Jobserve Email Fail

[NickFitz]

Just a quick heads up: don't trust Jobserve's application process.

I saw a new gig on there last night and applied via the email link in the listing. Not having heard anything by lunchtime today (and getting the "on the other line" thing when phoning) I applied again directly through the agency's website, apologising in my covering letter for spamming if they'd received the Jobserve application.

Just had the agent on the phone, eager to put me forward for the role; he confirmed that he hasn't received anything from Jobserve. I'm extremely annoyed that Jobserve could have cost me the chance of a (potentially) really good gig.

So if you're applying through Jobserve and not getting anywhere, it could be that your applications are simply never getting sent. Try hunting down the agent's email address or using the agency's own process instead.

[Gentile]

Just a quick heads up: don't trust Jobserve's application process.

I saw a new gig on there last night and applied via the email link in the listing. Not having heard anything by lunchtime today (and getting the "on the other line" thing when phoning) I applied again directly through the agency's website, apologising in my covering letter for spamming if they'd received the Jobserve application.

Just had the agent on the phone, eager to put me forward for the role; he confirmed that he hasn't received anything from Jobserve. I'm extremely annoyed that Jobserve could have cost me the chance of a (potentially) really good gig.

So if you're applying through Jobserve and not getting anywhere, it could be that your applications are simply never getting sent. Try hunting down the agent's email address or using the agency's own process instead.

I totally agree with you, Nick. JobServe used to be a great place to find contracts (all of mine over the past 12 years came from there), but just recently they've turned into a spammy mess of a company, by misguidedly trying to act as an intermediary between you and the agent rather than merely an advertising medium. They also send you lots of spam and store a permanent copy of your CV on their site, which is asking for trouble with the ICO since you haven't sent the CV to them in the first place and haven't given JobServe permission to retain your personal information.

These days, I've given up using the jobserve-controlled addresses that agencies are compelled to use when advertising there. If I see a gig advertised that I'm interested in, I instead just e-mail my CV direct to the agent named in the advert. Their e-mail addresses aren't that hard to find - usually they have them openly displayed on their LinkedIn, or they have them displayed next to other adverts they've put out if you Google their name and agency.

[malvolio]

I raised this with them a while back. Their answer was that if you get a confirmation email , it's gone through to the agent. Of course, they can't control what the agent does with their local mail management software (it's not going straight into the Outllok inbox you know...). So there's the first check.

However I do try and get a direct email and use that. At least you'll know it's got there.

[northernladuk]

Is anyone having problems with the hourly rate to daily rate conversion on there as well? It defaults to hourly rate, click daily rate, it refreshes but comes back with hourly rate.

[Gentile]

Is anyone having problems with the hourly rate to daily rate conversion on there as well? It defaults to hourly rate, click daily rate, it refreshes but comes back with hourly rate.

Just recently I've been been leaving the rate field blank since so many contracts just leave it open to negotiation at the point you speak with the agent, so I've not really noticed any problems with the rate calculator.

On the topic of circumventing the generic JobServe-controlled e-mail addresses that are provided in JS adverts, though, I've just had a call back from an agent whom I contacted via their own address rather than the JobServe-controlled one that was on their advert. So, if anyone else out there may be worried about doing the same and cutting JobServe out of the loop, you shouldn't be - it seems to work just fine.

PS: and I didn't receive a call back from another JS application where I couldn't find an alternative address to use. Makes me wonder if there's something fundamentally wrong with their system, as Nick experienced.

[thunderlizard]

What? So you guys were emailing Jobserve in the hope that they'd contact an agent in the hope that the agent would then contact the client for you? How many extra links in the chain between you and the money do you want?

[DaveB]

What? So you guys were emailing Jobserve in the hope that they'd contact an agent in the hope that the agent would then contact the client for you? How many extra links in the chain between you and the money do you want?

They way it's supposed to work, and the way it worked really well for years, was that when an agency registered a job with Jobserve, Jobserve would generate an email address on the site specifically for that job. You applied for the job, your application got sent to that address and then sent on to the agent with all the appropriate subject info included so the agent could track applications and didn't get buried in emails they couldn't actually link to a specific job. All done automagically, no human intervention, no hope involved.

It made life easier for everyone as you knew your application went to the right agent and the agent knew what the application was for without having to decipher covering emails or subject lines. In most cases you'd get an automatic response direct from the agent with their contact info in it so you could follow up yourself as well.

Now however they seem to have bolloxed it up, and we have have a broken system where people are increasingly trying to bypass it because it doesn't work anymore.

[NickFitz]

What? So you guys were emailing Jobserve in the hope that they'd contact an agent in the hope that the agent would then contact the client for you? How many extra links in the chain between you and the money do you want?

No. See DaveB's post above. Or just go to Jobserve and observe what happens when you try to email an agent using their listings.

[Gentile]

What? So you guys were emailing Jobserve in the hope that they'd contact an agent in the hope that the agent would then contact the client for you? How many extra links in the chain between you and the money do you want?

Yes, that's exactly what we're saying. Agents left their own direct address on their adverts, but we chose to contact JobServe instead. Because we're just that stupid.

[The Gatekeeper]

Jobserve not the bad guys

I had issue with Agent saying they had not received my application from jobserve. I spoke to jobserve and they sent me a copy of the email log that showed the email had been delivered successfully to the agents mail server. The problem was the agent was a lazy b...... and he couldnt be bothered to look for my application. My advice is, if you think the email was not sent, contact jobserve for the evidence and show it to the agent.