My Experience as a Search Engine Evaluator at iSoftStone

Note: I'm using a throwaway/alt-I-never-use as I foolishly signed up for iSoftStone using my main reddit account name as a username and I don't want any of this to get back to my iSS account and risk my job there.

Hello everyone, I've mostly been a lurker in this subreddit for a few years now, I've made posts and comments here and there, but not much.

I worked for Leapforce for 2.5 years, but they unexpectedly banned me from the main project at the end of May after I had a few bad reviews.

I was in urgent need of finding more work, and I ended up applying to iSoftStone.

I applied for the Search Engine Evaluator position, and received an email shortly after with some documents to sign. After that, the person who would become my project manager emailed me with details about the application process. I was told I had to take a training test, and if I passed that I would take the real test.

I passed the training test, but failed the real test. Luckily they offer one second chance at it, which I managed to pass.

It took a week for the project manager to get back to me after taking the real test. And when they finally did, they gave me one more unexpected test. The training and "real" test were done via UHRS, this final test was an excel spreadsheet which I thought was kind of weird. Well I passed that as well and had to set up direct deposit with them, and I started working mid July.

However, I first applied at the beginning of June. This whole process took an entire month and a half. Mostly due to the fact that my project manager took days to even a week at one point to return my emails or give any information on the next step to take after each test.

While the whole process was annoying, I was just glad I was able to work.

The hours I could work were much more strict than what I was used to with Leapforce, and the pay was worse(iSS: $12/hr, LF: $13.50/hr), but there was potential to earn $14/hr and $15/hr if my work was of good enough quality. They require a minimum of 10 hours of work a week, and a maximum of 25 hours a week and I could only work Mon thru Friday, between the hours of 7am and 10pm my time.

The first month(plus last two weeks of July) were great. I was working 25 hours a week, and made about $1,500 with July and August combined.

That didn't last however.

Starting in September, I was told I was only allowed to work 15 hours a week. This was for the first two weeks. Since then I've only been allowed to work 10 hours a week. I was expecting to make $1,200 each month, but now I've only been making around $480 - $540.

What caused this sudden drop in hours? They hired more people. In August, there was about six of us. By September, there was 15. It's dropped a little since then, but I'm still only getting 10 hours a week.

The project manager has a monthly limit of hours to give us set by UHRS(aka Microsoft, specifically Bing), and it's divided amongst everyone. And it's of course not divided up entirely fairly. Some of the more productive workers get more hours, even up to twice that of the rest of us.

I thought it was a bit unfair, but I began doing better. My productivity scores have been great, but I'm still only getting 10 hours a week. However, I had thought since my scores were so good, I'd be making the $15/hr pay rate, getting me at least $600 for the month. Well I got paid today, and it was only for $12/hr. Confused and a little pissed, I looked back at my contract.

My scores were phenomenal compared to the requirements set in the contract. What screwed me was that there is a minimum monthly hour requirement to qualify for the higher pay tiers.

60 hours in a month for $14/hr and 80 hours a month for $15/hr.

Here I am, doing great work, but since I literally am not allowed to work more than 40-45 hours a month, it's impossible for me to make the higher pay rates.

All-in-all, iSoftStone kind of sucks. They have terrible communication, worse base pay than other Search Engine Evaluator companies, and misleading higher pay rates. I'm going to stick with them for as long as I can because the work is piss easy once you get the hang of things. In the meantime, I'll be looking elsewhere to supplement my income from iSS.

If you do apply to iSoftStone as a Search Engine Evaluator, don't expect to be able to rely on it as a sole source of any substantial income.