I made it all the way through the 250-list! The vast majority of companies had online forms, many used Sassie and Shopmetrix, etc. But some don't do the online applications, so...

Have you signed up with any companies that state the following:

*Please send a resume to be included in our database
*Please email us to sign up
*Please call us to sign up
*Take the challenge and send it back to us with your resume
*Print out these forms, fill out your info and fax, mail, or scan/email them back to us

I was just wondering what the success rate was on the non-traditional signup methods before I spent time emailing, calling, and filling out forms. Thanks!

I have emailed a resume a number of times. It is adjusted from my "real" professional resume but gives quick highlights.

An 'email us to sign up' I will evaluate based on 1) what others' experience has been with the company and 2) whether I will be reporting shops on line. Life gets pretty short to be faxing or mailing reports. Fax even to a toll free number requires printing the thing and filling it out, usually by hand. Mailing has its own issues with stuff "never received" or "received too late to accept" even when it was done and mailed in a timely fashion--and I don't believe the USPS is THAT bad!

I've never run into "call us to sign up". What the heck company is that???

"Take the challenge . . ."is an overlap with other versions.

"Print out these forms . . ." I have done on occasion if other shoppers are having a good experience with the company.

In general, I have seen few opportunities in my area with companies that use non standard, on-line application sign ups. I am always willing to ship off a W-9 by mail, email or fax. But my sense is overall that if they can't get organized enough to take an on-line application there probably is a lot of other that we accept as "standard" that they can't deal with--such as uploading receipts, on-line reporting, job board scheduling, etc.