Working from home

[Shockwave]

Over the years I've become quite good friends with a lot of people in this community and I have had a couple of jobs.. I used to have a little business selling frozen fish, nowadays I am a courier.

Money wise I am well paid I suppose, but when you are driving a heavy van through single track lanes all day long, often under pressure and at high speed you get thinking that one day you will run out of luck.

I have had two accidents this year, in fact I was not even at the wheel both times I was in the back of the van getting parcels and I was crashed into!

No matter how careful you are, you just can't legislate against that sort of thing. Before I could have happily got a part time job but as most of you know, I have a baby boy now. So I need to get the money in. Also need to think about what to do when Mels' maternity leave finishes.

The way I see it, there are a couple of choices for me. 1: I could go into teaching, I like teaching and enjoy explaining how certain things work to people.

The more interesting one for me would be working from home at my computer in some capacity.

I was wondering if anybody here (uk based perhaps) does work from home, what sort of jobs would be the easiest to get (as well as paying a decent wage) and how would you reccomend I go about it?

Any advice gratefully recieved!

[Jim]

Any advice gratefully recieved!

You could sell your body.  Do you have a spare room?

Jim

[Shockwave]

I probably wouldn't get much for it to be honest with you Jim.

[va!n]

i don't know but possible there are even in the UK some ebay PowerUsers, living just from the money they get by selling stuff at ebay and working from home ^^

[Shockwave]

That's something I might consider doing in fact. It depends if I could earn £400 a week from Ebay and what stuff I'd need to sell...

[va!n]

you need just a good idea to start such a project... but what if other people clone your idea and make less and less money.... it's all not really easy... i still have the same problem... i would be extreme happy when getting back in job!

[mike_g]

Apparently copper is worth something like 6 to 7 US$ per ton. So say about 3500 quid.

If 1p weighs 3.5 grams then for a grand you can get yourself 3.5 tons of copper in pennies.

All you need to do is make a bonfire put a melting pot on it and dont let the people who make the money don't find out what youre doing 

[Shockwave]

Great, thanks I'll be a millionaire soon Mike

[va!n]

ohhh... in my glass ball i see there will be a big party soon at shockwave his place, hehe

[Stonemonkey]

How to mess with a countries ecconomy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6766563.stm

[mike_g]

Haha. Shopkeepers begging so they can get change

[benny!]

@Shocky:
Working from home sounds nice. I work as a independent programmer on different projects. Most of
them are webrelated. Working at home is on the one hand very comfortable. You are not forced to
any starting time, no traffic jam and you save all the travelling time getting to your company and
coming back.

On the other hand - you do not have any detachment from work / home. That can be hard in the
long term - because I guess the more stressful your job becomes it might be nice to have a place
where nothing reminds you on the job ( and this should be your home ).

Furthermore, I experienced that you need some good self-discipline to work from home and not let
other things at home ( like kitchen, tv, private calls on telephone ) distract you. You should also make
it clear for your girl-friend and friends, that you are really working even if you are at home.

At my current project I work in an office at the company. This is only 10mins walk away. IMHO it's
the best alternative. I would definately agree to work from home if too much travelling is involved
getting to your office. But if you have a separate office near you it seems to me as the most perfect
solution. Of course having a separate office does mean additional costs - so you need a certain
steady income before leaving your home office of course.



Speaking of eBay selling - I have no experience myself. But a friend of mine used to earn rather good
money some years ago while we were studying. I don't know in detail what he sold but it is like va!n
already said. You need some unique things and try to keep other sellers away from that. My friend also
didn't spread much about his products. I just know that you sold certain foreign fantasy comics which
seem to have a rather big fanbase in europe.

Anyway, if you dare the step - I wish you all the best. Keep us informed how things are going !

[Hotshot]

Why dont you become Teacher of programmer as You like to teach or help people.

There is lots of things that You can do ....shocky!   

[benny!]

Why dont you become Teacher of programmer as You like to teach or help people.

There is lots of things that You can do ....shocky!   

Good point here. In germany there are sort of schools where you can teach various
courses. And you don't have to be a teacher (no studying). AFAIK you just need to
make a course about teaching methods ( about 1 or 2 weerks).

The majority of those courses are languages ( like learning spanish / swedish etc ).
But I know that there are also computer courses in the program.

Don't know if equal schools exists in the UK - but I guess so. Or you become a specialist
in a certain field. Then you can teach other professionals in different companies. There
are numerous options you can teach ppl - if you really feel that you would like it - maybe
its worth having a try !!!

[DrewPee]

Nick,
I agree with Hotshot (and Benny!), I have known you on and off for a number of years now and always found your explanations on how to code something very straightforward. You were doing stuff years ago that made my head hurt   and have helped me and others a great deal since then. I did a little lecturing in photoshop at my local college and got paid good money for that so maybe a teaching sort of thing would be something you could do?

Whatever you decide matey - good luck, you deserve it.

Andy

[mike_g]

Well you could always design websites, if thats what you want to do. I have a friend that basically trawls the net for badly made commercial websites, then offers to make them a better one. Teaching could be good too. You probably know more about coding than any of my lecturers in college

[Shockwave]

Hmm, that's something I had and hadn't thought of.

I began my mathematics degree 2 years ago with the Open University. I let it slip after the first module though because at the time I was on the bones of my arse and couldn't afford the next module.

The idea was to get a degree in maths and go and lecture in a college.

The idea of maybe taking an evening class for adult education is something I had not thought of and it might be a good route into this for me without having to get a degree

Thank you all for your nice replies.