Telecommute Data Entry Jobs: Are They For Real?

One of the most sought after telecommute jobs are data entry positions. That's not too surprising - who wouldn't love the idea of sitting at home pushing buttons on their keyboard and getting paid for it?

Unfortunately, legitimate data entry jobs can be hard to find - but not all is lost! This article is going to show you a few tricks for finding the real jobs and knowing how to avoid scams.

Data Entry Scams

The first thing you would probably find if you searched online for telecommute data entry jobs would be scams. You can usually spot them pretty quickly and easily: websites filled with glowing testimonials from supposed employees who are earning thousands of dollars a week typing at home, and of course the ever-present request for money to join their program - just to prove you're "serious" about working from home. (Please don't fall for that. No legitimate employers will ask you for money.)

With so many of these scams taking up valuable internet real estate space, it can be hard to find the real jobs that may be buried beneath them. But do they exist at all? Yes!

I would recommend two courses of action if you want to find a real data entry job:

1) Focus on individual companies rather than "mass hires"

Rather than searching for a "work at home data entry job," search for a data entry job that allows telecommuting. That sounds like the same thing, but there is a huge difference. Real companies who want to hire people don't focus on the "work at home" aspect usually. There are a few exceptions I can think of, but more often you will find that the "telecommute" aspect is minimized greatly in legitimate ads. Legitimate companies focus instead on the job details themselves, and they try to connect with the right kind of candidates they are seeking to work for them - and THEN they might mention, "oh, by the way, telecommuting would be okay for the right person..."

Sometimes they may not even say that in the ad, but you find out later during the interview.

2) Seek other forms of typing jobs

"Data entry" is really an umbrella term for any kind of typing work - or "entering data into a computer system," in other words. This would include jobs like transcription (medical and general), coding, and many other administrative duties. When you search for telecommuting jobs online, try searching for keywords like: clerical, data entry, order entry, order clerk, typing, administrative, assistant, transcription, coding, and so on. There are endless jobs that could be considered data entry, but the companies may not be using that exact term.

When the search results come up, examine each ad carefully to determine whether telecommuting might be an option. Again, keeping in mind that it may not always be mentioned up front.

So, to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this article - YES, telecommute data entry jobs are for real. You just may need to do a lot of digging to find them.