Mail Goggles
The recent press release from Google regarding an “intervention” system that will not allow you to send emails when you’re drunk http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/10/08/mail-goggles-block-those-messages-you-shouldnt-send/ has got me thinking about our system of placing adverts onto jobs.ac.uk.
Our problem is we’re too darn quick
Getting an advert onto jobs.ac.uk is now so quick and easy that the problems we tend to face often come about AFTER the ad has been placed. It’s so easy to send us an advert (email is still the preferred option for most of our customers) that sometimes the text of the advert might not be 100% finalised. It’s very easy to send us amendments to advert text, but problems arise when the amendment is “please do not place this ad”. All too often, the speed of our service means that the advert is live in a much shorter time than the customer may have anticipated. It may have been seen by hundreds on the site, and if it is live on jobs.ac.uk overnight, it will have been sent to thousands more via our jobs by email alert.
Cooling off?
Banks and credit card companies have a “cooling off period” whereby you can think about what you’re signing up for. Perhaps we should have an “amendment period” BEFORE the ad goes live, where customers (and internal quality checkers) can view the advert with a chance to make changes before it has been seen by jobseekers.
As part of our current development plans we are discussing a potential redesign of the inputting process so job adverts go into a pending file for categorisation and quality checks to be done before they go live. If we alerted customers when their adverts reached this point this would provide an opportunity to make amendments before adverts are seen by hundreds of thousands of jobseekers.
Right first time
Job adverts may take a little while longer to go on the site, but if they are more likely to be “right first time” this would be a beneficial delay for all.
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