Why we built HumanFirstJobs

You've probably read the stories too. People who apply for hundreds of jobs, sometimes thousands, and never hear back. Many of them are qualified for those jobs, or would once have had a fair shot at them. Not long ago, a person would have read their application. Now software usually reads it first, and the answer is no before a person could ever step in.

At the same time, employers say they can't find anyone to hire.

I don't think those are two separate problems. I think they're the same one.

Screening software turns away good people

Automated resume screening looks for the right keywords, the right job titles and the right shape of career. Real people rarely come in that shape. Some of the best people I've hired over the years had backgrounds that would never have made it past a screening tool. They changed careers, taught themselves, took time away, or did the work under a different title.

A filter only finds what it was told to look for. It can't see potential, and it can't be persuaded. When it says no, the applicant never gets the chance to show what they can do, and the employer never learns who they missed.

Even hearing back has stopped feeling human

For the few who make it through, the next step is often another machine: an AI "interviewer", a recorded video scored by software, or a screening questionnaire that can't handle nuance and that nobody reviews. Hiring is supposed to be people deciding whether they want to work together. When one side of that conversation is software, it stops being a conversation.

So we built a job board with one rule

On HumanFirstJobs, a person, not AI, reads every application and runs every interview. Every employer makes that promise before they post. Applicants can report anyone who breaks it, and employers who do are suspended.

That rule shapes everything else here:

• Every job shows its salary range, the name of the person who reads applications, and the date you'll hear back by.
• Employers can use AI to help write a job description. They can never use it to judge you.
• The only AI on HumanFirstJobs works for the people using it. If you ask, it copies your resume into your profile for you to check, and it answers questions in the help center. It never ranks, scores or filters anyone.
• We publish how we enforce the rule, month by month, in our transparency report.

If you're hiring

The people you're looking for may already have applied somewhere and been turned away by a filter you never saw. Reading applications yourself takes more time. It also finds the people software can't. Read hiring without AI to see what to switch off, or post a job.

If you're looking for work

Every application you send here is read by a person. That's the whole idea.

From the founder of HumanFirstJobs