We all need a chance to vent, to blow off some steam when our jobs get to us. Share with us what pissed you off at work today or help someone else to get over their day. Vent or share by using the comments section, which is now a mini forum for Venters.
My Gmail account is filled with spam mail from companies that offers jobs as a secret shopper. Initially, I was not interested, however I decided to do some research and my research led me to become a secret shopper. I had fun doing it, going to different shops, being able to meet new people, getting free meals and doing a lot of window shopping, however, here are some things you should know about secret shopping based on of my research and experience:
Your earnings may not be fair when you consider the amount of work you have to do. You can earn an average of between $20 - $40 per assignment, however, you may spend three hours doing the required tasks, which works out to $6.60 per hour if you have been assigned to a $20 job.
Some companies may not reimburse your expenses, that is, gas, train or bus fare etc. may be your responsibility.
Being a Secret Shopper is not a good career option as you may only get between 1- 2 assignments per month.
You have to be available to the company who wants your service at a moments notice.
Ensure that you do your research by using search engines on line or through BBB.
You will be required to do a lot of face to face interaction/communication with store employees, so if you do not like that stuff, do not become a secret shopper.
You may have to do a lot of store returns, so if you do not like dealing with returns, stay clear of secret shopping.
Avoid Secret Shopping companies as they are usually scams. Most of them charge you a fee to find assignments for you, but they never do. Legitimate Secret shopping positions are usually offered by the company you will be assigned to and does not require any payment by you.
Being a secret shopper can be fun, if you are into the whole spying thing, but as a good income earner, it may not be satisfactory.
A lot of paper work is usually involved in being a secret shopper as you have to detail the results of your assignment. You will need to have good communication skills and be very descriptive when writing your results on the check lists that the company gives you.
In summary, even though the job can be fun, it is not all that some people make it to be, as earnings are not great relevant to the time you spend on these assignments. Being a secret shopper will get old real quick, so do not invest a lot in it.
Before and during a rescission, loss of jobs are inevitable, and if you are able to provide jobs as an employment agency during this period, you will be well positioned to be successful in the industry. Can I earn a good living from this business? well, earnings are dependent on the fee structure you choose and ranges from $40,000 to $120,000 per year.
What is your employers personal motive for running a business? If you think it is to help you accomplish your goals and dreams, to allow you to have a balanced life or to live comfortably because you are being paid well, think again. Your employers main aim is to make money and anything that they can do to earn that money, they will usually do.
What I just mentioned may not be true for all employers, but most employers focus on the bottom line, which, in and of itself is not bad because you start a business to earn money, however, it usually comes at a price. That price is the well being of their employees.
This may not be new to experienced bloggers, however for those who do not know, avoid making your traffic statistics public.
With the rapid growth of the gaming industry and the interest in game development and design, there is now a need for more game testers. Game testers are responsible for identifying bugs in games as a part of the quality assurance process before a game is released to the public. Testing is performed close to end of the development of the game and after the game has been released to ensure that any bugs can be corrected. These jobs are very illusive however, as they are usually offered to programmers, experts in the field and persons who were involved in testing earlier versions of the game. The first time video game tester can earn up to $25,000 annually, however more experienced testers can earn up to $70,000 annually.
Apart from what has been explained so far, there are a number of characteristics of video game testing that you need to know before you consider getting into the field:
Video game testing is a tedious job, requiring hours of playing and analyzing the same levels/stages of a game for up to nine hours a day. It means going into every nook and cranny of each level to identify glitches in art and logic errors.
There can be a lot of paperwork, as developers will require testers to document the results of their tests. In some instances the results can be very difficult to explain and may require a very wordy description of the issue. Therefore you require good communication skills, both oral and written.
During the final stages of the development of games, just before its release, testers are usually required to work up to 12hrs a day.
Apart from beta testing, game testers sometimes are required to test games at a location designated by the developers. Work from home testing is available, but is very difficult to get.
You cannot get a job in game testing by just checking craigslist or any other job site for openings. Most testers get jobs by approaching developers or publishers directly. Professionalism is necessary and experience in video game testing is a plus. Additionally, don't be shy to let them know your credentials, the consoles you have, your game rankings etc.
There is scope for upward mobility. The foregoing is dependent on how well you do in the projects you have. Some will be hired as a test manager if they have done well in the past as a tester and a test lead.
Since testing jobs are difficult to get, you may have to start as a beta tester (volunteer tester). If you are interested in becoming a beta tester, you may have some luck if you check bluesnews. Getting a beta testing job gives you some of the required experience to get a job as a paid tester.
Apart from testing game play, testers may be asked to test the functionality and ergonomics of controllers. You may even have to test the accessories like video cards and head sets.
If you want a game testing job, then you will have to be persistent. You should consider applying for many openings to increase your chances of being hired. Even if you do not get a response the first couple of times you apply for a game testing job, you should not give up.
Tax preparation from home, though it provides income seasonally, is a great way to earn extra money to cover your bills or make a descent living if it is done full time. On average, home based tax preparers earns about $1,700.00 per month preparing returns for 19 to 20 persons. Some can earn up to $5,600.00 per month during the tax period. What makes the earnings even more enticing is that being a tax preparer from home requires little initial expenditure and it is easy to start and operate. Even though a home based tax preparation business is relatively easy to operate, there are a number of things that should be considered if you would like to be a home based tax preparer. You should consider, training and certification, the basic equipment necessary to operate, service rates/fees, promotion and customer care.
Training and Certification:
Nothing is worse than service providers who have no idea how to provide the service they offer. Training and certification is key if you are going to run a successful home based tax preparation service. If you are a CPA or have worked as an Accountant, this business should be easier for you, however, for those who have no accounting experience or education, you should seek to complete a training course surrounding taxation. The IRS offers training courses in return for your volunteer service on their tax help line. Companies like H & R Block and Jackson Hewitt also offers affordable tax courses. The advantage of doing a tax course is not only that you will have the required skill to file returns but prospective clients will be more willing to use your services.
The basic equipment necessary to operate :
You will require a computer, a taxation software and internet access. In the past, taxation was done manually and therefore was more likely to be inaccurate and time consuming. With technology however, returns can be done quickly and more accurately. Along with accuracy and the speed at which returns can be done, most software ensures that all the required information is included in the return, returns and other information can be easily stored for future reference, returns look more professional and you can file returns online using the tax software. There are many tax software's available on the market, but the software that most home based tax preparers use is Turbo Tax.
If you plan to complete manual returns, then you should consider downloading the required forms from the IRS website. The forms you may need are as follows, 1040 and 1040EZ, schedules and supplemental forms, as well as the 1040, 1040EZ, Schedules and supplemental forms. You should also ensure that you have a good supply of stationary like, Pocket folders, Labels, Paper, Paper clips, Staples etc.
Service Rates/Fees:
The fee structure you choose should be equivalent to what the market offers. Overpricing services is one of the most prevalent mistakes that home based tax preparers make. They offer rates that people are just not willing to pay, especially when you consider that tax software is readily available and pretty easy to use if a client decides to do their own taxes. Your best bet is to research the market to see what the average charge out rate is and ensure that your rates are at the market rate or below it.
In general, starting home based tax preparers charge $90 per return. The more experienced tax preparers may earn up to $120 per return. We should note however that the charge out rate is not always fixed and is highly dependent on the complexity of the returns, the availability of information to do the returns and the cooperation of the client.
Promotion and Advertising:
Home based tax preparers usually find it difficult to get the necessary number of clients to make their service viable. A number of measures can be taken to increase your client base and are as follows:
I have been supervised by many over the past couple of years. The issues I have had with these supervisors is that I was always subject to their lifestyle patterns. I have had the same supervisor for a couple of months now and she, God bless her soul, is not a bad person. However, because of her lifestyle or lack there of, I have come under some serious pressure.
My supervisor has no life, she lives with her mother, has all her meals prepared for her, has her cloths washed and ironed for her, has no significant other and never goes out. All these things are not bad if you choose to do so, but what it does is gives her more time to be at work. Not only is she at work, but she is at work all the time. You leave work, and she is at her desk and you get back in the morning and she is still there. The bad thing about it is that she expects the same from her subordinates. She cannot seem to comprehend that others are not like her and actually have reasons to go home or to do other things apart from work. As a result of what was just said, her expectations are unreasonable which drives people up the wall. What I did though was to take control of my own life. I decided that life should be balanced and that I was not going to allow the other aspects of my life to be swept under the rug to satisfy someone who does not have a life. I laid out all the activities I had during the day and let her know that I could not live up to her expectations. She accepted my explanations, but our working relationship started deteriorating after that and I finally decided to leave.
If faced with the same situation, and you are not willing to give up all for the job, the best thing to do is to make every attempt to meet expectations, but if you know from the bottom of your heart that you cannot do it, then silently search for a job and make no mention of your grievances, so that you can leave on a good note.
Written by: Carl Bringham
You are in your dream job or maybe not, and you have been slipping away into your own world, never caring about the job, feeling lost and wondering why you're still there. Well, many feel like this, but for whatever reason, they never take the risk to leave. It may be wise to stay in your jobs now when a recession is looming large, especially if the job is pretty stable, however, the companies are feeling the effects of our economy as well and will let you go if they feel the need.
So why the loyalty, especially if you are already wondering if you should be slaving away at your current job. Trying to make the decision to start looking for another job or seeking to earn income from alternative means like work from home jobs, is not an easy one, however, there are certain signs that you should look out for to know when you have had your fill of your current job:
It takes you hours to get out of bed in the morning to go to work. Even when you do get up, every step closer to work makes you angry or depressed.
You start thinking about not wanting to go to work the moment you leave your job on Friday.
You spend half of the day looking at your computer at work or the papers on your desk without getting anything done.
You get very moody and you are easily angered by your colleagues, making relationships with your subordinates and supervisors impossible.
You start arriving late for work and do not care.
You take much longer lunchtimes and more time offs without notice.
You no longer care about pleasing your supervisors.
You leave work early frequently.
You turn off your cell phone so that no one from work can contact you, because even the very sound of their voices gets you upset.
You take more sick days.
You are not as fulfilled doing the tasks you use to.
You are becoming ill frequently.
All these characteristics will lead to one of two things if they cannot be overcome, you being fired because your level of output would have reduced or you cursing out your boss and leaving when the frustration gets to you. In light of the foregoing, the best thing for you to do is to start looking for another job or another income generating activity like a work from home job so that you can leave before they let you leave.
How many times have you been told that you were not chosen for a job because you are not bilingual and how many times have you had to ignore an advertisement in craigs list because the job post reads, "being bilingual is a most". Most have already realized the necessity of being bilingual, however, with globalization and the increased differences in cultures and ethnicity in the US, the amount of persons seeking to learn another language and the number of bilingual employees that companies, especially hospitals and Call Centers, have employed, has increased exponentially. There has also been an increase in the need for bilingual employees within financial institutions, retailers, the banking industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Some Institutions have shown increases in the number of bilingual employees of about 5% per year and the pay rate is on average $6,830 more than employees who speaks only one language. There is also an increased probability of you being hired at any job when you are bilingual.
If you are interested in leaving your current profession and getting a job in health care, you should consider being bilingual. Languages like Spanish and a number of Asian languages are dearly needed in Hospitals presently, which makes these jobs easier to acquire.
You should ensure that you gain a proficiency in the language you intend to learn, as you will be tested by any company who is interested in hiring you. Companies usually gives applicants both oral and written tests to determine if they have the required proficiency in the language you purport they know. There are a number of language software's that can assist you in learning and being fluent in a new language, however, I find that Rosettastone is the most helpful in my opinion.
The following sites can assist you in your search for a job if you are bilingual:
Twolingos
Jobster
Hotjobs.yahoo
Languagejobs4u
Bilingualcareer
The bottom line is that the world has changed and is changing and if you don't change with it, you will be left behind. So if you have an interest in health care, go for it hard, but don't leave your Rosetta Stone at home.
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