This subject was mentioned a few months ago but it was a bit too complicated for me to understand.

With UJM closing tomorrow can anyone tell me the best and easiest way to record my job search activity? I use sites like Indeed, Reed etc to look for and apply for jobs and use UJM to record it in the “activity” section. I find this very convenient and it saves me doing lots of printouts of emails that Indeed etc send me as application confirmations. But now with UJM closing is there a way I can satisfy the jobcentre that I am applying or jobs without having to do lots of email printouts each day.

Tufty wrote: You don't need to print out every email you get from jobs applied, that's just a waste of paper/ink. Like I suggested in another thread, if using gmail like me you can move all emails regarding jobs applied for into a specific group and just provide a printout of that. He's the same example I showed in that thread:



Of course my list will be much bigger than that example, it shows up to 50 emails a page. This will be my evidence to take when signing on next week, and will be a max of 2 pages to print out.

So they don't want to see the actual content of the email just the subject name?

Do you also need to hide the date and time of the email confirmation?

Hi Tufty. I recently did what Tarquin suggested and created a new `folder` in gmail or (Label) as it`s titled. I have one label I named `DWP` and already have an email from DWP regarding the closing of UJM. I saved that email in their own Label/Folder under DWP, which appears in the left hand column of gmail, so it`s easy to see and click on to open it.

So when you apply for a job and receive an email response, you `tick` the box next to that email and then at the top of the page, you will see an icon like a luggage label. Highlight it then click on it to `open` it. A box will appear with a cursor flashing. You give that email/label a name and then SAVE it. Once you do this, go back to your Inbox and in the left hand column, you will notice your new folder has been created.

You can then send all of your application email responses TO this folder as they arrive by `ticking` the little box next to the emails and going to that folder to save them all in the same place.

I could be wrong....but I thought I read that FAJ does have an area whre you can record your activity? Forgive me if that`s not the case (have`nt actually navigated that site much!) but hopefully someone else can give you a clear answer on that.

Or,you could just copy & paste stuff onto a blank page in Wordpad from websites directly,or by recording yourself (by typing stuff in) what you did that day at what time and how long it took you. Although I personally think they are having a good laugh when jobseekers become too frigid and worry too much that they need every little detail of what they have done to look for work. I would save the email responses in gmail and maybe keep a diairy of other actions I`d taken recording them in writing or online. This timeline stuff can be useful, but don`t be too keen to show your enthusiasm because I think the more you givem the more they wll take. So keep it simple and don`t overwork it.

Tufty wrote: Most of the time it shows the job applied for, for me that's more than enough. I'll certainly not show them the contents of any email.

I don't hide the date of email confirmation, I just cropped that part from my screenshot. Also with gmail, on the day it will show the actual time you received the email, but the next day it just shows the date of the email, which I prefer.

comply or die wrote: The only activity it shows on FaJ is jobs you've searched for and jobs applied for on the site itself. There is no option to post manually jobs applied for on other jobsites, like you could on UJM. When the roach I saw the other week mentioned them being allowed "access" to the site I queried this as the only access they'll apparently get is if you provide them screenshots of your activity on the site or you provide them with your FaJ password. I won't be surprised if many roaches try this approach, asking for claimants' full login details, thus giving them full access.

Thanks Comply and Tarquin. I will do that.

Tarquin wrote: When the roach I saw the other week mentioned them being allowed "access" to the site I queried this as the only access they'll apparently get is if you provide them screenshots

Seems they have already started this asking for access when they know they HAVE none apart from the screenshots or anything we have copied/pasted from that site to another area. I suggest everyone prints off the written statement from a recent parliament discussion (it`s on here just can`t get access to that thread at the moment to link to it) where they clearly say that work coaches or DWP generally do NOT and WILL not have ANY access rights to a FAJ account. They can ask for screenshots or some proof that we are using the site, but that`s as far as it goes legally. Providing clear recorded actions is all we are agreed to do, so lets all stick to that plan and don`t deviate from it.

You can gather all emails into one window choose how much of the from and to etc you want to show joke shop by editing the image,blank out any info you dont want them to see and use windows built in snipping tool to take 1 picture of all referenced applications.

If happy with email send that pic to em by email.Anything to save ink and paper,if they try the game of insisting you print it out make sure you invoice dwp for any expense as any half wit will realize we cant afford that kind of expense while on jsa.

jobber wrote: Of course the roach could then say you can use their computers to print up your jobsearch activity. I'll show my printout at my next signing on and if I have an appointment with her again in 2 weeks I'll ask if she needs to see a printout every time I see her, giving the cost of paper and ink.

Sending them a screenshot by email of course works out much cheaper but the thought of emailing anything to my jobcentre is something I'd prefer to avoid. It's probably ok if you have that dying breed, a reasonable work roach, but the more vicious ones might take it upon themselves to send several emails to you each week with jobs they think you should apply for. Sod that!

Tarquin_Flotsam wrote:
How many pages of printouts do you do altogether after a fortnight? It must be quite a lot.

jobber wrote:
How do you edit an image blank? Do you do it while it is onscreen in the form of a jpeg that you have saved the content as, or do you use tippex on the printout? If the latter, won't that look odd to the job coach?

Regarding times on emails. Most applications I make take very little time using the “one-click” application button on most sites like CV Library etc. So the time on the emails will only be seconds apart eg: applied for such and such a job at 10.30 am, then applied for such and such a job at 10.31 etc. So I can apply in theory to lots of jobs in a few minutes. Even if I applied to only 5 jobs in such a short space of time the work coach will think I haven’t been doing enough of the 35 hours a week etc. They probably think we should be spending an hour for each application.

I use Outlook Mail and I can’t find a way to hide the time of emails I receive. Is there a work around for this?

archangel wrote: So I can apply in theory to lots of jobs in a few minutes. Even if I applied to only 5 jobs in such a short space of time the work coach will think I haven’t been doing enough of the 35 hours a week etc.

That`s a good point archangel. If the actual times of each application show on the emails generated back to us, a coach could use those statistics to say we applied for 4 jobs within 6 minutes on X day. What did we do for the other hours that day?

If we edit out the times that show on emails, that could also raise suspicion that we are trying to `hide` the timelines. So leaving the times on or editing them out means we are leaving ourselves open to question either way.

I also have an Outlook email account, but I find it a bit slow. Gmail has the similar labels/folders to store generated emails where we can then save the entire list to a blank wordpad page by using copy & paste from the folder in gmail TO the blank Wordpad document and then attach` that page to an email we send to our coach with the full saved listings of the replies we have generated from applications.

I`m still new to all this myself and as Tarquin said, emailing all this stuff (rather than printing it out on paper) means we are providing an email address to our work coach to then be able to send us jobs we may or may not like. Although refusing to give them an email address in itself could cause a backlash if they know we have our own broadband at home,but their own rules/regs state that we do not have to provide an aemail address.

archangel wrote:
I already answered that question before you asked it.

If using cv library, reed etc. Space your applications apart, every half hour or so, don't tell wc you use one click apply because that will give the impression your daily work search takes 5 minutes.

I use Yahoo and it just shows the date of when email is recieved.

Catwoman wrote: Space your applications apart, every half hour or so,

That`s a good way of doing it Catwoman then each email will have spaced out times. Example:

Acmejobs@me.com/applicationformechanic/ 2.57pm
CleaningCo@ready.co.ukapplyforparttime/ 3.40pm

Giving the impression that you spend around 35/40 minutes on the Acmejobs application before clicking on the CleaningCo job! Well spotted Catwoman. Most sites allow us to `save jobs for later` too, so this should also allow us to `save` jobs in one place and apply for them in the appropriate timescales that generate email responses, knowing that those emails that arrive will also have the times listed, while others may just have the date.

True catwoman but I don't want to have to go to the PC every half hour or so just to placate the tyrants at the jobcentre.

Tarquin_Flotsam wrote:
You say 2 pages. Is that for each days applications or the whole two weeks worth of them. If so that's 2 page a day for 14 days.

archangel wrote:
OK, you saw the preview I posted of jobs applied for showing in gmail (scroll up, you can see how they're listed), I have gmail set to show 50 emails per page, so that would be a list of 50 jobs applied for each page. In 2 weeks it'd be highly unlikely I applied for 100 jobs. So, as I stated before, it would be a max of 2 pages printed out!

ok keep your cool.

It's quite easy to apply for 100 jobs after 2 weeks. I applied for 10 today using CV Library's one click application button. It took 2 seconds to make one application. Mind you I know i won't get the jobs so it's all just to keep the jobcentre happy.