eJobHarmony?

Before I turned in my resignation I had been considering seeking new employment for a while. One of the biggest barriers that kept me from diving in sooner was that it is such a pain to find a new job. Aside from having to switch over insurance companies, retirement accounts, etc. there’s the whole searching business which can just be annoying.

And then I realized that the process of finding a job is very similar to the dating game. You have “friends” that can hook you up with a “nice” gig (“they have a great personality!”), personals, and meat markets. Heck, you even have pimps (some may call them contractors).

In the dating world, some companies have realized just how hit and miss most of those are and started evaluating personality. I personally have never used a place like eharmony, but I am familiar with the psychology behind their processes.¹ And, apparently they have had a pretty decent success rate.

It makes me wonder if the same thing could work in the job market. What if one of the larger job sites like dice.com listed not only the job requirements, but also had a candidate fill out a basic personality profile? Yes, people could just lie on the profile, but they can already do that their resumes too. It would make me feel a little more comfortable going in to a new situation knowing that I was going to fit in with my co-workers.

1. Hey I did actually learn a couple of things in college.«

Written by Scott Williams who lives and works in sunny Phoenix, AZ. Twitter is also a place.