Do I need high speed internet access to work from home?

By Carole Anderson for Work-From-Home.org

One of the questions I’m asking frequently is whether or not someone needs to have high speed internet access before embarking on a search for that perfect work at home job. Are you ineligible for work from home jobs if you have dial up instead of high speed internet?

There are some work from home jobs that don’t require an internet access at all, but nowadays, most jobs do require internet access, not only for the performance of one’s duties but also to enable effective communication with the mothership, your employer.

For the purposes of this article, let’s say that 91% of all work from home jobs do require some form of internet access. That percentage is probably pretty close.

Employers have realized that many people do have high speed internet, that the cost is quite affordable, and they have also realized that all employees, including those that work from home, are far more productive with high speed internet than without. No employer wants to pay someone to sit around listening to their hard drive spin.

If you’re serious about your home based career you should have high speed internet. If you don’t have it already it probably isn’t necessary to rush out and get it immediately. If you prefer, you can conduct your job search with dial up (it’ll take longer). But if a prospective employer asks you whether you have high speed internet or not, answer ‘yes’ and go out and buy it if you get the job.

Once you have high speed internet, for about $25 more per month you can also use a service like Vonage for voice over internet phone that offers you tons of really cool phone features and free long distance. With a service like Vonage you can have customized phone rings that distinguish work calls from personal, voicemail, call forwarding, caller ID, additional phone numbers at a nominal charge, and much more. The free long distance may also open more career choices for you.

If you work from home, take your career seriously. Invest in high speed internet. If you must, you can invest in it after you’ve landed that perfect work from home job.

Carole Anderson is a Contributing Writer for Work-from-Home.org.