Avantages
1 - Work from home. 2 - You're doing something good for mankind. (That's the 1 star for)
Inconvénients
1 - You will never get a pay raise. Ever. 2 - There is no career advancement now or in the near future. 3 - For the amount of work (calls interpreted in an 8-hour shift) that you do, pay is extremely low - not even industry average. 4 - You are supposed to be an expert in all the industries - Legal, Medical, Financial, Commercial, etc. - with no formal training. 5 - Their concept of training is getting hired and working the job. The only training that is paid is the new-hire orientation training, annual training and a couple of systems training whenever warranted. Everything else, especially if it's for your own advancement (there's none), is optional and should be taken outside of your work hours. In short, it's unpaid. 6 - Employees are grouped into different categories even if you work in the same language team: those that have paid vacation time, sick pay, holiday pay and those that don't get any of that. Holiday pay is Thanksgiving and Christmas; any other holiday (federal or state) is paid at your regular rate. 7 - You will be required to pay for internet usage (and any other work expense) unless you live in a state where it is a law that the company should pay you for it. 8 - You will not have a direct supervisor or manager to report to. There is only one department that manages all the 12,000+ interpreters - and the supervisor(s) and the manager(s) in this department don't care about you as a person. They are not supportive, will use you to further their own success, hinder your performance and make your work life miserable. 9 - The system of communication is a joke. You report problems that don't get solved. In order to escalate an issue (technical or otherwise), you have to check a box in the report form that says "unable to continue shift" when in reality you can still continue working. You have to report an "absence" for company technical issues and systems failure even when it's the company that is having the technical problems and your pay gets docked. They won't admit to this but it happens. It will always be your fault - your internet is slow, etc. - unless they themselves make an announcement that the system is having technical issues. You still won't get paid because you reported an absence (even when you are physically present and trying your best to "troubleshoot" the company's technical issues). 10 - When you ask for additional resources to help you with your job, you don't get any - you have to deal with what they have. They always have a lousy excuse why they can't help you with your request. 11 - They won't bat for you even when the client is wrong. They will believe the client 150%. 12 - Their help desk is mediocre. I could count on one hand how many agents have actually helped me "solve" a technical issue. Most of the people that they have on this support department can't even express themselves in perfect English. Their answers are always scripted and even with that, the grammar is just horrible! 13 - They just about hire anyone that can speak or understand two languages. You won't believe the amount of "interpreters" there that can't even speak English properly. The way they post the simplest of questions on the company's chat forum makes you wonder how they even qualified for an interpreter's job in the beginning. 14 - Some of the clients that you deal with have no respect for your job as an interpreter or have no respect for you as a person at all. They read scripts with no understanding of what they are actually reading and expects you to "interpret" those statements like a walk in the park. 15 - The amount of stress that you will experience is beyond belief. And I am not talking about the normal everyday work stress. You will get burnt out and sick sooner rather than later. The company will find a reason for you to get fired (if they feel you're one of those that won't bow down to their will) or simply make your life miserable enough for you to quit on your own. Your work ethic doesn't mean anything to them. You can give your all but unless you are willing to be a doormat, there is nothing for you here. YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I MADE.
