Pros
(I worked at the Alhambra location from Oct 2006 - Aug 2010.) - They work around your school schedule however they do require you to work at least one weekend. - Bonus or more $$$ per hour if bilingual, must pass a test, maybe a little different now, unsure of that. - Close to a lot of fast food places and had a vending machine, soda machine, and coffee machine. (Unsure if that has changed). Also have a small kitchen and eating area. - Most if not all the coworkers are friendly and great to talk to, same with the supervisors. - The strangers try and quote the "Do Not Call List", after they are done quoting, we end up spending 2 minutes or so explaining how that does not apply to market researches and political poll type surveys, which in a way is sort of satisfying. - Great stories and experiences from both the coworkers and the strangers that you talk to. - Sometimes but rarely you get great strangers to interview and conduct surveys to, especially those that have worked in the same or similar field or have family members or friends who have. - If they need people, they will call for overtime or you can ask to work overtime for other surveys. - Bonus $$$ for completing a certain number of surveys. - Working on the holidays. - Made long lasting friendships with the people you work with. (The dealers, the parolee's, the retiree's, the students, etc.) - Real cute coworkers (sometimes). - When I recently visited the location, it seem they have changed in the decor as well as who they hired. Although I could be wrong about this, since the last time I visited was about 5 - 9 months ago. - They are close to the Alhambra police department. (depending on who you are) - Across the street from the post office. - A block from the Edwards Alhambra Renaissance Stadium 14 & IMAX. - A block and a few streets from Starbucks on Main heading towards Atlantic. - Sometimes you get great surveys that are fun to conduct and the customers/strangers enjoy partaking weather the surveys are short or long durations. Sometimes those that qualify and complete the survey will get prizes or gifts from the clients. - I would recommend this as a temporary place if you are still in high school, community college, college, but do not stay that long because the stress of the workplace will get to you, and that vending machine WILL eventually become your best friend.
Cons
- It's minimum wage when I worked here from 2006 - 2010 and you make a little more the better you are at convincing strangers to conduct and finish the survey. - Most of the calls are cold calls, sometimes there are some clients that provide the numbers of the customers. Sometimes the clients provide us more information than they should like the personal 9 digit numbers. - Get treated very badly by the strangers we call because they (strangers or customers of the clients), "jump to the conclusion" that you are either trying to steal information, sell some type of product, or some other negative subject. - The strangers try and quote the "Do Not Call List", after they are done quoting, we end up spending 2 minutes or so explaining how that does not apply to market researches and political poll type surveys, which in a way is sort of satisfying. - Strangers will try every way possible to make us suffer because they are mis-inform or clueless about who we are by screaming into the phone, having a air-horn blasted into the phone, pretending they are interested in the survey while raising our hopes, than hanging up a minute - 10 minutes into it. - The pressure from the supervisor to meet quota or be sent home. You are not guarantee the maximum hours for the part-time shift. - Work during the holidays and experience strangers yelling and swearing at you for calling during the holidays. - Need to call every day to check if you are schedule to work, sometimes you may not be schedule for a few months. It depends on what surveys they put you on and how good you are. - At the time that I worked there, we had coworkers who were parolees, retiree's, students, drug dealers, etc. - When I worked there, we had a coworker who would come to work drunk or getting there, on lunch break, go get a 40 and drink/or get high, after work, go get drunk and high. Than one day, that coworker went to the men's restroom and high on drugs (not just marijuana) but also possibly crack and also drunk. Decide to get his own feces and smeared it all over the men's restroom. I mean like the doors, the mirrors, the ceiling, the sink, the walls, and the floor. - Will meet the occasionally crack head (Only encounter a serious one when I worked there, was really racist, really funny and entertaining with great stories. Also she would smoke crack in the elevator, garage, and women's restroom. - Supervisors who will hit on you as well as coworkers. (the normal workplace sexual harassment b.s. This applies to both genders). - Terrible parking in underground garage, really hard to find good parking spot. Best place to park was across the street in the plaza. - They are close to the Alhambra police department. (depending on who you are) - The elevator sometimes does not work and falling apart (could be wrong, they may have repaired it by now.) - Sometimes you get put on terrible surveys with duration lengths of 40 - an hour or more, that is where we loose most of the customers. - Some of the coworkers will not respect the "your lunch with your name" rule. - Some coworkers will pretend to be you and use your name and be rude towards customers/strangers. - The vending machine and soda machine will become your BEST friend.