Hi, I'm Judith. I moved from Santa Cruz, on the central California coast, and retired here in 2016. By tomorrow, I will have completed my first three shops in my first week as a shopper, all quite different and for three different companies. I'm also researching companies that hire shoppers and the various types of shops that others do.

The details that follow are in the hope that someone will guide me toward shops where my experience, knowledge, and interests would be assets:

I've lived more places in the US than some people have visited and traveled abroad a few times. I rented for most of my life but now own my own home. I host Airbnb guests during tourist season (Superhost status), garden, read, take care of a dog and cat and all essentials, because I'm on my own and have been for a long time. I love good restaurants, visual and performing arts, and nature. I also love research and learning new things. Currently, I'm learning how to be a better cook and taking piano and then guitar lessons. Plus, I'm constantly learning about home maintenance, from upgrades to repairs and dealing with contractors (ugh), plants, garden design, and landscaping.

I do most shopping online because we're in a remote area without many national stores (which makes me wonder how soon I'll run out of shopper opportunities). I spent my career working in marketing and fundraising for nonprofits, as a freelance journalist, and as a copy editor and technical editor, with a couple of segues into healthcare admin and patient advocate roles.

When I've gained enough experience as a shopper, I hope to switch to editing. But I have a lot to learn first.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2018 04:47AM by SoloAct.

Welcome! Your background and experience will be useful in just about any sort of MS work. At the foot of this page there is a link to the New Mystery Shoppers area of the forum. That will give you a head start on many of the basics. There are two things that will help you to have more opportunities in your rural area. First, being signed up with 100 to 150 MSCs will help because you will see more opportunities. Even if you do not shop for an MSC for years, they will suddenly have a client near you. Second, learning to set up one day routes where you do several shops before returning home; then, learning how to assemble longer routes where you are away for 2-3 days at a time. So, think about using hotel rewards point for low cost lodging and/or becoming an Airbnb guest on your routes. Because shops in remote areas can be hard to fill, schedulers often place large bonuses on them to get them done. This is especially true late in the month; even more so later in the calendar quarter. Schedulers' own bonuses depend heavily on getting all of their shops completed by those deadlines. You can profit from that. Most of all, enjoy!