reed.co.uk > Reviews (38)

Reed Online is a non-centralised recruitment agency with online and offline presence. The office for say New Media may be in Richmond and the Marketing & Sales will be in the City somewhere. This has actually led to some confusion. - more later.
The site design is lovely with very easy to use drop down menus and side bar navigation buttons to career the prospective job seeker to his required industry. The search engine is really powerful and can be filtered down to location, keywords, wage etc. The site loks better in I.E than Netscape.

Jobseekers can submit their CV and hope for the best. But everyone knows to find a job you have to be proactive and actually apply for jobs online. This is opposed to sites such as gisajob.com where you just submit your CV into their database and they in turn distribute that CV to agents who pay to read your CV and match you up to any positions on their books (see my opinion on gisajob for further details!)

Reed is unusual as they have offline bricks 'n mortar shops and a very good online site. I applied for several positions and got one phone call from one of their agents who specialised in New Media explaining the position I applied for was in Coventry but she had the perfect position for me in Richmond, London. After telling her it would take me 1 ½ hours by underground as I live in NW London and Richmond is the furthest point on the underground SW London, she then replied stating, according to her computer it will take me exactly 51 mins by train! (British Rail). She seemed rather upset that I wasn’t completely enthusiastic by the distance.

Ok I thought nothing to loose, probably won't get an interview anyway, I told her to submit my CV to the employer. Three hours later I got a phone call asking me for an interview- that’s what I call fast (but not as fast as the interview I had directly because of gisajob from another recruitment agency called careerplus.com who got me an interview in 20 mins! -a world record in my books!)- I went in the afternoon as I had that interview in the morning.

Anyway back to Reed, they have humans who speak to you, which is a big star in my opinion. They also have this thing called 'Job Sleuth', now this is an email notification that will find the closest match job to your pre-saved requirements. There is even text message notifications, I got around two every two days or so. It just says something like’ New Job – Marketing Executive, London call Emma on 0207…etc , I quite like that aspect- its original at least, if not irritating later on especially when they send text messages that have no interest to you. I tried to find the box that I ticked to get rid of them, it took me ages to find it, and I still got messages a few day later on my mobile. I think its stopped now (at least I hope so)

I did actually phone up once for a job from one of these messages, not about the job but to find out about how my interview went and if they had made a decision. Now this led to some confusion, as I asked to speak to Katie, they said to me they didn’t have a Katie working there nor could they find any record of me ever going to an interview?

After 10 mins of utter disbelieve it transpired that I was talking to the City branch of reed and should have been talking to the Richmond branch! Now I’m sure it would make sense to have a centralised system don’t you?
I was rather annoyed that they didn’t get back to me about the interview, to tell me if I had got it or not! (I didn’t get it :-() but I’ve got a job now! (much better position :-))

Anyway Reed is worth a look for all you job hunters and is probably in the my top 10job sites (I really have seen and tested them all - nothing else to do when not working!)

Reed also has a job advert, which has probably been the most viewed online job ever. It is for models for an adult film! It’s had over 350 people applying and thousands of page views. They took it off but have now reinstated it and are giving away £1 to Comic Relief for every person who views that job description!

Have a look your self their link is on their home page reed.co.uk or here is the job description

ID/REF: MODELS
WANTED
REED REF:
E535431/8300
Up to £45000per annum
3 days per
Week
Adult Models,
London, London & M25
Description
Experimental and fun loving people wanted for
some adult movie productions. Work is available
at all levels. A sense of fun is a prerequiste as well
as an enquiring sexual mind. Willing to try out new
ideas with minimal fuss. In return top rates of pay
will be given depending on level of performance
and interest.
This is adult movie making at its best!