Have I gotten your attention with my provocative title??? But hear me out. I’ve been poking around at job postings on LinkedIn, and I know a number of people looking for jobs right now. And what does everyone complain about? “How on earth am I ever going to get a job when hundreds of people apply in the first 2 days of a posting?” And I have an answer- you should have to pay to apply for a job.
Apparently charging people to apply for job postings is not actually legal (in California, at least.) But this is another case when the government has gotten it all wrong. But let’s use economics, not our feelings, to approach the problem.
It’s too easy (free) to apply for jobs today
Sure, you may have to set up a profile on Workday or some other applicant tracking system, but it’s super easy and essentially “free” in terms of cost, time and hassle to apply for a job. Don’t get me started on Easy Apply- I can only imagine the piles of resumes that recruiters get with that harebrained scheme. The result of making it free to apply to a job? Way too many people apply. Candidates who are not qualified. People who don’t really want the job but just want to see what happens. People who are applying for every job that crosses their LinkedIn feed. It is very hard for a qualified, interested job seeker to stand out in this crowded field.
What happens when the price for something desirable is set at zero?
Well, anyone who has taken Econ 101 can answer that question- demand is going to go through the roof, while supply stays constant. There are lots of examples of these types of “broken” markets:
- Parking
- Highway use during peak hours
- Water
- Any number of other resources that have been labelled a “right” but where supply is fixed (healthcare comes to mind)
And how do you solve any of these situations? You should introduce a cost that reflects the true demand for a product and brings demand in line with supply.
And the same is true of the job market. We need to introduce more friction, more costs into the job market. If only to stop the madness.
Current job search strategies are a zero sum game
Start looking for a job and you’ll quickly be told a couple of things:
- You’ve got to optimize your resume and your LinkedIn profile to have any chance of being found in the 100s of resumes submitted for job postings. Better yet, customize it all for each particular job posting. (Companies have sprung up to provide this very service- check out ResumeWorded, Job Scan, Teal)
- You’re gonna need to network, network, network. The only way to find a job is to leverage a human contact to somehow get your resume on the top of the endless pile
Both of these strategies are ways to theoretically circumvent the completely broken job market. Rather than try to fix the market, we are told there are ways for a smart, connected person to find a loophole and get the job. But there are a couple of issues with these approaches.
If everyone optimizes for key words, guess what- the recruiter will still end up with the same big pile of resumes. We’re back to a standoff between me and the 200 other candidates.
And networking- well, I have issues with the whole concept. First of all, some introverts (me!) are just not good at it. Sure, I’ve got hundreds of LinkedIn connections but I wouldn’t call my network at all robust. And frankly, it’s discriminatory that people have to rely on knowing someone at Meta in order to get a job at Meta. What if you didn’t go to college, didn’t go to a certain college, don’t know anyone from high school who works at Meta? I guess you are just out of luck, sucker.
So we need a different approach to matching candidates with jobs.
You should have to pay to apply for a job
Introducing a price is the only way to solve this enormous problem. The price doesn’t have to be huge- but I am pretty convinced that even $5 cost would cut down on the unqualified and the disengaged from applying at all. In some situations, maybe the cost is $5; in others, it might be $150. If you are super qualified, and you are super passionate about, you might pay $1000. It all depends on the job and the demand for it.
I know what you are thinking: “But this isn’t fair! How can disadvantaged people afford to pay?” Well guess what, although the obvious cost to apply for a job now is “free”, it’s not really free. Because right now, you are taking time and energy to apply for a job that you have almost a 0% chance of getting. There’s a pretty significant “cost” to that- you just aren’t seeing it. By bringing it out into the open, I think recruiters and candidates will all have a better experience.
I’m still thinking through the details but I think I’m on to something here. What do you think?
