I tried Sonara for about 3 weeks. At first, it seemed like everything I wanted in a platform to automate job applications, however, I was quickly let down.
I started with their base-level subscription option, which seemed to work okay. I noticed a few jobs failed to apply however the message shown mentioned this was due to the opening no longer being available or the job was filled. Fair enough I thought. Let me try to upgrade my subscription to the highest tier to increase my volume of applications.
The upgrade I made allowed me to find all of the evident issues with this platform. To start, you can expect roughly 25-40% of all applications to fail. Why you might ask? This is due to Sonara having no solution to email verification which is required for nearly half of the job postings they show you. Why they don't use a private email relay of sorts is beyond me. Or maybe don't show jobs that require this? Who knows.
Another major issue is the extreme lack of support. If you message them, expect to hear back after a few days at best although they use intercom for live chat support. This isn't the end of the world, however when 25-40% of your applications fail EVERY DAY, and they tell you you'll need to reach out to support for compensation on those applications EVERY time, it becomes very annoying. I reached out last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's now Monday and still nothing.
Aside from this, there are plenty of other issues with this platform. They show filters for entry, mid, or senior-level jobs. If you choose entry, you'll still see all other jobs, plenty of which require 3+ years of experience which is far from entry-level. The filters do absolutely nothing, even for the auto-selected jobs. Every day you'll need to go in and manually sort through these jobs to match your preferences which is almost as time-consuming as actually applying yourself. The same goes for the location filter, even if you don't have remote jobs included, half of your job feed will show remote jobs.
I also haven't had a job submitted for the last 3 business days. I currently have 75 jobs pending application, and no idea as to why this is.
My last message to support mentioned I wanted a refund or ill be contacting my credit card company and they can deal with the charge back. Clearly didnt receive the services as advertised. Save yourself the time and money, linkdin quick apply is a much better option and Ive seen 10x the results for free.
