Real Humans: a planned job network, verified by ID

Real Humans is a job network that does not exist yet. Before anything is built, its site at realhumans.work asks one question. This post explains the idea behind it, so you can decide how you would answer.

The problem: you cannot tell who is real

On a job network today, anyone can open an account with any name, any photo and any job history. Most accounts belong to real people, but nothing on a profile proves it, and both sides of hiring pay for that.

Job seekers get messages from “recruiters” who may not work where they say they do. Some of those conversations end with a request for personal details, bank information or an upfront fee. Even when nothing is taken, the hours spent on a role that never existed are gone.

Recruiters sort through applications from profiles that may be invented, duplicated or run by someone other than the person named. Each one has to be checked by hand before a real conversation can start.

The common thread is identity. If you could trust that every account is one real person, using their own name, much of that checking and much of that risk would go away.

What KYC verification means, in plain words

KYC stands for Know Your Customer. It is the identity check banks use before they open an account for someone. On Real Humans it would mean one thing: before you can join, you prove who you are with a government ID.

That check is there so that each account is:

• real: a person who exists, not a made-up profile;
• unique: one person, one account, so nobody can run a crowd of profiles;
• who it says it is: the name on the account is the name on the ID behind it.

A recruiter who messages you would be a verified person, and so would a candidate who applies to a recruiter. No fake recruiters, no fake candidates.

It is not built yet

Real Humans is planned, not live. There is no network to join today. Before building it, the people behind it want to know whether anyone wants it enough to pay for it, which is why the site asks about price first.

Answer the one question

The site asks a single question: would you pay $10 or less a year to be on a LinkedIn-style job site where every person is verified with Know Your Customer (KYC) identity checks? You answer Yes or No, and you confirm your answer through a link sent to your email, so every answer comes from a real person.

That is all it asks. If you have ever wondered whether the recruiter in your inbox was real, or whether the candidate on your screen was, answer it at realhumans.work.