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TalentSnap ICO Review: How Blockchain Tech Safely Automates the Hiring Process

by CryptoBlastoffAugust 27th, 2018

Too Long; Didn't Read

Lauren has maybe half of the skills listed within an attractive job posting. But she’s not going to let that stop her from talking her way into a 6-figure annual salary.

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Lauren has maybe half of the skills listed within an attractive job posting. But she’s not going to let that stop her from talking her way into a 6-figure annual salary.

Believe it or not, that little story is absolutely true. Lauren’s gift of gab bought her a position she was very underqualified for.

It’s time to end these costly, totally unnecessary shenanigans.

TalentSnap is blending AI with blockchain tech to bring some much-needed honesty and transparency to any company’s hiring process.

So, what is TalentSnap and what problems does the project want to solve? I’ll tell you in a bit.

But first, go ahead and read the next section. It won’t be as painful as filling out paperwork during onboarding for a new job but it’s still kinda important…

Disclaimer: This is not investment or financial advice. I’m not a financial expert by any stretch of the imagination. Most information within this article is speculative and merely my own personal opinion. Always conduct your own research before contributing to any startup projects.

Always remember that what you do with your money is your decision to make. And if that decision proves too difficult for you alone, seek guidance from a financial professional.

I may or may not receive a small allocation of tokens for creating this content. That said, I will do my best to remain unbiased and fair. I try to avoid all FOMO and FUD and never wish to impart those emotions on my fellow crypto-heads.

Questionable Practices

If Lauren had been upfront about her actual skills, she never would’ve made it to the 2nd round of interviews. Maybe she figured she’d just learn the role as she went along.

And maybe, in Laurens eyes, at least, that’s just fine. But I guarantee her employer views the situation differently. If you’re hiring for a $100K+ job, you’re looking for top talent, not a glorified intern.

Let’s face it, if you really want a new gig, you may be willing to bend the truth a bit. But if you spin those tales a little too long you can get yourself in trouble.

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that Lauren isn’t really a certified Level 18 Excel Sorceress? I have her resume right here. She lists her Excel skills as ‘otherworldly’ and ‘astonishing.’ But you’re telling me otherwise? Let’s go have a little chat with her…”

Uh oh, Lauren, your days at the company may be numbered…

Everyone’s entitled to a little break after doing some work. After all that reading, let’s take one now.

Here’s a superquick video that’ll get you up to speed with the TalentSnap project’s aspirations:

Sorry, Lauren, you’ll have to apply offchain

It’s way too easy for deception to creep into the hiring process. Similar to dating, people being interviewed tend to project an image of themselves that’s not exactly reality.

And once an employee has inked a deal, it may be very difficult and costly to get rid of them. This is especially true in certain European countries where the laws are heavier on the employee’s side of the scale.

People can get all up in your business — like a wedgie — and become very difficult to dislodge. As a hiring manager, you want to make sure you’re taking a risk on the right candidate.

Sadly, stories like Lauren’s certainly aren’t isolated. I have another one for you. And, once again, it’s true.

To protect the identity of the guys who have absolutely no idea they’re getting thrown under a digital bus, I’ll change their names just a little…

Mad Fraudz

Once upon a time, I worked for a consumer electronics company that eventually went bankrupt due to mismanagement.

The organization’s name? Well, their IP was recently purchased on the cheap and they’re now back in business under new ownership. My lips are sealed.

But I will drop some hints for you. Their name rhymes with sad hats. They earned themselves a derogatory entry on urbandictionary.com. Nearly everything they created was named after a nonsensical acronym.

And, they were the inspiration for from CollegeHumor.

You see, the root of the major hiring snafu I’m about to explain was the boss, himself a total fraud.

The King of Narcissism himself — Ronny — claimed to be an ‘advertising man’ with experience at Coca-Cola. But 99% of his subordinates believed his experience there was actually in the mailroom rather than the boardroom.

Not sure who’s bright idea it was to give this severely tech-challenged head of the Creative department a say in the hiring process for IT as well as web development, but there you go. Fraud begets fraud.

We already had a Jr. developer — Al — working for us but since we were expanding our multi-brand web presence, we began looking for a Sr. dev.

Along came Bessie Bueno. The buzzwords must have been flying during the interview because Bessie was practically worthless. I sat within view of Bessie’s monitor and a typical day was 5% work and 95% YouTube videos.

And when Bessie got stuck on a project — unable to conquer a task that should be a snap for a Sr. developer — who do you think Bessie would turn to? That’s right, Al, the Jr. developer.

I really thought Al was going to quit the day he discovered Bessie’s actual job title. I could see the rage of injustice and disbelief in his eyes.

Someone who’s making a solid 25% more than you shouldn’t need to visit your desk asking questions about things they should’ve known before ever getting hired!

Now, this ridiculous and totally inappropriate work scenario could’ve been prevented if Bessie had to prove possession of job-specific skills. Had Ronny been able to easily check, he may have gone with a different candidate.

Verifiable skills are at the heart of the TalentSnap project. And the team is combining AI with blockchain to make the verification process quick and easy.

TalentSnap’s MVP is currently up and running

Ensuring a Good Fit

Hiring metrics go far beyond relevant skills and experience. Every workspace has a distinct culture and if you won’t be comfortable somewhere you’d best keep the job hunt going.

Your personality type should ideally match your role as well as the environment you work within. If you don’t play nicely with others, you’ll have a hard time fitting into any organization.

Which makes personal interviews so crucial. They’re not always in-person but you must spend time talking to someone — on Skype or a similar service, at a minimum — getting a feel for their personality before giving them a keycard to the building.

But before you ask a candidate to visit your office — after chatting with them on the phone to hopefully verify they’re not a complete freakshow— there’s a heap of data for you to wade through.

And that’s where TalentSnap comes in. Before you reach out to a job seeker, you’ll have a wealth of role-relevant info at your fingertips.

The team has created an app — now live with a full dashboard and Chrome extension — to trim the fat and smarten your hiring efforts.

View a candidate’s details & LinkedIn profile, email them, add them to your favorites, or leave yourself a note

FitScore

Now we’re getting to the interesting part.

Plenty of hiring sites have various filters like education, skills, and years of experience. But few if any of them take personality type into consideration. And none of those sites can claim AI or machine learning as a skill on its resume.

The TalentSnap service analyzes dozens of hiring metrics to create a unique FitScore — ranging from 1 to 100 — used for linking employers to job hunters.

And as candidates and employers create data within the TalentSnap platform, the service will only get better with its matchmaking.

You see, AI needs information in order to evolve. And with 100s of millions of datapoints generated by the global job market every day, TalentSnap’s algorithms have no shortage of food for thought.

You can test the FitScore MVP right now if you’d like. Just make sure you come back and finish what you started here.

Hiring Automation

The TalentSnap project will evolve over time. The goal is to create a platform that becomes a global benchmark for the hiring process.

Elevating the FitScore measurement to industry-standard status will require the team to branch-out their Research & Development efforts.

Here are a few subjects the project plans to delve into…

Federated Learning

Don’t worry, you won’t find any evil Star Wars characters here.

Federated learning is a setting within the realm of machine learning. The aim is to train a centralized model using training data spread among a large, distributed userbase.

In TalentSnap’s case, they’ll use this method to smarten the platform’s AI. As users generate data on the network, it’s sent to a smart contract.

And every time a contract makes computations, it gets a little better at interpreting incoming data. Which reinforces my point above: Every FitScore generated by the platform will be a little smarter than the last.

Homomorphic Encryption

This technique is how the platform will process encrypted data without decrypting it first.

Homomorphic encryption will allow everyone on the network to safely share their personal data.

Users of the TalentSnap service won’t need to subject their data to the prying eyes of info-harvesting companies aiming to turn a profit from what’s not rightfully theirs.

It’s important to note that homomorphic encryption and federated learning aren’t scheduled for implementation until 2020.

Proof of Identity

Are you who you say you are? The blockchain knows.

In yet another effort to secure the privacy of users’ identities, TalentSnap plans to integrate existing blockchain tech into their upcoming platform.

Civic, for example, is a blockchain project that allows users to create a digital ID that they can use all throughout the cryptosphere.

BTW, if you’re active with ICOs and tired of KYC, give Civic a try. The service is convenient and easy to use.

Proof of Identity will assure employers that applicants are legitimate candidates with real profiles on the platform.

TSC Utility Token

TalentSnap’s native token — TSC — is an ERC20. The team has stated that should the Ethereum network fail to solve its current scalability issues, they may jump ship to another blockchain or build one of their own.

The TSC token’s main purpose is as a payment mechanism within the platform. TSC tokens are deducted from a user’s balance every time a FitScore is generated.

Good news for candidates — there’s no deduction unless the FitScore match is 90 and above.

In addition, candidates and employers can be compensated with TSC tokens should they choose to share their data with third-party companies connected to the TalentSnap platform.

Final thoughts…

Automating the hiring process is a long road. Take a look at the TalentSnap project’s roadmap and you’ll see a milestone that’s much farther away than what most projects display.

2035 — the team’s projected target for autonomous hiring — may seem like it’s light-years away. And way back in 2000, waiting for 2020 seemed like an eternity, too. Yet it’s right around the corner.

I think a long-term approach shows the team is grounded in reality. I prefer projects to take their time and do things right as opposed to rushing to hit self-imposed milestones.

Although the AI industry is growing rapidly, there’s still a lot of progress that needs to occur before we start seeing the technology integrated into our everyday lives.

Keep the project’s plan for slow and steady growth in mind if you plan to contribute.

The project’s tech is 100% reliant upon data. They’ll need terabyte after terabyte before AI becomes smart enough to improve entire industries.

As TalentSnap begins to accumulate massive amounts of data to feed the platform’s info-hungry algorithms, their service will improve.

And tokenizing the data we already share — for free — with social hiring platforms is making the most of what blockchain tech has to offer.

Simplification of the hiring process also brings cost- and time-savings for all parties. As you know, finding a job or a strong candidate can be a long and tedious game of waiting.

Companies can cut right through the smoke and mirrors and only deal with people who truly seem like a good fit. And candidates will become empowered to apply for positions that closely match their skill set.

Once the platform is fully operational and FitScores become highly reliable indicators of a match between employers and candidates, companies will realize an uptick in the quality of new hires.

When that day arrives — hopefully within the next couple of years — companies will be able to keep the likes of Lauren and Ronny and Bessie out of their organizations.

And then, everyone except the fraudsters will win the hiring game.