Hi,

wondering if i could become a full time editor while doing assignments as well. Any idea how much companies would pay for being an editor. I could work from home and easily put 4-5 hours daily for this task.

thanks

Most places (at least that I've seen) won't let you sign up for assignments if you're a scheduler or editor for somebody else...

I think it depends on if you are classified as an employee or an IC. My understanding is that by definition an IC can do whatever work they want and do it for whomever they want as long as there is no conflict of interest.

And, from what I've been able to determine by reading the forum, most editors are IC's.

I looked into an editor position recently. This MSC has two types of reports. One is just a basic report (yes/no and multiple choice questions only) and the other type is two-part, with a basic report and a long narrative. They said that they pay $1 for the first type and $2 for the second type. I don't know how this compares to other MSCs.

That hardly seems equitable for the work involved. It seems someone could knock out those $1 reports at a rapid clip while the narratives would take five times as long. Since it was piece work were you going to be an IC and allowed to continue mystery shopping?

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> That hardly seems equitable for the work involved.
> It seems someone could knock out those $1 reports
> at a rapid clip while the narratives would take
> five times as long. Since it was piece work were
> you going to be an IC and allowed to continue
> mystery shopping?


They referred to the position as a "freelance" editor/proofreader, so I'm not sure if that would be IC status or not. I would say maybe? I didn't inquire if I would still be eligible to shop since I decided that it wasn't worth it for me.

Freelance is an IC. There are no withholdings, etc.

Thanks, James. That's what I thought, but wasn't sure

I have been an editor for two different MSCs over the past six years (at different times). I quit after about a year with each. It doesn't pay well (at least with these two particular companies) and it can be quite frustrating. One of those companies paid $3 a report and the other paid $5 a report. With both of them, there was often a large amount of time spent emailing shoppers (especially newbies and shoppers for whom English is a second language) for clarifications. It drove me batty how many people could not follow guidelines! When I emailed, some people didn't respond right away with information or they gave some of the information but not all, so there were times when I had to send three or four emails to get one report edited! Sometimes the information was there but the report was so badly written it took more than an hour to edit. This wasn't always the case, of course, but I often felt that the MSC gave the "new" editors the more challenging reports and kept the easy reports from seasoned shoppers for the more experienced editors. All I know is that I was never able to get an edit done in less than 30 minutes.

I just got an offer last month from one of those two MSCs to come back. If they would let me do it just for January and February when we get a lot of snow (I don't get out much in winter) I would do it because I am stuck at home with nothing else to do, but the problem is they wanted a commitment of 20 hours a week on a seven day basis.

And yes, you are allowed to still shop for other companies while being an editor (at least it was okay with these particular 2 MSCs).

.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2013 07:24PM by asdf.

I think you would need to check the particular MSC. I considered applying for a full-time, salaried editor position at a high-end MSC. Then I found out I could no longer do shops with them, so I changed my mind, because I really enjoy the shops and already have a regular job I enjoy as well.

$2 for a "long narrative" report? Oh, *hell* no. Even $3, nope! $5 might be getting close, as long as there was no shopper contact involved... it would have to pay more for contacting the shopper.

Cheap, cheap, cheap. I suppose if you're totally homebound for whatever reason, it would be excellent; but otherwise... sheesh!

$1 or $2 for the yes/no checkbox ones does seem OK, though.

.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2014 02:02AM by asdf.

I was an editor for 2 companies and could do shops at the same time. The pay was terrible, so I stopped.

Back when I used to hire full-time staff editors, we would start people out around $16/hour. That was before the economy bottomed out, so I'm not sure if that still applies or not.

I was also paid $12/hour as an employee shopper back then, so while the base pay for editors was higher than shoppers, the perks of shopping (getting reimbursements, being outdoors, having an open schedule, & not being chained to the computer) made the shopper position a much better experience. Even when I made over $50k/year as an MSC employee, my lifestyle was not nearly as goon as it was being a P/T shopper and working elsewhere.

I have a lot of respect for some of the editors and schedulers that hang in there long term. Its a pretty grueling job.

Hi Steve,

I think that the income level in Cali generally is much higher than the Midwest.

SteveSoCal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Back when I used to hire full-time staff editors,
> we would start people out around $16/hour. That
> was before the economy bottomed out, so I'm not
> sure if that still applies or not.
>
> I was also paid $12/hour as an employee shopper
> back then, so while the base pay for editors was
> higher than shoppers, the perks of shopping
> (getting reimbursements, being outdoors, having an
> open schedule, & not being chained to the
> computer) made the shopper position a much better
> experience. Even when I made over $50k/year as an
> MSC employee, my lifestyle was not nearly as goon
> as it was being a P/T shopper and working
> elsewhere.
>
> I have a lot of respect for some of the editors
> and schedulers that hang in there long term. Its
> a pretty grueling job.

I think income is generally higher in any urban center, but the living expenses justify that.

That said; I hired people to work remotely and my staff were spread out over North America, so I would guess it was an average pay rate for the job, given the requirements.

Interestingly, almost all the people I hired lived in expensive urban centers (LA, SF, NYC and Chicago). Editorial is not a particularly good paying job in these places, but it was difficult to find quality editors with an understanding of fine dining elsewhere. I don't think that that has to do with people in the midwest not understanding fine dining. I think people in rural areas who know fine dining are probably successful in their professional lives already, while young educated people in urban centers will have more opportunity to experience fine dining as a guest of someone else and fall into MSing as way to subsidize a love for it. That's how it happened for me.

Faced with a job that pays less than what a quality lifestyle costs in these areas, all of the staff I once worked with have now moved on to better career opportunities and remained in big cities, rather than keep their job and move somewhere more affordable. I think that also says something about the quality of lifestyle that editorial offers.