ETO Home

Recent news items
Site search
Site contents

Telework
Teletrade
Telecooperation

Events
Links
Resources database

Presentations
Definitions
FAQs
Statistics

Discussion
Feedback
Advertise at site
Site management
Privacy policy

Page updated:
13 April 2000

This free of charge service is made possible by our sponsors:

Our choice of tested and selected services is: smarterwork.com

This is one of a cluster of FAQs about Finding Work and Finding Skilled People on the Internet The right hand menu guides you through this cluster Together, these FAQs answer the main questions about "getting work as a teleworker" and "recruiting people as teleworkers". They look at both employment and self-employment or freelance teleworking. In answer to the key question, Can I get work as a teleworker, this page tells you: The answer is "Yes, but . . ." A flood of new websites Guidance for job hunters Questions about the particular service Questions about yourself and your search for work Guidance for teleworkers (telecommuters) Guidance for people running or planning schemes Does it solve a real problem? Do we have the resources to solve the real problem Advisory services from European Telework Online for individuals, employers, recruiters, placement agencies, temporary staff and management agencies, online service providers, local economic development agencies The answer is "Yes, but . . ." These topics are raised very frequently wherever telework is discussed. They are the most frequent of all the questions addressed to European Telework Online. The answer is yes, there are schemes for finding a job or contract work and yes, some of them do actually deliver. But many such schemes fail and cause severe disappointment to people who have signed up with them in the expectation of getting a job through the Internet.

Finding work, finding telework   and finding skilled people   Online services for finding work: introduction and overview    (this page) Should I be a teleworker? Can I find work? Pricing your skills Marketing your services    Finding a (teleworking) job online List of sites/services Tested and Selected services Other FAQs Home page

We now provide a cluster of Frequently Asked Questions around this topic - see the section menu above right. If you read these FAQs and study the list of online sites, and our "tested and selected" sites, you will be well placed to either find some work through one or more of these schemes, or to choose other approaches that will be more successful for you.

In this page we discuss the issues associated with finding a job or contract work through the Internet, and the factors that affect whether a particular approach will work for you.

A flood of new websites

Guidance for Job-hunters

Questions about the particular service

How "current" are the jobs listed at the site

Many "jobs online" sites promote themselves based on offering a very high number of jobs. But if you find when searching that some of the jobs on offer are three months old or more, either the system doesn't work well in matching people to jobs, or they aren't bothering to remove the jobs that have been filled, or they have no interest in knowing whether a job has been filled. Of course there are some kinds of jobs that are "permanently open", but often these are "money making opportunities" camouflaged as employment (see our FAQs on "Get paid to surf" and related "opportunities").

How usable is the search facility?

Some sites do active matching of people to opportunities (see below), but many are simply searchable directories. Many provide very crude search facilities, for example they may list "Jobs in IT" (a very vague category). If they have a good supply of jobs you will have to sift through a large number in the hope of finding one suitable for you.

Do they "match" people and jobs?

Anyone in the recruitment business will tell you how difficult it is to match people and jobs using software. When you find a site that claims to do this, don't be disappointed if the "hits" it provides for you are mainly misses!

Does it request your profile but then leave you to search for jobs?

Ask yourself how likely it is that a bona fide employer will search through hundreds or thousands of personal profiles online in the hope of coming up with the candidates they are looking for. What other purposes might a site have in asking for your profile? Before providing a profile try to look at the site from an employer's standpoint, or find evidence that employers really are using the site.

Does the site apply any kind of "quality test" to the information you provide?

A good recruitment agency wants to check out people fairly thoroughly before passing them on to an employer. It also checks out quite a lot about the jobs before passing it to a candidate. If the site just accepts what you put in your profile without question, and adds you to its database, what kind of quality of service is it providing to employers? Why would an employer use it?

Who owns and runs this business?

Anyon person or company running an effective web service should be proud to tell you who they are and make it easy to contact them. Beware of sites that make it difficult or impossible to track down their ownership or to contact them other than through the filter of online forms. They may not be hiding anything, but on the other hand . . .

Questions about yourself and your search for work

Am I looking for a local job or am I prepared to move?

For local jobs in most countries, local recruitment companies and employers are probably the best place to search for employment. Remember that most companies still rely on "offline" methods as their main recruitment method and that some companies don't yet do online recruitment at all. So balance your online search with offline searching!

"Jobs" sites versus "recruitment company" sites

Conventional recruitment companies now promote their services and current vacancies on the web as well as through conventional methods. Some "jobs" sites simply pick up vacancies that are advertised elsewhere on the net. For local jobs you will usually do better to go straight to the source, whether that is a recruitment company or the employers themselves.

I will move, but will a distant employer hire me?

Even if you are prepared to move, in order to get a better job than the ones available locally, will the distant employer consider your application? This is to do with supply and demand. If the distant employer is desperate they will cast their net further and further away in the search for appropriate (qualified, experienced) people. They will consider alternative ways of employing people (eg teleworking). But if local labour supply is plentiful employers will usually prefer to hire local people. Check out the supply-demand position in the areas you are prepared to move to and be realistic about getting a job there.

Guidance for teleworkers (telecommuters)

• Be cautious of websites and advertisements that promise to provide or find telework-based work for you - some are OK but many are either very low grade, low paid work or simply a promotional scam. Some won't say how many people have found what kind of work through their service; some don't try to track this, so neither they nor you can know whether they work or not.
  
  
• Do not pay money in response to such advertising - if someone wants your talents they should pay you! In recruitment - as opposed to placement services - the employer usually pays.
  
  
• Be realistic about your skills and the demand for them. If you have particular skills that are scarce and in high demand you may have good opportunities; if you don't have such skills most of the jobs you qualify for are not recruited on a telework basis. Look at "Should I be a Teleworker?" for more ideas about this.

Guidance for people running or planning schemes

1. A "public service" scheme to bring new work opportunities to an area of high unemployment
2. A "public service" or commercial scheme to find qualified but distant staff for local firms in an area with labour shortages
3. A commercial business aiming to make money by solving another demand-supply problem
4. A telework-related organisation wanting to provide a service to members or the public (for example a national telework association)
5. An existing recruitment agency wanting to extend its coverage through introducing e-commerce methods
6. An employer adding e-commerce methods to its existing recruitment methods

The critical questions in all cases are:

• Does it solve a real problem?
  and:
• Do we have the resources to solve the problem this way?

We have seen many well-intentioned initiatives fail or struggle because they failed to ask and answer one or both questions.

Does it (our proposition) solve a real problem?

Local skills

If these are not well matched to global economic growth patterns, then they will not meet the needs of employers in areas of labour shortage.

Local entrepreneurship

Increasingly, employers are seeking people who think and act on their own initiative, making an active contribution to the company rather than only being effective when supervised. If the local economy lacks entrepreneurs who can create local employment opportunities, then the local workforce may not yet have the self-starting characteristics that succeed in distant as well as local work.

Local investment

In many places it is difficult for innovative, globally minded small companies to get seed capital or development investment. If this is the case, available money might be better invested in stimulating local enterprise than in seeking work from distant entrepreneurs.

Do we have the resources to solve the problem?

Seeking distant work

The idea was good - local skills well matched to work that is in high demand generally. However, the initiative expected to obtain work for local people simply by promoting its capabilities across the Internet. Being based in a peripheral region, it was too far from centres of economic activity to go out and market its services face to face, but the potential customers needed active selling rather than just an online presence to convince them.

Finding work for teleworkers

The supply of teleworkers was fine but not enough thought (or budget!) had gone into marketing to potential employers. This is the most common cause of failure in programmes to find work for teleworkers. In today's market, except for a few high-growth activities, supply (of people looking for work as a teleworker) greatly exceeds supply at the global level. The effort and cost of finding and convincing the employer should not be underestimated.

Skills without experience

This is the most common cause of locally focused schemes. The people who want work don't have the right profile to satisfy the employers with jobs to fill. In particular, many employers hire on experience rather than on qualifications. Local organisations run training courses but if the relevant jobs and companies are not around locally, how are the trainees to gain experience? The scheme should have provided for experience-building as well as skill-building.

Advisory services from European Telework Online

Individuals

Please check out the relevant FAQs (accessed from the section menu at top right of this page). If your question is not answered here or in the Resources Database, you can write with your question to eto-info@eto.org.uk. Questions are usually answered within 48 hours.

Employers, recruiters, placement agencies, temporary help and temporary management agencies

Our customised advice and support about online presence in this sector can be provided on a contract basis or in exchange for site sponsorship or other partnering arrangements. European Telework Online has a global contacts base of people with relevant expertise as well as our own in depth knowledge of the online environment, plus access to unrivalled web services at very competitive rates. Write to eto-info@eto.org.uk for an informal discussion of your needs.

New online ventures and initiatives

We have assisted with the successful launch of online initiatives at both local and global levels. Tell us in confidence what you have in mind and we will tell you how we can help! Write to eto-info@eto.org.uk

Local economic development agencies

European Telework Online is preparing a new report specifically for local economic development agencies and planners. To make sure you received notification of this, join the announcements list or the discussion forum. Meanwhile there are several presentations that address telework in an economic development context.