Reply to: Jobserve Email Fail

[cojak]

Or perhaps I'm mistaken; maybe JobServe has already contributed to this thread?

[Gentile]

I've had contact with some clients in the past where I've called them and asked if they received my application, they initially claim they hadn't, so I made a quick phone call to JS and they soon assured me that all of my email applications had been sent and successfully received by the client's email servers, they even consulted with their tech support team and the logs clearly showed they had been sent by JS and received by the client.

Sometimes I think when some clients get direct phone calls, they may just think it's quicker to say 'no' than to find your specific application whilst on the phone, amongst the 50-100 others. Must be easier for them to just say 'no, please send it to me again'. The chances are that they have received your applications, but the clients aren't always being truthful with you.

Most of the time I think it's the clients who are the causing the problems here, I've been using JS for years and I will continue for years to come - they've always been really helpful

Or perhaps I'm mistaken; maybe JobServe has already contributed to this thread?

[stek]

I applied for a role in Friday via JS and heard nothing. Read this thread and contacted recruiter direct and received a positive response immediately, so I have to agree with the OP, summert's broke....

[Gentile]

(Although I did notice that when I last looked at JS there were fewer agents putting their own emails on there so I guess you'll have to guess the direct email these days.)

I don't think there are any recruiters who use a non-JobServe addresses now. I think that's part of JobServe's T&Cs for advertisers.

[Gentile]

I notice that JobServe has been all over my blog this morning, linking from this and the other current thread discussing their website. So, they must at least be aware of the widespread criticism they're receiving amongst contractors. Perhaps they'd like to pop in and explain their policies, rather than just reading?

Maybe your idea of using utilising LinkedIn is worth a go, cojak. I haven't used it in earnest myself to date, since posting your work history all over the internet isn't really my thing. I don't use Facebook for the same reason. Maybe it's possible to find some sort of middle ground, though. I keep a blog for professional purposes that I exclude all personal info (other than my name) from, so I guess I may be able to do something similar on LinkedIn and see what's what. Whether LinkedIn is the way forward or not, it does at least appear that JobServe has become far less of an effective medium for liaising with recruiters and clients than it once was.

[cojak]

I've NEVER used the JS-email route, it's always been dodgy for me.

I always put the full reference in the email subject and send my application direct to the agent.

But my last 2 contracts have been via LinkedIn so it's a bit of a moot point...

(Although I did notice that when I last looked at JS there were fewer agents putting their own emails on there so I guess you'll have to guess the direct email these days.)

[BobTucker]

I've had contact with some clients in the past where I've called them and asked if they received my application, they initially claim they hadn't, so I made a quick phone call to JS and they soon assured me that all of my email applications had been sent and successfully received by the client's email servers, they even consulted with their tech support team and the logs clearly showed they had been sent by JS and received by the client.

Sometimes I think when some clients get direct phone calls, they may just think it's quicker to say 'no' than to find your specific application whilst on the phone, amongst the 50-100 others. Must be easier for them to just say 'no, please send it to me again'. The chances are that they have received your applications, but the clients aren't always being truthful with you.

Most of the time I think it's the clients who are the causing the problems here, I've been using JS for years and I will continue for years to come - they've always been really helpful

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.