Am doing their application and the following is one of the questions which I am not sure is a trick question or a real question.

"It is important to follow explicit instructions while completing any audit. When a question asks if the labels are in the proper order, they must follow this color order: red, pumpkin, yellow, white, sky blue, green, brown, black, orange, lilac, pink.

How many colors are listed?

List every third word."

My question is if you consider white a color then there are 11, if you do not consider white a color then the answer would be 10.

For listing every third word I put "important." I thought this was vague like in every third word of what?

Your input please?

Guess whatever I put was OK as I just heard that I passed the test.

.11

Important.

Explicit.

Completing.

When.

Asks.

Labels.

The.

They.

This.

Red.

White.

Green.

Orange.

I interpreted the number as of colors as 11. For the third word question I started out interpreting the way you answered it but then looked at it again and the question says every third word and decided there was only one third word as if you were numbering them it would be word one, word two, word 3, word 4, etc. So I just put "important."

I did get word that I passed the test.

Now I'd like to hear from someone who has done these audits they are talking about. There are 12 shops here in my area and they are willing to give me all of them so at about $20 a pop that would be a couple hundred coming in every quarter.

plmccut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I interpreted the number as of colors as 11. For
> the third word question I started out interpreting
> the way you answered it but then looked at it
> again and the question says every third word and
> decided there was only one third word as if you
> were numbering them it would be word one, word
> two, word 3, word 4, etc. So I just put
> "important."
>
> I did get word that I passed the test.
>
> Now I'd like to hear from someone who has done
> these audits they are talking about. There are 12
> shops here in my area and they are willing to give
> me all of them so at about $20 a pop that would be
> a couple hundred coming in every quarter.

You don't want to overthink it.

They give you instructions. You follow the instructions.

They don't give "trick" instructions.

The client WANTS you to do a good job so they can analyze their employees.

You follow instructions. You get paid.

You don't follow instructions. No money.

There are shoppers who don't get paid because they don't study for their assignement, they don't read the guidelines, they don't know the observations, they shop the wrong store, they shop the wrong times.

You are privy to learning alot of information here.

It's what I did while I was signing up for 200 MS companies, I was on here everyday, READING, learning, listening.....

So, if the store tells you to count the yellow tags in the ladies section, take 4 garments into the changing room, wait 2 minutes for help, check the dressing room, see if the attendant hangs a number on your door, see if the attendant counts your items and see if he counts them back when you return them......then what has the client just learned?

That this employee counts the clothing, which hopefully might keep shoplifting down.

(Shoplifting) A multi-million dollar loss for retail each year.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2012 12:35AM by SunnyDays2.

I interpreted the number of colors the same way you did but I thought the statement about the third word needed clarification and I would have gone back to my scheduler and asked about it.

I looked at it and saw two ways to answer it and I chose the 3 word of the first sentence only. I also looked at it the same way you did but chose not to answer it that way.

It's moot now as I passed the test without having to redo.

I also passed the test but there is nothing in my area

For those taking the shops, they are offering them either at or below the pay rate the previous msc that had them at, and with more then double the amount of work. I don't think the pay is worth it for the work now involved. 25 mandatory photos, plus photos of all negatives = too much time.

Looks like they are having you do two different projects at once, and trying to get away with paying for just one based on how the previous msc handled it.

I already sent an email to the scheduler that after giving a quick review of the "manual" with the instructions regarding report/photos and told her I felt I needed to back out. You are absolutely right, it is too much work and too many photos. She is calculating 30 minutes on sight 30 minutes for the report. Just editing and uploading photos will take that long.

No way it will take only 30 minutes on-site. The only way it could take 30 minutes, is if it's a small store and everything is perfect. 1 in every 100 will be that. Doing just the first part will take about a half hour for an experienced auditor. The 2nd part with the 21 required photos will just add onto the time. Then you have to enter the report using prophet, which depending on how their system is setup, can be very time consuming. They should be offering 40-50 a store. This is a quarterly shop, so they are likely paid upwards of 350-500 a shop for these....

Techman - I wholeheartedly agree with you about the length of time. Besides I am retired and I just don't want to work that hard for $18-20 bucks. I am sure there are folks here that will snap them up though as they go for the $2 gas shops.

im thinking they are going to have to raise the pay soon because this quarter would end this month and they still have so many uncompleted everywhere.

Isn't it interesting how different folks view different shops?

These particular shops - LOVE, love them! I did them for the previous MSC and the pay in this area was just $5.00 more.

I have it slimmed down to about a total of 2 hours work with taking the photos, resizing, uploading, etc.

I think though, the appeal for me with these audits is because I have so much absolute FUN with them! I've worked around - and grew up in (and am married to one) construction / blue-collar workers my entire life. I can get dirty with the best of them (and hell, swear like one too). I've got these employees posing for the camera, cracking jokes, slicking back their hair, pointing out everything in their "shop area" to me. One that I did, I had to go back a second day and take a different photo because my angle was wrong. The Manager saw me walking up and he hollers out to everyone.. "AUDITOR 'is HERE!" The guys started hollering out about changing shirts, sweeping up, making pretty for the camera. I was laughing so hard at them I had a rough time keeping the camera still!

for resizing, there is an awesome program out there called "Pixresizer" it can resize either single photographs or even whole directories at once. IOlove it and best of all, it is free!

i dont resize pictures. If there is a maximum size they want i set my camera to that size and that is it. Never had an msc complain about my pic sizes in the all the years I have been shopping.

Unless it is a route I do size my pictures and absolutely cannot say this enough, find a program that allows you to do things in a batch. The other day I timed myself. 127 pics from 6 audits took all of 22 minutes to rotate, size and label. That's less than 4 minutes per shop. Plus when I hit save it takes several minutes for it to cycle through and that is time I use on something else.

@lisaSTL that's 22 minutes more I have to myself. I rather change settings and sizes if necessary while doing the shop then doing it afterwards. I use a canon digital camera and it has never let me down.

That's why I said it is something for jobs at home and not on the road. That time on my patio isn't so bad Plus that was not all "active" time, it included the program cycling through to save everything. I have another problem and that is forgetting to change the settings on my camera back for other things, LOL!

I leave my camera set on 640 x 480 with time and date printing. Some time back one company asked me not to print the time and date so I tried to remember to turn it off for them. Then I had the problem Lisa talked about, forgetting to change the setting for shops that required time and date. I turned the time and date back on and it stayed on. All my pictures are already sized down for upload. So far, so good.

Quisim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> for resizing, there is an awesome program out
> there called "Pixresizer" it can resize either
> single photographs or even whole directories at
> once. IOlove it and best of all, it is free!

Thanks Quisim.

Great tip.