working from home, for elderly former house husband with some STEM

February 16, 2024 9:01 PM

I'm in my 70's, and need to find some work I can do from home. Does MeFi have any ideas for me?

I have some skills in statistics and programming, but not at a professional level. I used to be able to write technical prose pretty well though I am very rusty. I am a longtime house-husband but the kids are out of the house now. I have an MS in mathematics from a large university.

I am in the US. I would be happy with a job with just a few hours, maybe about $1000/mo.

Right now looks like a terrible time to look for a writing job, with scary stories about AI taking over the simplest work. I am not good at tutoring, so I would rather not go that direction.

Really my best skill is reading lots of books, and no one will pay me for that :)

posted by Vegiemon to Work & Money (7 answers total)

I teach enrichment math courses online and the base requirement is an MS in math. The courses take place over Zoom, so your level of comfort using online conferencing software be a factor in whether this is actually something that interests you, but a good number of our teachers are older and retired from full-time work. I know you said you're not interested in tutoring, but to me this is very different - there are defined lessons and lots of training and feedback given to teachers along the way.

Here's the current job posting: https://artofproblemsolving.com/careers/job/4253994003_virtual_math_instructor_pt_
posted by augustimagination at 9:26 PM on February 16

(Also if you have any specific questions about the posting or company feel free to DM me. And just so it's clear, I don't receive any kind of compensation for referring people to jobs there. I've just worked for them myself for a number of years now and can recommend them as a legit, high quality online employer)
posted by augustimagination at 9:29 PM on February 16

Academic editing, specializing in math? This is a company I know is legit:
https://company.researchsquare.com/freelance
posted by Dashy at 6:06 AM on February 17

Depending on how you feel about gig work and AI training, there are a number of companies that are basically the MechanicalTurk of the current era.

I’ve personally heard about Remotasks and DataAnnotations, and people on the subreddit BeerMoney also have some success stories about TelusInternational.

These are not “jobs” and project availability can fluctuate, but with some luck you might be able to tech-screen yourself into worthwhile project brackets.
posted by itesser at 7:40 AM on February 17

A few ideas:
- It's a campaign year and there are several listings out there for campaign researchers. These roles would make good use of your reading, research, and writing skills. You can search with the terms "campaign research associate" + "opposition research associate" + "research analyst" + "research assistant".
- Virtual assistant roles widely vary, but you could search that term and see if any job descriptions are a nice match your specific skills. I'm guessing that your statistics and programming skills could be an asset that some other candidates aren't able to offer.
- If your strengths in statistics extend to data analysis, including with Excel, SQL, etc., try looking for "data analyst" and "data coordinator" roles.
- I wouldn't entirely give up on writing, and recommend looking at "technical writing" or "technical editing" positions.

In terms of where/how to find these positions, include "remote" in your generic Google searches but also look on the search platforms that are specific to remote jobs like We Work Remotely and remote.co.

Finally, be prepared to send in lots of applications and not hear back from most of them. Job searching these days is a numbers game, and you can't take it personally. Most open positions receive hundreds if not thousands of applications, so it's harder than ever to be noticed. If there's anyone in your wider network that you might reach out to asking about consulting, contracting, temp, or part time jobs in their orgs, that might lead you to some more promising options. Good luck!
posted by luzdeluna at 7:56 AM on February 17

Thanks for all the suggestions, they are just the kinds of things I wanted. And your answers give me motivation, it was hard for me to even know where to start.
posted by Vegiemon at 10:31 PM on February 17

Are you looking for something in your skillset or just anything to keep you busy? There are quite a few data entry or call center companies that are fully remote (me-mail me if you're interested in data entry for medical records keeping, I know a guy...)
posted by LizBoBiz at 9:57 PM on February 18