A popular, yet little known, work-from-home field is telecommunications. Think of the type of jobs that are typically located in a call center facility. Now think of doing that job at home! There are a growing number of major corporations that contract with virtual call centers to employ work-at-home customer service representatives, sales representatives and similar positions. If you have a great phone voice, enjoy helping people, are good at dealing with disgruntled or confused customers, and can listen to the occasional heart rending story with the appropriate amount of empathy, then a part-time or full-time work-at-home telecommunications job just might be for you! The common denominators with nearly every company is a good computer, a high speed internet connection; a private, featureless land-based phone line; a phone that is headset compatible and the headset to go with it; and a quiet place to work undisturbed. Some companies, such as West, hire employees and pay an hourly rate. Others, such as LiveOps, hire independent contractors and pay per talk time minute. The field is still fairly wide open, although there are times of the year that hiring is more frequent. Many of the companies will increase their hiring mid-way through the year and up until the holidays due to the increased load that retail clients have at that time. I have put links to several of these companies on the left of this blog. Feel free to leave a comment with your experience or if you know of any other companies that are out there. Have fun!