Dear J.T. & Dale: I am so burnt out working in a corporate environment. Therefore, I was thinking that I could split my time (20 hours a week or a little more) in an office environment to get corporate benefits, but work at home the rest of the time by working as a transcriptionist. To do this, I thought I could take a medical transcriptionist class. I have been looking at work from home advertisements, but I just simply do not trust them. Any input? – Macy Dale: J.T. and I both cringe when we hear of people hoping to solve their career issues by taking a class. Nothing against education, but we hear heartbreaking tales of people who’ve poured energy and money into useless certificates, or even into useless graduate degrees. The question is not how to get the knowledge to do the job; it’s how to get the job. Start moving forward by working backward. Go to people doing the job you want and ask how they got there. If they say, “By taking a class,” then you can get their thoughts on the best one to take.

J.T.: Let me back up and say I am thrilled to hear you are thinking outside the box in terms of maintaining benefits, while pursuing a new career direction. What you are describing is called lily padding, which simply means you are taking little hops that eventually will get you where you want to go while leaving you a lot of room to change direction.

Dale: Lily pads, eh? That’s new to me. What’s not new is my appreciation of the underground economy of people working from home. I think of a woman who worked for me, from home, doing research. She also worked from home for a market-research company, transcribing tapes of focus-group interviews. Lots of people and companies need part-time help – sometimes from home – but those jobs don’t fit those little organizational-chart templates, and thus go unnoticed by most job searchers. So, Macy, ask everyone you meet, “Do you know anyone working from home?” and you’ll soon have a lot of possible hops to choose from.