Mystery Shopping Job Board

To kick this off: I feel this section has absolutely no value to me. Note this is My opinion. Not a generalization.
I live in Canada and it is rare to find any shops in this section for Canada, let alone my geographic area.
Even if I travel to the USA, finding shops through here that fit me is a hard process.

In a perfect world, I would love to have sub section in here. Possibilities:

Canadian shops
Wide ranging USA shops (i.e. spread of a wide geographic area)
Individual US states

It would be more difficult for MSC to post because they might need to post several jobs in different sub sections, but for the shopper, I think this would make the Job Board much more valuable.

Disclosure: after a couple of months of wasting time looking at this board, I never look at it now.

.
Mike T
Looking for shops in Western Canada

"Life is good because the alternative is forever "

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I seldom look at it either. The shops posted there seem to me to be the "dregs" ..... shops that have been posted on job boards and been advertised through e-mails and this is just something more to try to fill it.

Only once - in 2010 - did I actually find a job I did not already know about in my area on our Job Board. It was with a company I was not signed up with. The shops actually was "the dregs" because the company was having difficulty filling all its shops. They were not paying shoppers and shoppers were not accepting their shops, which of course I did not know. I signed up with the company, did the shop, and, fortunately, I got paid. Others were not so lucky. The company was gone in 6 months, leaving many unpaid shoppers.

I'm not saying that the advertisements on our Job Board are not legitimate. I'm only saying the only jobs that *I see* on our Job Board are those that I have already seen other places and that schedulers are having difficulty filling.
The schedulers probably go to the job board last because it's not effective for them. We do the same thing. I never look at it because over the years I haven't found work there. The biggest problem is the time it takes to read down through the listings and sort out what might have possibilities.

Mike's idea is great. I would love to see a section for each geographical area with the larger states being an area each and the smaller states grouped in logical form according to how people shop.

Another thing that would work would be if we could have a zip code search just like a real job board.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.
I have a somewhat different take on it. I check the Job board every day or two since March 2013. Back then I saw an announcement asking for shoppers willing to get badged for ongoing routes of post security shops at two airports near me. Since then I have done over 400 shops based on that one posting. By checking the board a few times a week, I pick up at least more hints of who is doing which types of shops, so I can begin to focus on some MSC job boards that I might not have checked for some time. This yeilds a few extra shops per month and helped me to find where some clients had "migrated" when they changed MSCs.

So there is more than one way to benefit from at least glancing at the board and then looking to see just who does interesting clients that have locations near me, or near my prospective routes, even if the actualy shops posted for that client may not be in my area at that time.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Schedulers posting to the job board are not always mindful of the shopper's time, with regard to locations. I don't see them making an effort to post in the correct geographic areas. I glance at the job board periodically, similar to Jobslinger, et al, just in case of a gem. The major difference between the job board here and other sites is the ability to define a search radius.
I think Miketfse's idea has a great deal of merit and is something to consider. Add me to the list of people who don't look at that board. It just don't feel it is a good use of my time compared to other means of finding jobs because it just takes too long to scroll through so much for so little payback.

I know that it would require extra effort on the part of schedulers, but then, if the job they want to post isn't worth the effort to them, then we shoppers probably don't want that shop anyway.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
I check the Job Board but not on a regular schedule. I have found jobs there but it's not a guaranteed thing each time I look. As Mert said, I don't think schedulers concern themselves with making sure the messages are always location-specific but then they are often no better with the emails they send out. I frequently get those "Urgent shop - Can you help - big bonus" and when I go to look I see the nearest shop is several hundred miles away in a different country!
I check it every once in a great while. I use it more to see the companies advertising jobs in my area or state. If I see a job in my area, I just make sure I am signed up with the company that advertised it.
I would love to see regions posted. For example, if all of a particular NC shop posted by an MSC are in northern or western NC, I'd like to see that mentioned before I click, login to the site, and see that there is nothing anywhere near me (Eastern NC)

That'd be particularly helpful for large states, like Texas. I travel there often and a lot of shops are localized to a specific region, where the client locations are located. Would be great to have that mentioned.

------------------------------------------------
Plan the work. Work the plan.
I check the board once a week or so. I have never found a shop in my area, so I'm less inclined to check it now. sad smiley
Nice to see you on Meta, Canuck. Congratulations!

I usually take a glimpse at the job board whenever I'm on the forum because I've found a couple of really good shops, with new-to-me companies, within the past six months.

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
You are fortunate. I've been a member here since last year and not one job to be found there.

That's okay though. smiling smiley
I look at it once i a while to see if there is a company listing that I have not signed up with. I checked the list of companies at the bottom of the page but it does not provide urls to the sign up pages just to the posts about them. With the job boards they provide contact info.
You brought up a good point, Yawarakai. It would be nice if links to sign-up pages were provided somewhere. Of course, there should also be a link to report broken/outdated links. If JJ decides this is something he would allow on his forum, is it possible someone other than he could set all that up? I hate to pile more time-consuming work on him.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
The link to sign up is there in the official list of mystery shopping companies. Click on one of the discussions for that company, then you will see the company name in bold with a light gray background. Directly across the page on the right you will see the link to the company.


yawarakai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I look at it once i a while to see if there is a
> company listing that I have not signed up with. I
> checked the list of companies at the bottom of the
> page but it does not provide urls to the sign up
> pages just to the posts about them. With the job
> boards they provide contact info.

Kim
Kimmiemae, you're brilliant! LOL I never noticed that before.

Kindly disregard my previous post. winking smiley

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
LJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kimmiemae, you're brilliant!



Don't tell anyone, OK? I don't want to ruin my rep!!!

Kim
LJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kimmiemae, you're brilliant! LOL I never noticed
> that before.
>
> Kindly disregard my previous post. winking smiley


Glad I am not the only one who missed that.
And, let's give Jacob some credit for anticipating the need for links to the MSC sites.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
I agree with a need for some sort of "order" for the job board. I check it, but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I believe it is a good tool for shoppers and schedulers to connect, but it lacks "order" or an easy way to search for your own area or job type.
I have used the job board to figure out which MSC's have certain clients. Then if I like the shops I will sign up with the MSC. Have never taken a job from the job board but it is useful in finding out companies in your area.
I wander over to the job board maybe once every few months. I do a search on my state abbreviation. I think I have signed up with one or two companies because of job board posts; not sure if I actually did any work for them.

That's a board that perhaps could be purged of anything over a month old.


And ... here's another thought in a similar vein. What if we had a "shoppers by region" board where forum members could post their territory and specialties (video, banks, new car, whatever your preference might be) and a mini resume (shopper since 2012, over 500 shops performed, MSPA Silver, Video certified). Maybe starter post could be placed, one for each state, maybe some states with multiples (California: North, South, Center, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco; New York: Upstate, NYC; Texas: Whatever would be a sensible division). Posters could post under whatever regions they want. It would enable a scheduler with an urgent need to find a shopper in the area that might not be signed up with their company yet.

There could be a scheduler somewhere frantically sending out emails, "Need help in Payson today! Please help!" and I don't get the email because I haven't gotten around to signing up with them yet.

Time to build a bigger bridge.
Just a simple comment on the Job Board...

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

Shopping Bama and parts of Georgia.
I'm still learning 24/7.
Airport Shops.

How about a separate section for those posts? The thought is it would be easier to match shops and shopper there.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut
vlade,
I'm not sure that I understand what you mean in your question. The job board is a seperate section. Do you mean a seperate section for shoppers posting about job opportunities, as opposed to schedulers? Or a seperate section for ongoing project announcements or????

Whatever works best! I'm just trying to get the word out.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
What I mean is a separate section of the job board exclusively for airport shops. For those shoppers who are traveling, it seems an easier way to find such shops.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut
How about keeping the posts in the job board section only and not have them on the recent discussion list? Sometimes they take up an entire page.
How strict are the rules about posting on the job board? I have flagged 4 today that are not jobs. One had a response to it so even though that person didn't start the thread, they had access to post there. Can there be some sort of double check that the people who have access to post in the job section are actually schedulers/actually NEED access?

Kim
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