Technical "Work at home jobs" Has anyone here done them ?

mgmguy1

Hey All,
I am considering doing a work from home job. Has anyone here done a Technical work from job before ?
The Pay is a-little lower then what I am use to making but I think it would be better then being on Unemployment.

Let me know your thoughts
mgmguy1

gbdavidx

my friend is an apple senior specialist, he walks 10 feet from his bed and he is at work, answers calls from his bedroom

NetworkVeteran

I've worked from home many times. It's never involved lower pay. The main downside would be lower job security. Your co-workers don't know you as well, as what can be done from home can often be done from Timbuktu for less.

The main upside would be money and time saved on the commute.

mgmguy1

If I did something like this it would be short term 6-9 mos unless they made it worth my while. In any case, I don't have any experience in this type of work. I have worked in call centers for AT&T,Verizon and smaller Telecommunications outfits. I am looking at this type of work to get me back to work.

Any suggestions of a reputable outfit in the United states would be appreciated.

NetworkVeteran

Is there much difference between answering calls from a call center vs. answering calls from home, or debugging a routing problem from your home office vs. debugging a routing problem from your work office?

If so, I haven't seen it, besides when it comes to collaboration / team-work.

Macpro76

i had the same interview with an Apple rep about an 'at home phone tech". The apple rep said that I was OVER qualified. lol

seth479

I have two work at home jobs. I'm a Tier 2 iOS Advisor with Apple which doesn't pay a whole lot but I've learned a ton. I also work for Intermedia doing Exchange, PBX and Sharepoint support. It pays $18 an hour but its part time at 20/week and you can cover but can't go over 30/week. It's definitely worth checking out, they provide training a machine and phone to work with. I love it.

Totino

seth479 wrote: »

I have two work at home jobs. I'm a Tier 2 iOS Advisor with Apple which doesn't pay a whole lot but I've learned a ton. I also work for Intermedia doing Exchange, PBX and Sharepoint support. It pays $18 an hour but its part time at 20/week and you can cover but can't go over 30/week. It's definitely worth checking out, they provide training a machine and phone to work with. I love it.

Intermedia sounds pretty interesting. Is that a type of position that would be flexible with hours using it as a PT you could do after your day job?

seth479

Totino wrote: »

Intermedia sounds pretty interesting. Is that a type of position that would be flexible with hours using it as a PT you could do after your day job?

Its actually a set schedule you get during training but they try to work with you but when I started there were only two schedule choices and mine was the earliest. I work 10am-2pm CST Mon-Fri at Intermedia and then my job with Apple is also at home and I'll work 3pm-11:30pm or 9:30pm depending on coverage needs.

LarryDaMan

I've always worked with classified/sensitive data until recently, so very little telecommuting opportunities. Added up, I've probably wasted entire months of my life in DC traffic. My current position is more research oriented (no classified), so I could telecommute.... but I am 1 mile from work now!. No need.

On the days I have worked from home, I do tend to get distracted by TV and web surfing and family. Kudos to those who can telecommute effectively everyday.

ptilsen

I can do 90% of my job from home, but I'm not allowed to other than for special occasions. I haven't found many tech jobs that offer primarily or entirely telecommute that weren't support jobs. As such, I can't say whether they necessarily come with less pay, but to be honest I would probably take it. I would definitely make a lateral move for even 50% telecommute. The car savings alone would be enough of a raise to justify it.

bdub

Where I work we have a pretty flexible schedule and can WFH if we are not feeling well, need to be home for a delivery etc.. Some people have scheduled WFH days of the week and when I had my second son I spent a couple of weeks WFH after I used up my maternity leave + PTO. Its pretty nice and is a huge perk, the flexibility to me is worth a lot.

gunbunnysoulja

I have been working at home for 2 years now. My company created the position for me when I was moving out of state. There are many DoD contracts that take place offsite, so this affords a lot of remote participation on large scale projects. I don't do phone break/fix at all, but rather everything is research, testing or project driven.

pixa241

seth479 wrote: »

I have two work at home jobs. I'm a Tier 2 iOS Advisor with Apple which doesn't pay a whole lot but I've learned a ton. I also work for Intermedia doing Exchange, PBX and Sharepoint support. It pays $18 an hour but its part time at 20/week and you can cover but can't go over 30/week. It's definitely worth checking out, they provide training a machine and phone to work with. I love it.

How do you like working for Intermedia. I currently have a full time job from 3 - 1130, but also want to gain some experience and there are not part time IT jobs in my area. I researched it and it seems something I would like to try.

colemic

might look into companies that promote ROWE (Results-Oriented Work Environment) - they then to offer a LOT of flexibility as long as you get stuff done.

QHalo

I have an 8ms VPN tunnel to work and my desk phone next to me. I might as well be at the office. Other than to put in a piece of hardware or failure, I could do my job 100% from home and I do try and WFH as much as I can.

Moon Child

mgmguy1 wrote: »

Hey All,
I am considering doing a work from home job. Has anyone here done a Technical work from job before ?
The Pay is a-little lower then what I am use to making but I think it would be better then being on Unemployment.

Let me know your thoughts
mgmguy1

I am sure there are a lot of valid at home IT jobs out there, but this is an area you have to watch out for scams. I have tried applying to at home IT jobs before only to discover they were take your money and run scams. Pay us $900 for the software you will need to install on your computer. Wait 5 business days in the mail for our software to mail to you, can take longer than 2 weeks in some cases. When you get the software in the mail you can start the job ... sure . I told them how about you just take the cost of the software out of my first few paychecks instead, but for some reason that was not an option so I declined those job offers.

Mrock4

Been working at home for a year now. It's fantastic.

cw3k

I have been working from home for over 4 years and love it. The pay is not as good numbers wise, but you save both commute time and cost.

seth479

pixa241 wrote: »

How do you like working for Intermedia. I currently have a full time job from 3 - 1130, but also want to gain some experience and there are not part time IT jobs in my area. I researched it and it seems something I would like to try.

I love it, I've been here since May, went in to production late May/early June a d have learned a ton. It can get overwhelming every now and then especially if a large customer isn't receiving mail and you're not exactly sure where to look and everyone else is on a call too.

i plan on being here for awhile though, it's fun, fast paced and from home lol.

chanakyajupudi

Hi seth479. I see that you are in Melbourne but the Intermedia job is based out of the US.

Can a person from outside the US apply too ?

Thanks in advance !

Codyy

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

Hi seth479. I see that you are in Melbourne but the Intermedia job is based out of the US.

Can a person from outside the US apply too ?

Thanks in advance !

I believe he's in Melbourne, Arkansas. Had me confused too, I'm from Arkansas as well and had never even heard of the place.

chanakyajupudi

Oh ! Didnt know that !

Thanks !

Cpl.Klinger

Nice to see a few other Apple folks around. I just started a month ago in Tier 1 and I love my job. Granted it's tech support, but the pay and benefits are awesome. The savings I have in gas/clothes/food from a regular job have pretty much closed the gap on any pay difference. Not only that, but it's been great for my sanity. It's so nice that when I hang up my headset at the end of the day, I'm done. No calls for emergencies, no worrying about what I need to do tomorrow etc. It's been really liberating after 10 years in retail management where I always had that hanging over my head.

seth479

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

Hi seth479. I see that you are in Melbourne but the Intermedia job is based out of the US.

Can a person from outside the US apply too ?

Thanks in advance !

Yea, I'm in Arkansas lol. I know they have an office is Russia and they're looking for remote workers in the USA and the UK but not sure about India.

pixa241

seth479 wrote: »

Yea, I'm in Arkansas lol. I know they have an office is Russia and they're looking for remote workers in the USA and the UK but not sure about India.

Cool, how long after you did the application did they contact you, and how was the hiring process. I saw they ask you a bunch of questions in the interview as well.

seth479

After the application and you go through those questions I think they contacted me like 3-4 days later. The interview lasted for 30-45 minutes and a couple other technical questions. At the end he passed me off to an HR rep and went over a couple things and then she told me that I made a good impression and offered me the job contingent on a background check. They sent me the info and I got a written offer 3 days later.

logisticalstyles

I almost got the Apple job. I got all the way through the interview processes and got dropped after the background check. After that I got signed on with a company called Plumchoice through a staffing company. It was a work at home position and I HATED it. They had me answering calls for 3 different vendors and each one had different scripts and slightly different methods of using the same software. They also expected you to be remotely connected to at least 3 different customers and take inbound calls at the same time. Most of the calls were from old ladies or completely clueless individuals that had viruses or other malware. If it wasn't that, then they could not connect to the internet. You were very closely monitored and if your calls went over 20 minutes the supervisors would start instant messaging you to get the customer connected remotely and get them off the phone.
It's very difficult when you have 3 remote sessions asking you "what's happening?" or, "are you still there?" when Granny is on the phone trying to type a web address in the search box instead of the address bar, all the while blaming you for her POGO.com games not working. I answered phones for HP, AVAST!, and ACN. I learned a lot while I was doing that job, but I'll never do that again. It made me hate my home office, and the pay sucked as well.
Another thing that sucked about that job was the fact that they didn't provide any equipment other than a headset, and they didn't reimburse you for the mandatory phone line or any part of your internet connection. If your power or internet connection dropped due to a storm or any other circumstance out of your control they clocked you out and you didn't get paid for that time, but you were expected to remain at your post until the power or network connection was restored.

Needless to say, I hated that job and quit as soon as I could.

Snow.bros

Wow i would love a job like that one day, i just hate waking up in the morning and i love working alone sometimes, you guys have a cool job must be fun and the money is reasonable too it's not enough but it is acceptable.

chanakyajupudi

Do any of you know any jobs like these that can be done from across the border ( India ) ?

extriquek

Some of you could list the companies you work for.