Online Jobs PH is legit. On the site, you’ll find part-time and full-time permanent and project-based work-from-home jobs for Filipinos and people living in the Philippines. Let’s dive deep and talk more about the site below.
Is Online Jobs PH Legit?
Short answer: Yes. Will it be worth your time? Depends.
The site is legit as far as finding jobs from legit companies and startups from the US, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world. This is not to say you won’t find bad employers on the site. You will. And sometimes, you won’t know they’re bad at the outset or from simply poring over their ads.
But there are also good employers and employers you’ll want to stay with for the rest of your working life. There are also great jobs on the site, in terms of salary, work-life balance, opportunities for growth, company-provided training, and even Philippine government-mandated benefits, and everyone’s favorite: Philippine holidays.
I found great jobs here, and if you’d asked me back in 2016 if I’d recommend the site to all Filipinos looking for remote jobs, I’d heartily say yes! You’d be earning more than some of our kababayans working abroad without leaving the country and in fact, without even stepping out of your home. That’s how good the site was in attracting quality employers.
Would I still recommend it now?
Would I recommend Online Jobs PH?
Yes and no.
Let me start with why I wouldn’t recommend Online Jobs PH— especially not to beginners.
Online Jobs PH, according to their site, started after January of 2006. I wasn’t on the site yet at that time. I sent my first application via the site in February of 2016, and back then Online Jobs PH felt like an answered prayer because here is a site where I don’t have to sift through all the adverts looking for employers open to hiring workers based in the Philippines. The fact that they are on the site means they already know that anyone they hire would be fully remote (no reporting to the office expectations, would make allowances for the time difference, etc.).
The site is also not an agency and it does not take cuts from your salary. Also, compared to Upwork (then oDesk), there are more full-time permanent jobs with a structured schedule (i.e. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, you’d feel like you’re really working).
There are also full-time jobs with flexible schedules for those who prefer to work on their own time (and keep the freelance working vibe) or those who keep odd hours like moms like me with a child to take care of. There are jobs for everyone with different lifestyles and needs.
These days, however, there is a decline in the quality of employers. And the decline could have been very well brought on by the site or the admin of the site itself. Take a look at the image below.
The screenshot image above can be found at the bottom part of the site’s landing page. Notice that it’s proudly advertising Filipino workers for as little as $350 for a full-time post. At the lower part, a table of suggested rates for different positions was also shown, and social media experts can be hired for lower than $350 even.
The current exchange rate for US $350 is only PhP 17,000+. That’s just 7,000 more than the minimum wage in the country today.
In the Philippines about 10 years ago, Php 17,000 is on the low end of the pay scale for outsourced jobs in call centers and online ESL schools. TEN YEARS AGO.
The tricycle driver in our village earns more than PhP 17,000 a month. I’m not belittling tricycle drivers but it seems to me that picking up and dropping off passengers with a motorized vehicle is a lot easier than doing technical SEO audits or creating relevant social media posts using a company’s brand voice, complete with beautiful graphics, is it not?
Instead of promoting Philippine talents, the site is actually encouraging foreign clients to treat us like cheap workers. If one starts accepting $350 for a full-time post, how do you think the rest of Filipino freelance workers will be affected? It’s not good for Filipino workers. It’s not good for the whole freelance industry in the Philippines.
If you’ve been doing this for a long time and you have long established your rates (hopefully higher than $350), good for you. Even if everyone on the site starts offering chump change, you won’t get affected because you have a portfolio to back your salary demand up. You can get jobs elsewhere in fact, and leave Online Jobs PH to the desperate. But what about those who are just beginning their freelance journey? I certainly didn’t start at $350, and I started more than ten years ago.
Sure it’s a home-based job, but if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the quality of work isn’t affected by whether or not the work being done is on-site or off-site. The pandemic, in fact, has proven that working remotely affects productivity positively. So positive that giant companies are now going to adopt remote working permanently— that is, even when the pandemic is over.
And sure you’d have fewer expenses. But you would still have expenses. And employers trying to wiggle their way out of paying a fair salary using “expenses” as an excuse are cheapskates and not worth your time, IMO. If they don’t see your value now, they never will.
Filipino workers are skilled workers. Some of us even have masters degrees! It’s also no secret that we’re some of the most tech-savvy in the world. That’s what we should be promoting. Not the “you won’t get this value anywhere else.” Of course, you won’t. Only in the Philippines. *eyes roll*
And this, my friends, is why the site isn’t attracting high-paying clients anymore.
I get that the site owner has bills and workers to pay. He only earns from the fee employers pay to be able to advertise on the site, but holy moly, there are better ways to trash the site.
BUT (and yes, it’s a big but), to be fair…
I would still recommend Online Jobs PH, but only if
- You know your worth,
- You know your worth, and
- You know your worth
And the good news is, last time I checked, there are still a few employers offering decent pay. You just have to look harder and be more patient waiting for those jobs to come (they come few and far between). But while waiting for those jobs to come, go visit other job sites for work-from-home set-up.
There are other sites that advertise fully remote work from home jobs (more on that in my next posts). Or you can join our private Facebook group, Work From Home Philipines. We cherry-pick job ads and post them on the page for everyone. See you there!
