telephone interviewer

market researcher

telephone surveyor

programmer

Promark Research

This job was by and large the worst job I have ever been in. 
A typical day at work would start with having to either call the hotline for the shift time or by signing up for regular text messages with the shift times. An employee would only get the shift times that day, and the shift times would often be irregular. When applying for the job, management had made me sign a contract to be available from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. Frequently the shift times were 30 minutes to an hour earlier than I had agreed, which caused me a lot of strife. Tip to any parents: If you need to pick up your children from school at 3:30 or 4:00 p.m., don't even bother with this job. The schedule is not very lenient, and absences are grounds for immediate termination, no matter the circumstances. The rest of the day was typically spent sitting for hours at a computer, constantly calling and hoping that God is merciful and you don't get a respondent who threatens you or sexually harasses you. From this experience, I learned that God is not merciful. If you don't have a thick skin, the near-constant threat of police and violence will wear you down. Bright side, I suppose, is laughing at the people who really think that you are threatened by legal action. Even with all of this, the hardest part of the job would have to be sitting at the computer all day and just listening to the phone ring. Management used to allow stuff like puzzle books and crossword books and coloring books for interviewers, and while I was there, management had banned those items. There is nothing like sitting for 8 hours listening to the constant ringing of a telephone with nothing to occupy one's attention other than thought and dissociation. Were anyone interested in psychological torture, I would definitely recommend this job. 
The most enjoyable part of the job is the fact that you might get sent home early if you aren't able to do your job because nobody picks up the phone. And who would? Millennials know better than to answer the phone for an unknown number lest they be stuck in a 20 minute survey about stuff that they don't particularly care about. Boomers and Gen X'ers know that you can just ask to be taken off the calling list. And yet they resort to threats and name-calling. Hm. 
Anyway, if you have better options, or any other options really, try for those. If you absolutely need the money immediately and don't mind absolute boredom, hateful people, and not being able to remember happiness, then this is the job for you!

This place provides an instant job in a small town.  I am NOT a college student, I have actually been a motivator and business owner. I seriously think management and corporate really need to re-think their business model.  I have never been treated so poorly by a place of business.  Note to management and corporate...you catch flies with honey not vinegar and LEAD BY EXAMPLE. This is Promarks greatest downfall which makes the place a revolving door for potentially good, productive, employees. 

As the reviews state, its a long day, cold-calling, doing biased surveys were we have been hired to mud-sling for political candidates.  Calling people, getting them up out of bed, and trying to get them to do a survey at 10pm at night was not pleasant. The late calls to homes weighed on my conscience but the company doesnt care. Although it is legal to call residents up until 10pm I would think that a company wouldnt want to alienate potential future respondents.  We were yelled at, cursed at, and personally attacked by potential respondents. This is not a job for the meek or faint of heart. 

There are a few managers who are great. The trainer is great and a couple of the "supervisors" really tried to make the job as pleasant as possible...it seemed like they cared.  THEN you have upper management and "monitors".  The head manager was extremely distant as well as the assistant manager.  We would say "hello" and acknowledge them in passing and they wouldnt speak in return.  Monitors were given as many breaks as they wanted while we were stuck in our chairs for 3,4 hours and even longer.  Seeing the monitors who are supposed to be interviewing and following the same rules get up to smoke 5 times a night and get special treatment causes a tremendous amount of resentment among interviewers.  They wonder why people never stay at this job!! Texas law says that breaks are not required but every employer I have ever worked for gave breaks and even a non-paid 30 min lunch after 8 hours.  They make a break seem like a gift to you rather than a necessity after you have been on the phone, getting yelled at, and staring at a computer screen for so long.  They really do treat their employees like cattle, it is a sweat shop at best and probably barely legal.  There are no friendships between staff and interviewers encouraged although the local smoke dealer seems to be in with them all.   

My time there started off well but it turned into a special kind of hades. For those that think they are trapped by Promark and have no other alternative, I feel sorry for you.  There are some great older adults who work there and give all they can to the company.  Its sad they are treated so poorly.  Its equally sad some people dont realize they are being treated so poorly.

The job itself is pretty hard. You sit all day in a cubicle trying to get people to do a bad survey. The questions are often vague or really broad and some attempt to sway the person on some issues through bad information (it's supposed to be a research center, but some of the information is incorrect and if the person on the other end has done their research, well you just look dumb and are seriously just wasting their time). It's only fun if you actually get surveys (I loved talking to people and hearing their interesting opinions) and become top producer, which is not a hard thing to achieve. If you get like 1 or 2 of them in one place, you'll get there, which if you're kind enough to people they will give you their help. I've gotten top producer before. 

However, when you're doing bad is why I couldn't stick around for long. When you get hung up on or you get a bad sample of numbers to dial (they are non working numbers or no one is picking up) or it's late and no one wants to do a survey at 9-12 at night, management gets to yell you for it. So if you're feeling bad cause you don't have a survey, management gets to yell you too. You're basically getting yelled at for a lot of stuff you have no control over. For example, I got a really bad sample one day to where almost every single number was an answering machine, non working, or no one even picking up and it's my fault because they aren't answering the phone. The work place culture is just negative. One day you can be doing great and the next you can just be doing awful and management will jump on that quicker than if you're doing a great job. And if you try to decompress for like 5 minutes from a bad day you might have, you get yelled at too. Also management is super impersonal, like robots. They don't care at all about their employees. 

I absolutely do not recommend this job to anybody, but if you need it, they'll hire anything that breathes.

I currently work here and I just cant handle the stress some days, I am in college and they make working unbearable. They stated at the beginning (during training) that there was a good amount of flexibility but there isnt. I was told I can pick my hours and days to work, but you need 3 days out of the week (from Monday to Thursday) and then mandatory Sundays. The hours are LONG from 4-midnight (or some times longer depending on where you call) and then in Sundays it is 2-11PM (or again longer depending on where you are calling). There are a few breaks but for working 8/9 + hours there isnt a "lunch" just sitting at your computer all day and all night. More exhausting then going to class which ive had to drop a few in order to work around this job. I would leave but one needs money to survive and the hiring process for other jobs is too long and not a guarantee. Getting hired here just means being able to barely read and have a pulse and computer to sit and listen to people yell at you along with the managers yelling. They changed the system a while ago where now we have two managers and it just isnt working out well. They only care about their favorite employees and those of us who really need help are left in the shadows until we are on the "bad" list. Then you better hope that you can suck up enough to get assistance or theyll fire you. They are quick to write you up rather then offer any coachings. Which they dont have a concrete coaching method, its just the supervisors explaining things sometimes or the manager taking their 'gracious' time coming to explain THEIR ideas of how things should go. All of the uppers are very out of touch with how real people work now n days. Its not a good job and my mental health is draining, I wish there was more assistance on a personal level cause I am a person who needs it but itll never come. 

You're expected to work as much as you possibly can any hours and any days they need you but also be okay with having shifts cancelled for +/- 2 wks at a time when there's not much work. This is never known ahead of time and there's never an estimate of when work will resume. There's also very little tolerance for missed work due to illness, injury, or even chronic health conditions that you've made them aware of ahead of time. Lower level management does their best with what they have handed down to them from upper management, who views their telephone interviewers as "butts in seats"/replaceable robots instead of as thinking, feeling human beings who need their jobs/wages to live. Promotions happen but come with mountains of extra duties with very little increase in pay. Benefits are never offered and they make sure to keep you limited to certain hours/classifications so  you're never supposed to be eligible for benefits. Shady calling practices are a normal thing including calling people well past the cutoff time of 9 PM (respondent's time) and calling people back multiple times per day/night/HOUR if they're running low on sample. It's a good job if you are desperate for employment due to a court case or something like that but not suitable for the long haul. You can give years of your life to this company and not be treated any differently than a stranger that just walked in the door. Upper management is unsympathetic to the lives of lower income individuals and don't seem to understand that anyone makes less than they do while systematically ensuring that people working there never advance past certain thresholds. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The Head Supervisor and the Team Leaders are amazing! They were understanding and encouraging, and they always tried to keep the vibe positive. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part about working for Promark was the off and on again schedule. There are long periods of time when we wouldn't have enough work for everyone to be included on the schedule. Only the best performers were able to work on the limited shifts. That kind of pressure can make you crazy, especially when the respondents are not willing to complete surveys with you. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment was positive. Even though we were constantly being urged and pushed to complete the interviews and meet our goals, we did it as a team, and the Team Leaders usually made it fun, often providing incentives to drive us on. The company is very strict when it comes to the rules for quality completions, so we had to stay on our toes. But, we could all take pride in the fact that our polls were honest and valid. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Dialing a lot. Dealing with people hanging up on you during your intro. Dialing callbacks from your previous work on a particular project. Talking to people and finding out their opinions on all kinds of topics. Sometimes I made top producer of the whole company. Then at other times, I couldn't seem to even meet quota for the night. At the end of the night, I was tired but employed, so life was good.

I got this job as a last-ditch effort in a small town. It just happened to present itself at a really rough time. I, as an interviewer, got paid about 8.75 an hour, which is better than Taco Bell. Pretty much we get hired as a third party company to solicit surveys over the phone. The verbal abuse is horrible, the surveys are almost always political and extremely biased, and the hours are never guaranteed. Sure, you can choose what days you work, but sundays are required. You don't know your hours until the day of, and they vary depending on how business is going. Management is lax on their job, most of them are just out of college, and have little/no experience, Breaks are given, but they are short and have no set time. Finally, a cautionary tale. My fiancee also got a job there, and it was pretty convenient. Suddenly, he stopped getting his times. [They usually send a text.] He called the office to see what was up, and the assistant manager told him she'd just set his schedule for next week. A week later, still no schedule. He calls again, and gets our boss on the line. Turns out, they fired him and didn't even let him know. [Apparently for production.] This job may seem good, but if you get it, try to get a replacement as soon as possible. They don't care about their employees, and this could've happened to anyone.

I worked there for three months, that was all I could handle. I had cockroaches crawling out of my desk at one point. You are not allowed to have anything at your desk except for your piece of paper and a pen (not provided). The software is out of date and the headsets are falling apart. 90% of the chairs are broken so get there 10 minutes early and move around. The place is dusty and either cold and somehow humid at the same time, or on fire. Sometimes you work for 7-8 hours before receiving a break, for about 15 minutes. You do not get to leave the premises at that point. You have to sign in and out to use the bathrooms which are regularly broken and nasty. They will take your phone if they see you on it. I went about two months without getting paid once. They gave my money to someone else and I had to be compensated later which for a college student supporting herself, is not a good situation to be in. Do not even look or consider being promoted. There are very interesting people that work there and some drama has been caused because of that. I wouldn't recommend working here, it's not worth the pay, if you get any. The schedule is based on how many surveys you get. For instance; if you request to work a Monday shift from 3-12 and you get about 10 surveys a day, and someone who averages about 15-17 a day wants that same shift, you will not receive that shift. Hours are NOT guaranteed.

Worked for Promark before everything went drastically down hill. No one is there to assist you, you show up ON THE DOT (or write up) and sit there for hours until you are told to go home. Managers are only rude and unhelpful, they treat you as if you are dumb and incompetent. Trainers are disrespectful and treat you like children but then send out very demeaning and underhand emails. Messaging you at all hours of the day and MORNING, but never available when you need them. CEO's and Owners cannot be bothered to assist in any shape or form, reached out for real mental assistance and they disregarded it and acted as if my emotions are invalid but were more then willing to talk about my production and how poor it was. Everyone is dating everyone in the company, managers are with employees and vise versa. So there is a lot of favoritism happening, HR is no help as well they make it seem like everything is fine and water under the bridge. No one can be held to expectations even mangers who constantly drop the ball and laugh it off as if it is not a big deal. There is no structure, everyone is doing everyones job and interviewers are held to the highest standards that are unnatural. In the end... no one in a position of power really cares, they come to work and "do their job" but that is all. 

This company goes full swing during election season and after that only the very best will get the sparse shifts. the work just drops off completely and they don’t really tell you that when they hire you. 
if you aren’t ready to give this job your absolute all then it’s not for you. the work is truly at an advanced level of interpersonal skills and an ability to coax the person on the other end of the line to take your survey. the challenge comes in that you can only read from and script and you under no circumstances can change that at any time including when you’re trying to get them to stay on the line. you’ve got to be a fast and smooth talker who is always smiling. yes smiling because the person on the other end of the line “can hear your smile” and there is definitely truth to that. 
you’ll need a super positive disposition and be ready to be hung up on dozens of times. you have a quota, every call you make costs the company money and you will be supervised by management who will be walking up and down the aisles and you will be monitored over the phone by management listening in on you. 
if you have some background in advanced sales this might be a great fit for you but if you’re looking for quick cash and a steady paycheck don’t bother. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Telephone interviewer 2 salaries reported	$9.00 per hour
Market researcher 3 salaries reported	$9.00 per hour
Telephone surveyor 1 salary reported	$9.00 per hour
Programmer 1 salary reported	$13.00 per hour

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