It shouldn’t surprise anyone that most jobs are filled through referrals. It’s not so much what you know, but who you know. Unfortunately, job sites such as monster.com highlight only your resume. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew where all of your friends worked, and where all of their friends work? At least then someone might be able to put in a good word for you. Well it might be time to rejoice, as Doostang.com has attempted to solve this riddle. By combining job search and a social network, invitees to the site (sorry, no randoms) can find their friends, connect with college alums, and more, in an attempt to contact the right person at the right company (and hopefully have a friend in common). What a great idea!

This site does a lot of things well. There are plenty of job postings, and you get the feeling that Doostang members aren’t your average Joes. Doostang boasts over 380,000 members from top universities and MBA programs and over 65% of members with experience in finance, consulting, or marketing. For a job seeker or a job poster, this site has a few benefits over the aforementioned monster.com. It’s free to browse and respond to job postings and free to post want ads as well. You can browse your friends’ profiles, see their friends and their friends’ profiles, and contact anyone connected to you. Who knew that your best friend Jill has a friend who works for your favorite clothing line? There are also forums for users in similar fields for users searching for similar jobs, as a way to connect with other Doostangers. Who knows, maybe Financedude82 and you could help each other find jobs.

Despite Doostang doing many things well, there are several glaring problems with the site and its interface. The search function is frustrating at best. If I want to search for a person who works for a company I’m interested in, the results don’t include the name of the person who works there, just their job title and other basic information. And oh yeah, you can’t contact them unless you upgrade your account. Upgrading your account is a complete mystery as well. You can’t do it through the website itself, only by contacting the Doostang salesdepartment. And how much does it cost to upgrade? Beats me, the website doesn’t say.

Doostang also seems pretty concerned to give you anyone’s name, unless of course you exclude the featured users on the homepage. That’s right, the featured users, whose names are right there at the bottom of the homepage when you log in. Not only can you see these featured users’ complete profiles, but all of their friends’ profiles, and their friends’ profiles, and so on. And you can even message any of these people! For free! Wait, wasn’t that supposed to cost more? I’m confused.

Doostang has the potential to be a unique and helpful tool for anyone looking for a great job or a great candidate for an open position. Let’s hope that they can work out the kinks.