your experience with ETS?

[hinomura]

OK, for a lot of the students who take the TOEFL exam, ETS can be a nightmare.
for those of us who try to work for ETS as raters, it can also be a nightmare. To wit, I tried to get hired as a speaking rater for TOEFL. I had to go online, practice with the rating system (which requires a download onto Windows XP NOT Vista as I found out) and learn their system of rating. This is easily a 2-3 hour learning process.
Then, you have to email them your hours and days of availability. I sent them my schedule only to have them email me a message that said, "We did not recieve your availability, so please send us your schedule for next month"
AAAARRRRGGGHH!!

I quit my last job on the assumption that I would be working for ETS. All the prestige of working for ETS (yeah, right!). ETS is a dysfunctional bureaucracy that promptly deletes your emails. My advice to you (if you're ever desperate enough to work for them) is make sure you have at least a part-time job teaching, and maybe consider working for ETS as a part-time thing. I did this out of desperation, to my regret.
:badword:

[apex2000]

Pity. All the advice given out to those thinking of changing jobs is get the new one lined up before you hand in your notice for the old one.
The next point concerns your apparent reliance on Microsoft as being fully functional at all times. Even Microsoft has had to admit failings with Vista to the extent that all the OEMs have been advised to continue selling computers loaded with XP. That position has not yet changed even after the issue of SP1 for Vista which is another overload in size and complication.

As a user of XPpro I am very much happier to stick with it; I also use linux and macOS. Nothing is perfect. So do not jump to the conclusion that because someone has not received (all) of what you sent that they are to blame. Far from it in my experience going back over 25 years in computing. Perhaps you should try a more relaxed approach and then offer your comments for future improvements after you have been accepted.

[hinomura]

Originally Posted by apex2000

Pity. All the advice given out to those thinking of changing jobs is get the new one lined up before you hand in your notice for the old one.
The next point concerns your apparent reliance on Microsoft as being fully functional at all times. Even Microsoft has had to admit failings with Vista to the extent that all the OEMs have been advised to continue selling computers loaded with XP. That position has not yet changed even after the issue of SP1 for Vista which is another overload in size and complication.

As a user of XPpro I am very much happier to stick with it; I also use linux and macOS. Nothing is perfect. So do not jump to the conclusion that because someone has not received (all) of what you sent that they are to blame. Far from it in my experience going back over 25 years in computing. Perhaps you should try a more relaxed approach and then offer your comments for future improvements after you have been accepted.

Actually, I am sending emails via Windows XP. Obviously, you haven't tried communication with ETS. They send emails at their convenience and they routinely break promises to send out schedules at a certain time (oops, time certain for you British types). Once again, ETS is late w/ sending me a schedule (pronounced SHED-yule, for you British types) and I am wondering if ETS will even remember to put me on their schedule, despite my ongoing emails with their supervisor.
Having the next job in hand would be ideal, but the situation in CA is much like the ESL situation in London-- a high cost of living and notoriously low wages paid to ESL teachers. One gets by as best as one can.

[apex2000]

'certain time' is right for us, too. Maybe you also use some European languages where that reverse is normal. And we do know about schedule(s) as we have a multitude to deal with in the UK. My concern was (almost) entirely to do with your comments about the OS. It was too late on the job front.

And to think that all of us here think that life in CA is marvellous, sunshine and celebrity!