15 Jobs You Can Do From Home—and How to Get Hired ASAP

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic—if you can remember that far back—remote work was a growing trend. A 2019 report from Upwork predicted that by 2028, 73% of all departments would have remote workers—which would have been an increase of 38% in 10 years. But then, COVID hit, and by 2021, the number of people who primarily worked from home had tripled in just two years.

Both employers and employees have realized that in many cases, “You don’t need to be in the same geographic location as the office or even in the same time zone,” says Mark Silverman, CEO of Amava, a member website that connects people with work-from-home jobs and volunteer opportunities.

Parents, caregivers, and people with chronic illnesses and disabilities are often in the market for work-from-home roles, as are people who are simply looking for more flexible hours or the ability to work from anywhere. Some of these roles are part-time and may require you to find work with multiple clients at once while others are full-time roles.

If you’re hoping to work from home, there’s a wealth of jobs available, requiring a variety of skills and experience levels—and many of them pay salaries comparable to full-time, on-site jobs. Here are 15 roles you should consider—and where you can find open positions.

Average pay: $15.38/hour

Customer care or customer service representatives answer questions, solve problems, and help with orders over the phone or digitally, and it’s one of the easiest work-from-home jobs to break into. However, these positions aren’t as flexible as other work-from-home jobs. For instance, if your shift is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., you’re expected to be on call for that entire time. However, you may be able to work shifts outside of traditional business hours since companies may need to provide support to clients in different time zones. 

Get hired: Find remote customer service and customer care jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $25/hour

Website testers assess websites and web applications for quality and usability on multiple devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets and cell phones. Testers visit a website or use an app, complete a few tasks, and share their insights on the processes. They give honest feedback on usability and clarity as well as their engagement level with the content.

Get hired: Find website testing jobs on sites including UserTesting, and Userlytics.

Average pay: $47,687/year

Similar to traditional teachers, online educators provide instruction for specific subjects, prepare lesson plans, and monitor student progress. This position is perfect for anyone with a teaching degree and a specific skill such as fluency in a foreign language. Depending on the specific class you may also need a teaching license. You’ll teach a class via an online platform such as Zoom or Google Meet. Positions include not just kindergarten through 12th grade but college and continuing education in all subject areas. You could make as much as $100 to $200 an hour for one-on-one instruction.

Get hired: Find remote teacher and educator jobs on The Muse.

Virtual assistant average pay: $17.31/hour

Administrative assistant average pay: $41,730/year

Virtual assistants and administrative assistants do everything from scheduling appointments to conducting research. Some positions focus solely on administrative tasks like maintaining calendars and schedules and invoicing clients while others require experience in copywriting and social media management. Most virtual assistants work directly with several clients at a time, while administrative assistants may be full-time employees of a single company.

Get hired: Find remote administrative assistant and virtual assistant jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $14.74/hour

Captioners transcribe prerecorded audio and video, so typing quickly and accurately is an essential skill for this job. You can also sign up to caption live television programs, though many people who do this have also worked as court reporters and use a stenotype machine with a phonetic keyboard and special software to ensure accuracy.

Get hired: You can sign up with agencies such as Rev and Upwork to find captioner jobs or you can look for openings at specific companies such as Caption Media Group or 3Play Media.

Average medical transcriptionist pay: $17.15/hour

Average transcriber pay: $17.75/hour

Transcriptionists listen to voice recordings and convert them into documents. Medical and law offices use transcriptionists to type out dictated notes from doctors and lawyers. Most firms require an understanding of medical terms and practices or legal jargon, and you may also need a related certificate or certification. 

Get hired: Find remote transcriptionist jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $49,740/year

An SEO (or search engine optimization) specialist analyzes, reviews, and implements changes to websites to maximize the number of people visiting the website and improve the site’s rank on search engines. Most positions require at least one year of experience and familiarity with industry SEO tools and techniques such as Google Analytics and website building platforms like Squarespace.

Get hired: Find remote SEO jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $82,435/year

Online therapists provide mental health support in real time through digital platforms such as video conferencing, phone calls, or text messaging. You’ll need to have a master’s degree in psychology or social work and a license to practice where you’ll be treating patients, so there’s an upfront investment. 

Get hired: Find remote therapist jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $19.41/hour

A proofreader ensures written content is free of grammatical, spelling, punctuation, and formatting errors. If you have attention to detail and are familiar with the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style, you can find proofreading work for advertising agencies, websites, public relations firms, and textbook writers. This work is extremely flexible and can often be done on your own schedule provided you meet the deadline for proofreading the document.

Get hired: Find remote proofreader jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $1-20/survey

A number of companies will pay you to take surveys to give them your honest opinion about games, movies, consumer products, and general interest topics—conducted online, over the phone, or as part of a focus group.

Get hired: There are a number of research companies you can sign up with to take surveys including Schlesinger Group.

Average pay: $17.28/hour

A notary public acts as a representative of the state to certify the proper execution of documents such as real estate transactions, powers of attorney, and prenuptial agreements. If you’re certified as a public notary, you can also get certified, bonded, and insured as a mobile notary. If you don’t feel comfortable inviting strangers to your home, you can offer to meet them at their office, a hospital, or another location.

Get hired: Each state has its own requirements for becoming a notary, so get started by googling requirements for your location.

Average pay: $18.86/hour

If you have experience invoicing clients, running payroll, and managing accounts, you can find a virtual bookkeeping position by contracting directly with a local company or signing up with an agency such as Bookminders. Many bookkeeping jobs require a bachelor’s degree in accounting and knowledge of QuickBooks.

Get hired: Find remote bookkeeper jobs on The Muse.

Average pay: $20.02/hour

This position will require you to become a Certified Professional Coder to accurately read a patient’s medical chart, analyze it, determine their diagnoses, and then categorize the diagnoses and medical procedures according to a national classification system that enables physicians to submit medical claims to insurers.

Get hired: To find medical coder jobs you could contract directly with a local physician’s office or reach out to the American Association of Professional Coders or the American Health Information Management Association to find a job.

Average pay: $42.13/hour

If you have experience in digital marketing or branding, you can help companies create coordinated campaigns using SEO, email marketing, social media, and more. Payment for marketing consultants varies greatly from about $14 to $102 per hour for most work, depending on your experience and proven track record as a marketer.

Get hired: Search remote marketing consultant jobs on The Muse.

Average salary: $61,719/year

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more tech companies have offered remote roles. If you have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, completed a bootcamp program, or have other comparable programming experience, you could look for full-time job listings that offer flexible or remote work locations.

Get hired: Search for remote web developer jobs on The Muse.

With an increasing number of people seeking flexible hours and roles, the application process is getting more competitive. There are also online scams posing as work-from-home opportunities that you need to beware of. Here’s what you need to do to land a remote job and avoid the scams:

Apply quickly.

The key to being hired for one of these work-from-home positions is to apply as soon as the position is posted, says Charlette Beasley of Fit Small Business, a digital resource for small business owners. “It’s not unusual for 100 to 150 people to respond to an ad within the first hour it’s posted,” she says.

Make your work-from-home skills shine.

Employees who work from home need to be self-starters and highly motivated. So make sure that when you apply, you highlight those qualities and any other soft skills that show your ability to work independently, Silverman says. Call attention to your talent for keeping track of your own productivity and proactively asking for help, he says. For instance, your cover letter might say, “When I encounter challenges, I seek out solutions rather than waiting for the problem to solve itself,” and then include an example.

Focus on why you’ll be good at the job—not who you are.

Although many of the candidates who apply for work-from-home positions are caregivers and parents, there is no reason to focus on that fact when you respond to job postings, says Sharon Koifman, president of Distant Job, a remote recruitment agency in Quebec, Canada. Instead, highlight why you’re the best person to fill the role from the company’s perspective. “The reason companies hire remotely is because they can’t find the talent locally, they are trying to save money, or they are looking for someone who is exceptionally good at their job,” he says.

So if you’re applying to be a web developer, your application needs to convey that you’re the best web developer they can hire and explain why, Koifman says. For instance, your letter could say, “I’ve designed more than 50 websites for a variety of clients and I can turn projects around quickly with little oversight and direction.”

Be wary of scams

Before you apply for a position be sure that it’s a legitimate online job with an actual company. Even if it’s a company you’ve never heard of, you should be able to find information about the firm and look up reviews of the company online, Beasley says. In other words, you want to make sure the organization has a digital footprint beyond something they create themselves (like a LinkedIn page or website).

Most importantly, you should never have to pay money to apply for a position or to begin a job, Silverman says. Make sure you understand how you will be paid and how often, he says. And trust your gut. If you think something doesn’t sound right, don’t move ahead with the position.

Regina Borsellino contributed writing, reporting, and/or advice to this article.