[lhuang]

Your last paragraph is on point.

I disagree though with your idea about a database of applicants thats searchable by skill.

I think your system would fail without a means to authenticate and validate people's credentials, plus without a validation layer it'll only encourage people to exaggerate or lie about their skills.

The other problem from the perspective of an applicant is submitting resumes and cover letters to online postings often feels like all work for no gain. Most of these postings feel like black holes. You submit something and (typically) never hear back.

Maybe an improvement to your idea is some carrot/stick mechanism, that at the very least, incentives both parties to stick to good behavior (timely submissions of RELEVANT resume / cover letters and timely responses from the companies that listed the original posting). This would solve for some of the frustration these sites illicit.

[ismarc]

Yeah, validation layer was one of the many, many issues with the system. Maybe a dating site type system...have an index of jobs and applicants. Free to send messages back and forth, completely anonymouse. Messages are "request for application", "application", "denial of application", "denial of request for application", "application accepted" (not you're hired, but the application was received and we're reviewing it), "request for screening" and "accept/decline screening". You can't send a message if you have one pending a response. Make it 100% free, charging money to increase the number of pending responses you can have and still send a message.

Don't mind the rambling...this is literally typing as I think.