A Simple Way To Fix Recruitment.

It is totally fine to accept a system is broken and it's necessary to see why.

What the internet has created, in it's most simple form creates abundance, ease and free communication, ironically rather than making it easier to find great people, because we've never tried to change how we recruit, only add technology to it, we have a system that works for nobody.

We followed this journey.

The internet made it easy and free to post ads.

The internet made it even easier and free to apply for jobs. The incremental cost of time and money in applying for 100 more jobs became effectively zero.

And thus every job became inundated with applicants. Thousands or hundreds of thousands.

The only way to cope with this is to find ways to deal with an excess, to use simple, fast, cheap ways to throw out 99% of applicants. And so regrettably but understandably, every recruiter used rudimentary, objective, simplistic, deeply boring and unimaginative ways to make the inbound numbers manageable.

At the best using dull criteria like "degrees" as a way to get rid of as many possible people in a way that felt fair, sensible, defendable.... then people used basic software like filtering for keywords and now the latest trend is to use stupid forms of AI to outsource the guilt of rejection, the burden of decision to a machine.

Given the sheer tonnage of replies, not even the best resourced companies could get back to unsuccessful candidates, let alone give feedback. So candidates live a life of non closure, no help, no feedback, no clue. They are left unwanted, confused, depressed and lost.

In a world where computers do the work, Recruiters were tempted to keep job ads vague. If you have a machine processing data, if it's finding gold nuggets every million resumes, why not put more pay dirt in the machine. Writing job ads is hard, being different makes people feel vulnerable. Being direct looks rude on the internet. So job ads remain open, mysterious, undemanding, and old postings for jobs are routinely kept up because it looks good to be growing and you never know what the net may catch.

This made sense for recruiters but left a whole world demoralized applicants.

Feeling lost, chasing the hope and pheromone rush of acceptance and progress, simultaneously people ended up applying for even more roles. Far less suitable roles. Applying we ever less effort. It's understandable.

And this an entire industry and vital profession was ruined by a vicious circle. Ever more applicants, ever more tech used, less humanity, more software, less hope, less thought, less satisfaction,

What is an essential part of our livelihood fast became ineffective for everyone. 

In a world of algorithmic judgement, abundance, risk avoidance, recruiters focused more on "safe pairs of hands" , on people who fit through the middle of the filters and never touched the sides. It meant networking and knowing people became more useful and the mess of abundance could be circumvented. Recruitment tipped slowly and subtly towards "people we know", people who hang out at the same places, people who've worked in the same companies, people who send their kids to the same school. The chance of diversity, of different thinking, of risky hires, was nibbled away at.

Now we enter a world where conformity is celebrated, degree deflation is ever accelerating, where the young are crippled by insane student debt, where those with odd brains, less privilege, with less pushy parents, or who don't fancy expensive degrees, no longer come in to add wonder and newness and freshness and interest to our worlds.

Remarkable people suffer, non conformists give up, blandness and using hacks like keywords in resumes, nepotism, leveraging school cohorts and alliances win.

The way out

There is actually quite a simple path to improve this.

AT THE SAME TIME these two things need to happen.

1a) Recruiters write more honest, more interesting, more thoughtful job ads. Define roles in specific ways and by what you don't want as well as do want.

2a) Recruiters promise to let unsuccessful applicants know. They should have an open transparent dashboard for all jobs accessible by all to see where in the process you are. Imagine the admin reduced.

3a) Recruiters should make applying for jobs MUCH harder. In time not money. I don't mean pointless bureaucracy, I mean questions that require deep thought. Questions that get to the very heart of a persons motivations, desires, wants. Recruiters should accept that the idea people want to be in a company in 10 years time is absurd. Focus on what you both hope to get from each other over 3 years. What does a successful end look like for both?

4d) Recruiters to keep job posts honest and up to date. No more fishing for free.

& AT THE SAME TIME.

1b)Applicants should proactively develop freely accessible resources to show who they are to send on to potential employers. Not resumes, Resumes are nonsense. Show what you think, what you've made, who you are. What is important to you, what you hope to accomplish.

2b)Applicants apply for FAR FAR FAR fewer jobs, far more properly. Simple. Be honest. Perhaps someone can create a system where you can only apply for one role per week.

3b)Applicants tothink much much more about what roles they are actually suited for *(possible thanks to much better job ads). 

Job searches should be 50% introspection, 40% creating materials on an ongoing basis to show who you are, 8% talking to people and finding out what's out there and what's right  and 2% applying surgically to the right roles. 

The system needs to change, it's not hard, it can change fast, just needs both sides.