I need a regular job. Does anyone think I can say I mystery shopped during the last few years when I need to use a resume?

Use something like "Self-Employed Consultant" in Consumer
Studies.

Corporate site compliance audits. Depending on the job you could say “and mystery shopping.” A lot depends on how strong the rest of your resume is for your desired jobs and what the job is. If it’s a customer service-type job then you could play up mystery shopping.

If the company that hires you performs a background check, the mystery shopping can throw a cog in the engine. You will need to list a physical address, phone number and a supervisor. Think it out very carefully.

Working as a private contractor, especially gig work, is understood to mean you don’t have a physical address other than your own home, or a supervisor. I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is that to anyone not familiar with it, it sounds weird and unserious (and can be both haha). If the job is a high-paying and/or management position it may just sound like s/he is under qualified. I think though with COVID potential employers should be understanding that regular jobs were not always available, and that many had extraordinary family commitments as well.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

If the company that hires you performs a background check, the mystery shopping can throw a cog in the engine. You will need to list a physical address, phone number and a supervisor. Think it out very carefully.

If you are apprehensive about listing your former (or current) mystery shopping job, just show your "regular job" employer copies of your Schedule C or W2.

I appreciate all answers!

Position yourself as an Independent Contractor or some type of Consultant (Business, Marketing/Trade, Shopping) with x, y, z years’ experience doing x, y, z. Play to your strengths. Make things as quantitative as possible and of course qualitative too. An example is Conducted/Initiated over 200 customary audits that resulted in an increase of sales by 15% year over year. Ensured quality control of …… Researched …..The more qualitative the better the pay should be. Good Luck!

It's an issue. I had a job offer delayed because my IC employment could not be verified. There is also a conflict of interest; ie you apply for a fin sec job and you shop banks.

I stopped listing it. It was more trouble than it's worth.

@Notme2021 wrote:

Working as a private contractor, especially gig work, is understood to mean you don’t have a physical address other than your own home, or a supervisor. I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is that to anyone not familiar with it, it sounds weird and unserious (and can be both haha). If the job is a high-paying and/or management position it may just sound like s/he is under qualified. I think though with COVID potential employers should be understanding that regular jobs were not always available, and that many had extraordinary family commitments as well.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

If the company that hires you performs a background check, the mystery shopping can throw a cog in the engine. You will need to list a physical address, phone number and a supervisor. Think it out very carefully.

Sign up with even one merchandising company. This allows you to say that you are (might be, or could become, semantics, schmemantics!). an independently contracted merchandiser. As a merchandiser, you would work overtly as yourself. No issue there!

At one job, when people inform me of job title and industry and they are 'consultant' in 'various' or 'numerous' or 'multiple' industries, I suspect they are a mystery shopper because I am one and I know how difficult it can be to find some way to keep the mystery in mystery shopping. Some are eely when I attempt to pin them down on at least one industry. Others freely share the real or made-up industries in which they work. My job is to obtain specific information.

If I were applying for a typical job, I would mention the merchandising and audit assignments that I have completed. I would not mention the mystery shops that I have completed.

Most of all, good luck with your job search!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2022 02:40PM by Shop-et-al.

See topic has come up before and if anybody ever writes a beginner's ms book, this topic should be included.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

There is also a conflict of interest; ie you apply for a fin sec job and you shop banks.

I stopped listing it. It was more trouble than it's worth.

@Notme2021 wrote:

I'm not sure I see the problem here - I literally work for a company I previously did mystery shopping for. I stopped doing those shops and take others in different industries. When you apply for a real job, you realize that you are giving up the opportunity to do contract work in mystery shopping for the company that hired you and possibly the industry it's in. In my case - I work for a storage facility REIT. So I don't do any storage facility shops. It's that easy.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2022 10:04PM by nixkit.

Conflict of interest is determined on an individual basis. If you get a job at a gas station, you will have to stop mystery shopping and auditing gas stations. I once worked full-time at 2 different casinos for nearly a year. Both bosses knew and accepted this as long as I fulfilled my job requirements at each company. Money was great that year, but it was too much for the body to handle.

Gotcha, gotcha. I'm an engineer. My background checks are deep thrusts that make one cough blood.

@nixkit wrote:

I'm not sure I see the problem here - I literally work for a company I previously did mystery shopping for. I stopped doing those shops and take others in different industries. When you apply for a real job, you realize that you are giving up the opportunity to do contract work in mystery shopping for the company that hired you and possibly the industry it's in. In my case - I work for a storage facility REIT. So I don't do any storage facility shops. It's that easy.

It can be a big plus, if you are applying for a sales or customer service position. A good friend of mine parlayed her video mystery shopping job into a $175,000/year position selling new homes on the East Coast. The home builder who hired her was very eager to get someone who had shopped the competition for miles around. And, because she’s listened to hundreds of new home sales presentations, her ability to close on a customer is finely honed.

If you are worried about appearing unserious, form a LLC in your state ($100-300) and list yourself as Owner. And search for “resume” here; there are multiple good examples of the keywords for an effective LinkedIn or resume profile.

I tell people I get paid to eat, but I don't think that will look good on a resume.

Just my 2 cents...I've listed it before with no problem.

On an application:
Company: Independent Contractor
Supervisor: self-employed

On the application, you could possibly list some of the companies for which you've worked.

On a resume:
Independent Contractor
*Perform compliance and safety audits
*Objectively evaluate customer service
*Maintained travel and expense logs

Focus on how you find, schedule, and make routes of the jobs. How you keep track of expenses. How you network or find new companies. Use of apps / technology. Find the skills rather than try to fake results.

I you do have a story that you can show results, that could be used as a story during the interview using the STAR format. My only story was that a menu item was changed after performing an evaluation. I described why I was disappointed as a customer. The next time I went to the restaurant, the item had been changed.

I WOULD NOT FOLLOW THE ADVICE GIVEN ABOVE: Position yourself as an Independent Contractor or some type of Consultant (Business, Marketing/Trade, Shopping) with x, y, z years’ experience doing x, y, z. Play to your strengths. Make things as quantitative as possible and of course qualitative too. An example is Conducted/Initiated over 200 customary audits that resulted in an increase of sales by 15% year over year.

How did an audit increase sales by 15%???
I think positioning yourself as a consultant is overselling.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2022 03:53PM by JasperJohnson.