What to learn for decent-paying telecommutable jobs?

November 17, 2008 6:48 AM

Help me find the right track for my job, MeFi! What do I do to find a $20-$30/hr travel-light/telecommutable job?

I'm 24, and I just realized that I'm wasting my entire life working. I've got a great job, a nice house, a new car, and good clothes... and absolutely no time to enjoy any of them. So I'm changing this. First things first, I'm paying off what debt I hold - aside from my car, this should be done in the next month or so. Then I'm paying off my car and building up a savings while I cut back on other expenses. However, here's the most important part:

When I imagine the ideal job for myself, it's something in the pay range listed above. This pays for my bills, and allows some savings for travel/emergencies. Anything above and beyond that is a blessing, but that's what I need to make. Ideally, I'd be able to telecommute with flexible hours as long as I meet deadlines, but regular hours from a home office would be all right too. Ideally, I'd be able to telecommute from anywhere, but occasional commitments locally would be all right.

I know, I know, and why not ask for a gold-plated sink, too? I think this is very doable, as long as I redirect my focus to learning the skills needed to make myself attractive in such a job. I worked my way from being homeless to a job with a company credit card and six-figure potential in a year, so I think I can accomplish most things I put my mind to. So what do I need to learn? What sort of job fits my criteria?

Help me MeFi, you're my only hope!

posted by ggypsy to work & money (9 comments total)

some kind of programming language - i'm not talking HTML - that you are highly skilled at.

even then you'll have to put in your time in an office first. once you have a rep for being reliable then you can work from home, or look for a company that's virtual.

the economy is going into the toilet, if you haven't noticed. jobs are being cut by the boatload. people are going to agree to do anythign for any salary under any condition just in order to have a job. being able to write your own ticket or transition into something new.. this isn't a risk I would think about taking right now. i really admire your ambition and your verve and your ability to get things done, based on what you've noted above. i just see things like citicorp cutting 20k jobs and wonder what's going to happen to all those people.
posted by micawber at 7:13 AM on November 17, 2008

Yes, you can totally do this. I went from being in school with no real job to a situation very similar to this (dare I say better) in less than two years. (I dropped out of college.) Hard work pays off. I had very similar goals to you (lots of money with no 9-5 cube).

I started off blogging, oddly enough -- in a topic I was interested in. It was something I could do in my spare time and the rewards were directly related to how much work I put into it (a lot). Get used to the idea that you very well may have to start off small, making not a lot of money (maybe in your spare time) and put in long hours. You will probably have to carve your own path -- create your own job -- even if its within an existing company. That's what I did.

Unfortunately I don't think there's going to be one particular job that is suited for this type of situation. You're better off finding out exactly what you want, what sort of work would make you genuinely happy, and then striving to make $X doing just that, under your own terms.
posted by nitsuj at 7:20 AM on November 17, 2008

First of all congratulations about your financial situation, and it sounds like you have a good plan. Even if your current job situation isn't ideal, you're already in a position that a lot of people spend a long time to get to. I definitely recommend building up a significant amount of savings (both short term emergency savings and long term retirement savings) while you get your long term career direction sorted out.

As far as the job you've described, there are a lot of positions in IT where you can get something in that price range with flexible hours and at least some telecommuting. Entry level programming jobs, for example, can be in that price range from the start. You do need to have strong skills to get that kind of position (a degree in Computer Science helps, but isn't necessarily required). It would probably take a long time (think years) to go from being someone who has never written a line of code to someone who can compete in the job market for decent programming jobs.

This is just my personal advice, but if I were you I would focus more on finding a realistic career that I could see myself being happy in and less on specifics like being able to telecommute. If you don't like your actual job, you'll be unhappy no matter what kinds of hours you have, no matter what kinds of money you make, and no matter where you do it at. If you love your job, you can be happy even if all of the details aren't perfect.
posted by burnmp3s at 7:30 AM on November 17, 2008

What burnmp3s said. In your entire description of your "ideal job" you didn't mention a single thing about the job.

Find a job you enjoy doing, because no matter what the salary or perquisites are, you're still going to be spending most of your time doing your job. Working from home is still working.
posted by ook at 8:16 AM on November 17, 2008

Freelance editing of various kinds, if you've got (or can pick up) the skills.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:47 AM on November 17, 2008

My ideal job, though, really would be "not working." :P I enjoy writing, but I fear that if I depended on it for a paycheck it would lose its appeal as a creative outlet. I love love love theatre, on or behind the stage, but it seems imprudent to think I can keep the bills paid with it. I don't place much stock in winning the lottery or finding out about a long-lost rich relative, so I think I'm just going to have to settle for finding something that doesn't irratate me to the point of exhausted depression and trying to orchestrate it in such a way as to leave me as much of my life to do the things I do enjoy as possible.
posted by ggypsy at 10:56 AM on November 17, 2008

My ideal job, though, really would be "not working."

Tough; that's not an option. It's also not true -- idleness gets boring and really depressing surprisingly quickly. Take it from someone who learned the very hard way.

I'm just going to have to settle for finding something that doesn't irritate me to the point of exhausted depression

Well, if you start with the assumption that a job based on something you actually enjoy doing can't possibly exist, that's what you're left with, yeah. On the other hand, you could spend some time saving up that "six-figure potential" salary and then use it as a safety net while you try writing or working in theatre, if that's what you really love. You might not be able to buy as many shiny toys, but as you already know, what good are shiny toys if you never have time to play with them?

Like it or not, you're going to spend most of your life working, unless you marry well or win the lottery. So try to make it something you love, while you still have the choice.

Settling for something just because it's not completely awful is the kind of decision you might end up having to make at some point -- not everyone finds their perfect career -- but twenty-four years old is really early to be giving up on trying.
posted by ook at 11:58 AM on November 17, 2008

I think I'm just going to have to settle for finding something that doesn't irratate me to the point of exhausted depression and trying to orchestrate it in such a way as to leave me as much of my life to do the things I do enjoy as possible.

That's been my approach, too. Like you, I enjoy writing, but making it a paid job took all the joy out of it for me. I have many other creative activities that I pursue as well, so I set out to find paid employment that would leave me with as much room for those activities as possible.

Though it took me until the age of 40 to figure it out, I finally decided on accounting. As I've written elsewhere on AskMe, it's an acquired taste for me, but I'm finding (to my surprise and delight) that I'm not "settling" - I really and truly enjoy it. I don't know how flexible it's going to be with respect to telecommuting, but I do know of several accountants who are very happy with their jobs and still have flexible work arrangements even in the current dismal economic climate, so at least there's hope. I'm still an intermediate-level student and haven't yet worked in the field, though, so take all this with the proverbial grain of salt.
posted by velvet winter at 12:11 PM on November 17, 2008

Rather than looking for a telecommute for a lower pay rate, could you try to leverage your potential value with your current employer into a part-time position? I had a a friend do this, basically going from a full-time position in a health-care field to a parttime/on-call/substitute position. He covered a few crappy hours, maybe 10 or so each week, that were problems on the schedule, and then picked up the rest subbing for sick days, vacations, etc. Some weeks he worked just 10 hrs, others, closer to 40. At the end of a year, he was averaging about 20 hours a week, had tons of time for personal interests, etc, and was perfectly content on half of his previous professional salary. He sold it to his employer by pointing out the potential gains for them, and by having already proved himself a valuable team member.
posted by donnagirl at 9:49 PM on November 17, 2008