I am silver certified but am wondering if there is a real benefit to gettting gold certified. I would appreciate your comments.

If you do search you will find several discussions on the subject. You will not find a consensus. There are basically two camps. One says it has improved their income and the other that says it makes no difference. This camp is bigger than the other camp.

If you have money and time to spare, go for it. Education and learning never hurts.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 07:18PM by anakin.

depends on mystery shop company.. The majority I work for it makes no difference...

I have toyed with the idea of getting certifications for quite a while. I certainly see the value in training and investing in my business or I wouldn't have bought a video camera and traveled to a seminar. The hesitation continues because of the economy and seeing fees dropped right and left. Since that certification wouldn't impact my video shopping jobs and there seem to be few other jobs which pay well it just doesn't seem like a very worthwhile investment right now. It would be different if the economy was recovering and if I thought that MSing was coming back strong, but neither is the case right now. With so many people unemployed and underemployed many of the companies have taken advantage of the ability to just keep recruiting new shoppers who will work for less than minimum wage. I know many of us think it will eventually come back to bite them, but it probably won't happen in my lifetime.

I am silver certified and it serves me well. I will not get Gold, just too expensive and jobs have not gone up. I am always for education, but not in this case, however, I do like to have my certification # to put on applications, and yes, it helps now and then. I am glad I got it for the 15.00 cost when I started 6 years ago.

How does it serve you well? I'm not sure if that's hard to quantify but it would be helpful to the discussion I think.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am silver certified and it serves me well. I
> will not get Gold, just too expensive and jobs
> have not gone up. I am always for education, but
> not in this case, however, I do like to have my
> certification # to put on applications, and yes,
> it helps now and then. I am glad I got it for the
> 15.00 cost when I started 6 years ago.

I am gold certified and it has definitely been of benefit to me (I quantified it to $10K worth of jobs I would not have gotten had I not been gold certified). However, I got certified in 2003 - in a WAY different enviornment. The biggest difference was that companies were REALLY pushing it back then. If you were one of the first to get it in your shopping area, you truly had a great advantage (in getting plum jobs) for many companies. In addition, at the certification I attended, many, many company reps were there and I signed up with several that were notoriously difficult to get in with. Now, I personally see it being pushed by companies overall much less (although honestly, maybe that is because the companies I worked with circa 2003-2005 are totally different than the companies I work with now). I can not in all good conscious advise someone to get the gold now. On the other hand, I do believe that it contains good information and that most people will probably learn a thing or to from it - especially if you attend the (very few available) live programs where you will have an opportunity to talk with an network with other shoppers.

Mickey, it sounds like you would not recommend it to someone who has now been in the business for several years without benefit of the certification.

Correct, I would not *recommend it* but I would not tell someone who thought it would be useful to them (rather they have been shopping for 20 years or 20 days) not to get it either. I WOULD definitely tell anyone that if you are going to do it - and it is at all possible to do the in-person class over the DVD - to go to the class.

Thanks for such an informed and informative post

raisitup Wrote:
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> How does it serve you well?

I have been emailed by companies I have never heard of before and offered jobs because I am silver certified. They get my name from the MSPA board. I definitely think being silver has been worth the $15 and I intend to get the gold once I have time to work on it.

Dependability goes a lot further than the Gold Certification. I am gold certified and do not believe it has made any difference. I think that the silver is worth it for the money because it shows the individual is trying to improve his skills. The gold has not improved my abilities nor my work amount.

MickeyB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am gold certified and it has definitely been of
> benefit to me (I quantified it to $10K worth of
> jobs I would not have gotten had I not been gold
> certified). However, I got certified in 2003 - in
> a WAY different enviornment. The biggest
> difference was that companies were REALLY pushing
> it back then. If you were one of the first to get
> it in your shopping area, you truly had a great
> advantage (in getting plum jobs) for many
> companies. In addition, at the certification I
> attended, many, many company reps were there and I
> signed up with several that were notoriously
> difficult to get in with. Now, I personally see
> it being pushed by companies overall much less
> (although honestly, maybe that is because the
> companies I worked with circa 2003-2005 are
> totally different than the companies I work with
> now). I can not in all good conscious advise
> someone to get the gold now. On the other hand, I
> do believe that it contains good information and
> that most people will probably learn a thing or to
> from it - especially if you attend the (very few
> available) live programs where you will have an
> opportunity to talk with an network with other
> shoppers.

MickeyB, I strongly suspect that you have identified a likely reason why some folks feel that the certification was useful and many folks have not. Indeed most of the comments about the old Gold certifications being done at conferences focus on meeting company representatives and other shoppers was the primary benefit. From about 2005 until the conferences ended a major complaint of shoppers who attended were how few company representatives appeared. I think that was what discouraged shoppers from attending and led to the DVD version as they stopped the live Gold conferences.

I find it interesting that the Gold conferences are reappearing, probably because the IMSC conferences had good turnout. It will be interesting to see if company representatives resume visiting the conferences and networking with shoppers. My sense is that at this point most companies have plenty of shoppers and not enough clients to keep their companies in the black so attendance will once again be primarily scheduling companies rather than actual shop providers.

shopperintexas99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am silver certified but am wondering if there is
> a real benefit to gettting gold certified. I
> would appreciate your comments.

IMHO, it does not matter if you are certified or not if you have a history of completing the shops. Gaining the knowledge by "doing" gives you greater knowledge and credibility.

I have a neighbor that just graduated from Culinary School here in VEGAS. He spent four years getting that degree and it cost him thousands. He stnds beside a guy that went to work there the same month that my neighbor started college. Both are making the same lobsters in Vegas. One can do it by sight because of four years of service to Americas greatest people, the Las vegas tourist. One, needs a book and timer until he gets it down... maybe in for years....

The little "whatever" is nice, but the business wants the ability to produce. Who can produce, knows the fastest way to get it done properly, and out to the person that needs it.

If you want the little recognition by your name thats ok. But the work will go to the person that produces.

Don, eh, just my view That and 50 cents will get ya two quarters.


G

I just started MS'ing in late August 2011 and I am not certified at all. I have been getting a lot of work but I think it is based on my positive feedback and high scores. I am considering getting the silver certification though. I'll keep track of my stats and see if it makes a difference.

This reminds me of the time I was applying for a bartender job back in the day. At that time I didn't have enough experience and asked if attending bartemder school would be an advantage. I was told that while those people made perfect drinks they could not function in a high pressure situation since they had to make each drink individually and measure exactly. I eventually learned on the job and understood what they were telling me. Training is good, but if you can't learn and adapt "on the fly" some jobs just won't work.

Strevel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> shopperintexas99 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I am silver certified but am wondering if there
> is
> > a real benefit to gettting gold certified. I
> > would appreciate your comments.
>
> IMHO, it does not matter if you are certified or
> not if you have a history of completing the shops.
> Gaining the knowledge by "doing" gives you
> greater knowledge and credibility.
>
> I have a neighbor that just graduated from
> Culinary School here in VEGAS. He spent four
> years getting that degree and it cost him
> thousands. He stnds beside a guy that went to
> work there the same month that my neighbor started
> college. Both are making the same lobsters in
> Vegas. One can do it by sight because of four
> years of service to Americas greatest people, the
> Las vegas tourist. One, needs a book and timer
> until he gets it down... maybe in for years....
>
> The little "whatever" is nice, but the business
> wants the ability to produce. Who can produce,
> knows the fastest way to get it done properly, and
> out to the person that needs it.
>
> If you want the little recognition by your name
> thats ok. But the work will go to the person that
> produces.
>
> Don, eh, just my view That and 50 cents will
> get ya two quarters.
>
>
> G