Universal Jobmatch

I search through all jobs listed within a 25 mile radius of my large Suffolk town and I can honestly say that three quarters of them are scams. Most of them are copy-and-pastes from other websites of vacancies which have expired. The fake agencies, which include Strike Jobs, Ukstaffsearch, CV Browser Ltd. and Careworx are merely collecting CVs to sell on to CV Library who are another scam.

UK Local Recruitment used to post over 2000 completely fake jobs every day on UJM until Channel 4 News exposed them. They're now copy-and-paste merchants albeit with current jobs. However if you apply for a vacancy via their website you'll never hear from any prospective employer because UK Local will delete everything submitted except for the profitable CVs.

Saturday and Sunday are the worst days for scams in my area - 97% on average.

Unfortunately the Government won't get rid of Universal Job Match although Monster Inc. who currently run it won't be having their contract renewed. Some people reckon it'll be run inhouse again but I have my doubts.

Coopdivi wrote: »

Unfortunately the Government won't get rid of Universal Job Match although Monster Inc. who currently run it won't be having their contract renewed. Some people reckon it'll be run inhouse again but I have my doubts.

A computer trade journal ran an article on UJM a while back, suggesting many of the problems occurred by ministers and civil servants tinkering with the system after the specifications had been signed off. Monster run similar systems elsewhere without problems, so it seems logical that the problems aren't within their control.

I'd suggest that the fact so few Govt IT projects ever complete satisfactorily might give a clue as to the reason for problems

pmduk wrote: »

A computer trade journal ran an article on UJM a while back, suggesting many of the problems occurred by ministers and civil servants tinkering with the system after the specifications had been signed off. Monster run similar systems elsewhere without problems, so it seems logical that the problems aren't within their control.

I'd suggest that the fact so few Govt IT projects ever complete satisfactorily might give a clue as to the reason for problems

When Monster originally tendered for UJM their offer was over £30 million as opposed to Methods Consulting/Jobsite UK who tendered approximately £20 million. For some strange reason the tendering process went to a second round where Methods/Jobsite raised their price slightly but Monster managed to drop theirs to £15 million.

There are allegations that the tendering process wasn't as transparent as it should have been particularly as Methods/Jobsite were subsequently paid £950000 in compensation.

http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/universal-jobmatch-tender-scam/

I would suggest the main reason why UJM is a pile of cack is because Monster had to cut corners somewhere because of their hugely reduced tender offer.

I use Indeed.co.uk as part of my jobsearch and it's a breath of fresh air compared to Jobsearch Direct/UJM and almost enjoyable. It:

1. Remembers my jobsearch by placing a cookie on my computer so that when I visit the next day I don't get any repeats from the previous day. Monster don't do that so I have to do a two day search to avoid missing any.

2. Lists vacancies in date order. Monster just jumbles them all up.

3. Removes duplicate listings or very close matches. Monsters lets employers and scammers list their jobs half a dozen times or more every day. In addition the fake and dubious agencies copy each others vacancies so there are often twenty or more entries for the same job.

4. Operates a blacklist whereby scammers are prevented from uploading any vacancies. Monster's blacklist is very limited and is usually only augmented in response to media exposure. Complaints from jobseekers (their clients) are ignored.

5. Lists the first two lines of the job description under the job title. Monster don't bother. They just list the job title.

6. Has an advanced job search for fine tuning which for example allows users to list 10, 20, 30 or 50 results per page. Monster has nothing like that You get 25 results per page and that's it.

UJM has several other glaring flaws. Until March the SSL encryption on the log-in page was broken. It's now been fixed but it doesn't work after logging in. Monster say don't use the back button. I frequently have over 900 vacancies to search through. After clicking on a job description how else am I supposed to get back to the job listings bearing in mind there are no short cut buttons?

Coopdivi wrote: »

Here's a scam website that I found today on Jobsearch Direct. Notice the very professional email address.

http://chapplerecruitment.co.uk/article01.html

!!! I was job searching earlier and thought this site looked fishy as well but didn't notice the gmail address.

That's all well and good but unfortunately there's not a lot You, I or jeremy Kyle can do about it. All we can do is be aware....or beware.