Foo - Questions for those who work at home

what type of career field are you in that affords you the luxury of 'telecommuting'? Sales, IT,...?

Do you require voice and data lines?

No need to disclose actual income- the Occupational Outlook should provide a general idea of the pay scale.

I'm in the IT services business. I work with sales to develop solutions to meet customer requirements. I spend much of the day on the phone or email. I also travel from time to time. The company pays for my internet connection and cell phone. They also provide me with a laptop. I've been doing this for about five years. I can't image going back to commuting to an office everyday.

After being forcibly retired I opened up my own little bike shop at home so I have a 32 step commute and can show up in my pj's if I feel like it and my health has improved am looking to open a retail location / partnership so I can devote more time to building frames.

How about sewing? You could get a heavy duty sewing machine and make cycle shorts and sell them on ebay! Bazinga!

After being forcibly retired I opened up my own little bike shop at home so I have a 32 step commute and can show up in my pj's if I feel like it and my health has improved am looking to open a retail location / partnership so I can devote more time to building frames.

If I had even half of your knowledge base and skill set that you've shown on these boards, I'd be real tempted to attempt the same.

However, you're also fortunate to have a Lady in your life who is understanding about your passion for cycling. Mine doesn't :(, so the idea of me trying to open my own shop is more like a fantasy.

How about sewing? You could get a heavy duty sewing machine and make cycle shorts and sell them on ebay! Bazinga!Never really thought of it, but if nothing else, I should be able to save some $ on clothing the family...

If I had even half of your knowledge base and skill set that you've shown on these boards, I'd be real tempted to attempt the same.

However, you're also fortunate to have a Lady in your life who is understanding about your passion for cycling. Mine doesn't :(, so the idea of me trying to open my own shop is more like a fantasy.

It was a shared passion for cycling that brought us together and when she immigrates wants to go back to school so she can be my accountant... :)

Am hoping that the new shop will be a short ride from here.

IT. System/database admin for an academic department at a major private university. I could work from home a day or two a week but choose not to. (See also: I have a toddler at home and a nice, quiet 3rd floor window cube at work.) Still, I do after-hours maintenance and some emergency stuff from home. Even our stuff goes whacka whacka puffa puffa sometimes.

University pays for my DSL service and part of my cell phone bill. If I switched to AT&T, they would pay the whole thing for me, but I have refused that one.

Now if I could get 65er to build me a 20" wheeled touring frame for cheap... :)

I'm IT-manager and support datacentres all over the world part-time. I have crews in India, Argentina and U.S. for 24/7 support all-year. Primarily server and OS-support. Although depending upon the client, there's been a lot of OracleDB/Peoplesoft development as of late.

The rest of the day, I trade futures & options.

I'm a member of the unemployed. But, in addition to job hunting, I use my computers for improving my portfolio, 3D and Flash animation, programming, graphic arts and writing a book. My one luxury is a high speed Internet connection.

I'm the operations manager for the trucking and warehouse company in New England. I can work from anywhere with my iPhone and a laptop and fax machine/printer. I work off a terminal server & can create a wireless hotspot with my iPhone if I need too but as long as I have Internet I'm good. I do need people in my office and warehouse physically carry out my instructions but I can do anything I can do in the office that I can at home. I do however have a very equipped office, infact my office at home in many ways is better equipped than my office at work.

I am an ETL programmer. I use vonage with my DSL line.

I used to work for a call center at IBM doing tech support for a large client. I used our cable Internet line and some fly by night VoIP operation.

Started out working in the IBM office, then slowly started working more and more days at home until I came into the office about once a month.

The pay was crap, the benefits non-existent. I did however get to work naked if I felt like it.

Forum Administrative Consultant

100meg/sec broadband and Vonage with multiple lines, and can work from anywhere I get a secure wireless connection.

If you want to be your own boss, you have to carefully (and honestly) review your talents. I work as a consultant - and travel around WV working on site - but my husband stays home. Over the last 20 odd years, he has - with me doing the marketing - sold carved wood bowls at artisan prices (ie, $200 - $1000 wholesale), done a lot of refinishing work on old furniture, etc. You have to think about what you're good at doing, and create a job around that, and then market that. The marketing is the hard part!

what type of career field are you in that affords you the luxury of 'telecommuting'? Sales, IT,...?
Depends on what you mean by "luxury." I usually can't wait to get into work Monday mornings...that is my luxury. Two kids under 3.5 at home, wife who is already home all day, unorganized house, and a cat. I go to work to relax. :)

Depends on what you mean by "luxury." I usually can't wait to get into work Monday mornings...that is my luxury. Two kids under 3.5 at home, wife who is already home all day, unorganized house, and a cat. I go to work to relax. :)

Same, except without the cat. I do like staying home but I also do need to get "out" (read: away) every few days at least.

By "luxury" I meant capacity or ability.

My current job status has been murky for a while, but now my wife is starting to really pressure me into finding something else closer to home- even if it means asking "Do you want fries with that?"... sigh. Given my education level (some, but not much, college), my visual impairment, and age (just turned 40), there aren't a lot of opportunities for me in this town. And she doesn't want to move because a) the kids are in the best dependent school district in the entire State of OK, and we really can't afford to move.

Was just trying to get in idea of what field I might try and talk the Voc Rehab people into training me for. So it looks kinda like either something in IT field or go into business for myself...

Technical Sales Support for a Marketing Technology, Data and Services company. Company HQ is in another state and they only a few other offices in major cities. A lot of the sales force is homebased also. I have Time Warner for phone/data and they pay a part of it.