A World Without Recruiters?

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This Week’s Breakdown

I had a great discussion with Laura Gassman on this week’s podcast about senior level recruiters and what happens when they are all gone from an industry that is no longer hiring or training new employees.

It was honestly a topic I hadn’t thought much about, but do think is a serious problem the industry will be facing (luckily as an older person, it won’t be my problem)

There is something happening in the recruiting world that is pretty interesting among all the sad things happening, and that is a lot of people are forging their own path- and doing it well. Some are moving into fractional and part time recruiting, some are moving into training and coaching, some into L&D, some into pure content creation, some into the HR tech space, and some people like me are trying to do it all!

For many of us, this may be how we take the power back in the industry. Where will these companies be in a few years when there is no senior level good talent readily available, and what will that do for us and our consulting rates or businesses or whatever else we’ve built doing that time?

But also, what does it mean for the recruiters who got into this industry right after Covid when everyone was hiring anyone they could to be a recruiter? Those recruiters were thrown into the wild with almost no training, and then spit out when the industry took a downturn the last few years. They are the ones struggling the most to find a job, but also in a position where they can’t really do it themselves because there are too many known and senior entities in the space doing it.

We didn’t reach an answer on the podcast either, but it’s a really interesting conversation to have and definitely something we need to keep exploring as a community. How can we support the senior recruiters building their own lives now, and what can the senior recruiters do to make sure the people who came after us aren’t going to just be left in the dark?

I’m curious to learn about my readers as well and where you fall on this spectrum.

Recruited in the Wild

Seen on LinkedIn, overheard in Slack, or posted without shame.

Is Mercury in retrograde? (I don’t actually know what this means!) But Linkedin has been an even bigger 💩 show than normal the last week or 2.

I had 2 great posts I wanted to share from the last week, and got blocked by both people who posted them before I could save the links 🙄

In light of the Mercury gods (is that how it works?) not wanting me to share those posts, let’s share a good post.

Friend of the newsletter and prior podcast guest Erin Riska released a great post about the November jobs report and how the shutdown effected it. Erin makes this post every month, usually with more actual data, and we referenced it on the podcast as well. If you aren’t following her for some actual no spin discussion about the monthly job report, what it means, and how to handle discussing it with the hot take machines on LinekdIn, you should be!

Accrued Time

A weekly check-in on what I’ve got going on behind the scenes, events, projects, and life outside the req pile.

I’ve been having a lot of fun the last few weeks really digging into all of the HR Tech companies I met and spoke to during my travels this fall. Learning who is legit, who is part of a bubble that is going to burst, who is inventing these apps with the right reasoning and experience, and who is just a tech or finance bro ready to solve hiring. I’m looking forward to some reporting and telling you about a lot of them for better or for worse soon.

A few new podcast episodes have dropped including part 2 of my live recordings from RecFest. I also sat down with my friend Laura Gassman to discuss rage quitting a job as well as the important topic of a real lack of junior and mid level recruiter that is going to leave a big shortage eventually as senior recruiters continue to walk away.

 Check them out and keep tuning in, I think doing this podcast is a lot of fun, it’s even more fun to have listeners!

I also did my last speaking engagement of the year at DisruptHR Milwaukee last week, I’ll have a full high quality video soon, but I must say…if you’ve never done a DisruptHR talk you should really consider it. I did several this year and find them to be one of the most fun events you can do…then again, I’m weird.

Cope of the Week

Because it’s either this or scream into a pillow.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this conversation I had with Laura, and honestly, it hit me harder than I expected.

Because for the first time in a long time, I’m looking around and realizing just how many good recruiters are no longer in recruiting.

Some left by choice.
Some got pushed out.
Some weren’t trained, weren’t supported, and never even got the chance to get good.

And if you’re still here?
You’re probably tired, underutilized, under-resourced, and somehow still expected to be the adult in the room.

So here’s the cope:

Your career is allowed to evolve, expand, or even break out of recruiting entirely, and that doesn’t make you a failure.

Right now we’re watching two things happen at the same time:

1. Senior recruiters are quietly building entire second careers

2. Early-career recruiters are stranded 

The industry is hollowing out in the middle.

And the companies who gutted TA are going to feel that pain in a few years when they suddenly need experienced recruiters… and there aren’t many left.

But here’s the hopeful part:

If you’re still here, still reading, still learning, still giving a damn, you’re exactly the kind of recruiter this industry is going to be desperate for later.

Your experience isn’t outdated.
Your instincts aren’t worthless.
Your years in the trenches aren’t something to downplay.

And if you’re one of the folks forging your own weird, wonderful career path out of the rubble?

Good! Build something real and take your power back.

Just don’t forget the people coming up behind us.
Because if we don’t teach them, support them, mentor them…
we’re going to wake up one day and realize we became the generation that pulled the ladder up behind us.

So this week’s coping strategy?

Remember that what you know still matters and someone needs to hear it from you.

And if this industry is going to rebuild, it’s going to rebuild on the backs of the people who didn’t quit caring.

 Forward this to someone in TA who's barely holding it together.