Home*School*Home
I've mentioned before that I work at home. I do medical transcription for a national company as an independent contractor. I telecommute. (I think that is a cool word.) I download voice files through the internet, type them and send them back via the internet, through a secure connection. I work as many hours a day as I can fit in with homeschooling. When I had my first baby, 12 years ago, when he was 6 weeks old, I handed him over to my mom (sobbing) and went back to work. When he was 11 months old, I gave my notice on that job and stayed home for a year and took a correspondence course in medical transcription. By the time his sister came along, I was working part time for a local hospital. Let me tell you, 20 hours a week away from your baby is not as bad as 40, but still, it wasn't good. When our #3 little surprise baby dude came along, I decided it was time to make my move to working at home. The first at-home job I got was very part time and I would nurse the baby, take the kids to my mom's (3 miles away) and come back home to start work. I'd work until mom called me that the baby needed to nurse, then I'd go over to her house, nurse him and come back to work. It was so much better. I wish I had been better prepared for parenthood by having a larger variety of job skills, so I could have been more flexible about working because not-working has really not been an option for me. :-( At the time I started doing it, medical transcription was the only way I knew of to work and stay home, but now there are so many opportunities. I think I may look into a virtual assistant job in a few years, as I understand that field is really taking off.
I found your site via MT Daily (which I have not subscribed to yet). I'm sure you get this all of the time on the message boards there, but I would love someone to talk to about starting a career. I am almost finished with my course work (classes via At-Home Professions), and I am nervous about finding a job. I don't know a single soul in the field and would love to know how you looked for and found your MT telecommuting job. I am sorry this post sounds scary & desperate, but if you would email me, I would be so, so grateful for a real-live person (who actually does this for a living!) to talk to. Thank you. My address is: stephgeek AT hotmail DOT com
ReplyDeleteDana, I really relate about wishing I had thought a workable career first, though I think I have hit on it now with teaching, because of the fact my kids are school age. It's tough though isn't it? :-(
ReplyDeleteIt was when I first had to go back to work when Devin was a baby. I thought it was going to kill me. Now, I'm okay, because if I need to take time off, I can. It is very flexible.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing about it for me, was my mom calling me and telling me she thought maybe Devin was sick and I needed to decide if I thought he was (without being able to see him) and decide whether to leave work and take him to the pediatrician ...