Applying for a Work From Home Job

Self Improvement During the Pandemic

Doing self-improvement (studying, staying healthy, etc.) whilst being stuck jobless indoor is a great personal survival skill that shows you self-motivation.

In the United States, the unemployment rate is still high and more and more people are seeking job opportunities to stay self-sufficient.

Being self-motivated in attending online programming classes on Google Grow and CodeAcademy are good ways to continue learning or picking up a new skill. Business acumen can be improved if you take free modules by Harvard, Coursera, and EdX. There is a wide range of quality educational material with instant access. Make use of these virtual opportunities to color your employment history and close career gaps due to being layoff.

Submit an Ultra-Relevant Resume for Each Job Application

All submissions are reviewed by an automated system. When using keywords that match the job description in your resume, a positive close match between your resume and the job requirements implies suitability for the job. The system is less likely to accidentally filter out genuine applicants in the process of removing "for fun" applicants who do not meet the employment eligibility requirements.

When using keywords relevant to the job applied, elaborating the points in a manner personal to your employment, educational, and social background can be an edge. Don't take the shortcut of pasting in a standard industry resume.

An employer can tell very fast from your writing style whether you wrote your resume yourself or even purchased one online. Personalized content helps interviewers sketch a profile and personality out from the printed text, and for this same reason, it has often been suggested to add a portrait photo of yourself to the application.

Humanize Your Personal History

The human element is one of the most endearing and relatable factors in any job application. Would the struggles of a single mother of two feed the souls of the interviewer, or would her GPA and past project involvements be the tipping point in sending an interview invite?  Tell your story, write (briefly) about your life. Convey your value and personal details through a narrative that also conveys how you fit the position.

Besides revealing some personality and an insight into your interests, hobbies, skills, and achievements, write something clever or witty where appropriate. These differentiating factors make an application stand out and because work from home employees are rarely seen by their employers (maybe once a week, or less?), employers really pay attention to the human elements of a shortlisted application. Consequentially, these stories unquestionably play a part in making their hiring decision.

Make an Impression with Minimal Words

The HR team is a busy bunch. Thousands of applications pour in for entry positions in customer service and support roles, while hundreds more for skilled technical and managerial roles flood their application queue. Especially for well-known employers like Amazon and Google who receive millions of fresh documents, the recruiters just don't have so much time to study your application.

As you see in the above paragraph, I was really long-winded. Fluff and padded content make for long readings. HR hates it. Extra words waste time. Cut it short. Go to the point. Every sentence in your submission you make has to pack a punch, and quick.

Show Quality Work in Your Resume

Home-based jobs have less supervision than office-based roles, so your application submission should really show polish because your resume and cover letter are unsupervised pieces of work you submit with minimal guidance and interference. Online submissions are the main mode of communication. Whatever PDFs you attach with your submission becomes one of the very few ways an employer can assess you.

Home-based jobs such as transcription, freelancing work in graphic design and writing online require you to be a self-starter, highly responsible, and very organized.

Your application should show that you can deliver excellent work free of factual errors and is written so well that it impresses the reader. Furthermore, your cover letter is an open-ended "composition" piece that you narrate in any way you want to - so it gives interviewees free rein to be creative, convincing, and human all at the same time. The clarity of the message you deliver speaks to your quality of work.