By Ranjan K Baruah
In spite of fear and uncertainty, we are still reading this and fighting COVID-19. People around the world are concerned about the virus and its effects in near future. Well, lockdown will end some day but after that there will be more challenges till we get vaccine or medicine to cure the disease.
Meanwhile, we cannot stop economic activity as livelihood is a must. In our last edition, we published information related to technological skills and in today’s edition we will publish more information related to the same and also few avenues of working from home using technology.
Before we write, we need to understand that we are not talking about pure technical skills here but talking about technological skills related to Information and Technology. Technical skills are the abilities and knowledge needed to perform specific tasks. They are practical and often relate to mechanical, information technology, mathematical or scientific tasks.
Some examples include knowledge of programming languages, mechanical equipment or tools. We are more focusing with skills related to software or even hardware, programming, applications, languages, etc. Let us understand few terms which are associated with online jobs from home.
Virtual assistant: A virtual assistant is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical or creative (social) assistance to clients remotely from a home office. Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, e-mail and phone-call conferences etc. Increasingly virtual assistants are utilising technology such as Skype, Slack, as well as Google Voice. Individuals work independently like their own boss. This can be one of the best options of working from home for which you need to have effective networking to get assignments.
Blogger: It is one of the easiest ways to do online if one is creative. There are many online platforms which promote bloggers and a blogger may be specific to certain issues or general which contains different topics. Becoming a blogger is unlike any other work-at-home job in that you have to show up and build it yourself. There is no guarantee that if one publishes blog then that will be popular which means it is also important to know how to brand it to reach out to maximum audience.
Data entry: We come across many advertisement related to data entry. This can be done from being at home but one must be careful with whom one is working as all clients may not be credible. Data entry is important for any organisation, be it small or large, so there is always scopes for people who wants to work as data entry operator and one can do it by being at home too. This needs patience and people without patience should not think of data entry jobs.
Social media handling: Social Media like Facebook or Twitter is being used by profit making as well as not for profit making organisation. These days we can see political parties and even civil society organisations use social media to reach out to people. This brings more opportunity for young people to get engaged with social media campaign or research or similar things which can be done from home. One must be pro active and know how to brand and popularise the updates through social media.
There are other options apart from this. There are more creative works related to digital world which can be done by being at home. Aspirants need to have good networking and effective communication skills to get more assignments from small or big companies or corporate. We can take the help of digital media for branding and reaching out to more people to get more assignment. Time management is very important here as assignments need to be submitted on time. Let us keep fighting corona virus and make our society free from it as soon as possible.
(The author is a career mentor, motivational speaker and skill trainer and can be reached at 8473943734 or [email protected])