The ongoing pandemic has impacted our lives in many negative ways. The decline in the economy, the stress on the healthcare systems and overall change in mental health are all effects that we feel in our daily lives. But, on the positive side of things, the pandemic has pushed many companies to adopt remote working. Not only has this helped jobs be a little more flexible, but has also opened the job market wider to those who can’t be away from home for 8-10 hours a day. As a result, we can find a wide range of online jobs that don’t require high qualifications, while still paying decent salaries.

Among the many jobs available online, there are those that require virtual assistance. In simple words, these jobs require employees to fill in the roles that managers don’t have time to occupy. These jobs will usually require simple, repetitive tasks, such as sending emails or inputting data into databases. The neat part is that these jobs can be your full occupation or just a side gig that you do for extra money. Let’s explore together what kind of virtual assistance jobs we can find and how much we potentially could make off of them.

So, What Kind Of Virtual Assistance Jobs Can I Get?

The kind of job that you can do will depend heavily on how many hours you’re willing to put in. It will also depend on your expected salary, qualifying skills and the time you’ll spend looking for the best job out there. It’s safe to say that you’ll need an internet connection, as well as access to smart devices (preferably a smartphone and a PC).

Virtual Data Entry Specialist

As we’re looking into jobs that don’t need high qualifications for eligibility, this job ranks pretty high on the list. As the name suggests, the job revolves around entering data into databases. You might think to yourself “who on earth does that as a job?” The answer is a lot of people. Almost every major organization needs data entry specialists. These organizations are not just limited to private business tycoons, but also include governmental organizations, such as the US Navy.

While almost all of our personal data now comes in digital form, things can still be analogue on the major industrial scale. This kind of job will pay you the average of $33,898 per year, with a potential added salary of about $19,000. As we’ve mentioned, the job doesn’t require any particular high qualifications to get. You basically need to focus on data, input it in the correct way, and potentially report any errors. If all you’ll need is an internet connection and a computer, why not consider it?

Virtual Admin Assistant

Alright, so just like the usual admin assistant, a virtual one will need to reply to emails, send emails, set up meetings and more. Every successful manager needs a person who performs these small tasks to keep the process going. An effective virtual admin assistant needs to be timely, and able to understand their manager’s needs quickly. Moreover, the job requires the employee to perform in a professional way, especially when communicating with others. According to Flexjobs, such a job can earn you the average of $16 per hour, or about $36,272 per year. Here’s a list of companies you should look into for such a job:

• BELAY
• Boldly
• Equivity
• My BTLR
• Profit Factory
• Randstad
• tawk.to
• VaVa Virtual Assistants

Customer Service

Think of all the times you called or chatted with customer service agents. While in the past, those folks needed to be sitting in offices that you needed to commute to on a daily basis. Nowadays, companies realized that it’s much cheaper and more efficient to let customer service agents just work from home. Considering all you’ll need to do is maintain a professional attitude and a quick response rate, making somewhere between $33,160 and $95,638 a year sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

There are a few qualifications that could put you ahead of the competition when applying for customer service jobs. Starting with being fluent in a second language. Obviously, having a good command of written and spoken English is a must. But if you can speak and write in another language well, that’ll qualify you for a better position with a better pay. Second, it’s pretty obvious that experience helps. But having recommendations from prior bosses can help push your application forward. If you’re looking for a good customer service job, check out Teleperformance as they are one of the biggest companies out there in the industry.

Virtual Travel Assistant

Before the amazing 2020 year happened, many of us had made travel plans. While making those plans, we learned a lot about hotels, transportation and activities we can do in other cities/countries. Many of us also learned about how to save money and time while traveling. Now, imagine doing that for a living. You get to learn about new places and fun stuff to do. You also get to help out fellow travelers. Virtual travel assistants can be absolute lifesavers, especially for overseas travelers. You can make around Fifty grand a year sitting at home telling people what to do during their trips. Not too bad for a job you can do from the comfort of your own home, ha?

Virtual Translators

Alright, so this is when we start talking about making the big bucks. Many people take their second language proficiencies for granted. A lot of Americans who come from foreign heritages don’t make enough use of their linguistic abilities and knowledge of foreign cultures. The crazy part is that you can make over $78,000 a year as an online translator. Goes without saying that you’ll most certainly need to have a good command of spoken and written English. But, if you speak another language fluently, and write well enough in it, you might be onto something. The job will often require you to translate official/personal documents, emails, pamphlets and such. If you become good enough at it, tasks will take you little to no time.

Graphic Designers

Speaking of decent-paying jobs, let’s talk about one that can earn you around Sixty-Five grand a year. Everything we see on the internet requires a graphic designer. From internet ads, to memes, all the way to pretty Instagram posts were probably worked on by a graphic designer at some point. It might truly shock you how accessible this job is. To qualify for this job, you don’t need a college degree. You might not even need any formal education. An average Joe with a computer and knack for visual design can take some free online courses and start working. Graphic design also opens the door to so many job opportunities, because as we mentioned, everyone needs it now. Whether you’ll work full-time for a company or take on freelancing gigs through job portals like Upwork, graphic designs are plenty available.

How Can I Find Free Online Courses That Will Help Me Qualify For Online Jobs?

The brilliant thing about the internet is that it’s pretty much an endless well of..everything really. Whether you want to watch cat videos, or trade stocks or learn courses, there’s always a webpage out there to supply that very demand. And the thing is, different people learn in different ways. Some might find their success at learning through Youtube videos. Others may find that reading books and papers work better for them. And, if you search hard enough on the internet, you’ll definitely find the teaching method that works best for you. But, to get you started, here’s a list of websites that will provide you with the knowledge you need, mostly for free. Some websites might provide paid certified courses to qualify you for higher-earning jobs:

• Udemy
• Alison Online
• Envato Tuts+
• edX

Why You Should Look Into Being A Virtual Worker

For many of those who haven’t tried it, working online might seem bizarre. Not leaving your home in the morning, getting on the road, and working from an office might seem like the natural order of things. But times have changed. It is far more efficient to let workers do their jobs from home. Not only does it save companies money and time, but it also provides workers with benefits that cannot be acquired by your average 9-5 office job.

Time And Place Flexibility

Take a second to think about the time a person spends getting ready in the morning and commuting to work. Add to that the time it takes to get back home, also factor in traffic jams. You might also want to consider the time wasted on office chitchats and useless meetings. You know what? Let’s also factor in being forced to wake up at a certain hour or work on certain days. With virtual jobs, most of these factors have been eliminated. You can get assigned a graphic design task that needs to be delivered by Friday. Whether you’ll work 8 hours today, or 2 today and a few more hours tomorrow, delivering your task is all that matters.

While we’re on the topic of flexibility, let’s talk about where you can live while doing those jobs, and that would be…anywhere really. Considering the ridiculous rise in real estate prices and costs of living in major cities like San Francisco and New York, no wonder a lot of people cannot afford to live there anymore. Nowadays, you don’t have to live in cities like that to get well-paid jobs. The world of virtual working has made it possible for you to work in a California-based company while living anywhere in the country, as long as you have a stable internet connection and any other required tools. Such flexibility can actually make your dream of living on the beach and having a decent income actually possible.

Mental Health Benefits

Have you ever heard of the expression “Workplace Stress”? Reading about it might make it sound eerily familiar. Turns out that being at a stressful workplace can dangerously affect your health. As research suggests, working somewhere that stresses you out can cause physical ailments such as high blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases. It can also be a contributing factor to obesity and substance abuse. Think of all the times you dread talking to your boss face-to-face or having to deal with the next-door noisy coworker. With a virtual job, you can avoid all of that. The beauty of having a virtual job is that you can choose where to work. Go ahead, create your own home office. Add some work music or scented candles if that helps. Don’t want to work from home? Go to a cafe or a coworking space to do your job. The world’s your oyster.