this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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I've hit rock bottom on this. I want a basic ~$20+ per hour job where I answer calls, chats, emails and help people with whatever they need from home. I don't mind working nights, long hours, overtime, holidays, I have basically nothing to do.

I have experience, I have technical skills, customer support skills, I have led 2 teams, switched to data entry, but the last close to 100 applications have led me nowhere. I imagined it would be easy to get into Amazon support or something like that, but dang, I am not getting anywhere. All I see are bait and switch jobs to sell insurance, or travel agency stuff, or benefits or some sort of MLM.

I got into CloudWorkers with the hopes it is some sort of legit cause I am in deep crap.

I have 2 - 3 weeks where I need to figure this one out, and this in the end of the second month looking for work.

Seriously, why is it this hard?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

More demand than supply. IE more applicants, not enough positions.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Take this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

Intersect it with this list: https://www.worlddata.info/average-income.php

And you get

  • Philippines - 70m English Speakers - Average Hourly Income $1.44
  • India - 228m English Speakers - Average Hourly Income $0.90
  • Nigeria - 125m English Speakers - Average Hourly Income $0.66
  • Pakistan - 108m English Speakers - Average Hourly Income $0.51

etc, etc

When you want a Entry level online only job, your now competing with the global workforce.

You can get paid more when geography matters (so in person, or for legal reasons), culture matters, language matters (we already narrowed down to English for this example), skills matter (more difficult the skill, higher the remuneration), relationships matter (people know you, so they trust you to work remotely)

What are you offering, able to do, that someone from one of the low cost countries can't do in order to justify $20/hr? That's what should be driving your job search.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

Depends on the role, but yeah, willing to give it a go.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Those sorts of jobs are filled from low-wage countries.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ngl reading "basic $20+ per hour job" was kinda funny

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

$20 a day is 1.5x minimum wage in Brazil. And we aren't even that poor.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A foot and a half of Subway sandwiches and two bottles of pop is $29 in my country

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So disheartened by this. But thanks.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Try charging more so people will take you more seriously. That works surprisingly well a lot of the time.

Try here too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42017580

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Always willing to try.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Don't be disheartened, take what was said in the last part of the response and apply it. Answer those questions and refine your search based on the answers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

and they are priced worse, like $300-500 a month

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was offered $21/hr to remote work at some google outsourced company for one of their LLM projects. It was going to be grueling work, full-time, no benefits. It took about 120 applications (two responses) to even get there, and they ghosted me after a second interview. It’s awful out there and I feel for you 100%. Best of luck, genuinely.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

Ouch. Hopefully you ended up with something else.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There isn't a single company in the country that's going to pay you $20/hr to do something that entire offices are doing across the world for that same rate. You're shooting way too high for that wage doing that kind of work

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I got paid a lot more than that doing similar for a while before the pandemic. Since the pandemic companies got caught up in the forcing people back into offices for no reason. When you are assisting people across the nation and there is information that cannot be allowed to be accessed outside it, they have to keep the jobs in the country to keep government contracts. There is no point in hiring someone in the city and have them drive in when it costs more to live in the city, it's cheaper to pay someone who lives further away.

Why pay someone $35 an hour in a city that they can barely afford to live in and are always looking for a way out the door to find a better rate, when you can hire someone elsewhere who can live comfortably off $35 an hour and considers themselves lucky.

I spent 3 years with a company that I never went into an office once.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

What should I be aiming for? I'm simply going by what the job sites are stating.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago

Those postings are put up by recrutiers for jobs that don't exist to pad their rolodex in case they happen to get a overqualified candidate. There aren't actually any $20/hr entry level remote jobs on the market.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Below min wage. You're competing with India, not America.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Aim for higher paying jobs. That filters lots of crap. Legit jobs will take more thana few weeks to pay you.

If the timeline is a few weeks, look elsewhere.

Sorry.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I get that, but at some point, I had two months to spare. It's dwindled down to this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't know your situation, but some time with a spreadsheet is called for. Figure out how to stretch things.

Clearly, this drifts from your original question.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Already done. Can't stretch any further than I am. But this is what I figure is character development of some sort.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I got into CloudWorkers with the hopes it is some sort of legit cause I am in deep crap.

https://www.reddit.com/r/freelance/comments/kfx8bt/warning_about_cloudworkers/

I wouldn't hold your breath.

Also low level, $20 an hour, remote really is asking for a LOT. Can you not work in person, or do you just don't want to work in person? $20 an hour is reasonable in person, $20 an hour remote isn't.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Fair enough.

I read the thing about CloudWorkers when I signed up. The math means its 10 bucks an hour and if you work 12 hours a day 7 days a week, then it dings the needle slightly cause its shy of 3K. Either way, it is currently the best deal I have on the table.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because the sort of people who are in the market for low level jobs aren't the sort of people who function well in a remote work environment with little oversight.

Bluntly: Low skilled workers will slack off without direct supervision.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

I'm a high skilled worker who is really good at slacking off with direct supervision...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Depends on the role, but I am willing to give it a go.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Remote claim work. Glorified customer service. It is busy and people burn out in a few months.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

Send me the details. I'm definitely interested.