I, too, am offered jobs that never reach job boards. This comes from consistently doing very high quality work and never flaking. I am not looking to be employed by company or involve myself in the expansion into new markets. I teach full time and shop in order to augment my salary. The vast majority of shoppers do this part time and are looking to earn money out of need more than anything. I would never suggest that a new shopper spend money for knowledge that can be attained for free when they are short on funds to begin with. I

am silver certified. I "earned" that after having performed about ten shops. .I have never seen a benefit from it. I've only filled in that certification for about half the company for which I have worked - and the ones for whom I get the best work are among those for whom I have not. Much of the best work I have gotten has been from being recruited. By performing well , a shoppers name and contact information does get passed around.

I see value in the conferences for the purpose of networking and meeting folks. This is different than looking for knowledge to improve our ability to perform shops. Were I looking to make this a career, I would make a point of attending conferences. However, I am not convinced that being "gold" or "silver" certified would be a necessary route - I have heard many arguments on both sides of this issue. I have no need for business cards - nor does any shopper who is not looking to delve into the world of MSC's. After all, this is "secret" shopping and a business card advertises.

I completely agree that there are many different paths to take in the world of mystery shopping and, in order to support the industry, folks need to go down each path. I don't disagree with you for the most part - nor do I think we have a fundamental philosophical difference of opinion.. My initial reply was largely responding to the notion of paying for training so as to improve shopping skills. This knowledge can be acquired for free - and therefore should be promoted openly by folks who are hoping to improve the quality of mystery shoppers. My impression of your first posts were that you were emphasizing the importance of paying four coursework for all shoppers. This is the point with which I disagree. There are, after all, multiple paths to take and they do not all involve traveling (often across the country) and/or paying for training and networking opportunities.

Shops come and go. MSC's have deadlines with clients at the end of each month, quarter and year. We are generally not privy to the details. However, most shops are posted well before their deadlines and the next round not posted until the previous deadlines have passed. The end of a quarter is about three weeks away, so we should b seeing fewer shops available from now until the end of March. More will be posted for April.

Hello!

I suggest you start here: https://www.mysteryshopforum.com/

This is another free conversation forum - like the one we are on right now. It has a section of postings specifically dedicated to new shoppers that will really open up the world of mystery shopping to you.

You are welcome. Good luck!

MSC's very much want to get your work approved. As a general rule, even if you are not able to immediately rectify an error (though you should absolutely try!), rather than rejecting your shop, the editor will ask you to fix the error and send the evaluation form back to you. it is imperative, if this happens, that you respond in very short order, correcting the mistake.

Keep applying.

It is common for a company to only want to assign certain shops to somebody who has performed shops for them in the past. I have not done any shops for Campus Feedback, but it's very possible that they are one of those companies. If, for instance, you are applying for a shop to physically visit a college campus, they may want to you do two, three or five phone shops first, just to make sure that they can trust you to do a good job. They might also see that you are fairly new to the iSS platform and prefer to have somebody with more shops from a variety of companies under his/her belt.

You can try to send a professional well-written email to the scheduler expressing interest in the shops and asking what you could do to make yourself more likely to receive such assignments. There is no guarantee that you will get a response - as schedulers are often kept pretty busy. However, such an inquiry won't hurt and might make it more likely that you will get the nod if they need to choose somebody who is not on their "first choice" list.

I work very regularly with some companies and pretty much get every assignment I request from them. There are others with which I have done very little work and from which I struggle to get the assignments I want. Be professional, patient and persistent. It just takes some time to establish yourself with some companies.

Hi! I'm in Seattle. I've been doing this for two years and have somewhere around a thousand shops under my belt.

That apartment manager should be thankful that you were not doing an audio or video recorded mystery shop...

Hello!

Every company is different and companies have different clients with different requirements for the shoppers that perform the shops. This information is often not made public. It's very possible. that a company will prefer shoppers with a certain amount/type of experience. However, they will sit on other applicants in hopes of getting the ideal one. However, as the company's deadline approaches, they may try to raise the payment offered and/or give shoppers with less than the preferred experience a shot. Of course, you have no way to know exactly what the rules are for any such shop.

Here is how I approach it: If I am not assigned the shop within one business day, I assume that I will not get it and I will look for a replacement shop. the moment I have the replacement, I cancel the application, reapplying for a different date if I so desire.