After 25 years of desktop computing (we got ours in 1981), it is nothing short of astonishing that the mental model behind computing is paper. Workflow, that euphemism for "routing" (or review and approval process) claims to follow the flow of information. Instead, it's all about the flow of paper.

We asked a number of college kids how they'd approach a job hunt. In general, they told us that they'd try to network to get the Hiring person's IM address. Then they'd IM him or her.

Every single manager under 30 we talked to went, "Hmm, of course." Every single manager over 30 said "Hmm, How Rude." And there you have it. After a generation of pretending to automate, something is really changing.

The other day we visited a relatively new entrant to the recruiting software space. We tried to get them talking about Jobby. "Hmmm, this is very bad." They said. How do you control it? People could spam the system.

Old people. Old processes. Automating old ideas. Dinosaurs. Last decade's news. 20th Century ideas posing as 21st Century innovations. The next steps forward in Recruiting will not involve more of the same or another round of improvements on more of the same.

Listen very closely.

The next time a vendor who you about the Resume glut caused by Monster show them the door and offer to see them after they've looked at the market. That story about a resume glut was true at the bottom of the economic cycle. We're now at the top. No one is complaining about a resume glut anymore.

Monster is doing fine because no one has offered an interesting alternative. When there is one, it will not be an incremental improvement to an existing process.

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