VirtualVocations.com and Finding Work Leads

I ran across Virtual Vocations today. It’s another resource you might find handy while you’re looking for legitimate work at home jobs so I thought I’d see for myself and share what they have to offer.

VirtualVocations has been online for nearly 2 years now (Feb of 2007) and is touting a total of X job listings. Here’s their background:

VirtualVocations is owned by two siblings, one that handles all of the programming and technical support, the other, a stay-at-home mom, provides the customer service, resume’ services and daily job updates. The site was started because of the need we saw for a compilation of diverse telecommuting positions for all areas of employment, found in one area. We also recognized that most of the major job sites on the Internet have been overrun by scammers, making it difficult to distinguish what positions are legitimate. Our desire was to create a site that would be able to offer all kinds of legitimate virtual positions to those who are interested in working from home.

We also wanted to provide a site that offered specifically hourly paid positions or per project pay, along with salary. In other words, we wanted to make sure you would be applying for positions that will pay you for your time, not start-your-own business information, or commission based employment.

They don’t allow employers to post their own jobs in an effort to eliminate all of the “ad-typing” and “start your own business” types of job postings. They compile their listings themselves from scouring the major job boards, blogs, and other online resources, though they also accept email submissions from employers looking to hire telecommuters.

Is it FREE?
Technically, yes, it’s free to register and receive email updates that include their newest job listings. Free membership also gives you unlimited access to the forum as well as a periodic newsletter full of helpful resources and tips on working at home.

However, your free membership doesn’t give you the means to apply for any jobs you see. when you click on the “Apply” button you’re taken to their Services page, which includes testimonials and subscription rates.

While I hate when job sites tell me that membership is free when it’s really not, since the key information is being withheld, I’m not disappointed by Virtual Vocations and think they offer a pretty decent deal. You can view all of the job information to see if you’re even interested in something that’s there before you subscribe. And, the subscription rates aren’t too bad. You can spend $6.99 for a week’s subscription (go ahead and apply for everything you may have found on your recent visit) – or you can subscribe and test the perks of the paid subscription for a month for $15.99.

They also offer a personalized resume’ creation for $29.99 which seems like a fairly reasonable fee for resume’ help if you’re struggling with that.

Beyond that – let me also show you how looking at the listings they compile here can help you in your search for solid work at home leads.

When you look at job listings where the application information is not given, you can often find the source of the job opening on your own. This is true for Virtual Vocations as well as any other job listings you may find around the ‘Net.

For example, here’s a job postings for an Offsite Customer Service Representative. Notice that most of the pertinent information is there. You can see what the job entails, what compensation is being offered, etc–everything you really need to know if this is something you’d be interested in pursuing. The only thing missing is where to apply.

When you run across listings like this one, make use of another browser window and find the job opening yourself. In this case, under compensation, you see that it notes Voice Applied Customer Service is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, Drug Free Work Place. Search for Voice Applied Customer Service and voila, you’ll find their Career Opportunities are listed and can apply that way. That’s not to say there isn’t a different application method being offered via specific job posting sites, but it’s definitely better than not subscribing and doing nothing.

There are several jobs on Virtual Vocations and other subscription-based job posting sites that don’t give you enough information about the listing to go after it yourself, but there are also several that do. The beauty is, if you sign up for a free account on Virtual Vocations you can still search through their listings, do your own research on postings that look interesting or promising, and decide whether to pay a subscription price based on what you actually see.