Re: low back pain/ Medical Transcription and Tutoring

[Guest guest]

Ellen wrote:

> Any ideas for jobs with severe lower back pain? I've searched part time,>

online, Americorps and am not having much luck. Was an accountant for over 21

years.

Ellen (and All),

Two great work-at-home jobs if you can't work a " regular " job are medical

transcription and tutoring. Medical transcription can be kind of costly,

though, because you have to be certified by an accredited college or

university, and that can cost up to $2500 for a self-paced, online program,

depending on which school you go through. But, you can earn a pretty good

living, and there is *some* potential for advancement, even if you work at

home.

Tutoring is great because you can do it out of your home, or go to someone

else's home, or go meet in a public place (such as at your local library or

coffee shop), or you can also tutor online; you can tutor ALL age ranges

(pre-K through graduate school); you can set your own wage (most tutors

charge between $30 and $60 per hour); and you can set your own hours. I am a

part-time tutor and I absolutely LOVE it (I am also attending university

part-time). You personally would probably make a great tutor for

college/university students studying accounting.

You can sign up for free on practically a bajillion websites for tutors.

Some of the ones I am a member of or am considering membership of are:

www.wyzant.com; www.universitytutor.com; www.clubztutoring.com;

www.tutorselect.com (this one doesn't have a way to set up a profile yet; I

sent an email to them, and they said that their IT people are working on

it); www.tutornation.com; www.tutorvillage.com; and www.tutoringservices.com

..

You can also become certified through many different tutoring organizations,

but not many (if any) of them are truly accredited; I think it depends on

who you're talking to which organization is more " acceptable " in terms of

the " best " organization to be certified by. They all claim to be the best,

of course, but I think that as long as you are certified by at least one of

them, then that is substantial boost to your credentials to get a larger

clientele. It also helps to be a certified teacher, but that requires more

effort I think. Getting certified by any organization at all, including

teacher certification, costs money, of course, but you don't need to be

certified at all in order to be a tutor; it just helps boost your

credentials, and get a larger clientele.

Some of the organizations (mostly in America) are: American Tutoring

Association (ATA; http://www.americantutoringassociation.org/);

Association for the Tutoring Profession (ATP; http://www.myatp.org/);

Crossroads of Learning (http://crossroadsoflearning.com);

International Tutoring Association (ITA; http://www.itatutor.org/);

National Tutoring Association (NTA; http://www.ntatutor.com/; NOTE: the NTA

claims to be accredited, but I emailed them asking by whom are they accredited,

and they never emailed me back).

You *may* also be able to be certified by the

College Reading and Learning Association

(CRLA http://www.crla.net/)

but I am pretty sure that in order to do so, you have to be a student at a

college or university who offers that certification.

Building a tutoring clientele takes time and patience, and is slow at first.

You start out with zero clients, but the more you tutor, and the more

satisfied your clients are, the more clients you can get because of

references (but ALWAYS ask your clients permission before citing them as

references). Usually, tutors start out charging somewhere between $10-$20

per hour, and then the more experience and references you have, the more you

can charge later on.

Many colleges and universities also hire people with bachelors degrees to

tutor in their tutoring centers. I don't know if they hire accounting tutors

specifically, but you may be able to get a job in their math tutoring

center. Most of these positions require a minimum of a bachelors degree,

whereas all you really need to start your own tutoring business is a high

school diploma or equivalent.

I absolutely LOVE tutoring, and am fairly decent (and getting better) at it.

If you, or anyone, ever wants to talk about tutoring as a job, or if anyone

is interested in more resources for tutors/teachers (such as lesson plans,

etc), then feel free to get in touch with me on- or off-list, and I will

send you some links.

I know there are a plethora of other work-at-home jobs out there, but I

think that these are the two most legitimate ones. Many are scams, but

medical transcription and tutoring are really excellent jobs, and become a

really excellent profession and source of income.

Hope this helps,

e.h.