Ideas

COOL IDEA!

I still have the same questions:
Will any employer do this (after all no two people are exchangeable).
What will you do if there is a difference in salary, etc.
Tommy

I think that there was a similar idea presented recently ?

Perhaps you should the comments !

Relu, it looks like your site is completed. How long has it been up? How are you finding traffic and the experience?

We've had similar ideas posted before...

Job Swap:
http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/YmaZRAq/
Shingle Swap:
http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/1dYGybl/

...so pointing out your site is probably most valuable to people who think such a site hasn't been created yet (posting it as a response to any incoming Job Swap ideas).

Did you find CH because of a Google Alerts regarding "job swap" text?

I'm probably going to have to set this idea to private because it appears to be already implemented, but we can certainly make sure anyone submitting a job swap idea in the future is made aware of your site (and comment on their idea with a link to your site).

This site is developed why did you post?

I also wonder how the traffic is on the site AND if there have been any successful swaps that have taken place.

I must be missing something with these jobswap ideas. The service can't guarantee a job swap as it's totally up to your current employer as to whom steps into your shoes after you leave. The person on the other end can't guarantee that you can have their job either. So where is the value here?

Without a guarantee, how is this site doing anything different than simply allowing you to submit a resume to an employer along with any other candidates?

The statement in the FAQ that says, "You can contact the hiring manager directly with a recommendation from your contact skipping company bureaucracy" is misleading. A recommendation from someone you have just met online via a swap site is worthless. I can't see how you'd be treated any differently from someone who submitted their resume via the usual process. Sure you miss a few people in the food-chain but ultimately you're going to be submitted to the same scrutiny as you're an unknown quantity.

There are so many aspects to hiring a person other than their current position description that I can't see how this service would ever work.

A few considerations you'd have to address first would be;

1. The cultural fit of the person to the organisation
2. The soft skills of the person and their relevance to the role
3. Salary gaps (who is going to negotiate this up for you?)

If someone is a senior software engineer at one company, it doesn't mean I'm going to automatically hire them if I'm also looking for a SSE.

The FAQ statement, "You will basically be pre-interviewed by the person you will replace", seems weird to me. As a hiring manager, how much weight would you put on an interview carried out by the person who is leaving you?

I'm also not sure whether a person would normally resign until they've secured a job in their new location. Sure this does happen but it's not the usual process. So if that is the case, I assume the person on the other end also wants to secure a job before he bails. This seems like a stalemate but as I said above, I could be missing something so please feel free to elaborate.

Somehow this idea just seems wrong but maybe I just need another coffee.

No, siddey, trust me, another coffee will NOT help :))

how will you ever develop this?
I suspect if you target a population of specific type- software developers let's say and show the advantages of why
but i can't see people just sign up
and i do'nt get the name?

Having access to jobs which are not listed anywhere else because people doing them haven't quit yet is the selling point of this site! No one thinks this is cool???
It will work for a lot of industries which are very specialized: programers, accounting, nursing, web design, freelancers et

- You are not going to recommended to your boss a person you just met on the net. You get in contact with a professional who is doing the same job you do, you build a relationship which can lead to a swap.
- You can find out a lot about the inside of you future job and also about the company and the department.
- Salaries are not the same in all the cities but a lot of people who want to move don't move just because of the money , they move because they want to change something in their life
- I don't have succesfull swaps yet I have to get to a few thousands subscribers in order to fullfill all the metro area - industry posibble swaps
- I am a big beliver in networking , when you do networking for a real purpose is even better!
- regarding the "guarantee" what kind of guarantee do you have when you apply for a job on monster? here your swap is interested to give a good recommandation to his boss because you will do the same so the swap can happen
- my philosophy is that "you should change your job around your life not your life around your job"
- my next step after I grow is to launch a swap in three steps where 3 people can swap the jobs between them and then to take it international

have you guys created a profile to see how the site works? please do it! it takes 45 seconds and it's free.

Relu - thank you for the follow-up information.

I am not a US resident, so your registration process won't work for me unless I put in some whacky fake information (I'm not familiar with US zip codes).

To me the issue remains that your primary sales pitch relies upon the hiring manager giving some sort of preference to a candidate referred by the person leaving them. This is the point I simply can't agree with.

No matter how well you knew the person leaving and how well you respect their ability to identify a suitable replacement, they should still be submitted to the same scrutiny as any other candidate.

If there are indeed many slack, foolish hiring managers out there that are willing to cut corners to save time etc. at risk of hiring the wrong person, then your business will do well.

You should definitely keep pushing your idea given it's already out there but I'd be interested to hear if you have done a survey of any potential hiring managers to get their thoughts on the service. Seeing some facts & figures will strengthen your argument if they back the concept.

I think your pitch relies too much upon the hard-skills as the point of comparison between two people. Maybe you could add in some online skills, IQ, psych tests (even though I'm not a fan of psych tests) that would help to strengthen the information about the candidate that would be passed to the manager. It MAY help to increase their confidence level and could help differentiate this person from anyone else.

Hi Siddey!
you ca use 10010 for a zip code in order to register.
You have to remember , tophatrabbit is not going to work for all the managers, all the employees and all the industries. I don't want to replace the traditional way of looking for a job , this is just an extra service. You know you boss, right? You know if he is the type of person who agrees with such a thing. And on top of that, how many of your friends got a job through a connection? I know a lot of my friends did! A survey wouldn't help because none of the hiring managers would recognize that they would hire somebody because it has a connection. But real life is different.
Take a look at this article on yahoo jobs.
A hiring manager was hired to look for 40% knowledge for the candidates, the rest they will learn on the job.
http://hotjobs.yahoo...deserve_that_job-270
A lot of companies paying you big bucks to bring someone who is a good professional in the team.
A lots of people are getting married with someone they meet online and they spend a life together?
Do you think it is so hard to find someone who is good in a profession who wants to come in you place and vice versa?
When you make the connection doesn't have to be any time pressure. You come in contact, you chat, you talk on the phone and when and if you think it is the right moment you can start the swap process if your manager agrees.
I think this site will be a great networking tool.

Hi Gordon,
Do I have to move this idea from Ideas to business since the website already exists?
thx

Relu,

I'll leave this public (had considered setting it to private) as you aren't spamming (considering feedback and looking for suggestions for improvement).

You can activate it as a Business, it will still exist as an idea. If you're looking to attract people to revise your website (create jobs to post in Bazaar) that would be the point of creating a biz, which you are welcome to do.

Have you facilitated any job swaps yet? Your idea sounds sort of idealistic... sort of assumes both bosses, you and the swap-partner are all going to get along.

I guess I could imagine a swap conceivably (but unlikely) working if I already new the swap-partner personally, but to facilitate it though a website with a stranger I've met via your website seems to add another layer of unlikeliness to it.

Sorry, know this is not very constructive criticism!

I can see this working for jobs that have fairly standard descriptions like a position at a franchise coffee shop or certain departments within a corporation.

Getting this to work for other positions would be more difficult because there can be such a variety in the tasks performed. Also, there's always a cost to integrating new people into a workplace (e.g. interview time, setting up workspace, training, etc.), how will that be covered?

About the site:
It would be nice to see some of the jobs being considered for swapping on the front page. Also, the current design isn't very inviting. Maybe you can create a contest here on CH for designers to submit new layouts.