2y ago

What are some realistic possibilities for working from home for someone with a chronic illness and little experience?

So I developed a chronic illness years ago. It makes working outside the house pretty much impossible for me. I ran my own business for a good while, but it's struggling. I have all kinds of random skills and abilities, but I don't really see how they fit together in the context of employed work, so for all intents and purposes, I would have to consider myself as someone with little experience regardless of what I might do.

In the meantime, I've been studying web development, and that's probably what I'm going to try to do, but I was just wondering what other realistic possibilities are there out there for someone in my situation? I just want to see if there's anything I'm not considering.

29 comments

Customer service can be a possibility. As long as you can talk to people, and are able to work a set schedule, it doesn't require much prior skill.
- Seconded on this. Customer Service sucks when you start out because you have to deal with a lot of crap from people. However, if it’s something you’re good at, you can build a pretty decent career moving into Account Management or Customer Success Manager. I started out in a call center back in 2014, now I have a 6 figure salary as a CSM, and it’s easier than any job I’ve ever had.
  
  Potentially weird question, but how did you get in to CSMing? I started in customer service and moved over to the training department instead. I've dome that at various companies since 2017, including training new CSMs for 2 years. That said, there is no real room for advancement for me with my current path I feel because I really don't want to move in to management.
  Is there a route you would suggest, outside of starting over at the bottom of the totem pole somewhere and working my way to CSM?
- First thought I had as well. By far the easiest point of remote work entry because a lot of people don’t like call center work.
- This sounds promising. I wonder if there's customer service jobs like this centered more around typing rather than talking? I can talk to people well enough, but depending on the day with my health stuff it can really take it out of me. Typing meanwhile, I could do for longer stretches.

Bookkeeping is easy to do from home, and since you've had some experience running a business you'll have a leg up. If you ever wanted to get an accounting degree (which is also possible with reputable fully online schools) you can easily get to $100k (US) in just a few years.

It’s not always about experience. Yes, experience helps, but it will only take you but so far. Focus on your confidence and ability to talk to people. If you’re quick to learn, and can ask smart questions, that’ll take you farther than you realize. You own your own business. That takes a great deal of skill:
Time management
Self Discipline
Customer relations
Dedication
I’m sure if you put your mind to it, you can think of a few more skills to add to that list.
Whatever you decide to do, you’ll probably get paid less to do it. Do not go so low that you hurt yourself financially. Balance low pay with other benefits (work/life balance, PTO, health insurance, etc). If they offer you one week vacation, ask for two. Hell, go for three. It is a two-way street after all. Ask them about professional development opportunities; no better way to build that experience than doing it on company time.
Good Luck OP!

Customer service is probably the easiest entry level remote job to get, but quite soul sucking—especially if they make you use a script. One suggestion I can offer is grant writing if you’re okay at crafting an argument. You can find small local orgs who will let you help write to get some experience then apply for jobs that pay decently.

Learn how to crochet/sew/knit, get some hemp fabric/yarn, and start making some basic hemp things like granny squares and magic circles (advertised as hand towls and body/face scrubbers). Open a shop on etsy and start selling. Hemp stuff is making a huge comeback at least here in the US due to the 2018 farm bill legalizing it and it being an excellent fabric material with many boons such as superior strength (8x that of coton) thermal regulation for bed sheets, requiring half the water to produce more yield compared to cotton, being the most co2 absorbant crop on the planet, and replenishing the soil instead of draining it. People who care about the environment (and pot smokers) really love hemp and will pay good $ for quality products. Once you get some skill learn how to tailor/make clothes and you will be in a great place. Get a friend or family member to open a stand at a local farmers market a day or two a week, and if you are really successful get your own llc made and get tax writeoffs for all the yarn and fabric as business expenses.
- how expensive is hemp yarn compared to alternatives?
  
  Its more expensive then contemporary yarns like cotton and plastic due to it being a little more of a uncommon material but there are hemp fabric wholesalers online where you can order in bulk at cheap prices. On amazon there's hemp yarn spool of 50ft for 10$ of I rember correctly. Its important to get a softer yarn and not the twine because its easier to work with when just learning. I got the twine cause it was cheaper to practice and it was near impossible for me to really get far with it (I tried crocheting). The 'just hemp' brand was much nicer to work with

Stuff gated behind a license is usually a good idea. Insurance sales, mortgage underwriting. Wish I had a better head for web dev jobs since you brought it up, but you'd think there'd be something like that available as a WFH gig.
- Genealogist?

Remote IT help desk, either internal for a company, or for a managed services provider. Doesn't pay great (~50k) but you can do it without a college degree, expensive equipment, or really any certification. Honestly, you may even start with dispatching tickets, and then shift over into the support side as you learn the lingo, common problems, and common solutions.
I'd suggest at least taking a basic course on general computer troubleshooting, like Comp TIA A+, and one on networking like Comp TIA Net+. Having the certs would be great, but knowing the material and being able to demonstrate that in an interview is what employers really look for.
- Honestly that's my dream job. I like everything computer related and knows a fair bit already. 50K where i live is 35x more than the average pay in my country lol

Over here the government gives exemption from RTO to people in your situation, might be a possibility.

Call center or customer service, both of those at my company are fully remote so we can higher cheaper people and they hire basically anyone that breathes
- This. But not a BPO. Work for the call center for a specific company. Don’t do a company that where others outsource too. I work for an ISP and we simply aren’t bringing anyone back to the office because we can actually employ more people WFH than in office. We can hire people 2-3 hours from the nearest office cause they simply don’t need to drive in. My wife worked at a BPO as a trainer and even when WFH was popular during COVID they mandated people work in the center and wouldn’t give paid time off for getting COVID which lead to more exposure. It was a disaster.
  Remember, BPO’s try to do the job for the lowest possible cost which means cutting a lot of corners and not worrying about quality. A business that keeps all of its resources in house is more likely to care about quality and the care of its employees. Case in point, when we discuss changes for our employees we weigh some agents leaving with the cost of training new ones and the cost of implementing said changes. BPO’s simply make said changes knowing they are going to train another class every month for the foreseeable future.
  
  +1. My employer has its own internal customer support group and they have regular corporate work lives compared to BPOs that treat employees like disposable cattle.

Data management, freelance journalism, GIS jobs. Many different organizations have positions that can be done remotely. Just looking at usajobs.gov search key word 'remote", 1400 jobs are currently open. If you don't have enough experience, there are also online universities and free courses you can take to get that experience. Good luck.
- 1400 jobs are not open to the public.
  Only 155 total in the entire federal gov are 1) open to the public and 2) remote.
- The first two you mentioned are at the top of any list for AI to absorb very soon. 😬
- Federal jobs are borderline impossible to get unless you get points or are very qualified. I know a ton of people who can't even get an interview because there are so many applicants who get veterans preferences and stuff who end up ahead of them in line. I'm still kicking myself for not applying for anything when I was married to a guy in the military because it's probably the only way I'd ever even get seen.

You might consider a vlog documenting your efforts. It's a fairly saturated market, but if you can put out content regularly and tell a good story about what you are doing with an interesting style you can turn a marginal business into money-maker with the additional income from viewers who are interested in watching your story.
It's not easy, and it takes a variety of (learnable) skills and some time to get going, but you can work on your own schedule from your house and potentially take advantage of your collection of random skills.

Solo Web dev is very competitive. It’ll take a while before you are able to get paying clients, especially if you’ve not got a portfolio already. Be prepared to do a fair bit of free work first.
- Do not do free work. Ever. It sets a bad precedent, and exposure does not pay the bills.
  Look at it this way: you will spend maybe 10% of your time wooing the client, another 20% designing and building the website, and the remaining 70% maintaining it and answering questions. If you do any (or all) of that for free, you’re opening the door for trouble. People may not set out to take advantage of kindness, but in the end, they will take advantage.
  Value your time and efforts. You may start out with a low hourly rate if you think it’s help. I’d personally go no lower than $75/hour. Get you a few clients under your belt, and you can start raising that price as you see fit.
  But NEVER do work for free.
  
  I absolutely see your point, and agree to an extent. However, I was on this exact journey a decade ago and a few free sites (for local charities and orgs) to establish a presence genuinely helped attract paying clients. Obviously I set some firm boundaries that any support would come at a cost and that both established expectations and got a few, admittedly small, income streams going off the bat.
- Could try to build a portfolio and apply to webdev agencies. They're not great but better than nothing and then customer acquisition isn't as important to the dev as it is for a freelancer

29 comments