Hideous and exploitative company – avoid at all costs
Pros
- Flexibility - Fun topics to edit
Cons
With a pitiful base salary paying less than minimum wage (in the UK), CBR demand an inordinate amount of work. I worked there for a year and my responsibilities increased month on month while our quota of editing 10 articles a day stayed the same. To put this in perspective, here are our weekly goals: - Adhere to strict 60-page PowerPoint guidelines for edits. Side note: the writing is often low quality due to the writers being paid peanuts ($18) for articles of 800 - 1400 words. - Optimise the 50 articles you edit using SEO techniques, including image alt text, URLs, headers, and general layout. - Check each feature image to make sure they meet high standards and create new ones where necessary. We were told we should use apps like photoshop but they wouldn't give us a license, meaning they hoped we'd fork out for it ourselves... - Attend weekly meetings and training workshops where the lead editors do-not-stop-talking. Expect to hear the same lines regurgitated and endless blame tactics passively aggressively aimed at you and your peers. And no, you're not compensated, and yes, you still need to make your quota those days. - Send long and detailed feedback emails to each writer when you spot errors in their work. Fun fact: you'll never not spot errors. No, this doesn't count towards your quota either. - Manage over 20+ writers (there's a huge turnover of staff so you'll get millions added to your list over time). - Research list trends using Google Trends, PubInsights, and internal data, and ideate 50 articles a week. (200 a month). Yes, this is on top of your editing quota. - Approve 50 writer pitches a week and explain why. Note this down in your editor tracker spreadsheet. Yes, this is also on top of your editing quota. - Fill in said daily editor tracker with everything you've done, because you now love being micromanaged. - Try to accept shifting goalposts because management has no idea how to actually run CBR and meet their targets. Their whole business model is based on exploitation and blame. - If you explain the expectations of the role are unfair and unrealistic, accept the fact you'll be 'let go' that day. - Understand that when they say 'how can we support you?' it's a backhanded way of saying 'you're not bleeding hard enough for us.' - Give up all your evenings and weekends as your quota now haunts you and doesn't want you to have a life.