So it’s a crying shame that online recruitment sites here in the United Kingdom can be such a waste of time. I’ve been putting them to the test and what I've found is damning. My search began by putting “fruit-picking jobs Sussex” into Google, and one of the first results was from joblookup.com. A quick look at the companies’ house shows them to be run by an Iranian doctor who is also a leading author of several books about Psychoanalysis and her husband who seems to have several names, the most recent being Ben Behnam.

This lot claims to have a simple mission: “We’ve  got the jobs, you look them up”.It promised: “Hundreds of fruit-picking jobs for immediate start, apply online today with 1 click.”

One-click? Sounded great.

I clicked through to its website, where it stated that it had fruit-picking jobs hiring right now with salaries of up to £25 an hour.

A link on this website stated: “Earn £10-24 per Hour – New Fruit Picker Jobs”.

Then I had to click on a link marked “View salary and more info” – so, not just one click then.

Instead of seeing the salary details I was transferred to, reed.co.uk and an utterly irrelevant job. I persisted and landed on Indeed.com, Totaljobs, and several other similar sites which JobLookUp pushed me towards.

JobLookUp.com also carried an advertisement for Tesco that offered home-based work. After registering, uploading my CV and preparing to submit my application to them, I was once again redirected to another site, offering visas for Iranians looking to migrate to the United Kingdom.

More clicking followed, with more click-bait to send me to other sites ­promising fruit-picking roles until I ended up back on joblookup.com when my search that began with the promise of well-paid jobs ended with the message: “Sorry, No jobs found for your criteria!”

Before I left joblookup.com did ask if I was interested in being the media manager for an unnamed luxury brand in London. I felt this wasn’t going to be Harrods, so I closed the site and continued my search.

My search for fruit picking work in Sussex also brought up uk.jooble.org, which boasts of being the largest job site in the United Kingdom (has anyone heard of them?).

“Urgent! Fruit-picking jobs in Brighton, East Sussex,” it tempted.

I clicked through to its website, run by a company in The Ukraine, where the first job stated: “Farm fruit jobs workers, apply here, £16-£35/hour: hiring now.”

To find out more I had to click through to a different site,  one of the same time-wasting sites that I’d been directed to by joblookup.com.

This time Joblookup.com asked for my email address and told me: “You’ve activated job alerts, great. Here’s the latest farm fruit job in Sussex.”

Except it wasn’t. The job was for software development at an energy firm and required a degree in computer sciences or equivalent.

Meanwhile, the email address I had given had been passed to a site called AllTheTopBananas.com, which sent a message saying: “We’ve found two farm fruit jobs in Sussex live right now.”

My hopes were raised, only to be dashed again. One of the jobs was for a farm supervisor in Kent and required far more responsibility than just picking fruit; the other was for farm work – in North Wales.

Then Joblookup sent me multiple emails with the promising subject line “New Sussex farm fruit jobs”.

Clicking on them revealed jobs ranging from care assistant to sales rep and pizza delivery driver. Nothing involving fruit farms.

Recruitment is big business. Totaljobs.com has a £75million turnover, according to its latest published accounts, and claims to be the UK’s largest hiring platform

“Whatever it is you’re looking for, you can find it on Totaljobs,” gushes its website. If only they put as much effort into selecting their partners then perhaps Joblookup would not have taken my email address and offered me a VISA to live in the UK with the reward of a Tesco job at the end.

How naive I was.

I emailed Joblookup telling them: “I feel that throughout this process I have been misled about the job I was searching for, resulting in a frustrating experience that proved a complete waste of time and that the roles I applied for were not the ones I saw.”

To date, I have had no response. I wonder if I would get some time with Dr. Berjanet Jazani to help me get over the trauma suffered as a result of trying to use her job website.

Andrew Penman – Daily Mirror

Scam-busting journalist exposing crooks, conmen, and fraudsters. Let me know if you've been ripped off. investigate@mirror.co.uk