JobSpotter

Here are my observations on how points are awarded:

Firstly, whatever it says in the Field Guide, the points awarded seem to be fairly random.

The Field Guide says you get most points for small businesses where the job is available at the premises where the sign is displayed, and least points for chains where a general vacancy sign is displayed, perhaps referring applicants to a website.

While this is generally true, there are exceptions. Where it's a chain, but the vacancy sign says the job is specifically available at that location, points are unpredictable. Sometimes it just seems to go through as though it was a generic chain job ad, and you get 5 points, other times you get more. It seems to be the luck of the draw how thoroughly the submissions are reviewed.

For independent business where the job is clearly at the location, you can still come away with low points if lots of other people have submitted the same job recently. This can be checked on Submission History.

The best scenario seems to be if you're the first person to submit a job at a small business, which is available at the location.

Also some chains don't seem to count as chains i.e. you get much higher points than expected. In my experience, this is usually the big supermarkets.

The Field Guide says they won't accept jobs from agencies, or volunteer opportunities. However, I've found this is not always the case, so they can be worth doing. If it's an agency with a whole window full of jobs, just submit one of them.

It can be confusing when jobs get rejected as Duplicates, when you know you've not submitted them before. This is because someone else has submitted them recently - say within the last hour, though unsure of the exact time window that applies. Even if you do them again a few hours later, you won't get many points, in my experience, so best to wait until, say, the following week.

You are not supposed to submit the same job more than once in each calendar month, otherwise it'll be rejected as a duplicate. I've found they are not always rejected! And the slate is wiped clean at the start of the month, so you can submit a job on 30 June, and the same job again on 1 July, and it shouldn't be rejected as a duplicate.

You can appeal against rejections, or if the wrong business has been identified. Most of my appeals have been successful. If the wrong business is showing and you've got high points though, it's probably not worth questioning it - you could end up with less!

Town and city centres are usually not good places for job spotting, unless you're lucky enough to be the first to submit a job. This will be due to lots of competition from other job spotters. You can do better looking in secondary locations where the footfall is lower, even places like industrial estates.

Some business owners / staff members seem very suspicious when they see you photographing their premises, and some will come out and ask what you're doing. I usually just say the job's for a relative. It can be easier to do your job spotting when businesses are closed (provided of course they don't pull shutters down!).

Don't forget job ads are sometimes displayed inside premises, rather than via a notice in the window. In the case of my local gym, the ad was in a toilet cubicle!

Hermia wrote: »

I totally agree. There seems to be no logic behind the points allocation. I have had several instances where I saw a member of staff putting up a job sign for an indie business where you had to contact them directly. All those things should mean big points and I got 5 each time!

I have noticed I am getting a lot of rejections because someone else logged that job before me. I had ten in a row the other day so I assume someone else had recently walked the same street. I don't remember them rejecting that often before unless you accidentally submitted a job you had previously submitted. I think this is going to make the app less lucrative if you live in an area where a lot of Jobspotters live or work.

It is worth doing because it only takes seconds to log each sign you see. But I am doubtful that you can make big money. I have seen people online claiming they make hundreds a month but I can only see that being likely if they live in an area where there are no other people using the app.

Never actually seen a job sign going up - you must have been gutted to only get 5 points ...

When you look at the league table, the people at the top of it really do seem to make a lot of money. I can only assume they get free travel in large urban areas and do jobspotting pretty much like a full time job.