Wear Your Pajamas to Work

3. Translation Services: If you’re fluent in a foreign language, you can work from your home or in the community. Most hospitals require translators in almost every foreign language. You can also work from home. Learn about opportunities at Telelanguage, the American Translators Association, or SDL. Again, you’ll need a complete computer, Internet connection, phone system, and a quiet work area. The pay can range from $15 to $40 an hour or more for languages in high demand.

4. Career Coaches: If you have a background in human resources, recruiting, or counseling, there is a tremendous demand for career coaches and job-search advisers. Unemployment is at record levels, and young and old workers alike need help with résumés, job searches, and career decisions.
    Most career coaches have their own businesses and work from home, but you can join a career-services network, such as Career Management Alliance. This organization maintains a list of qualified coaches, and prospective clients can search it. Also contact the human resource associations and organizations in your community to learn about local career-counseling associations. Check the listings in your local Yellow Pages for “Career Coaches,” and network with these people for ideas.

5. Other Expertise? – Many people have an expertise in some area, whether it’s nuclear energy or crocheting. Register at the online site, LivePerson, and present your expertise to online searches for experts in your field. You’ll be paid by the minute (yes, by the minute), and LivePerson.com handles all the administration. You just need the obligatory phone, computer, and Internet connections and to commit to a schedule of your choosing.

So Who’s for Real?

There are countless articles warning us of how to detect fraudulent work-at-home opportunities. That’s great, but how do you know for sure that an opportunity is legitimate? Even the Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with enforcing fraud laws governing franchises and work-at-home offerings, advises that it cannot verify whether or not any particular offer is legitimate. The FTC can only report the names of organizations people have complained about, while at the same time, acknowledging that scam artists change their names and Web sites as often as most people change their underwear.

Next: 10 Companies Hiring Now