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Work At Home Jobs: How To Land The Position

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- With full benefits and retirement plans, hundreds of thousands of people are going to work everyday without ever leaving home.

Joe Kerwick had been unemployed since the end of 2008 and he tried everything until he saw a KDKA-TV report about work from home opportunities.

"And this interview mentioned Alpine Access so the next day I looked it up took the test and here we are," he said.

While Joe makes it sound easy, it's a bit more complicated. First, the work at home world is looking for applicants with prior experience just like the brick and mortar world.

"They bring 15 to 20 years of experience with them and they come from the various industries we hire for," Chris Carrington, CEO of Alpine Access, said.

"They might be looking for someone with computer experience, they might be looking for someone with trouble-shooting smart phone experience, they might be looking for someone with banking experience for the certain clients," Joe added.

The number of jobs available range widely and compensation runs from single digits per hour to six figures a year.

But don't think that because the process is online, these jobs are easier to get.

"Taking the qualification test for Alpine is a lot like taking the SAT's," Joe said. "When you start out with this test, be prepared to sit at the computer for six hours and take this online process and it ends in an essay question."

If you pass the test, you may land a telephone interview.

"[The interview includes] verbal questions and some role-playing and they just try to stump you on the spot and then they might offer you the job like they did to me," he said.

But even then the process is not over. You still must pass the background check, credit check and a drug test before you start working.

"People can pick their own hours, but they are employees of ours so they do have to show us a schedule each and every week," Carrington said.

Joe will work from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. and that includes an hour lunch.

This new position won't pay him as much as his previous job, but that's OK.

"It's a job which I didn't have before," he said.

Remember just because it's online and you may be in your slippers it doesn't mean the jobs are easier to get and in most cases you still must have some experience to land a job. Below are a couple of links to sites that may have the job you want:

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