At Indeed, everything starts with the mission to help people get jobs. Behind that mission is a principle that guides how we build products and make decisions: job seeker first.

For us, this is not just a slogan. This even shows up in our every day. Conference rooms in our Indeed offices have an empty orange chair that represents the job seeker. Nobody sits in it. It serves as a reminder that in product and business discussions, someone should be asking: What would the person in that chair think? Does this make their experience better?

That question helps keep our product decisions grounded in real user needs. And we’ve found that when we build for job seekers, we ultimately create more value for everyone on the platform, including employers. 

Starting with the job seeker

Putting job seekers first means designing around what helps people make progress toward getting hired.

Historically, much of hiring technology focused on volume such as more applicants, more clicks, more activity. Increasingly, we believe better outcomes come from improving quality. That starts with understanding the signals that can indicate a stronger match between a job seeker and a role.

For example, a job seeker’s preferences, qualifications and likelihood of success can help improve matching from the start, rather than being considered only after someone applies. Using those signals can help surface more relevant opportunities for job seekers while helping employers spend less time sorting through irrelevant applications.

We’re focused on helping people discover relevant opportunities, reducing friction in the application process, and improving the quality of connections between job seekers and employers. It also means respecting job seekers’ time by helping them focus on roles they are likely to want and are likely to get.

At Indeed, we often ground product decisions in three principles: quality, speed and efficiency.

  • Quality means helping job seekers discover opportunities that fit their skills, preferences and goals, while helping employers connect with qualified, interested candidates. 
  • Speed means reducing the time it takes to move from job search to hire. 
  • Efficiency means reducing wasted effort for both sides, from repetitive tasks for job seekers to irrelevant applications for employers.

These principles help guide how we use technology, including AI, to improve hiring outcomes at scale.

Designing for the full hiring journey

Putting job seekers first also means designing beyond a single moment, like a search result or an application button. It means thinking about the full journey a person takes to get hired.

Discovery and guidance. Tools like Career Scout and personalized recommendations are designed to help people understand which opportunities may be a good fit based on their skills and interests. In some cases, that includes surfacing adjacent roles or career paths a person may not have considered. The goal is to support more informed decisions and more thoughtful applications.

Applications and communication. We continue working to simplify the application experience through Indeed Apply, reduce repetitive steps and make it easier for job seekers and employers to communicate in one place. Reducing friction at this stage can help people move faster and with more confidence.

Feedback and learning. Signals from searches, applications, interviews and hires help improve recommendations over time. These feedback loops can make the experience more relevant while improving the quality of connections in the marketplace.

When job seekers move through the hiring journey more confidently and efficiently, employers often benefit from a more engaged and better-prepared pool of candidates.

Using AI to improve hiring outcomes

AI is helping us make progress across many parts of that journey, but we see its role as practical and focused.

It can help surface better-fit opportunities, support job seekers as they prepare for interviews, and help employers focus attention on stronger-fit candidates. Just as important, it can help reduce low-value tasks so people can spend more time on decisions that matter.

But innovation only creates value if it improves outcomes. In a two-sided marketplace, healthier outcomes for one side often support healthier outcomes for the other.

Creating value for both job seekers and employers

A common misconception is that focusing on job seekers comes at the expense of employers. Our experience suggests the opposite.

When job seekers are matched to opportunities that fit, they are more likely to apply thoughtfully, engage in the process and succeed in the role. That can help employers hire faster, improve candidate quality and build stronger teams.

This is why we increasingly think beyond delivering applicants, or even candidates, toward helping improve the likelihood of a successful hire.

Our goal is to create tangible value by getting more people into jobs that are a better fit, while helping employers build stronger teams with less friction.

We started as a search engine. Today, we’re a two-sided AI-powered hiring marketplace. But the principle that got us here hasn’t changed: put job seekers first, and build a system where everyone wins.