Job Applications
Fred Wilson wrote this morning about One Click Apply where some online job application sites now have “one click” apply buttons. Fred thinks this is a good thing, it means more people apply for jobs because it’s really even easier to do if all you have to push is one button.
I agree that it’s easier. I don’t think it’s better.
More job applications means that the hiring company has more to wade though. Which means more automated screenings. Which means more work to find the diamond in the rough. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Why aren’t companies making it harder to apply? Or, why are companies even allowing people to apply?
The really desirable (in Internet terms) companies to work for, like GitHub and 37signals, could make applying for a job really hard and they’d probably still get inundated with applications for any open positions. They could make a requirement of applying be that you have to send them, via snail mail, a copy of your resume on a very particular type of paper, and they’d still get inundated with applications complying exactly with their request. But, they’d only get inundated with applications from people who really want to work there.
37signals already mostly do this type of process. It seems that most people who get hired by them make amazing web sites specifically to act as their resume for 37signals. That’s really cool. But it says a lot about the company, having so many people wanting so badly to work for them. They’re doing something right.
So instead of making it easier to apply to companies that are “doing it wrong,” why not put effort behind making the company a desirable place to work? Then you don’t have to have a job application process that gets “22% more applicants” in order to feel success. Then you can get less applications from way more interested people, and you’ll probably hire a better person, too.
More is not better. Better is better. Trying to get more won’t improve things in the hiring process.
Better is hard. More is easy. You get out what you put in.