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WhoToTalkTo is not a job board

WhoToTalkTo is a job-finding site that walks a line between a typical job board, such as Monster.com, and a personal referral engine, such as LinkedIn.

Rafe Needleman Former Editor at Large
Rafe Needleman reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business.
Rafe Needleman
2 min read

WhoToTalkTo is a job finding site that walks a line between a typical job board, such as Monster.com, and a personal referral engine, such as LinkedIn. On this service, you don't post jobs, you post your connections to people who have jobs or who are inside companies and know the lay of the land there. For example, say you wanted to work in CNET's editorial department. I can tell you who to butter up--and that's all I would say on WhoToTalkTo. When somebody contacts me for that information and I deliver it, I get a "point." I can then spend that point on my own job search; it's good for access to a referral that another user has posted.

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It's a really clever ad-hoc social network. It connects people just long enough for them to exchange useful information, but without the aftertaste of adding "friends" and "contacts" to a network you may not want to maintain. And everybody, most likely, has a job tip--such as the name of the power broker at their last job or the phone number of a relative who manages a store or a business.

Can the service be abused? Absolutely. Your father-in-law might not like it if you give out his cell phone number to random job seekers. And despite the site's directive about what you should and should not post, this site could become just a job board. For example, I'm looking to hire a research intern here at Webware, why shouldn't I just say that on WhoToTalkTo? Why be cagey about it?

But if you're looking for a job, WhoToTalkTo is sure worth a shot, since it has the potential to vault you over standardized HR department screening procedures.