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Comment by anilgulecha | Hacker News Reader

You mean ATSes? There's plenty of existing options, many with free plans.

I don't think he means an applicant tracking system (ATS) as are used by recruiters and HR. They all suck though (even the paid ones are backwards in a data-science sense and lack intelligence that would now be possible with ML/data-science). And none of those are available as opensource at least not useable ones, so there is lots of room here for something that is transparent and can help harvest intelligence from the web.

I think what OP had in mind was a system that lets the job seeker track what was communicated and sent to a certain company. This is an awesome idea for many reasons: You could track which companies are notorious for failing to provide feedback to job seekers (even negative ones) or even shed light on which ones take ages to respond. It would be awesome to have a transparent infrastructure in place that is cloud based, open source, free, tracks these feedbacks in an "open/transparent" manner. I dislike the idea of tying into gmail (or facebook or google or other third party walled garden systems) though. I'd be happy to help on the technical side with requirements, use-cases and maybe even some funding.

Disclosure: one of my current companies works in recruitment but I have a SW development & infosec background. My profile has my contact details if interested.

I have sent you a LinkedIn message - let's chat.

The big problem with sourcing data from consumers that only have a temporary need for the service is that the average user isn't going to diligently update the system with all the feedback calls and emails they receive after they've accepted a job...

I suppose you could automate the data update process to the extent that commercial ATS vendors are willing to link up with your system via API. There are even job boards that send notifications when someone views your application, though as a candidate I'm not actually sure whether that makes me more or less concerned about not getting an email back from them...

I meant something that an actual applicant can use for their own personal use when job hunting. No bloatware, no job ads. Simple and plain organizer for hunting jobs. It is not something you'd use everyday, but once you're in the loop, a 1-3 month period is something normal for the job hunt. If you decide to comeback you'd have history of the jobs applied. Direct emails to recruiters, etc. So there is value.

Lets say you applied at Google/FB/Apple/30 Start Ups.

You have issues remembering all of the statuses of the applications, as trying to remember 30+ jobs is hard. Follow ups, Emails, Stages, Interesting Links you found on their recruiting process, To Dos, Resume Version sent (if you applied to couple of positions and highlighted different skills). Point of Contact, Last contact. List of contacts.

Report page showing companies with most interactions.

Offer page showing offers you have received and comparing them.

Potentially yes. I currently have about 20 applications and am not making any more for the moment, and while I'm managing to keep track of them in a spreadsheet, I have sacrificed some detail e.g. When multiple interview "rounds" happen on the same day, I treat them as one round. Sometimes I forget to mark whether a round was technical/non-technical. But that's just for my own records. Having something to compare offers - now that would be interesting

can you imagine what kind of pressure you would generate (possibly even turn a whole industry around) by shedding light onto which companies are constantly abusing the hiring process. Glassdoor started out with something like this but increasingly generates revenues from job-ads from the listed companies (and so has a conflict of interest pretty soon).

having a system like this gives you a massive amount of data which has immense value for visitors/users (and you as a company). Big players who are notoriously slow / lazy / arrogant in their feedback would get a real kick in their behind. The same with shady recruiters who are spoiling it for the few good ones.

I don't know how much people will apply for 30+ jobs, probably graduates? A tool targeting students could be useful. Most experienced job seekers only apply for a handful of positions.

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