Career Obstacles
The Heat is On: Don’t Let the Summer Sun Melt Your Career Search
Editorial Team
School’s out, the sun is shining, and your career search is, well… did we mention the sun is shining?
It’s easy to get caught up in the lazy days of summer, but this is the prime time for you to really step up and stand out. With less competition during the slower summer months, you’ll have greater odds of grasping that employer’s attention. So while everyone else is relaxing by the pool, you should be running toward your goal. Here are some tips on how to keep your career search cool in the summer heat:
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On The Job: Who Gets Respect?
Editorial Team 19In her new movie, The Switch, Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who chooses to be a single mom. Bill O’Reilly criticized that phenomenon—just as Vice President Dan Quayle famously did when he knocked Murphy Brown for doing it back in the 90s.
Ten Bogus Work From Home Schemes to Avoid
Editorial Team 221. Envelope Stuffing
Spend $20 to $50 and you’ll get a starter kit instructing you to mail flyers aimed at recruiting other people to stuff envelopes. You aren’t promoting a product or service—just getting people to accept the same offer. If they purchase the same kit, you get a commission. It won’t happen. Recruiting people to stuff envelopes is the oldest work-from-home gimmick. Don’t be fooled.
2. Email Processing
A modern-day version of the envelope stuffing con, for a fee you can become a “highly-paid” email processor working from home. Pay the fee and you get instructions on spamming the same ad you responded to in newsgroups and Web forums, with a promise of $25 for each ad accepted. No one accepts such ads.
3. Faux Data Entry
You’re offered access to companies supposedly looking to farm out basic data entry for an ad campaign—for an access fee. The work will never materialize.
4. “Just call” 1-900
Just remember: 1-900 numbers cost YOU money to call, which is how scammers get their money, by offering bogus work from home schemes. Once you’ve called, they’ve made their money—and you’ve lost yours.
5. Check Cashing
Scammers recruit “financial managers” or “representatives” or “sales managers” to cash checks (which are counterfeit) or deposit funds (which are stolen) for a small commission and then wire the money abroad, often to the scammers themselves. By the time the checks bounce, the money has already been sent. You are left holding the bag. If you’re asked for banking passwords or you hear the words “Western Union” mentioned, run for the hills.
6. Assembly Work
Avoid ads that say you can make “easy money” assembling items (usually crafts) from home. These cons usually require an upfront deposit for supplies, which never materialize. And even when they do, there’s no market for your “crafts.”
7. Medical Billing/Contract Typing
Most of these schemes promise hundreds, even thousands of dollars per week for processing insurance claims for doctors or typing for people who are too busy to do either. Both require you to pay upfront for materials and or “leads,” which turn out to be worthless.
8. Name Compiling
For a small (maybe $30) “registration fee” you are promised 50 cents for every name and address you send in. So you send in the money and give names and addresses of everyone you know. The scammers take your money—then contact every name you have given with the same scam. You get stiffed and your pals get spammed.
9. Mystery Shopping
In this scam, an official-sounding company promises to reimburse you for purchases during your mystery shopping rounds—once you pay a “registration fee” to find assignments in its (bogus) data base. Legitimate mystery shopping outfits never require a fee to search for companies requesting their services.
10. Companies Looking for “Homeworkers”
Pay a small fee for a list of companies who are supposedly looking for people (like you) who want to work from home. What you get is a generic, outdated list, some of which don’t want people who work from home, others who did—years ago. Don’t buy lists.
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Learn more about avoiding work from home scams and finding legitimate work from home opportunities in our extensive section of articles; in the New York Times bestseller, Will Work from Home: Earn the Cash Without the Commute; and in our all-new Make Money at Home 12-month program of advice, ideas and resources to help you discover the right path for you.
Who is The Authentic You?
Editorial Team 16
Thanks to Julia Roberts’ new movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love, a lot of people are being prompted to reflect on what matters most to them right now.
Gilbert says that at some point in all of our lives we need to pause and reflect “to take a CT scan on our soul to determine who is the authentic you.”
Has Adversity Made You Stronger?
Editorial Team 1
This recession has tested all of us—and there are plenty of tales of woe and sadness. But there are just as many success stories, instances where everyone from friends to strangers, neighborhoods to entire communities, have banded together to triumph over challenging times. For a continuing project that we have underway, Women For Hire is compiling these stories. What’s yours? Where exactly have found your resilience? What kind of solutions have you created at work to hold onto your job—from job sharing to a voluntary furlough and beyond? If you’re a manager or boss, tell us about the creative solutions that you put into place not only for the good of your company and bottom line, but for the people and their families who work for you. We’re looking for examples not just of how you or someone you know is coping, but specifically how you or they have actually implemented a solution. Share your story here.
Stress on the Job: The Recruiter's Perspective
Editorial Team 6
Since nearly 70% of Americans say they’re stressed about work, I decided to tackle the topic on Good Morning America, where I’ve been the workplace contributor for five years.
To prep for today’s segment, I asked women to write to me about their experiences.