Can anyone clarify, when you open an online account with jobsites like Indeed.co.uk, CV Library etc, what initial questions do they ask for and if supplying information like a mobile phone number, is this a `mandatory` field? Or do all jobsites just allow people to open accounts with name, address, email address?

Just curious to get some insight into this and any pitfalls members have to share? I`ve never had an online account (apart from Universal Jobmatch) which is now ended, just browsed these other sites without joining, but preparing myself for any UC claim that happens in the future. Just want to know what I`m signing up for.

Also, what would you consider to be the top three BEST jobsites and why? I`ve always found Indeed.co.uk to be easy to use and navigate, but obviously I`m not half as clued up on these sites as someone who uses them on a daily basis. Just trying to understand some of the job descriptors baffles me!

I agree that this is useful for many of us to know and I myself expect to be applying for jobs again quite soon after several years not having to also never having had one of these accounts either.

Most are a pain in the arse Comply and do ask for the information you refer to.

Further they even then use bots to pass on your cv etc etc to 99% recruitment agencies and ask you to agree by default that by you accepting X terms X agency can use your cv to pass around to whoever they see fit;naturally they wouldn't dare do this with phone numbers and email addresses would they


IMHO no such thing as real good ones Comply as most are just flooded with out of date vacancies.A ploy to keep building their databases with a constant hurd of sheep to choose from.The ones you mention are as good as it gets and cover diverse sectors and most areas.

Thanks jobber. I did google the Indeed terms & conditions and didn`t have a spare week to read all the pages! But it appears that they do use `third party` associates so what you say is correct. Chances are once we upload a CV, they can `agree` to share that CV with agencies etc....although I`m not sure these sites have an `opt out` option regarding this? GDPR and all that? And only wanting the company WE contact to see our CV.

I wouldn`t want to be drowning in spam or contacted through email by people I had no clue about, even if they emailed me saying - `We saw your CV on X site and are contacting you about positions we have digging ditches`....

Verc, I know what you mean about ESA and the edge of a cliff. I`ve just started my walk towards it again so hoping I stay on ESA, although I will appeal if I have to. Won`t be touching UC unless I`m desperate.

Just like you Comply i also can't be bothered or dont want to waste 30 minutes of my life HAVING to read through all their bullshit terms;its this method they use to effectively snare people knowing full well just like visa cards etc the majority cannot be bothered to read through the endless bull.

Some sites do have a way of letting your cv info etc be visible to employers only and can restrict what contact details you may want to put.

And yet despite with the new GDPR recruitment agencies and websites dont gibve a flying fck about that insisting upon all forms of contact when there isn't even a bloody job available, 'a just incase mentality,'it would appear, and one they've been using for years.

You're quite right to be concerned about spam Comply as since i uploaded my cv to 'certain sites' ive been inundated with crap.

"contacting you about positions we have digging ditches`" and that my friend is the crap the then proceed to endlessly send to your inbox.

I've wasted many hours of my life talking with 'recruitment' agencies and can tell you many are just prepared to sip their coffee having a chat on the phone about a job that they were advertising this time last year,miraculously has the same reference number on their website, and the same amount of people currently applying

Their only ever as good as to how much their willing to pay you and nothing more,phoning people up sounding like their long lost friend makes me wanna puke!

When I claimed JSA a few years ago jobber, I looked for jobs on these sites without creating any accounts with them and it suited me fine. But I don`t know if having or not having an account particularly allows anymore access to more information about a job advertised than clicking on it and reading the description and clicking `apply` or taken to a different website? What benefits does actually opening an account with one of these sites have over just browsing it?

I have seen jobs advertised on job sites like Indeed and CV Library that have the words 'sponsored' and the words 'jobcentre plus'. When you click on one with jobcentre plus it takes you to the DWP jobs site where you can apply for the job. Is someone from Jobcentre Plus adding the jobs to the job sites or do the job sites do it themselves?

Searcher asked: Is someone from Jobcentre Plus adding the jobs to the job sites or do the job sites do it themselves?

Good question Searcher. Not something I can answer either. Employers used to list their jobs through Universal Jobmatch (now gone and replaced with the Find a Job) site run by Adzuna. Although I`m not sure if they can just go straight to the site and upload their information if they open their own employer account or whether they have to go through some type of government screening beforehand? I would `think` they just open an account and list from there. But Adzuna jobs and Find a Job sites are completely separate entities.

I’ve got accounts with Indeed, Read, CV Library etc. It took me about 5 minutes to register with them and I didn’t have to give my phone number or address or any other details. They will accept any old email you give them too. They just want to know what type of jobs you are looking for. I’ve even registered with one under a phony name with a disposable email address and they are none the wiser.

I don’t mind about cookie privacy matters so I have no privacy worries using those sites. I don’t use Find a Job, though, as that is just a trap to find ways to sanction you.

It’s easy for me to use those sites than actually look for jobs in newspapers and write job letters. When I go to sign on I just show my roach a printout of my email inbox (from an email address that I just use for job applications) so they can see the list of job application confirmation emails that those sites send me.

No doubt when I go on UC I’ll have to use a DWP online jobsite similar to Find a Job, which is what I’m fearing.

Thanks archangel, good insight. Good to know they don`t ask for a mobile number. So is it just full name, age, email address? Or do these sites ask for a home address etc...?

Out of interest, when I was looking through some of the T&C`s of Indeed the other day, I clicked on something regarding their cookies policy and I`m sure I saw something mentioned about Google Analytics? Meaning, how google can track/record our movements while logged into their site. Find a Job is now the replacement for Universal Jobmatch and possibly uses these same analytics for information gathering, but I do know that work coaches cannot gain or ask for ANY access to someone`s Find a Job account, only that they provide evidence of jobs applied for on the site or a screen shot etc....much as they would any other jobsite.

I don`t yet have a FAJ account and am in no hurry to either and would be looking at Indeed and a few other sites to join but only browse FAJ for general comparison purposes and say so. If Find a Job is not compulsory/mandatory then we should excersize our right to use other/better jobsites if we can prove they ARE in our interests to do so and consistently show that these other sites provide more job ad`s in our preferred skills and local area.

Searcher wrote:Is someone from Jobcentre Plus adding the jobs to the job sites or do the job sites do it themselves?


I'd say its a bit of both, what i really find interesting is that as new recruitment agencies appear on these websites as ltd companies; a little research and it turns out its just some wannabe starting up as an agency from their back bedroom.

jobber wrote: a little research and it turns out its just some wannabe starting up as an agency from their back bedroom.

Good work there jobber! It pays to take some time to look a bit deeper into who we are applying to on these sites and whether they are who they say they are. After all, we are dealing with personal information sharing here. Once we upload a CV, it should contain wording that tells the employer (or anyone else reading or using it) that it is for that job description ONLY and include things like you are available within 48 hour notice etc, so they are not spamming you with emails asking can you ring them or can you start immediately etc....

Something I need to apply to my CV as I didn't feel this necessary in the past but do now.

comply or die wrote:
For the ones I use, they only asked for my name and email address, and not my home address.

I can’t recall if they ask for your age, but if they do, you can always give them the wrong one—not that giving your real age is any great privacy concern, for me anyway.

I can’t recall if they asked for my mobile number—probably not, as I never give out my mobile number to any sites, and so if they had asked me to I would not have given it them, which meant that I couldn’t have registered with them, and as I am registered with them it means they didn’t ask.

In any case, if the rules have changed now, and they now ask for a mobile number, just give them one of the fake mobile numbers on the following site:

fakenumber.org/generator/mobile

Giving a false mobile number sounds good archangel and something I could apply. I suppose many people do similar things with their genders, age, marital status etc, when joining platforms like Facebook etc, but I wonder though if they ever notice that mobile numbers are non-existent and email the account holder to `update` the number they joined with and if they don`t do that, they close their account?

I don`t think that would be the case with jobsites, but if part of the opening of any account means they send you a code through a mobile number (as government gateway/Verfify website now do) it means not being able to open, or view an account. So I`m hoping this doesn`t come up if ever I do need to open a few jobsite accounts.

In my experience with them, they simply don’t care who you are, or if you are who you say you are. They have (probably) millions of people registered with them and so have no time to keep track of everyone. They only exist to get a fee from the employers who place job adverts with them, and so don’t care about the people looking for jobs there. So I wouldn’t worry about the things you are concerned about.

I’ve yet to have them contact me asking if I have a mobile phone or if I am who I say I am. As long as they are getting fees (their whole point for existing) from employers placing adverts there they are happy.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t give them a mobile number and so they couldn’t send me code, yet I was still able to register.

It is totally different from how the government gateway/Verfify website works. For a start it has no connection with the government or DWP, and is very informal in its registering process—indeed the word “registering” is an overstatement. It is so easy to do, I could open 10 accounts with them a day—if I could come up with as many email addresses a day.

C or D wrote:

"I do know that work coaches cannot gain or ask for ANY access to someone`s Find a Job account"

But the DWP can:

“In the month of July: 

  DWP accessed jobseeker accounts 884 times.  
  Adzuna accessed jobseeker accounts 46 times.”

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/515405/response/1240400/attach/html/2/3594%20Reply.pdf.html

If you make a SAR to the DWP the following information is extracted from your FAJ account:

User ID/email address/IP address of last login/date account created/CV(s)/suspension history/activity history

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/488878/response/1213132/attach/3/UK%20Tech%20Jan2018%20Find%20a%20Job%20SAR%20Process.pdf

I've also seen on job sites adverts with the disclaimer 'this job has not been advertised by the employer".

That`s an eye opened Searcher, many thanks for highlighting those links and facts. So what I`m taking from that is, if we open a FAJ account but keep it `private` meaning, we don`t allow access manually to any work coach but just provide evidence that we browse/use the site, they can STILL access what we do on there even if we are not aware of it? If a SAR is requested and they can come up with IP address, email address, user ID etc....that`s not exactly privacy is it?

Knowing this, I`m wondering if it`s better then to NEVER open a FAJ account just because it CAN be looked at, or if given a jobseekers/UC direction to open a FAJ account means just that. We open an account but don`t use the site in preference to Indeed, Totaljobs etc....

Has anyone done this? Been directed by a coach to open a FAJ account but then opted out of actually logging into it?

archangel, thanks again for the reassurances.

comply or die wrote:
I read on a FOI document that it’s mandatory to open a FaJ account but not mandatory to use it.

So I opened one but don’t use it. My roach asked me if I use it and I just said that I prefer to use other jobs sites as they have more jobs on them, and she said that was ok.

Don’t know if this will still be the case when I go on UC.

archangel wrote: My roach asked me if I use it and I just said that I prefer to use other jobs sites as they have more jobs on them, and she said that was ok.

That`s the view I have archangel. Opening a FAJ account whether optional or otherwise is better than swerving the question every time we have a meeting with a work coach asking why we don`t have an account. Better to say we have one and then explain (show) the factual stats on how many jobs are actually listed on there and compare them to the other sites in a print out over a month or two. Nothing like a bit of statistical analysis to prove a point!

Same happened to me with the old Universal Jobmatch. I was asked to open an account before I had to appeal my last ESA claim and duly did so. I found the site totally inadequate and only logged in to record any jobs I DID apply for on other websites. What annoyed me at the time though was, my work coach also asked me (no, TOLD me) that I also had to email all the links to jobs I had applied for and send them to a DWP email address, when I was already recording these on UJM. I was so annoyed at this but couldn`t see a way out of it at the time. She even showed me her screen to give examples of other people who had sent their links to this address. I`m hoping this has all been stopped now with UC now having it`s own online journal, but even that isn`t meant to be compulsory, but it`s part of the claim for UC, so I don`t see a way around NOT having a UC journal when the site sets one up when applying for UC.

C or D wrote:

"I`m hoping this has all been stopped now with UC now having it`s own online journal, but even that isn`t meant to be compulsory, but it`s part of the claim for UC, so I don`t see a way around NOT having a UC journal when the site sets one up when applying for UC."

Some stuff on the UC journal:

“It is not a mandatory requirement for the claimant to provide the required work search evidence via their journal. The claimant must be able to provide written evidence of their work search.

It is not mandatory for the claimant to upload their CV onto the journal, the claimant must however be able to show a completed and up to date CV.”

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uc_job_search_evidence#incoming-1247649

I read something a while ago about a claimant who was concerned about what his WC was typing during a meeting. When he asked for a copy, he was told to make a formal request for it. I wondered whether this was a ruse by the WC to get access to information from his FAJ account.