Why I Don't Recommend Data Entry Jobs

A lot of my former officemates in the call center I used to work for as well as old college and high school friends I get reconnected with over at Facebook have been asking me what I do to make money online.

Writing is the main thing I do over at oDesk, and I make a considerable amount out of it. However, I really feel awkward when telling someone what I do when I know that they do not speak/write English very well, which is perfectly understandable since it's not our first language.

One of our neighbors popped by and asked me if I knew of anything she could do online to make money (my mother in law and my husband had their fair share of telling the neighbors what I did and why the only time I go out of the house is to buy an energy drink from the store). I asked her to rate her English skills honestly as the work I did entailed a lot of writing, and I would have been more than happy to have her write some of the articles I needed done. Unfortunately, her self-assessed English skilled were, let's say not so well, and she asked me about data entry.

I've seen a lot of openings for data entry jobs over at oDesk, but this is definitely a path I will not tread. The pay is extremely low (like a couple of cents for an hour's work) and it's a no-brainer job. I have always viewed work as something you enjoy and learn from at the same time, and if it's not any of the two I mentioned above, then it's not worth it.

Sure, data entry jobs are easy, but come on! Who wants to spend all day clicking CTRL + C and CTRL +V? It's a hilariously redundant job, and there's no challenge and fulfillment in it.

One of the things why I love writing online is the fact that I get to learn and research when writing articles. Before we bought this netbook I'm using, I wrote an article about LED lights, and I of course became aware of the many benefits of LED lights, particularly energy-efficiency. When the guy we bought my netbook from informed me that the screen was made up of LED lights, I told him I was taking it while my husband gave me a puzzled look. I then explained what LED lights were (and the sales guy was pretty impressed) which made my husband nod in agreement.

There are many other things when the topics I've researched and written about came to be of use in real life, like when we chose an LCD TV to buy, mobile phone applications, and even digital cameras. I like how I can learn and earn at the same time, which is why I really do not recommend data entry jobs. These are just the type of jobs you won't learn anything from.