Careers Consultant Deborah Fowlis looks at some options.
A recent Inform.ed blogpost focused on some of the temporary or part-time paid work available now and in the coming months – e.g. supermarket roles, food delivery, social care and fruit and vegetable harvesting. For others, you may be unwilling to be dealing with the public right now – perhaps you, or someone you live with, is in a vulnerable category. This doesn’t mean that the next few months needs to be all Netflix, box sets and online Scrabble – here’s a few ideas where you don’t have to step over the threshold.
- Surveys/Research – You might undertake product testing for companies or give opinions about their marketing or their website user-friendliness. There is also on-line “mystery shopping” work where you phone a company and find out what their customer service is like. It’s patchy work, sometimes there is too much of it and sometimes not enough, so you need to be able to respond immediately when they need you. It’s harsh, but if you turn things down, you may not get asked again. Money Saving Expert published a good article comparing 22 survey/market research sites. There are many others beside the 22 listed – eg MarketForce, Ipsos MORI (who actually have undergraduate internships).
- Proofreading/Copy-editing – there are many sites found through Google which offer proofreading services and/or member directories. Often they have an online course that you can take (some insist on it) before you are included in their directory that clients can search. One of the biggest is CIEP – The Chartered Institute for Editors and Proofreaders – they charge £117 for entry level membership and also offer training. You can also contact magazines or local papers directly/speculatively – they are less likely to insist on a certificate, or experience, but may ask you sit a test to prove your ability. There are huge publishing houses for magazines such as Bauer Media, DC Thomson and smaller specialist publishers such as Puzzle Press. They routinely use remote proofreaders and puzzle testers rather than in house staff.
- Online Tutoring – school exams are cancelled for this year, which means less demand for tutors for Highers, GCSEs etc. However, there may be opportunities to tutor pupils sitting entrance exams for private schools or for some universities – eg Oxbridge entrance tests are usually early November. There are also non-examined subjects that can be tutored online, such as music, languages, bridge. There are many general and specific subject websites for these. Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (ESL) is also possible online.
- Online Bookkeeping – This is perhaps a longer-term strategy. Many small business owners need someone to organise their accounts for them on an annual or ongoing basis and will happily pay someone to so this. If you have good organisational skills and attention to detail, bookkeeping can be a good life skill to develop (you will rarely be out of work). Training is required but this can be done online. Courses can be free (Future Learn, no certificate), cheap (Xero Accounting and Bookkeeping £14, basic certificate), or middling to expensive (professional qualification -AAT courses £200-£800, offered by many FE colleges).
Other jobs where it’s not unusual to work remotely include:
- Payroll Assistant
- Credit Controller
- Fundraiser
- Translator
- Banking Administrator
- Customer Service Assistant
- Marketing Assistant
Good places to look for vacancies for all the above: (search on home or remote working)
- MyCareerHub (eg in MyCareerHub these jobs are currently advertised on a remote-working basis: school level tutoring, audio to text transcribers, ESL tutor, customer service support)
- Totaljobs.com
- Milkround.com
- Indeed
- Workingmums.co.uk (offspring not required)
- Workingdads.co.uk (offspring not required)
And find out more about how we can support you at this time, and what you can be doing, in our FAQs and updates.
(Image by Anrita1705 CC0 on Pixabay )
(Image by Anrita1705 CC0 on Pixabay )
