e-shadow.com » Independent Contractors http://www.e-shadow.com Shadow real people's jobs online. Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:19:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Interview with a court reporter http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-court-reporter/ http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-court-reporter/#comments Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:23:41 +0000 trave45 http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-court-reporter/ What do you do for a living?

I’m a court reporter.

How would you describe what you do?

We go to attorneys’ offices and we write verbatim what’s being said in depositions or in hearings and go to court sometimes as well. If you ever see the person on TV sitting there with the machine writing, that’s what we do.

We are freelance here, meaning that we usually go to attorneys’ offices rather than court, but we do fill-in in court sometimes, too.

What does your work entail?

Some of the reporters are mask reporters, which means they just repeat into another recorder exactly what’s said, and some of us are writers, where we’re typing shorthand what’s said, and then the shorthand get transcribed into English in a computer.

…you learn a lot…You can hear from an accountant talking numbers all the way to an expert in vehicle motion. So you really get to hear from a lot of interesting people.

Then you have to go back and proof it and edit it and be sure that it’s all correct, and after that’s done, then it all has to be printed and copies made along with any exhibits.

I wouldn’t call it a 9 to 5. You may have a deposition all day from 9 to 5, but if they need it the next day or in a couple of days, you’re going to have to be working evenings to get it finished.

How did you get started?

I was living in San Francisco and working as a legal secretary and started talking to the court reporter who came to our office. She had a school for court reporters so I decided to try it out and really loved it.

What do you like about what you do?

You have flexible hours. You’re not always in the office, you’re out. Everyday, it’s something new, and you meet a lot of new people and you have some really interesting cases. It’s very rarely boring.

What do you dislike?

It can be long hours sometimes where it’s not come home at 5 o’clock and you’re off.

If you see the close captioning on TV, those are reporters that are sitting there, taking it down. And you can do that from your home, do it through satellite while watching it and have it feed over. I know people who have done the Olympics just sitting in their living room taking it all down.

Your work has to be scheduled around what has to go out the next day. If you take in something they needed tomorrow, you have to work on it that night. There’s just no way around it.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s by the typed page. So, the more pages you produce, the more you make. And the more they talk, the more you make.

How much money do you make as a court reporter?

As a court reporter, starting out, I would say, starting, you could make $30,000. And then it depends on how busy you are. You could make $80,000 if you’re really busy and really good at what you do.

Are there any perks to this career?

Well, you learn a lot, or a little about a lot of things. You can hear from an accountant talking numbers all the way to an expert in vehicle motion. So you really get to hear from a lot of interesting people.

What education or training is needed to be a court reporter?

You have to have a high school education, and then with the machine reporters, you have to go to school. The average is 2 ½ to 3 years. And you take classes learning the theory of it, but then you also take medical, legal, and English classes. And the mask reporters, I’d say 6 months to a year on theirs and they can learn that on their own. There are correspondence courses for both mask and machine, and there are no schools around here. The closest machine school is in Tulsa.

You have to take medical classes so you know what they’re talking about. If they’ve gone through all these medical terms and you have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s going to make it really tough to be sure that you’ve got the right spelling and know that that’s the word that they meant to say.

What is most challenging about being a court reporter?

The speed sometimes. Sometimes they get to going really fast, and you have to slow them down because you can’t get it, or they’re talking over each other and you have stop and say, “One at a time.” It’s a lot of things that a tape recorder wouldnt get. You really need to have a person there who can know what they’re saying and stop if you need to.

What is most rewarding?

I like to get out and meet all the people. That’s one of the things I like most about it, you get to meet so many interesting people.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

That you have to be a good listener, you have to hang in there through the training. It has to be something you want, not everybody can do it. Some get into it and just think, “This is not what I want to do at all.” Just look into it, you can get online and find information on it.

How much time off do you get/take?

If you’re not working that day, you don’t get paid anything. So in the beginning it was very little. Now I have more.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That you just go and you write it down during the deposition, then you go home and it’s done, that’s all there is to it. All they see is you sitting there taking it down. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes on.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Just to keep building up. I started out in my extra bedroom doing it just myself and now I have seven other reporters with me, and we have video conferencing, we have transcription, and so, and that’s a fun part of it, too. Just to keep building it, but keep it small enough that it’s in control.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Well, you can go on from being a court reporter to being a CART(Communications Access Realtime Translator) reporter. If you see the close captioning on TV, those are reporters that are sitting there, taking it down. And you can do that from your home, do it through satellite while watching it and have it feed over. I know people who have done the Olympics just sitting in their living room taking it all down.

There are also students at universities who are deaf that they have so they have a court reporter who’s sitting there taking down what’s being said in the class and it’s coming up on the computer so that they can keep up with what’s going on.

So there are a lot of different things that you can do with that skill.

]]> http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-court-reporter/feed/ 0 Interview with a bail bondsman http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-bail-bondsmen/ http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-bail-bondsmen/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:51:39 +0000 trave45 http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-bail-bondsmen/ What do you do for a living?behind bars

I’m a bondsman, bail bond agent, to be correct.

How would you describe what you do?

I bond people out and I put them back in jail.

What does your work entail?

I deal with criminals on a daily basis. I deal with their families. I deal with their troubles. I deal with everything. I make sure they go to court. If they don’t show up to court, I have to go find them and either make a new court date or put them back in jail.

Quick Fact!
How to become a bail bondsman? For starters you have to have a squeaky clean record. Then you have to take a test and get sponsored by a bonding company to get started. See what else this bondsman said about how to get started and what requirements there are to become a bondsman. Click Here and Here.

We have rotating schedules where we have several agents in this office and we rotate on a 24-hour shift. I’m on every three days. I come in to skip trace(aka bounty hunting) in between. In this state, we can’t refer to it as bounty hunting. It’s called skip tracing.

How did you get started?

I used to do this a long time ago and I actually did it part-time because I was going to school full-time with my master’s degree in nursing and decided I wanted a real job and went to nursing and worked for 11 years, hated it and then went back to bonding.

What do you like about being a bondsmen?

The rewards would be if you get some of these people that are messing up in their lives and all of a sudden you see them turn around. You’ve got to build a kind of a rapport with your clients, because if you’re a hard-ass to them, chances are they’re not going to want to go to court. They’re not going to step up for you as well. So when you reach out and help one person and it makes a difference in their life, then it’s kind of rewarding.

What do you dislike?

People lying straight to my face. The repeat offenders, we call frequent flyers, that you just keep going out on a limb for and they keep letting you down. There’s also the fear of forfeitures. You have to go in front of a judge because our client didn’t go to court and we’ve got to pay the bond. So we beg for mercy from the judge to get an extension to locate this individual.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s commission. I make money on every bond that I write. For example, on a $1500 bond the bail is $150 plus other fees.  My commission split is 50/50 so I will make $75.

How much money do you make as a bail bondsmen?

About $55,000.

What education or skills are needed to be a bondsmen?

You have to take a beginners education class. It’s an eight-hour class and then you go and take the test, 100-question test and you have to have a 70 in order to pass it. It’s a very confusing test.

You try not to get personal with the clients, but sometimes it helps. You know, if they need a hand to get to court, if they need a ride, they know they can call our office. And most offices are sort of like that. And I think it needs to be like that. But, by all means, we’re not Momma either, they dug the hole, they can get their self right on out of it.

They say the test in this state is one of the hardest in the nation. You’ve got a lot of homers that come in here wanting to be Billy-bad-ass for the day and carry a concealed handgun so you have to weed them out. You can’t just say ‘hey’, I want to be a bondsman, and go take the class and test and be a bondsman. You have to have somebody actually sponsor your license. You’ve got to get hired onto a company before you can actually enter into the bail bonding world. You don’t necessarily have to have been with this company for a period of time. You just got to be hired through the company. You have a FBI background check done too. And it’s very thorough…I mean, they flip over rocks. They’ll call your references, they don’t screw around. It took four months for mine. The longer it takes, the better off you are. Because they’re actually trying to find something wrong. You can’t have any felonies on your record and a few misdemeanors such as theft and domestic battery.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Skip tracing. Trying to locate the hard ones that are hiding under a rock. From the time they miss court, we have 120 days on a misdemeanor and 90 days on a felony to find them.

What is most rewarding?

Putting the deadbeats back in jail. I mean, if they don’t want to go to court and they don’t want to step up and take care of their crap, the best thing for them is be right back where they need to be. Or at the other end, you’ve got a client that’s been a drug user and you’ll see them six months down the road, they’re clean, they went through rehab, that could be rewarding as well. But…today it would be putting them back in jail, tomorrow it could be different.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

There’s more to it than everybody thinks. We’re not Dog the Bounty Hunter. We’re far from it. It’s not just getting them out of jail and forgetting about them. It’s also about being their friend, not just their bondsman. You try not to get personal with the clients, but sometimes it helps.

You’ve got a lot of homers that come in here wanting to be Billy-bad-ass for the day and carry a concealed handgun so you have to weed them out.

You know, if they need a hand to get to court, if they need a ride, they know they can call our office. And most offices are sort of like that. And I think it needs to be like that. But, by all means, we’re not Momma either, they dug the hole, they can get their self right on out of it.

How much time off do you get/take?

If I want to be off a couple days next week I can. We don’t have a set schedule. We don’t have the-you get one or two weeks off a year deal.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

We are not Dog. We don’t just go and bust down doors on an everyday basis and we’re not all just hard-asses and mean and hard to deal with.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My own TV show(laughs).  I don’t really want to be the owner and I like what I’m doing.  This is about as good as it gets.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

It’s all based on trust. We go out on the limb to bond you out and we get a feeling that you’re not going to, we’re not going to write it. There’s two people in the world that you really don’t want to piss off when it comes to you sitting in jail. One is the judge and the other is a bondsman. The judge will rake your bond up and if you piss off a bondsman and —- you’re what we call a ’screwed pooch’.

]]> http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-a-bail-bondsmen/feed/ 4 An interview with a Commercial Painter http://www.e-shadow.com/an-interview-with-a-commercial-painter/ http://www.e-shadow.com/an-interview-with-a-commercial-painter/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:33:57 +0000 trave45 http://www.e-shadow.com/an-interview-with-a-commercial-painter/ What do you do for a living?iStock_000003471771XSmall.jpg

I’m a commerical painter.

What does your work entail?

I started out doing everything, doing all the painting, getting the estimates, getting the estimate turned in, getting all the paint, have it delivered to the job site, then actually do the work, finish and make sure the client is happy, then get your payment, deposit that and record all this process all while hoping that in the middle of that job you are booking other jobs. So that got to be a challenge which is where having the guys helped out because now basically all I do is go out and do the estimating and the invoicing and then just quality check. So, rather than eight hours of my day spent actually doing the labor, I’m going around trying to continue the booking process and the invoicing and all that work.

How did you get started?

I was in school to get my athletic training degree and we moved into a place and we asked the landlord if we could get a decreased rent to paint it and she said ‘ok’. The landlord had someone she hired to paint the other side of the duplex and paid them $1200 and ours equated to $300 bucks, and our side looked better and so she said ‘well, there are plenty of people that have property that could use this’. So me and my friend that I lived with at the time came up with a name and put together some paint buckets for the logo and put out flyers all over town at hardware stores and that was in 2000, so seven years later here we are. For awhile I did it only part time. I started getting more calls for the painting thing and I was like ‘I’m going to give this a try’, because I’d get my pay check from my other jobs and I’d be like, ‘I still need more money’, and so I would plan on the paint jobs to make that happen and I was like, ‘maybe I can just turn that into something’. And it was difficult in the beginning but that was two and a half years ago now. So I went full time self employed and now I’ve had a crew of guys for over a year and I’ve been keeping them busy enough to keep them around.

What do you like about what you do?

It’s kind of a double edged sword. I love it and sometimes it’s challenging at the same time. I can basically write my own schedule. If I don’t want to get up in the morning, I don’t have to get up in the morning but then later in the day I’m just thinking about what I could have gotten done if I had gotten up in the morning. So, I love that that aspect of it, but at the same time if you are not disciplined about it that can be your downfall.

What do you dislike?

The inconsistency, it’s not like a regular job where you show up and you know you are going to get that money and you know you are going to have that money to count on. I can be in the middle of a job that’s going to end at the end of this week and I haven’t gotten any calls and I don’t know where the next job is going to come from. So that’s my biggest, the thing I hate the most is just not having any idea where the next job is going to come from.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

You walk in and you just got to figure out ‘how much is my time worth on this?’, ‘Is it my time or is it my guys’ time?’ ‘Alright, I have to pay my guys this much and I still need to make some money off of this.’ So planning those things out and then coming as close to possible as measuring square feet for paint costs. Another thing that a lot of people don’t take into consideration is the taxes. You try to figure out those numbers so that you do have a profit margin, otherwise it will get eaten by those little figures that don’t get taken into consideration very often. Then you put all those things together on a QuickBooks estimate form and send it to the customer and hope that you are able to fit all of that into their preconceived budget that they have in their head.

How much money do you make?

I had a really,in my opinion, a good year. It was our first full year of the painting company, with two guys only working six months of the year. We grossed $110,000. I ended up netting close to $50,000 from my first full January to December year of self employment, that’s pretty exciting.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

I don’t think a degree is necessary. But having a business education definitely would help. I mean you’ve got to know accounting, you’ve got to know how to set up the corporation right as far as an LLC, then you get to learn how to save money on taxes and make sure you are fileing properly so that you are not getting taxed the most possible. Then there is the invoicing and the management of customers. Then there is the advertising aspect of it, to make sure that you get your name out there enough to get more business and then there is the labor aspect of it that you might have to be doing until you get to the point where you don’t have to do it. It can be done, which I’m proof of the first three or four or five years I was doing it, while I was in college, but, then if you want to keep growing and reach different levels you’ve got to manage it on a higher level. And there is always the risk of getting sued or injured. If you get injured you’re screwed because you are your source of income, there’s not disability you can take or if you screw up somebody’s house on accident you could get sued. So, there are always those concerns that a lot of people just forget about.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Keeping your crew motivated and keeping them paid, and worrying about where the next job is coming from. You can’t think so selfishly about how am I going to get paid, and how am I going to be able to afford to live and then have some fun at the same time, because you’ve got guys that are depending upon you. One of the my guys has a wife and two kids. So I have got to provide for them and keep them happy first otherwise I ‘m not going to be able to get the work completed, especially considering that it’s been a year since I have actually done a lot of the work and you get rusty after that length of time. So just managing all those aspects of it and then managing the other people is the challenging part.

What is most rewarding?

At the end of the job, seeing the guys happy that they are getting their paycheck and enjoying the work that they do. And what’s amazed me the most, and I guess I just never thought of this because of my ambitions as far as wanting to own a company, but there’s people that just want to work. So that parts probably the most rewarding. I had one guy with two kids and a wife and another guy with three kids and a wife and I’m supplying them with solid work. It’s a pleasure to watch them enjoy doing the work for you. And being able to communicate with them and kind of empower them to a certain degree that they feel that they have some control as far as decisions are made and things like that.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

It’s tricky. I’m actually just now getting to the point where I am prepared to do things the right way. And I say the right way in that, the majority of the people who start up a business, ideally have a business plan, ideally they have capital and then put all those things together and put themselves on the market. If anything I had negative capital because I was in college and and trying to get to this point. As a result I was kind of piecemealing things together, you know, ‘oh I have an extra $500, we’ll call that marketing money and make some business cards’, so I’ve just been piecemealing all that together. The advice would be, in a perfect world, be disciplined about putting together a structured business plan and having goals, even if they are small goals, and say, ‘I am going to make sure I get three jobs this month’. If you get more than that, then that’s good. You’ll beat your goal and now you can have something to grow from. But it can be done without that.

How much time off do you get/take?

I like to think there a controlled out of control situation where sometimes you feel like, ‘I’m taking a lot of time off’ but then again there are time’s when I am working at two o’clock in the morning because that’s when I am feeling the most motivated. I am not always that person who can get up at eight o’clock in the morning and go ‘okay, it’s time to get work done’. Sometimes it is one o’clock in the morning and there are some creative juices flowing.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That I don’t work. People always say he is “working”, you know. But there is a mind draining process to all these things. I’m in one of the few painting companies that have a website, and website development is probably one of the most mind draining things that I do. It’s lot’s of little things and then, ‘how can I plan for tomorrow to make it the most productive?’. So there is a lot of seemingly idle time that’s not idle.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

I don’t just want the painting company. I have an idea box full of other things from at least a half dozen or more inventions that I would like to pursue as well as other business ideas. Someone could argue that I have already spread myself thin, I’m trying to make sure I don’t and focus on what I’ve got going on right now and keep that growing.

]]> http://www.e-shadow.com/an-interview-with-a-commercial-painter/feed/ 0 Interview with a Tattoo Artist http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-tattoo-artist/ http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-tattoo-artist/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:48:50 +0000 trave45 http://www.e-shadow.com/interview-with-tattoo-artist/ iStock_000004601101XSmall.jpgWhat do you do for a living? I’m a Tattoo artist and piercer, I run a shop.

How would you describe what you do?

I guess the application of artwork to the human body would be the best way to put it. Making people happier with themselves.

What does your work entail?

Well, it’s considered a medical procedure, the basics. It’s regulated by the Health Department. We’ve got to be wary of cross-contamination, things like that. So, you’ve got to have at least some minor medical background. An artistic eye and talent helps. That’s the difference between a tattoo artist and a tattooist, which are two totally different things.

I’ve done tattoos on teachers, principals, police officers, politicians, as well as punk rockers, you name it. Just because you have a tattoo, doesn’t make you a bad person.

A tattooist can do anything they can see off the wall. A tattoo artist can take anything they can see on the wall and make it better. As far as an average week, there is no average honestly. As you can see our hours are different for example Monday and Tuesday 1-9, Fridays 1-11, sometimes we have a chance to get out of here early, sometimes we’re here until 2 or 3 in the morning.

How did you get started?

I’ve always been interested in stuff like this. Ever since I was a kid. But I’m from California too.

What do you like about what you do?

Diversity, meeting new people and doing new things, trying new techniques. Just not being held back.

What do you dislike?

Not everybody’s polite; some people are just plain jackasses.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated as a tatoo artist?

Commission. Some of them give a 50/50 split, some of them do a 60/40 split, it all depends on how the shop is set up. Sometimes you buy your own supplies, sometimes they buy your supplies.

How much money do you make as a tatoo artist?

I probably average somewhere around $30,000.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

You’ve got to go through a minimum of 6 months apprenticeship, Health Department requirement. Any art classes of course would be of benefit. And you’ve got to be willing to stick your neck out there and stand on your own two feet, literally.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Skin. You’ve got to be prepared to switch how you’re tattooing from point to point. The skin on your body can vary greatly, an 1/8th of an inch over is totally different than it was at the spot before. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can screw up a tattoo pretty quick.

What is most rewarding?

Having something to show for your work.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Prepare yourself. Usually you are either rolling fast or not at all, so make sure you set things to the side and you plan for the future.

How much time off do you get/take? It depends on what I need. I pay for my own vacations. We’re considered independent contractors.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

Only the bad boys and bad girls get tattoos, honestly. I’ve done tattoos on teachers, principals, police officers, politicians, as well as punk rockers, you name it. Just because you have a tattoo, doesn’t make you a bad person.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

To own my own place.

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