To the United States Congress and America's major employment platforms:

I've spent over 20 years as a professional producer, managing projects and creative teams. Yet I've spent years searching for work, submitting countless applications, and wasting hundreds of hours navigating a hiring system that seems increasingly disconnected from the people it's supposed to serve.

Despite numerous LinkedIn applications, I can recall receiving perhaps two interviews. I've encountered recruitment scams, misleading salaries, unrealistic job requirements, automated rejections, and employers who never respond. I've been asked to complete thousands of dollars' worth of professional work for free just to be considered for an interview.

I've even relocated across the country at considerable personal expense for a position that lasted less than a year.

And I know I'm not alone.

Millions of Americans face similar frustrations. We're expected to customize resumes for nearly identical jobs, navigate inconsistent application systems, and compete for positions that may not even exist—or positions where an internal candidate is already favored without our knowledge.

Meanwhile, living costs continue to rise while many salaries fail to keep pace. Employers increasingly demand more qualifications, more responsibilities, and more specialized skills without corresponding compensation.

Time is money. Every misleading job posting, unnecessary assessment, and deceptive hiring practice costs applicants something they cannot recover: their time. For unemployed Americans already facing financial hardship, that cost is especially significant.

Job seekers are expected to meet endless requirements. It's time employers and hiring platforms met some standards of their own.

What We're Demanding
We call for national fair hiring standards that:

1. Eliminate ghost jobs and disclose internal candidates, requiring employers to verify that advertised positions are genuinely available and disclose when an internal candidate is already being considered.
2. Require fair, transparent compensation, with realistic salary ranges that reflect responsibilities, experience, and rising living costs.
   Standardize job classifications and applications, eliminating unnecessary resume tailoring, repetitive data entry, and misleading job descriptions.
3. Ensure fair evaluation of candidates, recognizing transferable skills, freelance experience, career changes, and legitimate employment gaps.
4. Require hiring transparency, including reasonable timelines, application updates, and meaningful feedback for interviewed candidates.
5. Regulate AI recruiting and automated screening, requiring disclosure, appropriate human oversight, and safeguards against unfair rejection.
6. Protect applicants from scams and data exploitation, prohibiting the sale of applicant information to third parties and restricting its use to legitimate hiring purposes without separate, informed consent.
7. End exploitative hiring practices, including substantial unpaid assignments, excessive assessments, deceptive paid services, and misleading recruitment promises.
8. Hold recruiters, employers, and job platforms accountable, with verified postings, accurate applicant metrics, reliable search filters, and accessible reporting systems.
9. Establish enforceable protections, including independent oversight, penalties for verified violations, and remedies for financial harm caused by deceptive recruitment.

It's Time for Change
We're asking Congress to introduce meaningful federal hiring reform and calling on platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter to improve their practices now.

Our goal is 100,000 signatures to bring these demands, along with a detailed legislative proposal, directly to lawmakers, federal agencies, and employment platforms.

This isn't about guaranteeing anyone a job. It's about ensuring that opportunities are real, compensation is honest, qualifications are evaluated fairly, personal information is protected, and everyone's time is respected.

Nobody is entitled to a job. Everyone deserves a fair opportunity to earn one.

Our time has value. Our experience has value. Our livelihoods have value.

Sign the Fair Hiring Initiative and help demand a hiring system that works for everyone.

Fair hiring isn't a privilege. It should be the standard.