What are your work from home jobs?

[DozyCah]

I have just returned to work about a year ago, after being at home with dcs. I was an 'accidental' SAHM as my office closed while I was on maternity leave with one of my dcs and I didn't have a job to return to.

I am working in a school atm, and obviously this is great due to me getting the holidays off so I can do childcare. Dcs are still little, so this is great. However I'm really missing working full time / year round and, honestly, my salary is so poor. I'd make a lot more if I worked even a four day week year round.

My problem is obviously covering childcare, which we have to pay for as no help from family (I know most people are in this same boat btw and it is fair enough - our dcs, our childcare bill). However, what would really help would be if I could work from home so I'm not having to commute and can hopefully work more flexibly.

I might be sounding like a massively entitled princess here, but my goal is to find a flexible, wfh job. I can throw some time ans money at retraining, but I just need some ideas of what is in demand which I can do from home and reasonably flexibly.

I think this makes a lot more sense for us financially, and money is tighter these days.

Any ideas really appreciated.

FWIW I have a decent degree but not in anything terrible useful 😁 (language and politics)

Head of HR

Thanks! And does your team wfh as well or are they office based? I did work in hr previously babies!

I'm in Learning & Decelopment, I design internal training courses, things like induction, upskilling for new products, sales methodologies, etc. These roles are frequently advertised as hybrid or fully remote. I'm currently in a hybrid role. It means I can flex around GP appointments for DC, sick days, school closures, etc. Without wfh/remote/hybrid I just couldn't work.

I'm in IT.

My specific area is hard to get into without years of experience but Project Management is easier.

What did you do before? You need to link the next job to that in some way so your previous experience still helps you get the next role.

Thanks.

Experience before dcs was mainly admin. That was in HR, finance and corporate travel.

I do have some recent finance experience from the school I now work in. But my current job is classroom based. I do love being in the classroom, but I'm not sure if I want to train as a teacher which would be the natural thing to do to improve salary and progress my career from here.

So I'm in a bit of a dillema really.

They are advertising for more help with finance at school. Maybe that would be what I should try and do next and then I could move from school hours back to full time later?

The other thing I did a lot of while a SAHM was I worked evenings and weekends in high end restaurants. I could do something related to that (eg reservationist)

I work in the digital team for a financial organisation. I.e. the web chat team.

Said organisation actually sold off a lot of their properties during lockdown, so wfh is now the norm for them.

It’s also the norm for a lot of call centres and digital teams.

Sales
I cover export sales for a couple of US companies so mostly wfh, occasional trips

I would have thought your admin experience would make you suitable for lots of wfh jobs - have you registered with an agency?

My SIL & BIL both wfh for the 2 local councils

What about TEFL online?

NHS formerly-office-based job.

Oh that's a great idea. Teaching and language-y

Will look into this.

I also have a friend who works in this area. She sets exams I think. She works remotely. Can ask her about it maybe.

Thanks for this 😀

IT - have wfh for about 5 years now with occasional travel.

I’d recommend the civil service! I work for the cabinet office and am in the office once a week :) there would be some finance/hr roles that would be hybrid arrangement which might suit you. I work compressed hours 5 days over 4 which also works for our childcare arrangements nicely.

Thanks, there are so many great ideas on here. Not for right now, but to work towards.

I will maybe brush up my cv over the next week and see if any agencies think it's worth a shot.

I'm not sure why I'm working so part time when there is the option to work full time (or nearly full time) but around dcs. It doesn't make sense financially I don't think. We do have some after school care in place already so that would help if I did move.

My friends work in finance and HR for a MAT. So they get all the school hols and wfh. Sounds ideal for you.

Thanks @middleager . I'm not sure I want the school holidays tbh, which is why I'm considering a bit of a change. It is mainly the knock to my salary which is the issue, (as I obviously get paid prorated on the number of weeks of the year I work), but it also can be a little inflexible. I know the pay off is loads of holiday, but I'm not sure that it is worth it for me.

I think before going down the finance route you need to think about an end goal. Lower level finance jobs aren't (as a whole) well paid, the money tends to come through progression and qualifications. If you're looking at something with good earning potential just make sure you're open to the idea of exams and that finance is where you want to end up. I'm an accountant and love it, but it's not for everyone and unless you're really prepared to stay in finance it can be low paid and the more junior roles.

I have a weird niche job in local government which I don't think exists everywhere so won't say what it is. But I recommend looking generally at vacancies at councils near you and thinking about transferable skills, which is what I did pre-pandemic when looking for better work life balance. I didn't even know my current job existed until I saw the vacancy but it's ideal: flexible hours, mostly wfh now with occasional in person visits (usually at times decided by me), very hands off as long as I get my work done, make myself available for big meetings, and don't take the piss.

A lot of it depends on having good management who look at results rather than time staring at a screen, so make sure you get a good vibe at interview.

Thank you @AdInfinitum12 . That's good advice. I've never seriously considered being an accountant. I did do a paralegal qualification in wills, estates and executries a few years ago, which is quite finance-y and I did enjoy it. It would be a bit decision though and a big commitment so worth giving some thought

I'm NHS and most of our corporate e.g. HR, Finance, Information Governance etc jobs all work at least part of the time from home now. Some people are in the office more because it suits them, some turn up once a month if that because they are supposed to. This is even the entry-level admin jobs, once the staff are trained to a decent standard.

I work as a Compliance and Risk officer for a University. I do 3 days at home and 2 on campus but I am able to be fully remote if needs be.

Cool thread. I have project management skills and know Agile very well etc but are there any courses I could take to be in a position to apply for specific PM roles in Tech industry?

I'd love this. I think it's my career goal and I'll happily invest my time and money to get there

Im down in Cornwall so if I want a decent career it means hybrid or remote.

I work in cybersecurity and compliance. There is a major workforce shortage so a good time to get into it if you have any interest.

(ISC)2 are offering a free course and examination for entry level cyber security certification at the moment www.isc2.org/1mcc#

L&D Manager (HR). Work from home for most of the time now but do have weeks (like this week!) when I need to be in the office more. I was office based until this role and I LOVE wfh. It's transformed things for me and the home life of my family

Engagement Manager in a Professional Services department.

Thanks, that's really interesting, thank you