Want to learn how to find legit work-from-home jobs? We share our 4 best remote job search tips to help you land your dream role and avoid job scams now!
If you’re itching to start working remotely, your first step is learning how to find legit work from home jobs.
Unfortunately, now that remote jobs have become so desirable post-pandemic, WFH job scams have also skyrocketed.
Online job scams are everywhere, from social media influencers promising to help you get rich to fraudsters reaching out on LinkedIn with freelance remote gigs.
How To Find Legit Work From Home Jobs in 4 Easy Steps
These four tips can help you find legitimate work from home jobs and save yourself the hassle, headache, and embarrassment of falling for a fake opportunity:
1. Learn How To Tell a Legitimate Remote Job from a Scam
Before you get too deep in your remote job search, it’s essential to learn how to avoid employment scams.
Fake job offer emails and fake online job listings usually share a few traits, such as:
- Vague job descriptions
- Nonexistent company histories
- Crazy high salaries
- Spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
- Requests for confidential or sensitive personal information (like your driver’s license or Social Security Number).
- Caveats that you need to buy something before you start earning or must invest in supplies, a background check, starter kit, training materials, etc.
- These are just a few red flags and warning signs that should tip you off.
2. Skip the Giant Traditional Job Boards
Once you know how to identify fake job offers online, you may automatically jump to well-known job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed. But these sites are pretty much the last place you want to check.
3. Build Your Remote Job Portfolio with Gigs from Freelance Marketplaces
Whether you’re changing careers, just graduated, or dipping your toes into the idea of working from home, freelance marketplaces give you the experience and taste of remote work nearly risk-free.
That’s because these sites act like a middleman between clients and creators. The platform ensures you get paid for your work while providing recourse for customers if they’re unhappy with what they receive.
So let’s say you’re hoping to break into graphic design. You can start designing logos, packaging, or websites for paying customers until you land a full-time role with a remote company.
Further, each job you complete can be added to your remote job portfolio, work experience, personal website, etc. When potential employers look you up online (and they do!), they’ll be able to see you have the self-discipline, motivation, and tech skills for remote work.
Freelance marketplaces are great for starting your WFH journey and building your personal brand. However, we don’t recommend them as a long-term career strategy.
Here’s a rundown of all the pros and cons associated with freelance WFH gigs:
Pros and Cons of Freelance WFH Jobs
A freelancer works independently and operates like a small business. They can charge their own prices for services, set their own hours, and only work on projects that interest them.
The downsides of being a freelancer include:
- Not having a steady income
- Having to bid on projects or network 24/7 to find clients
- Doing your own taxes
- Not having paid time off or sick days
- Paying for your own health insurance
- Working alone
- Missing out on a competitive employee benefits package
- You’ll also need to pay a commission or fee to those marketplaces on everything you produce, which will definitely eat into your earning potential.
Pros and Cons of Being a Remote Employee
- Remote employees work for a company. This organization may be 100% remote, with fully distributed teams working around the world. Or it may just allow specific employees/departments to WFH
- Remote employees are entitled to perks like:
- An ongoing hourly wage or annual salary
- Paid time off
- The best company benefits
- Mostly hassle-free income taxes
- Career advancement opportunities
- Social events (like company retreats) and team-building activities
- You can still travel while working remotely as an employee. But you may not have as much flexibility with your work hours as a freelancer. On the other hand, employee perks and income stability are why many people choose the remote employee route rather than grinding away in the gig life.
Psst! Feel free to bypass the freelance route if you’re not into the hustle. You can land one of these high-paying remote jobs with no remote experience!
4. Go Directly To a Remote Job Board like We Work Remotely
- Not to toot our own horn, but We Work Remotely is the best job board to find legit work from home jobs.
- We’ve posted over 28,000 remote jobs from the top companies around the globe. You’ll find legit WFH jobs from industry-leading titans up-and-coming startups.
- You’ll never have to worry about online job scams when browsing remote roles on WWR, and that’s a huge sigh of relief.
- We know job hunting depression is real. So we strive to make searching for your dream role as easy and fast as possible.
