In today’s economy, it’s hard to ignore any way of finding work.
Legitimate work from home jobs are really hard to come by.
If you’re unemployed, you can become desperate in your search.
Unfortunately, there are people out there who are willing to take advantage of you and can do so easily because you’re in a vulnerable state.
We see new fake job ads up pop up by the thousands.
These scams can cost you a lot of money, your personal information, and in some cases, even your identity.
Scammers know you’re trying to find work and an “open position” is an easy way to get unsuspecting individuals to send in their private information by the thousands.
Is SnagAJob.com Legit or a Scam?
One such company that has come under fire as of late is SnagAJob.com.
A quick search on their name will yield hundreds of complaints against the company.
I’ve been reading through quite a few these past couple of days and want to give you an overview of what to look out for.
I won’t be signing up for this personally because I don’t agree with how they handle private information.
Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.
Complaints Against SnagAJob
They May Sell Your Personal Information
By and large, the most complaints regarding SnagAJob are the unwanted phone calls and emails.
In order to apply for jobs, you need to supply SnagAJob with a lot of your personal information.
There are also questionnaires and short surveys to fill out to see if you qualify for the position.
Among the questions asked are offers from 3rd party companies for career advancement opportunities like online schooling.
If you aren’t careful with your answers, your name and phone number could find it’s way into the hands of a number of different telemarketing companies.
It’s not uncommon to see other SnagAJob.com users complaining about the number of unwanted emails and phone calls that come in after creating an account and applying for jobs.
A common complaint…
Snagajob is NOT a place if you are looking for a job. They will ask you hundred questions, and offers they make, you have to uncheck one by one, after you spend an hour and hit submit application, all you see, “your application can not be submitted”. But interestingly you will receive thousands of different offers just because you forgot to uncheck one of their hundred offers. I have serious doubts about the number of opening they show on the search results. If you go to the stores they show there are openings, most of them will tell you “No, there are no openings here”.
Unwanted Sales Pitches
Among the phone calls are company sales pitches.
There are quite a few comments from users who have received telemarketing calls trying to sell them an education to the University of Phoenix or an online art institute.
Granted, these same people may have signed up and left the box checked that very clearly states “Yes, I am interested in furthering my education and would like to learn about opportunities.”
A common complaint…
After completing the application, I hit submit. But instead of giving me a verification page or email, it sent me to a page on Phoenix Online trying to get me to take classes through a program. I was extremely frustrated that all I had done was sold my information to a bunch of third parties, and now for the past 4 weeks we’ve been harassed by telemarketers and Phoenix University reps.
Outdated Job Postings/Non-Existent Jobs
The biggest offender in this list is the fact that a lot of the job postings may not even be real.
I compared a few of the job ads on SnagAJob to the ‘Careers’ section directly on the company’s web site and found about half the time, they weren’t hiring for the job that’s being advertised.
I even saw a job posting for a business that shut down a month ago. I can’t reasonably expect SnagAJob to police every job ad, but an expiration date on postings and a little moderation would be nice.
A common complaint…
On several of the applications that i had sent out in my area it stated not to contact the employer, i would receive an email back saying i was not qualified for the position. Hard to believe that a Food and Beverage Manager of 5 years is not qualified to be a barista at Starbucks! So, i decided to go to the Starbucks, at the location that Snag a job assured was hiring baristas and management, only to find out that they WERE NOT hiring nor are they affiliated, in any way, with Snagajob.com. I then decided to visit some of the other companies that i was deemed not qualified, and received the same answer.
Ad or job lead?
SnagAJob also lists ads among their job listings.
Take for example this ad for Uber:
They should at least mark ads as such.
Praise for SnagAJob
Not all comments regarding SnagAJob are negative.
There are legitimate job postings there and this is backed up by people claiming to have found jobs through the service.
Employers themselves have chimed in to say that they’ve posted job ads and received large lists of qualified candidates. After all, the focus of the site IS connecting employers with prospective employees.
From an employer…
I am part of a legitimate restaurant franchise using snagajob.com to hire hourly employees. For this purpose, it is very effective. I receive far more qualified applicants via snagajob than say a posting on Craigslist. Yes, there are a lot of surplus opportunities to sign up for on snagajob which becomes a bit of a nuisance to applicants. However you can simply hit the skip button at the bottom of these ads and continue on with the application. Ulitmately, it’s all about getting a job. We have hired many people from this service, so don’t worry about using it if that is what your intentions are.
A Trusted Alternative
The problem with SnagaJob is there are too many advertisements masquerading as legitimate job offers.
I’d suggest looking at a site like FlexJobs where they personally examine every single posting and make sure only legitimate jobs come through.
You can pay as little as $5 per month for a subscription.
Yes, it’s a paid option, but you are paying someone to basically do thousands of hours of research on your behalf.
Plus a membership is tax-deductible and they offer a 100% satisfaction refund guarantee. If you are unable to find a job, or just don’t like it, you can cancel and get your money back at any time.
The mantra of “never pay for a job” still holds true. This is more like paying someone to filter through the piles of garbage to find you something worthwhile instead.
The Bottom Line
It’s a mixed bag. SnagAJob appears to feature both legitimate job positions and ones that are a little less legitimate or even non-existent.
My advice: take SnagAJob with a healthy grain of salt. Use the site to browse open positions and then go directly to the employers website to see if a position is actually available and apply right through them.
With this method, you’ll keep your personal information private, you’ll be applying to jobs you KNOW exist, and you won’t have to worry about getting bombarded with unwanted messages.
Do you have any experience with SnagAJob.com? Please leave a comment below and let us know about it.