Just curious if any of you have ever thought of being a scheduler or editor? If you have and/or are, what are your thoughts on adding this different layer to your mystery shopping career?

amie068 Wrote:
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> Just curious if any of you have ever thought of
> being a scheduler or editor? If you have and/or
> are, what are your thoughts on adding this
> different layer to your mystery shopping career?

i would be afraid of being excessively abused.

Scheduler, no, too stressful. Editor part time, maybe. MCP and Caliber were recently advertising for editors. Contact them if interested.

If you enjoy correcting errors in spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary and grammar, you should look into editing. That is an important job as well, and more and more companies are utilizing this service.

I've considered being an editor. But I've heard from editors about horrible reports they've received in terms of grammar, punctuation, all caps, etc. and I don't think I could deal with that. I pride myself on proper writing, and I think editing poorly written reports would cause too much aggravation.

addisonbert Wrote:
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> If you enjoy correcting errors in spelling,
> sentence structure, vocabulary and grammar, you
> should look into editing. That is an important job
> as well, and more and more companies are utilizing
> this service.

i might not mind editing (as opposed to scheduling), but i'd probably end up rewriting the whole report. the original report might not be recognizable.

I do believe that editing might be a good match for me. I teach special education, so can make sense out of most writing. Since I work full time, I am limited to the shops I can do. By the time I get home from work, it is often 5:30 or 6. If I shop in the evening, I often end up grabbing a quick meal which eats up the profits. Also, I am a major night owl, so wouldn't mind working from 10 pm to midnight which might be when lots of shops are being completed.

I wouldn't mind being a scheduler, esp. for movie shops!

How do you apply for such a job.

Can do it from home?

I've done plenty of freelance editing, mainly for online content (articles) and academic papers. So yes, I have considered an editing job but until I'm ready to apply for one I'm happy with being an evaluator.

How do you find a list of companies looking for editors?

I'd love to do that. But are they actual jobs or IC work? If its a "regular" job, you'd have to give up shopping or it creates a conflict of interest.

It is IC and Amie as I posted Caliber and MCP were advertising. No such list that I know of. Check jobslinger.

We occassionally contract with additional editors based on our workload - please email your resume and interest to our Operations Supervisor, Tiffany@ctcss.com

Coast2Coast Wrote:
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> We occassionally contract with additional editors
> based on our workload - please email your resume
> and interest to our Operations Supervisor,
> Tiffany@ctcss.com

what are your standard fees?

I wonder how often schedulers find it easier to go do a shop themselves, in their own area, rather than finding a mystery shopper.

After being a shopper for years, it would be a welcoming change to edit other people's reports for once. I used to work for a newspaper and found I actually enjoyed editing more than writing. I recently applied to be an editor at Caliber and got a call back but unfortunately I wasn't home at the time. I returned the call and left a message last week and sent an email yesterday but haven't heard back from anyone at Caliber. Does anyone know if the editor position is still available?

You may not think it's a welcoming change to edit other people's reports after you've actually seen other people's reports.

jschilz Wrote:
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> You may not think it's a welcoming change to edit
> other people's reports after you've actually seen
> other people's reports.


Just curious, when you get a report that's a total mess, do you correct all the errors or do you reject it right away?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2012 05:24PM by HeatherC.

sferro Wrote:
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> I'd love to do that. But are they actual jobs or
> IC work? If its a "regular" job, you'd have to
> give up shopping or it creates a conflict of
> interest.


No, it's not a conflict of interest. What makes you think it is?

@Heather, some companies require you to clean up the report if the information is all there for that to happen. Sometimes the shopper hasn't given enough details for that to be, in that case, it's rejected and they need to clean up the report and re-submit.

I thought about it, and got an offer from a company that I do a lot of shops for. Any thoughts immediately evaporated when they offered $2.50 per edited report. They must be kidding - $2.50 an edit is even more insulting than an $8 shop.

Art

Even at 10 minutes an edit, that's only $15 an hour. While some would say there are no gas expenses, I think there is also no mileage deduction

ArtFromNY Wrote:
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> I thought about it, and got an offer from a
> company that I do a lot of shops for. Any
> thoughts immediately evaporated when they offered
> $2.50 per edited report. They must be kidding -
> $2.50 an edit is even more insulting than an $8
> shop.
>
> Art


Yes, that's right. So, when a shopper submits a report that should take 10-15 min. to edit, but it takes 30-40 min., YOU get to make less money while the shopper makes the same amount.


LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Even at 10 minutes an edit, that's only $15 an
> hour. While some would say there are no gas
> expenses, I think there is also no mileage
> deduction


I never make that much an hour. (edited for typo)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2012 11:43PM by Jamiesan.

Yes no magic bullet in this industry. We just keep on keepin on.

Jamiesan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ArtFromNY Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I thought about it, and got an offer from a
> > company that I do a lot of shops for. Any
> > thoughts immediately evaporated when they
> offered
> > $2.50 per edited report. They must be kidding
> -
> > $2.50 an edit is even more insulting than an $8
> > shop.
> >
> > Art
>
>
> Yes, that's right. So, when a shopper submits a
> report that should take 10-15 min. to edit, but it
> takes 30-40 min., YOU get to make less money while
> the shopper makes the same amount.
>

one may then have to ask: how long does the 'average' report take to edit?

do some reports only take 5 minutes to edit? do others take more than 15 minutes to edit? what's the 'average'?

of course, this will depend upon the writing quality of the individual shoppers being edited.

and it further seems that complete reports are accepted, even if hideous grammatical errors must be cleaned up. whereas, incomplete reports with excellect grammar are rejected.

i think that if one were an editor, one might give bad ratings to a report depending upon how long it took to edit. perhaps deducting one point for every three minutes that it takes over editing the 'average' report. but i'm just guessing. i don't know.

In my situation, I don't get the final say on if a shop is rejected. You don't want to reject shops though, everyone's goal is to make the report usable. Shops get rejected if you don't follow the guidelines or you shop the wrong location. If a report is a grammatical nightmare, as long as you can make sense out of it, you just edit it. If it doesn't make sense or they don't answer the questions correctly you send it back and have them fix it. You really don't want to send them back unless you have to because you have to look at it again.

I'm painfully slow at editing, but I'm also still pretty new to it. Some of them take less than five minutes.Some of them take me fifteen minutes. Oddly enough, some of the best written reports actually take longer than a crappy report. If someone writes a book, even if it's a perfectly worded book, you still need to read the whole thing.

Pay for editing is low, but you get money by doing volume, and it's more reliable than shopping. In my opinion, you can't look at the pay and compare it to minimum wage, you have to look at it terms of what would you be doing with that time if you weren't editing? If your answer is watching TV, do the editing and even if you're slow, at least your getting paid when you otherwise wouldn't be. If your answer is something else, you just need to decide if that something else is more important.

HeatherC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jschilz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You may not think it's a welcoming change to
> edit
> > other people's reports after you've actually
> seen
> > other people's reports.
>
>
> Just curious, when you get a report that's a total
> mess, do you correct all the errors or do you
> reject it right away?

jschilz Wrote:
--------------------------------------------------------
> Oddly enough, some of the best written reports
> actually take longer than a crappy report. If
> someone writes a book, even if it's a perfectly
> worded book, you still need to read the whole
> thing.
>

how short is too short? how long is too long?

How does a scheduler get paid? Do they work from home?

jschilz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In my situation, I don't get the final say on if a
> shop is rejected. You don't want to reject shops
> though, everyone's goal is to make the report
> usable. Shops get rejected if you don't follow the
> guidelines or you shop the wrong location. If a
> report is a grammatical nightmare, as long as you
> can make sense out of it, you just edit it. If it
> doesn't make sense or they don't answer the
> questions correctly you send it back and have them
> fix it. You really don't want to send them back
> unless you have to because you have to look at it
> again.
>
> I'm painfully slow at editing, but I'm also still
> pretty new to it. Some of them take less than five
> minutes.Some of them take me fifteen minutes.
> Oddly enough, some of the best written reports
> actually take longer than a crappy report. If
> someone writes a book, even if it's a perfectly
> worded book, you still need to read the whole
> thing.
>
> Pay for editing is low, but you get money by doing
> volume, and it's more reliable than shopping. In
> my opinion, you can't look at the pay and compare
> it to minimum wage, you have to look at it terms
> of what would you be doing with that time if you
> weren't editing? If your answer is watching TV, do
> the editing and even if you're slow, at least your
> getting paid when you otherwise wouldn't be. If
> your answer is something else, you just need to
> decide if that something else is more important.
>
>
> HeatherC Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > jschilz Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > You may not think it's a welcoming change to
> > edit
> > > other people's reports after you've actually
> > seen
> > > other people's reports.
> >
> >
> > Just curious, when you get a report that's a
> total
> > mess, do you correct all the errors or do you
> > reject it right away?


Thanks so much for your post re editing ins and outs. It is the most informative and succint piece about MSC editing that I have seen and cleared up alot for me. Your fan,
Cindy

vince Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jschilz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> ------
> > Oddly enough, some of the best written reports
> > actually take longer than a crappy report. If
> > someone writes a book, even if it's a perfectly
> > worded book, you still need to read the whole
> > thing.
> >
>
> how short is too short? how long is too long?

If you succinctly answer the questions on the report, it's perfect. Too short and you leave out desired detail. If you describe excessively the surroundings or staff's dress, you use too many words to get your thought across, or repeat yourself, it unnecessarily makes the report too long. Or if you describe things, people, etc., that the report doesn't request, that might need to be deleted.

You need to get a feel for what information the report needs, which can be difficult.