Can someone please help me understand the deal with Kern Scheduling?

I accepted several assignments days in advance which naturally prevents me from accepting other shops in that time slot. These assignments would then stay in "Pending" right up to the due date then an email is sent out saying the shop was assigned to someone else.

Are they playing games with their new shoppers? Using them as contingencies in case their more seasoned shoppers do not accept the assignment? This is what it appears like anyway.

Kern has work from many companies. I think of them as a sort of clearing house. I think they try to staff jobs other companies are having difficulty staffing on their own.

Just as with any of the companies you apply to, some jobs are self assign, and you know they are yours instantly. Others the scheduler chooses whom to give the job to. If you haven't heard back in a day or two, it's pretty much a done deal you didn't get the job. Most schedulers send you an email either way. You can always call or write the scheduler directly and ask if you're going to get the job or not, because you are tying up your schedule waiting to hear.

Kern uses the sassie system. Until it's been assigned to someone, it'll say pending. Example, if they post a shop, and they get 120 people that express interest in it, it'll show "pending" until it's been assigned to someone officially. Once it's been assigned, it'll send a e-mail to the oher 119 people saying it's been assigned.

Sometimes the dates they put as the due date aren't the real due dates. They usually fill in the holes that companies can't fill. They do very little shops for themselves, 90% are for other companies since they are a scheduling company.

The date you see might be a date for their schedule to choose someone, then whoever is assigned might be given a different date.

UBUmeBme Wrote:
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> Can someone please help me understand the deal
> with Kern Scheduling?
>
> I accepted several assignments days in advance
> which naturally prevents me from accepting other
> shops in that time slot. These assignments would
> then stay in "Pending" right up to the due date
> then an email is sent out saying the shop was
> assigned to someone else.
>
> Are they playing games with their new shoppers?
> Using them as contingencies in case their more
> seasoned shoppers do not accept the assignment?
> This is what it appears like anyway.


There is a difference between "accepting" and "applying." With self-assign visits, you apply and accept in the same click. With scheduler assigned assignments, it is like this: You raise your hand in class, and sometimes the teacher calls on you. You have to wait till they do to talk. Same thing here.
You apply, and others apply; the scheduler has a sense of urgency, or not; they hold some folks on the back burner, or not; someone flakes, or not.
So many possibilities that we are not in control of. If the shop is not assigned to you, you can wait it out, or delete the application if your dance card got full with others.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

jellybeansvs Wrote:
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Once
> it's been assigned, it'll send a e-mail to the
> oher 119 people saying it's been assigned.
>

I suspect that the transmission of e-mails that the position is closed is not an automatic with SASSIE but rather a schedule option. I get "closed" notices on less than a third of the shops I need to apply for through SASSIE. Most of the time the only way I know I did not get assigned the job is to see my "Applications pending" no longer shows the job.

There are a number of attributes in SASSIE that either schedulers do not know how to use or don't bother using, thus I get routine emails for jobs thousands of miles away and jobs where the shop requires a person 1/3 my age. Schedulers sometimes justify this as "we thought you might know someone" but it is just a waste of a shopper's time because of scheduler laziness or ineptitude as far as I can tell.

Flash Wrote:
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> jellybeansvs Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Once
> > it's been assigned, it'll send a e-mail to the
> > oher 119 people saying it's been assigned.
> >
>
> I suspect that the transmission of e-mails that
> the position is closed is not an automatic with
> SASSIE but rather a schedule option. I get
> "closed" notices on less than a third of the shops
> I need to apply for through SASSIE. Most of the
> time the only way I know I did not get assigned
> the job is to see my "Applications pending" no
> longer shows the job.
>
> There are a number of attributes in SASSIE that
> either schedulers do not know how to use or don't
> bother using, thus I get routine emails for jobs
> thousands of miles away and jobs where the shop
> requires a person 1/3 my age. Schedulers sometimes
> justify this as "we thought you might know
> someone" but it is just a waste of a shopper's
> time because of scheduler laziness or ineptitude
> as far as I can tell.


I definitely do NOT receive notices when every Sassie job I have applied for is closed. But from certain companies, I receive on every time they open a job in my area, and every time they close one I applied for. Those, as Flash notes, are the ones we love as at least we always know.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

Kern will tell you which company has the shop available. You can go to that site and apply as well. Sometimes when my app is sent just through Kern, I get a pending or no reply. It's just easier to apply directly to the company. Kern is sort of the middleman and I sometimes wonder if you can just get lost in the shuffle.

I have to agree with UBUmeBme, not only do they pend until the last second and then they reject you, but recently, the due date of the shops change daily, as if you are waiting around for them, and they they reject you. These days, if I see Kern, I just bypass it, or try to figure out the company they are scheduling for and go direct.

I do a lot of shops for Kern, and have good relationships with the specific schedulers I do these shops for. My experience overall is quite positive, with a couple of specific personnel exceptions.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

I must agree with Dee. Great schedulers and good feedback if you email a question.

I think the schedulers at Kern are pretty communicative as well.

They have one client I know of that is submitted through their Sassie site, but for the ones that are redundant, I will usually just go to the MSC site and apply there.

Schedulers will almost always try to select shoppers that have a history and good scores, and wait for one of those shoppers to apply. It's in their best interest, since they most likely will not get paid if the shop goes bad. They are contractors, just like us.

Once you develop a relationship with the schedulers, I think the shops get assigned to you quicker. (By relationship, I mean a body of excellent work. I was always a bit perturbed as a scheduler when I would get holiday email cards from shoppers hoping for assignments)

mmm kern... actually they do shop scheduling for a variety of companies... they function as a sassie site but they do service other companies outside of sassie... i know what you are saying... i have stopped trying to schedule through them... i have applied 10 times or more to a specific shop... they dont even email me... they just assign it to someone else or they send me an email saying the shop is open to apply when i already have applied... and then they bonus it and give it to someone else... sucks... but hey life goes on... some people have good luck some bad... its a roll of the dice...

Or, some people have had the oppty to prove themselves, and have. Some hae had the same oppty, and have not. For the rest, which sometimes includes me at other places, it just means I have not had any oppty.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

Kern is hit and miss for me. I have done some successful shops for them, and then waited forever to be assigned. I only go there now when I'm totally out of work.