[dnegrey]

Lee brought up a really good point with seekers using a descending number system to track their leads... it prompts me to share a story with you all ...

I got a "bad" rating from a voice seeker on V123. I wondered why, so I managed to track down who I believed was the company who gave it to me. I sent an email asking if they were in fact the company I was seeking. Their response was to PHONE me! They identified themselves as the correct company, and asked why I sent them the email.

I asked, why did I receive a "bad" rating from them on my audition? Was it truly bad? They told me that they didn't believe they gave me, or anyone else for that matter, a "bad" rating. They said they use the system for keeping track of applicants who best suited that particular job! This lead us into a detailed conversation wherein I explained my understanding of how the rating system worked - as explained to me by members of the staff at V123. They were surprised to learn how ratings factor into a talent's getting or not getting leads because of SmartCast. They also told me they couldn't believe talent was actually able to read their "ratings"; they said they were lead to believe that those "ratings" were for personal use in order to assist in keeping track of talent submissions.

Dear reader, you may be getting a sense of how this particular voice seeker was learning things about SmartCast they didn't enjoy hearing. Imagine, then, how shocked they were when I mentioned that we, as talents, were able to rate their job posting! After I told him this was the case, there was a 10-second pause on the phone before I heard the reply, "Really?"

Granted, this is only one episode among many. But when Lee mentioned, "... the 3rd, 4th, and 5th best candiates get severly penalized ..." he was clearly on target with respect to my personal experience with this particular voice seeker.

It would be interesting to read other's similar experiences.