April 2020 Update – Unfortunately, the Job Spotter app is temporarily down due to the COVID-19 quarantine. Obviously they don’t want people traveling around taking pictures of help wanted signs when we’re all supposed to stay home. Hopefully we get back to a sort of normal soon and the app opens up again.
In this article we’re going to review the Job Spotter app. This is one my favorite apps because it lets you make money just by taking pictures of hiring signs in your neighborhood.
All you need to do is snap a picture of the Help Wanted sign and the storefront and submit it via your smartphone. As soon as your submission is approved, you get paid.
Ready to learn more and try for yourself? Read on!
Related: Sign up for a free Swagbucks account and get paid in real cash and gift cards just for watching movie trailers, filling out short surveys, and more.
Table of Contents
What Is The Job Spotter App?
Job Spotter is a smartphone app released by Indeed, one of the largest job search engines in the world. Indeed allows job hunters to search through millions of job listings posted online by businesses that are hiring.
Many small businesses don’t even bother posting their job openings online. They just slap a Help Wanted sign in the window and call it a day.
The problem is not many people will actually see the sign. You might be the perfect fit for the job but unless you happen to walk by and see it you’ll never even know it’s available.
That’s where the Job Spotter app comes in. The app uses the power of crowd sourcing to find hiring signs and post them online so many more job seekers will see them. Instead of just a handful of people seeing the hiring sign, the sign can be seen by thousands of people searching Indeed.
Here’s what one of my submissions looks like online at Indeed:
How Does Job Spotter Work?
The Job Spotter app is super easy to use and if you can take a picture with your smartphone you’ll have no trouble at all. You can start by downloading the app onto your iOS or Android device and signing up for a free account.
Then just keep an eye our for hiring signs while you’re out and about. When you find a “help wanted” sign, you need to take two pictures using the app. First, you’ll take a picture of the hiring sign itself. Then take a picture of the storefront making sure you capture the name of the store in the picture.
That’s it. Just take those two pictures and hit Submit. It won’t take you more than 10-15 seconds.
Your submission will be in “pending” status for a little while and once approved you’ll see the points added to your account. Each point is worth a penny and there’s no minimum required to request payout.
Speaking of payouts, the only option right now is to get paid in the form of an Amazon gift card. I’d love to see them add an option to get paid through Paypal, but everyone shops at Amazon anyway so it’s just about as good as cash.
The app says it could take up to 2 weeks to receive your Amazon gift card code, but in my experience it has never taken more than a few days. Sometimes it comes the very same day.
The value of each sign is determined by a number of factors. The size of the store, the how permanent the sign is, and how recently other users have submitted it can all affect the payout.
Large chain stores like Target or Home Depot always have a hiring sign posted and people are constantly submitting them. That means the payout will be pretty low, usually around 5 to 15 cents. Not much, but since it only takes a few seconds to submit you might as well go ahead and do it.
The payouts are much better for a “mom and pop” store with a handwritten or computer-printed hiring sign. The more specific the better (“night shift waitress needed”, as opposed to “help wanted”) and if no one has submitted it lately the payout can be several dollars instead of just a few pennies. The most I’ve gotten paid so far was about $3 for a small, local restaurant.
Here’s a screenshot showing a handful of my submissions. I earned over $6 in one day while running errands on my lunch hour!
Oh! One more thing:
You need to have your smartphone’s location services turned on and you have to take the pictures from within the Job Spotter app. You can’t just take a picture with your camera app and upload it later.
How Much Can You Make With The Job Spotter App?
You’ll never be able to quit your job and earn a full time income with Job Spotter, but you can earn some nice spending cash without using up a lot of your time and energy.
My wife laughed at me when I first started taking pictures of hiring signs. She thought it was a waste of time and not worth the effort. But all those little amounts of 5 cents here and two dollars there really add up.
Since I started using the Job Spotter app I’ve been earning between $10 and $30 per month. One time, we dropped our daughter off at soccer practice and ran to get a cup of coffee. We walked through a strip mall and I found several hiring signs that earned me more than enough to cover the cost of the coffee. Another time we vacationed in Niagara Falls and I made $10 while sightseeing!
An extra $10 or $30 a month isn’t going to make you rich, but it sure is nice to have. And they really come in handy when it comes time to shop for birthday or Christmas presents!
Job Spotter Hacks And Tips
Since I started using Job Spotter, I’ve discovered a few hacks and tips that will help you earn more with the app.
The map feature shows you where the highest value signs are located.
Check out the screenshot below to see what I mean. The blue dot shows my location and as you can see there are tons of hiring signs all around me. The light green ones are considered low value and usually worth around 5 to 50 cents each. But the dark green ones are worth $1 to $3. If you see dark green near you, go for it!
Keep an eye out for signs that AREN’T on the map.
If you’re lucky enough to stumble onto a sign that hasn’t been submitted yet, you’ll get a nice bonus. Brand new submissions usually pay out really well, so keep an eye out for them.
You can take pictures of the same sign again and again.
I’ve noticed you can submit the same signs every month. So if you submit one today and try again the following day it will get rejected as a duplicate. But after a month passes you can submit it all over again. So if you regularly pass by hiring signs that are always out, you can paid for submitting them over and over.
The best hiring signs are in small “mom and pop” stores.
Large chain stores with generic hiring signs that are always displayed just don’t pay very well. They’re still worth submitting, but you really want to find the handwritten or computer-printer signs hanging in a small shop. Those generally pay much higher rates.
Follow Job Spotter’s submission guidelines.
There are a few rules you have to follow to keep your submissions from being rejected. First, you can only submit each hiring sign once per calendar month. Try to submit the same sign sooner and it will be rejected as a duplicate. Photos also need to be in focus and legible. If it just looks like a blob that might say “help wanted” it will probably be rejected.
Make sure your photo doesn’t have any people in it. That can be tough in busy locations but if you any submission containing people gets automatically rejected. Job Spotter also doesn’t accept photos taken inside a vehicle. Obviously, Job Spotter can’t tell if a photo was taken from your car if you pull over in front of a store. Just make sure that no part of the car’s dashboard or side mirror gets caught in the picture.
And don’t make fake signs. I really shouldn’t have to tell you this, but just in case you are wondering, it won’t work.
The Final Word
I love the Job Spotter app and I think it’s fun to hunt for hiring signs. I also think its cool that I could be helping someone who needs a job connect with a business with a job available. Something so simple could make a huge difference in someone’s life.
That said, spend a lot of time or effort using Job Spotter and I wouldn’t recommend you do that either.
I certainly wouldn’t go driving around searching for businesses that were hiring. I just don’t have the free time or extra gas money to spare and quite frankly the payout just isn’t worth it all that work.
All I do is keep an eye out for Help Wanted signs as I’m running errands and going about my business. You’d be surprised how many there are when you’re looking for them! Since I downloaded the Job Spotter app I’m averaging between $10 and $30 every single month.
If you’re interested in giving the Job Spotter app a try, you can download the app here.
