Job of the Future

I have quit my dayjob in preparation for my review this coming May 2009. For a few days I am enjoying work-free days. Waking up anytime that I want. Watching Sex and the City round the clock. Staring at the ceiling. Chatting with Melvin online. Stumbling upon different websites. Facebook fest. Practically everything unproductive. For those days, I have figured out that I am more than these. I am a person who loves doing productive activities. I prefer reading books to enrich my vocabulary instead of learning the latest gay lingo. I prefer to work instead of just sitting here lazily. Ok maybe I exaggerated on the last one.

I embarked on the quest of finding ways to make my time productive while I am a bum. First thing I considered productive was working for this British DJ who gave me my big break in oDesk.com. I logged hours for his assignment more than I thought I would be able to do so. I skipped going to my husband's gigs just to log longer hours. Earning that few dollars per hour had been so important to me to the point that I got hooked to it. So I maximized my weekly online job application limit and started applying to interesting jobs. It had been a bit unfortunate since out of 10 applications I manage to have only 1 or 2 interviews. This online work is so much tougher competition than the actual work outside the Internet. I remember applying for several jobs and I get to be interviewed by most of the jobs and end up getting different salary offers. But this internet work competition is fiercer than ever. Or maybe perhaps the skills required for my job bracket are pretty much easier to be very good at. Unlike my actual degree of BS Accountancy. That could be the case. So I analyzed my skills and made really good cover letters to be considered by buyers of services (employers in the real world). I learned that I do enjoy social networking and doing it for extended periods of time doesn't bother me at all. Also, I do enjoy doing internet research since learning new things about different fields seems to fascinate me. With this, I applied for different social networking and internet research jobs. That's the time I got more interviews. And a few unsolicited invites to be interviewed. Even if I am really appreciative of the interest in my profile and services, I still make it a point to choose my buyers. based on how they handle interviews and their buyer feedbacks. I know I'm not supposed to be the picky end since I am the one looking for the job, but I don't want to work for someone who will probably give me a problem in the future. So out of the interviews that I received, I have picked a few buyers who are really nice, accomodating and most importantly, smart. I want to learn from my buyers and make them serve as my inspiration in striving to have what it takes to be successful and perhaps become a buyer myself in the future. It's like aspiring to become a boss as well.

I now maintain two excellent assignments in oDesk. One asks me to do research on a sport I have never tried and have no intention of trying (but I still enjoy learning its technicalities). Another asks me to maintain her schedule and appointments as well as do research in various topics. Both of them very witty. Both of them enrich my mind as well as my pocket. =)

After a few weeks of earning in oDesk, I have grown more interested in doing freelance jobs online and so I bumped into Elance.com. Another freelancing site that offers almost the same features as oDesk. I signed up and applied for 3 jobs. Turns out that elance have less credits for you to apply for jobs as compared with oDesk. So I just let my elance account rest for a while. After some time, I got invitations to apply for certain jobs, to my surprise the jobs are very interesting since it involves my favorite online task, social networking. I sent out my applications, and alas, error. Elance is really strict in the 3 job applications limit per account per month and I was redirected in purchasing a paid account. I decided not to avail of the paid account and ignored the invitations. A few days passed, I browse back to my invitations, and said to myself that these jobs are too good to be ignored. So I signed up for the paid account, using my oDesk hard earned money. I applied for the invitations and got the jobs! I then figured out that paying for an account in Elance is all worth it. I now enjoy working for my new buyers via elance.

That's my story about my two freelance account which is now providing additional income for me and my husband. It could even slap my old paychecks in my previous dayjobs. So is online freelancing work the job of the future? Are we all going to resort to work at home jobs in the years to come? It is a good future but then the Wall-E population gives me the creeps.