Sunday, May 18, 2014

Home-based Adventure Begins in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

I have been in the call center industry for 10 years. I am burned out and calloused from all of the highs and lows of call center life. My sister in law who also maintains a blog- hoshilandia.com, resigned from her Ortigas-based writing career and went home-based. I have to admit I was surprised at first because during that time I thought home-based jobs were financially unreliable and knowing my sister-in-law is not much of a risk-taker. Months passed and I noticed that she was less stressed and very relaxed. I got curious and asked her what her job was online. She replied and told me that she works for a Canadian Company. The pay was regularly deposited to her bank account. I had to try it out. I went to the more popular websites for home-based freelancers which are freelancer.com and Odesk. I also went through some of the websites that she gave me.These are some of them:

1. Bestjobsph.com
2. Remotestaff.com.au
3. Onlinejobs.ph


There are also home-based English teaching jobs that you can take advantage of. Here are some of them:

1. 51talk.com
2. Rarejob.com.ph


I landed my first freelance job as an English Instructor at 51talk. The support people there are very accommodating and approachable. They will answer all of your questions and give you helpful information on how to go about teaching Chinese people the English language. You will earn around Php50- 60 pesos per 20 minute lesson. The catch there is that you wont get a lot of students asap. I hung around for a week without getting any bookings from students. I gave up because I didn't want to wait for a long time before I could earn decent money (remember, I have 4 kids).

So I looked for another job and this time I got a job as a transcriptionist. I was getting $10 per hour of audio transcribed. The first audio file I got was 18 minutes long. It had two African-American men rapping, I mean, talking with all their slang and cuss words. I found it real hard to transcribe because even though I am used to hearing Americans talk, transcribing is a whole new ball game. You really have to get each and every word that is in the audio file. Needless to say, I finished the file after a day of pausing, rewinding and slowing down the dreaded 18 minute audio file. I got paid $3 for all my painstakingly hard work.

Finally, I looked for a job in Onlinejobs.ph and successfully landed a job as a manuscript editor. It pays $30 for every 20,000 words. I was editing a 26,000 word, roughly-translated manuscript when Jake( President of an American Software company who is now my boss) emailed me and asked if I'm interested in a job as an assistant. I was thrilled because he offered me a relatively higher pay than what the other jobs paid me. So I finished the manuscript and emailed him, expressing my interest in the job. He then interviewed me over Skype and just like that, I landed a job as a Business Development Director at his company. He is very pleasant and easy to talk to. He is also very straight-forward and gives constructive feedback instantly. Overall, I am loving my current career in Business Development and I am looking forward to a great future with this company.



2 comments:

  1. wow congrats! katuwa naman this post and you make banggit your curly cute curacha sister in law pa. hehehe

    I think our timing is just right, may nauna na so we can learn from them and we're not late too. thus, there's no stiff competition but a lot of job opportunities. Of course, we need to learn more and expect some minor problems ( like Paypal hehehe) pero sige gora na this is it, Mabuhay!

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    1. You're welcome! Indeed I am anticipating hurdles along the way but I take comfort in the fact that I will learn from the best blogger I know(Yes, that means you). Thanks for the inspiration sis. God bless you!

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