your Home Office Equipment / Software. I think this is important because this will let the employer know that you are well equipped and ready to work remotely.

In the instance above, I think it would be important to list that I have high speed internet access, computer, operating system and that you have a separate land line with no call waiting. For this job you may even want to add that you have a distraction free environment as this would be important to that particular job.

As you can see it is very important to create a resume that closely reflects the job you are seeking. So, if you really want to get that elusive telecommuting job, always do the following on each of your resumes:

FOCUS your objective to the job you are applying to.
MATCH your job skills to the objective.
UTILIZE a bulleted list of job skills.
INCLUDE your Home Office Equipment / Software.

Wishing you resume success and happy telecommuting!

The world of business is changing by leaps and bounds thanks to the growth of the use of technology in everyday life. The emphasis today is on speed, speed, and even more speed. The reason for this great stress on speed? It is the fear that some other competitor might walk off with a lucrative business deal.

As competition continues to heat up in the world of business, as rival companies are born, merged or divided, and as newer and newer innovations lead to the rise of unique business opportunities, the need for better technology keeps on increasing. Sustained growth in business today depends on catching each opportunity at the right time. Technology is one way of doing that.

Remember those long-drawn business meetings that went on for hours and ended with no good conclusion? Remember the hours that were spent in waiting for all the delegates to enter the conference room? And what about all that stress over whether you will be able to reach the conference on time because you have gone and got yourself stuck in the mother of all traffic jams?

Well, web conferencing is the answer to all your conference problems. Okay, so it still is no guarantee that you will hit upon a great idea at the conference, but web conferencing will take away some of your other woes. At least you do not have to wait unnecessarily for people who have been stuck in traffic. Traffic — the grandfather of all excuses for unpunctuality — will no longer be a valid excuse.

Web conferencing — as is made evident by the name — refers to the conducting of a meeting over the Internet. Thus, people can sit at their own computers and be connected to others by a host site. In its initial years, web conferencing involved discussions posted on a message board. However, in those early years, this was not what one might call “live”. However, soon enough, it became possible to have a “virtual” meeting via the Internet.

Web conferencing today is not only much easier, but it also provides a number of different services. For instance, one could talk over live video — not tough at all in this era of the webcam. One could also have a slide presentation, where the presenter could highlight important points of interest on the slides. A poll could be taken and there could also be a session for questions and answers. Moreover, these are only a few of the basic features of web conferencing. Try it out some time, and the ease of it all will certainly have you hooked on to the idea.

Prepaid phone cards, also named prepaid calling cards, prepaid international phone cards are fast selling out from convenience stores, supermarkets and hundreds of websites online. There are many unique advantages associated with prepaid calling card. The main among them are:

Can make calls from a phone that is not international calling enabled. People choose international phone card, when they want to call up their friends, relatives or business partners who live half way down the globe. No agreements to sign and no bills to wait for.

Customers save 54% to 76%on international calling with prepaid phone cards. With advancements in technology, people can today cut costs of international calling by 50% or more, simply by using international phone card. For example the cost of calling to India from USA starts from 3.3 ¢ a minute plus local call charges with India phone card. For toll free access of international calling, the per-minute charges can be a bit higher. The customer also doesn’t have to pay hefty taxes as much as they would if they use their regular telephones or mobile phones to make long distance international calls.

No bills. The cheap international calling card that is prepaid avoids the worry of waiting for an astronomical bill at the end of the month. The expenses are well within control of the customers.

Mobility and flexibility are other key benefits of prepaid phone cards. Customers can make calls from any phones. You can call from home, office, payphone or from your friend’s house. The phone doesn’t have to be enabled with international long distance calling provisions.

Monitor usage history. Different online phone card sellers give the provision of tracking your call history online. You can know when and for how long did you make an international call.

Some Significantly Important Terms Prepaid Calling Card Customers Must Know About

Connection Charge - if the phone card has a connection fee, the amount will be deducted from the number of available calling minutes. Most prepaid calling cards today come without a connection charge. Look at the fine print, if the card you purchase has connection fee. The amount will be deducted from your account if the call reaches a voice mail or a wrong number.

Maintenance Fee - this is another fee charged on the card on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis. No maintenance fee if the full value is used in a week, fortnight or a month.

Local Access Number - this is the number you dial to access the service offered by the prepaid calling card. Using local access number to access prepaid phone card service gives more minutes than while using toll free number to access the service.

Validity and Expiry - different prepaid phone card companies have different policies regarding validity and expiry. Validity can vary from 90 days of purchase of the card to 365 days after the last use of the card.

With dozens of companies selling prepaid calling card, it is a tough task to make the right choice. Go in with the simple math of comparing the number of minutes you get against the amount you pay.

You can now make long duration calls to India while paying less per minute. Cheap prepaid international calling card (India phone card) keeps you connected with your business partners, relatives or friends who are currently on the other side of the globe, in India.

Anyone who looks to purchase India phone card today have a wide selection of operators and calling cards. These cheap international calling cards that come with zero connection fees can be purchased for as low as $2; 3.3¢ a minute or up to 151 minutes talk time for a $ 5 value international calling card.

When looking for international phone card, you can go for online phone card. A professional website that sells long distance calling card sells almost 900 cheap international calling cards. It is just a matter of prudent search to find the professional website that sells online phone card or prepaid international calling card.

Prepaid phone cards are the best choice when it comes to international phone cards. This gives more control over your budget and most importantly prepaid phone cards are easier to procure. You get cheap India phone card rates while some India phone card companies charge you up to 80¢ a minute. Get India phone card that comes with no connection fees or hidden charges. Make sure you get what you pay for and make sure you are getting full value of your money.

Prepaid international phone card or online phone card must also be supported by a service that ensures voice clarity.

While purchasing prepaid international calling card, there can be a period of validity. Usually the validity period is up to 90 days of purchase. Before you put an order for an India calling card, make sure to check if there are any service charges by the website that sells phone cards. There can be up to $1 service charge for prepaid international phone card of very low denomination. There will not be a service charge if you make a purchase of higher denomination ($20) international phone card. However, have an idea about this service charge before you put an order.

To use your India telephone card, you must first dial the pin number and listen to the message that tells the remaining calling minutes on your India phone card. Then you can dial the destination number. Once you dial the destination number in India, you will get another message stating the number of minutes left for you to call to that specific number.

The connection time is calculated 30-45 minutes of connection ring and not from the time of answer. The seconds will not start counting until that much time into starting the ringing. Find the fact about your prepaid international phone card rate calculation. Hang up if there is no answer within the stipulated time to try again.

There is also difference in rates of making calls from or to cell phones. This is because of the extra technology involved in completing the call.

One way to work from home is to hire yourself out to companies wanting to hire people that want to stay at home and work. This is great for people who do not want to commute back and forth everyday. This is known as telecommuting. There are a number of companies you can do that for. There are many places to find employers looking for employees.

These companies break down the jobs into categories including website design, sales, artists, freelance, programmers and more. One way to work from home that these companies offer has is to do customer service work and answer the phone. This type of work includes inbound sales where you get paid to offer solutions and then ask for the order.

There is one company who is unique in how they do this is. This company offers a customer call center that is staffed with people who work from their homes in the United States. These people work as an independent agent. Many times you here of companies moving their call centers over to somewhere like India. There are many companies that are proud to work with American companies providing employees who work right here in the USA.

An Agent is an independent contractor that develops and manages their own business. An Independent Agent contracts with LiveOps under an Independent Contractors Agreement to receive calls from people requesting products or services from clients.
The type of people who successfully work from home with these companies according to them:

1)They are professional and capable of providing a high level of service to all phone calls they receive
2)They enjoy the freedom that working at home allows
them but will be available to work a certain amount of hours a week
3)They are positive and optimistic
4)They are tolerant and accepting of differing view points
5)They are even tempered and handle frustration well
6)They are comfortable with numeric reasoning
7)They log on time, and honor all time commitments

They require you have a computer with high speed internet connection and a separate phone line to receive calls. This is true for many work from home positions. Since you are answering the phone for companies they want no noise in the background. All pets have to be separate for where you are working.

A separate phone line makes sense with all of the interruptions your home phone can bring including the most obnoxious of all, call waiting.

Other telecommuting positions will require you to have a fax number, unlimited long distance, learn how to operate a client resource management system (crm system) use email, and Microsoft windows systems.

If you have a background dealing with customers on the phone working from home in the telecommuting industry may just be for you. You have to be disciplined enough to work when you are working and not get sidetracked with the many distractions working at home can bring.

This is why many companies require a separate work area because they know how difficult it can be at times to focus on working. The rewards of telecommuting are many and worth whatever it takes to get yourself and your home set up properly.