For the past few years, I've mostly been on the employer side of this, recruiting engineers in my teams with a brief period where I had to find a job. It plain sucks.

As the hiring manager, I wish I didn't have to deal with recruiters and their 20% fee. But sourcing candidates and reaching out to them is painful too. OTOH there is too much noise in applications that come through your job board/career page links. Using any of these platforms is a full-time job in itself. Sifting through dozens of profiles and reaching out individually is extremely time consuming.

As someone who had to look for a job, that sucked too. You either go to a recruiter who forces you into a bunch of interviews, or you apply cold.

Referrals definitely make it easier on both sides but you can't always rely on just that one channel.

What can materially improve the discovery process, on both the hired and hiring sides? I think about this often. How can talent find roles suited to it and vice versa? Wasn't technology going to make this a breeze?