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how it works

as someone who is signing on i agree to complete a job search.
i provide this list of jobs i have looked for. my advisor looks them over and signs me on.
i get my jobseekers allowance.

there are other good reasons for doing a systematic job search. you can keep a track of the jobs you have applied (more important than you would think given the fact that many of them are advertised on several sites and by multiple agencies). it is a convenient way to see which ones you have been rejected from (though more often than not you don't get a reply - the caveat being 'if you have not heard by... you haven't been selected'). also it can allow you to target job sectors or locations.

regardless of that it is a requiement.

so it is all so simple.
i do a job search, they check it, i get the jsa.

now what i would like with that is them maybe just checking what it is i am applying for.
perhaps those jobs as a brain surgeon are not quite me.
maybe i shouldn't be applying to be a ceo of a major financial company (but let's be honest here i could have driven them into the ground much quicker and cheaper than their previous boss). is beyond my skill set.

what you get is, at best, a cursory glance.
so much so that the several times i have put down that i have applied to be an adult movie star has gone by unquestioned. (now there is the slight possibility that on these occasions my advisors are thinking to themselves that he has the moves for such a career change. i just doubt it).

recently i am not even getting that.
now it is just a case of turning up. saying hi. signing the sheet and going.

it doesn't inspire confidence. it doesn't give hope.
it is a sign of what is wrong with the job centres and it is a sign of exactly how the service could be improved and how it could get more people back in to work quicker.
if only iain duncan smith and his pals were not ideologically blinkered.