Hiring and getting hired stopped focusing on the person ages ago. It instead became this madhouse of chasing people as paper in the form of resumes. It also became getting known as a piece of paper, 1 or 2 sheets at most, please.

You don’t have much neither from employer nor candidate that says, “I view you as an opportunity. I would like to get to know your strengths, skills and personality so you can show us how you will contribute to our team and bottom line.” Instead, you’re instructed to send resumes and are greeted by “No Phone Calls Please!”

The Internet and Cloud Computing have made this problem exponentially worse. Before, you had to really think which employers were worth spending postage on. Nowadays, it costs nothing to copy-and-paste and press the Send buttons. Infinite databases promised by Cloud Computing exacerbate this beyond belief.

You don’t have neither systems nor people saying, “I want to see the good each applicant brings.” It’s all become more about eliminating and screening out. Sadly, some really good people get filtered out, especially by buggy, impersonal software.

I think you’re right in saying that social networks are the “closest thing” to a pipeline of people but my feeling is that they’re not focused enough on the employer/candidate relationship and so aren’t quite the right vehicle yet.

These are some great insights. You say most of all that people want this done for free. Do you think that is possible? And if you do, how? You also mentioned a “pipeline of people.” I’m guessing that the closest thing to that right now are social networks. Could that be harnessed? Thanks again for the thought provoking article.