[esafak]

> The pessimist in me says that that just kills inbound entirely and we go back to an almost purely connections/network-driven hiring process because trust in anyone you don't know goes to zero.

What is the alternative; interviewing anybody who happens to apply? That is not feasible. Companies need a way to sort out the wheat from the chaff; they'll take any signal they can get.

[raincole]

> What is the alternative; interviewing anybody who happens to apply? That is not feasible. Companies need a way to sort out the wheat from the chaff; they'll take any signal they can get.

Connection. Every field will be as connection-based as politics.

[beretguy]

And what if you are introvert or have social anxiety and not good at connecting to people? A lot of such people are very smart and exactly the type of people you would want to hire for some positions. Or what if you have a disability that makes it hard for you to travel and socialize? How about working remotely?

[raincole]

You will have a much harder time finding a job than people who don't share these traits.

[rachofsunshine]

I agree that they need a way to get signal. But resumes have never been a great way to get it - they just happen to be so cheap and every other signal so expensive at top-of-funnel that they've become the norm.

It's a vicious cycle. There's too much volume so we can't interview everyone, we can't interview everyone so candidates are incentivized to be spammy, so there's even more volume and we even more can't interview everyone. It's essentially the same reason that the old boomer "oh just walk in the door and hand them a resume" approach doesn't work anymore - it's too easy and therefore too spammy.

I used to be part of the leadership of one company working on this problem, and just founded another very recently, so it's something I've thought a lot about. I really think the thrust of the problem is:

* Signal is expensive to get, because

* The volume per candidate is too high

...and that the solution is to centralize early screening so you can get good signal. Which is what we're doing. Remains to be seen if it works, obviously.