Work-from-home Mom: Part 1-The Job Hunt

I've learned that you can't always trust verbal agreements for employment..and it really is a bummer.

I was excited when a high-end wedding planner (who is actually featured on TV quite often) contacted me after seeing one of my posts on Craigslist looking to get practice with event planning doing small affairs. She was looking for a virtual personal assistant who could work 4 hours a day from home. Perfect!! We had a verbal agreement that I would replace her current PA and I would touch base in May after Maddy was born to meet with her and get started.

May came and went. While we were in the hospital with Maddy, I sent an email and then followed up with another email about 10 days later. June came and went with no response. I finally called early July and left a message. Still no response. I'm assuming it's a no go and I'm out of a perfect stay-at-home job.

Which brings me to the purpose of my post (no, it really wasn't a chance for me to vent). I did some research on stay-at-home jobs that were actually legit. Then I found this site: http://onlinejobstoday.org/default.aspx which was created by someone who had found a lot of success with freelance working and wanted to share the wealth. By paying a small fee to help with the website domain maintenance, you get a database of freelance/work-from-home sites.

I tried out and am currently setting up a profile on Odesk.com. At Odesk, you can search and bid on numerous freelance opportunities like data processing, writing, editing, translating, etc. You keep a log online of your work and submit it at the end of each pay period for your compensation. I started my profile and will hopefully get it completed this week. I'm hoping to find some work as either a virtual assistant or doing some blog writing. It would be great to turn my Mrs Mo's hobby into a paid job.

Wish me luck!