Welcome to 'Interview with a WahMOM' Everything you always wanted to know about Working at Home.
This week we interviewed Kathyrn Hannah, who told us about 2 jobs that she does from home.
What company do you work for?
I work 2 part time jobs from home so here they are. 
Job A: a non profit
Job B: a local university
What is your job title?
Job: A: Team leader, public relations
Job B: Research Assistant
What do you do?
Job A: I create and direct public relations events that promote the work of the non profit, generally made up of skits, stories, video clips, public speaking, etc & 4 times yearly I teach a course on preparing people for long term overseas work. (90% of what I do is from home, 10% outside the home)
Job B: data entry job in excel spreadsheets.
How did you find your job?
Job A:
Been working for the company for 12 years. From home just for the last 4 years.
Job B: Someone I know overhead professor saying he was looking for someone who knew IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and who could work for home. He said, "I know just the person!"
How many hours do you work?
Job A: 20 hrs / a week on average (some weeks more, some less, summers and school holidays are about 5 hours a week).
Job B: 5-6 hours a week. (6 hours max)
Is your work done at your home?
Job A: 90% of it is.
Job B 100% done at home.
What sort of skills do you have to possess to do this job?
Job A: undergraduate degree, overseas experience, training in adult education
Job B: working knowledge of IPA (but just for this job), as a research assistant usually just a BA
Is there any special tools you need?
Job A: Nothing that company doesn't provide for me at no charge.
Job B: Just a computer and good reading glasses for small print.
What is your favorite thing about your job? Least favorite?
Job A: I love training and would like to do this all the time. Least favorite would be that working from home can sometimes be very isolating. I sometimes get forgotten about here and miss out on things / events I should have known about. It can also get a bit lonely which is why I take my breaks and lunch hanging out here a lot!
Job B: I like spreadsheets! Least favorite: I'm not sure I could do this kind of thing full time. It's very detailed work that takes very careful transcriptions so I don't mess up the professors data.
I also like that I am close if the kids need me and I make my own hours. I can go on school field trips or be there quickly if the school calls. Neither job is particularly stressful which is nice too and I work for some really great people. I am also able to freely reduce my hours in the summer as most of my events are in churches, seminaries, colleges and universities which all have lighter schedules in the summer months.
I would like to be paid more and work full time eventually but I find the corporate life along with high competition, really stressful.
Do you get any perks or discounts?
No.
On average, how much money do you make each week? I
Job A: $10,000 yr (which works out to just under $200 a week)
Job B $16 an hour ($80-$96 a week before taxes)
It's not enough to support my family but every bit helps!
If you work in your home, how do you balance children and work?
I work while they are in school and occasionally after they go to bed at night or early in the morning while they are still sleeping (on school holidays). I can also get work done if they are having a play date (here or elsewhere).
If someone wants to get started in this business, what would you tell them?
I would say, let everyone you know that you would like to work from home and are looking for work. Get in touch with different departments at your local college or university and see if there are any research assistant and / or research jobs out there that you could do from home.
Do you have any advice for people that want to work from home?
Stay organized and make a plan for the hours you'll work before the week begins. It's easy to have the days / weeks get away from you.
Do you have a goal for your future or are you working for a change?
I would like to go into training / adult teaching full time eventually but would like to wait until my kids don't need baby-sisters. My youngest is 8 so I have a few more years.
Thank you SO much Kathryn for all that great info! We really liked hearing about your jobs.
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Inteview with a WahMOM is a new Bi-weekly feature, that will showcase our networking members' businesses. Due to the nature of this feature, this will ONLY be open to members that are subbed to the networking forum, though all members can view it. If YOU want you and your business featured in 'Interview with a WahMOM', you can become a member of the networking forum providing you meet the requirements of 250 posts and are an active/contributing member. A networking member will be chosen at random, OR you can pm Missystuy and Desertmom to be featured. **
Interview with a WahMOM ~KathrynHannah:Team Leader/Reasearch Assistant
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