 Fixing the recruiter industry
vaksel: I think a service product is a much better option. What is recruiting after all? It's a) contacts and b) a filter.Programmers deal with recruiters because they have the "exclusives" and companies deal with recruiters because they can filter out the first interview stage.So create a service, that will let companies find out the quality of the programmer, without shelling out $20,000.I imagine it as a "testing company" you create a few thousand tests, programmers take them, get their rank, then they add it to their resumes.Employers see the ranking link, go to your site, find out about your testing methods, see aha, 90% percentile on this tough test, good guy to interview.Eventually offer programmers the ability to list their rates + languages, and let employers contact them for a small fee. i.e. Search for all programmers under $50/hr in California with Java rank of 90th percentile.Make one of the questionnaires the usual questions asked in the first interview, you know the script all recruiters follow to weed out people.