Even when I was working I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to earn quick cash from participating in focus groups.  As a recruiting manager at Goldman Sachs I was invited to participate in two, one where I had to comment on the strengths of Wharton’s Career Management Office and the other on my perception of various business schools that was eventually revealed to be sponsored by Cornell.  I also vacationed at spas in those days, and my third invitation was to comment on possible advertising campaigns for Canyon Ranch.  All of these paid $100 in cash for around two hours, and were held in midtown office buildings with conference facilities and accompanied by nice refreshments.

I’m not going to be tapped for a focus group based on my professional status now and it will be some time before I see the lush grounds of a spa again, but I think I’m still opinionated enough to be a good focus group participant.  In my quest for part-time work and day gigs to sustain me while job hunting, I decided to search out focus groups on the internet.  The first listing from my Google search was for surveylot.com.  It seemed a bit too good to be true, with a brightly colored main page containing lines like “On the next page, you will learn the secret of making serious money with these opportunities,” and “earn $1000 a week working at your own pace from the comfort of your own home.” If only half the listings involving making thousands of dollars working at home were true most Americans would never get out of their pajamas.

The second hit was for findfocusgroups.com.  This more somber site allows users to search opportunities by city and state, and brought up only a few listings for each day for New York including these: people who work in finance/banking ($85), in-home focus group ($125), electronic study for teens ($85), alcoholic beverage study ($250+), and jurors for mock jury needed ($40).  I don’t drink anything much stronger than Diet Coke, but had to check out the details on the alcoholic beverage study because the pay seemed ridiculously high to be legitimate.  The link led to a rather complicated Craigslist description of a party for three friends the host would plan for $250 in compensation with $100 that would be given by the sponsor, and required a description of all alcoholic drinks consumed by the host in the last month.

The mock jury listing led to a short survey on my opinion on the death penalty and whether I could administer it.  The pay seemed reasonable too.  $40 is the actual payment per day for New York jurors if service is not covered by an employer. If it was a scam the attraction of discussing the death penalty was seemed much less likely than the promise of free liquor.  For the first time in my life I answered jury selection questions as if I actually wanted to be chosen.  A few days later I was contacted by an organizer of the jury research at John Jay College.  She asked me similar questions to the online survey about my ability to follow judge’s direction in sentencing.  I confirmed my US citizenship and eligibility to vote, and was then invited in for 2 ½ hours of work on a Saturday afternoon.

If I had a fantasy of spending my mock jury stint debating the ethics of capital punishment and the guilt of our imaginary defendant with a cross-section of cash strapped New Yorkers it was quickly dissipated.  I had been summoned into a small computer lab/classroom at the CUNY branch dedicated to criminal justice, and the process was set up as a solitary endeavor.  I was given a thick set of papers which again asked for my feelings on the death penalty, but also asked a number of psychological questions about my general state of mind and how I felt that day.  Was I happy, sad, angry, fearful, or confident?  Was I generally concerned about the well being of others, and did I panic in stressful situations?  I was then given a sheet with the description of a violent crime, and asked to circle innocent or guilty based on the facts of the case.  This led to forty-five minutes watching the computer screen in front of me for the trial of a defendant in a case involving the carjacking deaths of two youth ministers.  While the video attorneys and judge led me through the circumstances under which I could choose the death penalty I tried hard to concentrate, but could not help but wonder whether my undergraduate drama minor could qualify me for a job as a mock attorney in a mock jury trial video?  How could someone get a job like that?  When the video ended another questionnaire asked for my verdict and what aspects of the testimony had most influenced my decision, and also included a further series of questions on my feelings.  Always a quick reader and test taker, I finished in less than two hours, and was given an envelope with $40 and an explanation of what the doctoral students’ research was trying to assess.

Findfocusgroups.com proved a good source of an easy and unusually thought provoking gig, but caution should be exercised with all internet offerings promising fast cash.  If the pay seems exceptionally high or involves money being deposited into a Paypal account, as many online only focus groups seem to, I would investigate thoroughly before signing on.  If you’re willing to do the types of psych experiments you may have participated in as an undergraduate or graduate student there are still opportunities to do them as well.  Many of the city’s universities advertise these in school newspapers or in posters around campus or online and don’t demand that participants be students as long as they meet the demographic requirements for the research.

-By Janet Raiffa, Contributing Writer, Member & Recruiting Manager