Ideas to fix recruitment, starting with a summary of all that's wrong.

###Problem 1 - Recruiters Broadly speaking, recruiters are a noisy waste of time and money - they add very little value to the supply chain. ###Problem 2 - Programmers Programmers are over-reliant on recruiters, because it is inefficient to find and contact employers directly ###Problem 3 - Employers Employers are over-reliant on recruiters, because they lack time and reach (audience). Possibly for the same reason, employers often don't spend enough time writing a good job specification. Both too little information and long wishlists are common. The lack of useful detail likely results in too many applications, which leads us to... ###Problem 4 - Too much crap Employers who do advertise directly face a barrage of crap from unqualified applicants and aggressive agencies alike. Programmers face a similar barrage of crap when they declare their availability.

With all the noise it becomes impractical for candidates to apply directly; their application is easily lost in the noise.

###Problem 5 - Sales-driven The recruitment industry is so lucrative it attracts people with primarily sales skills (rather than people with technical recruitment skills). The industry is driven by sales targets, cold calls, grabbing all the CVs, and success tends to go to agents who favour quantity over quality.

###Problem 6 - Discriminatory recruiters Sexism, racism and transphobia can be just as prevalent amongst recruiters as it is in the rest of the tech industry. Women applicants, POC and members of the LGBTQ community are frequently treated differently, including:

• not being put forward for roles
• being only put forward for more junior roles
• harassment and offensive comments from recruiters

This clearly has a huge impact on the careers of a lot of marginalised groups.

This is a work in progress. ###Idea 1 Publish a shit-list of agencies we avoid at all costs.

General consensus is that this is a bad idea, although tempting. We all have shit-lists, but publishing them would attract the wrong kind of attention. We also want to retain a positive rather than negative attitude toward fixing what's wrong. ###Idea 2 Publish a simple list of agencies we (as employers and people involved in recruitment) prefer to work with.

This raises a lot of questions about how it would become an effective tool rather than "just another wasteland".

I for one (Ed) would be prepared to contribute cash to this kind of list, to help spread awareness. ###Idea 3 Create a site like Rated People or Check A Trade.