This is a mini-series on becoming a courthouse researcher. If you haven’t heard of that job before, or if you missed the first part of this series, make sure to start reading here. Otherwise, read on!
I found this job by Googling a phrase that I saw a poster on a work-at-home forum talk about in passing–Sunlark Research and something called courthouse research. What is Sunlark Research? I had no clue, so I hit Google to find out more. I found their website, and read about it some. Looked interesting, and the money sounded good, so I decided to apply. I was right in the middle of an application spree (I was applying to almost every company I could find an application for) so when I got a response back that they were interested in my application and did I want to work for them, I quite frankly couldn’t remember who they were. Embarrassing but true. Anyone out there who has been on the hunt for a job and has sent in 15 applications in a day knows what I’m talking about. I made another trip back to the website, reminded myself who Sunlark Research was, and decided to say yes. It sounded interesting anyway.
At this point, I truly had no idea what a researcher did, or why they did it. I have to say first off that every research company is different. Some are using the information for different reasons, and if you decide to sign onto a research company, you need to make sure that the reason that the company wants this info isn’t nefarious. In my case, I can say for certain that Sunlark’s reasons were far from nefarious. Sunlark is a contractor for an insurance company–this insurance company is trying to find new customers (like always) and this is their way of gathering the info to send mailings to the prospective customers. They figure if you are buying a new house, you are going to want insurance in case something happens. Sunlark does not collect phone numbers, so you don’t participate in helping a company telemarket over the phone but instead they send mailings out to people’s homes. Junk mail doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, you may want not want to go to work at one of these companies. It’s all up to you, of course.
This is just Sunlark Research. If you are going to work at a different company, then you will want to find out in that case where the info is going to go and what it is going to be used for. The information is on public access computers, so you aren’t “stealing” the information or doing anything illegal in any sort of way, of course.
Still interested? Great! In my next blog, I am going to cover how much money per month you can make doing this kind of job, and how to supplement that paycheck.