A WAHM's Choice

Yesterday, I accompanied my mother to the supermarket. Then out of the blue she asked me, "How do you see yourself  at this point in time next year?" I answered, "Filling up this grocery basket with same items but with higher price tags." And we both laughed.

That night, the question echoed in my mind. It's a simple question that struck the chord in me that resulted with so many questions in my mind. What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? How am I going to do what I want to do? Why will I do it? More questions are popping up in my mind with answers all suspended in my brain. I took a deep breath. Breathing has never failed to help me stay calm and organize my thoughts.

I am a VA but my services should never stop there. I live in a poverty stricken world in one of the poorest urban communities in Metro Manila where informal settlers are rampant, being unemployed is just normal, half-naked tattooed individuals just walking down the streets, drug pushers and users publicly interacting and gang wars among youth as young as 9 years of age are taking place. I live in a community where many are trying to survive in ways they know. Life is, indeed, a big game of survival.

I want to make a difference and this is what I want to do. Why? Because I want to help people in my own ways. How? The answer is I don't know yet. I may choose to continue being just a WAHM doing VA jobs and wait for years to pass by until my eyes can't no longer stare on my computer monitor, or still be a WAHM doing VA jobs while helping people. During my teens years, I've been one of  the youth leaders here as I lead our youth organization members to do productive things for the community.  This time, maybe I can create jobs by being an entrepreneur. How? Well, I've been planning to start a business that can create jobs. By way of this blog site, I can also help other WAHM out there in their journey as a VA. There are lots of possibilities, lots of opportunities. But one thing is sure, at least I know what I want to do now and I think I've planned enough. It's time to act and make things happen.

Everything in this world is our choice and I chose to be what I want to be -- a WAHM doing VA jobs while helping alleviate poverty in a small corner of the community.

123hired.com IS A SCAM

I recently emailed a posted ad in Craigslist.org that's looking for Customer Service Agent. The job is basically to post ad and respond to emails.

After a day, I received this reply:

Hello Maria. How would you like to work for me? Right now I'm running a business on Craigslist and I'm having a hard time keeping up with customer emails. My email box is jammed full of emails I can't answer fast enough. I'm losing business(about $600 a day).

But first, let me tell you about our business. We are a resume and recruiting company and help people find jobs in North America. We post jobs on Craigslist's job forums and help people write resumes and we also work with companies in the US and Canada to find employees. We are currently very busy, so we are in need of a customer service agent.

I need you, along with a few other employees, to help me post messages on Craigslist and answer customer questions. Does that sound doable? I'm willing to pay you a good salary + commission if you work hard. If you're interested in my offer, please return my email along with salary requirements. Thanks. Oh and if you know anybody else who would like to have a job with me, please refer them and I might be able to hire them on. Best wishes.

Jennifer Mason, CEO Career Perfect
www.123Hired.com

Of course, thinking I have a good reply there, I forwarded the email to one of my colleagues who Google searched for "Jennifer Mason, Career Expert" and this one pulled up -- http://www.harrisblackwatch.com/


This is what he'll actually ask you to do:

I am a recruiter serving companies all over North America and as a result, I receive over 2000 resumes by email each day from prospective candidates for the jobs I need to fill. I need some help replying to all my emails. We offer the candidates a resume revision service which they order directly from my website. The jobs are all real and we will find these people employment.

If you are interested in this work:

First create an email address similar to our business name(i.e.careerperfect5@gmail.com). I recommend gmail) and put as your outgoing name “Career Perfect” (with a capital C and P) like I have. Your outgoing name should appear as Career Perfect exactly as I’ve typed it. Then using that email account, create an account on Craigslist. (I omitted the other instructional part on posting and emailing)

Payment:

We pay every Friday by either paypal, certified check mailed to your home, or Western Union. Please let me know how you wish to be paid. If to your home, please provide your full name and address. If to Western Union, please list the address of your preferred Western Union office. If by PayPal, please provide me the email address you used to register your PayPal account.

I am very busy and my time is limited but if you have any questions not covered by this guide, please feel free to ask. The jobs are real, we are not a scam, and are here to provide an excellent and much needed service. You do need thick skin for this work because nowadays people using online services are very skeptical and can get quite “creative” with their language instead of simply saying “No thank you” but it’s best to just ignore this. Time is money and it is not productive that you stop and respond. We have been helping people since 1997. If we were a scam, we would’ve been closed years ago. (??????)

*Whenever you write me, please write me only from your Career Perfect email account.

Thank you and looking forward to a prosperous relationship with you.

Yours faithfully,
Jennifer Mason, CEO Career Perfect
www.123Hired.com

TO ALL HOME-BASED WORKERS: DON'T EVER DO ANY BUSINESS THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH JENNIFER MASON DISGUISING AS CEO OF CAREER PERFECT. IT'S A BIG SCAM!