Like buying a car or a home, the job-change transaction occurs less frequently than the purchase of a Compact Disc or Book. Like home buying, there are a nearly infinite variety of possible transactions based on region, desirability, affordability and so on. Unlike buying a retail product, there is no standard catalog. For the most part, contemporary electronic recruiting simply repeats the practices of the pre-web era. Candidates, in spite of their scarcity, are treated as cannon fodder.
Recruiters look to volumes of resumes to make up for shortages in quality.
The costs borne by a recruiter who uses the web include both the subscription fees paid to the job boards and the internal costs associated with ad preparation and results review. As quantities of responses go up and their quality declines, the web becomes an increasingly expensive alternative. The growth objectives of the Job Board conflict directly with the quality objectives of the Recruiter. Over the long haul, the services that dominate electronic recruiting will be those that facilitate relationships between potential employers and potential candidates. Rather, the relationships will be focused on the success of the potential candidate as defined by the potential candidate.