Gradults 0-2 Jobsites

Ask Opta Joe, stats don’t lie. According to the Blogger stats, the recent post about online applications (Gradults 0 - 1 The Online Application) was a runaway success, relatively speaking of course for a post with 0 comments. With that in mind I have decided to expand on it, this time looking at the home of the online application, the jobsite. Be it Monster, be it DirectGov, any gradult worth his salt has done their time on the online jobsite, lurching from one dead end to another, typing in increasingly speculative job titles whilst ever more frequently nipping onto other websites until the ratios finally flip and your just spending another afternoon refreshing your live feed on Facebook. I understand that these jobsites have helped thousands of people find work and make applying for jobs much more efficient, but personally I find it much easier to speak to an actual person about vacancies.

Here is a list of reasons why I’m not a massive fan

1. The Applicant Counter – This role is a mundane office job, no responsibility or real prospects, certainly not fulfilling. 54 Applicants. 302 Views. Why are you telling me this?? Interviews are daunting enough; I don’t need to know the exact number of people I’m up against. What makes the applicant counter even more demoralising is the employer viewer counter on your Monster profile; after 2 months mine is 8. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

2. The Incessant Emails - If you one day curiously view a receptionist job in Newcastle you can bet your bottom JSA payment that two months later your still receiving information about every clerical vacancy in the North East.

3. The Irrelevant Emails – I’ve started getting weekly ‘newsletter’ emails from Monster as if it’s some sort of club I’ve joined. The only reason I’m still part of it is because your website isn’t finding me a job, when you do find me some decent work I will be more inclined to ‘rate my lunch hour’.

4. The Ridiculous OTE Jobs – For every real listing offering a respectable position there will be another dozen offering salaries with OTE of £50,000 a year, no experience required! After a couple of weeks hunting, when I’ve had to convince my mum that I’m still being ‘proactive’, I’ve attended a few of these interviews only to be met by men in Burton suits and company signs knocked up on Microsoft word, if anyone there is earning £50k a year they’re hiding it well.

5. The Jobsite Advert Guy – A no-nonsense bloke sneering at me for not landing my dream role, is this meant to attract me to your site? And when you go on you’re instantly greeted with his smug half grin which sneers; ‘BBC Football before job hunting, seems counterproductive.’