I noticed that in the profile there is an "Interests" tab, which on a general basis is almost completely disregarded and rarely used for anything because of two things, its format, and its not upkept/accurate.
SL is a big place, and I personally enjoy meeting people, but I don't like having to go to laggy clubs to do so. And lets be honest, the interests part of the profile should reflect its title. It should be used to help residents find other residents who share similar interests and perhaps help with that finding new friends outside of large social crowds.
I had an idea, to link this part of the profile to a search list. So people who want to be hired or who are interest in building can check those boxes. Then others who are looking to hire someone can search the list for someone online. Someone hosting a builder lesson could drop a IM to someone in that list that wants to learn to build and let them know about upcoming classes.
The bar underneath could be changed slightly, to allow a brief description of why the person has certain boxes checked. Like "I want to learn to build" or "I want to be hired for *insert whatever*" and this would be displayed in a field in the search.
This could then and have the rating system revamped to reflect the skills that would be listed in this part of the profile, and the higher ratings for these skills would thus be listed higher in the search list.
It would give ratings more of a meaning, because naturally if you're not a builder you wont want a higher build rating and people IMing you asking if you are available to hire for building n yada yada.
This would also encourage people to fill out this part of their profile more accurately, and help people get in the community find others with the same interests.
Ideas for skills to be listed:
Architecture
Building
Texturing
Sound
Animations
Appearence (for things like fashion consulting)
Social/Behavior (for those that just wish to meet people and chat)