Telework job sites are little windows to the industry. Traditionally, since at-home jobs were so scarce but demand so high, these sites bulked up by collecting long-expired leads, listing the names of companies that hired two teleworkers 10 years ago and posting entrepreneurial opportunities growing truffles in the basement.
Now that real at-home jobs are becoming available in a variety of industries, sites such as Telework Recruiting, are fattening up in kind. How do you know which ones are legit? You don’t.
How do I know? I get on the phone with the folks behind them to see what they’re all about — as I’ve done in the past with Whydowork.com and Staffcentrix’s Rat Race Rebellion newsletter (see editorial links below).
Pam La Gioia launched Telework Recruiting.com 12 years ago after getting burned herself by a telework jobs site. After paying $35 for six months’ access, La Gioia says she got a disorganized list of companies, many of which didn’t offer telework anymore.
La Gioia lets job seekers post their resumes on her site for free, lets companies post their jobs for free and charges a one-time $39.99 fee for access to job listings. Currently there are 1,418 companies that regularly hire teleworkers posted on the site, and many hundreds of individual job listings, posted by date. Telework Recruiting also offers employers recruitment services and workers resume services.
When I asked La Gioia how people know her job site is legit, she echoed me: “They can’t. It aggravates me that I can’t prove it. This is my bread and butter.” She does have plenty of e-mails from satisfied members — she sent me a few -- and offers a two-day money-back guarantee. One good sign: No big, blazing banner ads proclaiming I can make $5,000 a day stuffing envelopes. There are a few small Google ads making questionable claims, but La Gioia buries them.
La Gioia’s time –the Chicago native works from her new home in Corbin, Kentucky - is split between finding new jobs and employers, and culling her own site for dead links and outdated listings. And it shows. I trolled around the site for a couple of hours and was impressed. The format is clean and easy to navigate. Clicking on a job category (courthouse researchers, animal care, captioning, insurance, news monitoring, teaching, transcription, writing, etc.) takes you to a split page with relevant employers on the left and job listings on the right. The links all go to specific HR pages or pop open an e-mail field to query the company.
In most categories there were at least a couple of new jobs posted within the past month. She says she leaves job leads up (dated) for several months because “companies hiring teleworkers now, will likely hire them again.” A member forum is moderated by La Gioia’s colleague, who posts job leads of her own (often from craigslist) and offers advice and support. But La Gioia says the best way to land a good telework job is to query frequently hiring companies directly.