eHarmony's Foray into Recruitment is Over (Hate to Say I Told You So)

I've been wrong more times than I can count, but sometimes I get it right.

When news broke back in 2013 that eHarmony, the well-known algorithmic dating service, was launching a product to revolutionize recruiting, I scoffed. Hard.

In a 2013 blog post entitled "3 Reasons eHarmony’s Job Matching Will Suck," I said "Recruiting isn’t dating. Motivation to fill out a 29-point questionnaire works if you’re hoping to find true love. It doesn’t work so well with employment. In order for matching to truly work, but parties - in this case, job seeker and employer - must fill out a lengthy dataset.

"Successful matching doesn’t occur magically, no matter what computer scientists tell you. Only the most desperate job seekers will do it and employers don’t want to compete lengthy forms to access these candidates."

I outlined additional reasons such as 1) no history of success and 2) no core competency in recruitment as reasons eHarmony would fail.

Fast forward to yesterday, and word comes out that the company is essentially shuttering the service, know as Elevated Careers, in hopes of finding a buyer to take over the business.

In a letter sent to potential buyers, as reported by Matt Charney, the company said, "The eHarmony™ Board has decided that the highest and best use of Elevated Careers™ will be with an enterprise with substantial existing strength in B-to-B HR Services marketing, sales and relationship management – and for this reason has decided to divest control of Elevated Careers™ to an entity with the capabilities to better achieve the commercial potential of this HR Tech innovation."

Translation: We don't know what the hell we're doing and want to unload this on to some sucker who thinks they might.

It's important to note even though this venture was first discussed back in 2013, Elevated Careers has only been an official business since 2016, announcing its launch on April Fool's Day.

Yes, April Fool's Day. How apropos.

So what happened? I still think the things I outlined back in 2013 hold true, but the real reason Elevated Careers failed can be traced back to Fall 2012.

On Sept. 12 of that year, Tinder launched, and dating hasn't been the same since. Built for a mobile-first consumer, the app turned meeting people into a game, swiping right or left based on location and visual appeal. The service was and still is (mostly) free today.

The days of filling out long questionnaires and creating lengthy profiles in order to find a mate are numbered. As such, eHarmony's days are ultimately numbered.

Fighting a two-front war with multiple companies and dwindling resources couldn't last. Kudos to them for cutting their losses early, but I believe it was a final chapter written the very day it began.

Methinks anyone else hoping to get into job matching will face a similar fate. It's toxic waste, riddled with names like itzbig, Trovix, Climber, Jobfox ... and now Elevated Careers.