HR Tech Recap Part 1

In Partnership With

Many of you probably know Metaview already from their AI note taking tool specifically built for recruiting. It’s pretty rare that I hear universal consensus about recruiting tools, but I don’t know of anyone I’ve spoken to who has used it at their company and not found it helpful.

But now Metaview has just announced their most ambitious agent yet, a new AI Sourcing Agent that will be just as helpful and stand out above the pack in the same way that their note taking tool did.

• Automatically off the back of an intake call the agent:

  • Proactively surfaces candidates.

  • Evaluates profiles for the experiences and attributes you’re looking for.

  • Learns from your feedback and maintains memory to get sharper over time.

This is not just another plug in keyword search tool (and trust me, I see plenty of those)! You can sign up for the waitlist now to be one of the first people to check it out!

Just a reminder again, I know that nobody likes ads or sponsored content, but as a person I’d also like to remind you that I am a singular person making a living for myself and family, not some conglomerate. While many newsletters are going the paid subscription route, I have chosen to not do that. I do however pay a monthly fee to write this newsletter, on top of pay for myself to travel to most of these events to learn about new tools and information that I want to share with you. If the cost of that for my readers is having to hear about a tool that I have vetted and do think is good, I think it’s a good trade and appreciate any supporting of ads.

There definitely is no need to email me complaining that 1 ad showed up in a newsletter you got for free though!

This Week’s Breakdown

I spent last week at HR Tech in Las Vegas, and spent a lot of time talking to a lot of people and asking questions. In the next few issues I’ll dig into some really interesting and specific stuff I learned about, but as a general recap there are a couple really big takeaways I want to mention.

• AI isn’t going anywhere ( we knew this), but it’s also NOWHERE near where people want you to believe it is in terms of market readiness.

  • While I did see some impressive things, I also saw a lot of sales teams that could not answer basic questions about things like how the AI is trained, what happens with the data, how bias can be avoided, or what guardrails are in place.

  • There are a lot of companies racing to be first to the market, but know that isn’t always the best long term thing.

• Most companies don’t want to replace people with AI- but some replacement is unavoidable unfortunately.

  • A resounding theme I kept hearing was that AI can be uses to make us more efficient at our job, not to do our job entirely. I don’t know I fully believe everybody who says that, and do think they are just saying what they know people want to hear, but I also think these tools are not going to be able to replace everyone.

  • If I were concerned about my place in the world of hiring and AI, I would focus on making myself an expert on these tools, as well as making sure the decision making and instincts that AI can never fully replicate are well understood by my supervisors.

• HR is clearly behind other departments, and people still have no idea what the hell they are talking about with this stuff.

  • Is this good or bad? I don’t know, but I promise you, if you feel behind right now, you’re probably not!

You know me, I am never going to hit the AI panic button, but if you’re sitting there reading this and thinking that these AI tools are fads that are going to fade away, you’re going to be wrong!

In 2 years, do I think that there will be 70% less of these tools because only the best survived….yes for sure. But that also applies to people in this space. Bad recruiters, lazy recruiters, recruiters that don’t want to learn new tools or embrace new ideas, they are likely to go the same direction as the bad tools I saw this week too.

Recruited in the Wild

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

Considering my last 2 weeks on Linkedin have been consumed by fighting with people who can’t handle I use a screwdriver to be silly, or trying to explain how to be successful on social media to me, I honestly don’t know if I have it in me to find even more people on LinkedIn to make fun of this week.

And yes, I know I constantly tell all you readers to stop getting baited into arguments….BUT DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO!

However, I do have some huge news that is technically In the Wild

The Is This Still A Good Time Podcast is officially live with our first 2 episodes featuring recruiting heavyweights and personal friends of mine Amy Miller and Bonnie Dilber.

If you want this newsletter delivered in an audio form with double the amount of recruiters each week, go check it out, follow, subscribe, review, all the things you do to support!

Horror Stories

True recruiting nightmares from the field.
Want to share yours anonymously for a future issue? 

Submit your story Here - It won’t even ask for your name or email don’t worry!

One of the funny things about asking for your stories every week, is how similar so many of them sound and I start to wonder if I’ve actually published this story…but I’m pretty sure this is a new one, and I think you’ll all relate to it. Though stick through to the end to see a part I really love.

We have all had this happen countless times right? The prepared monologue at the start of the interview by someone so ready to be asked for their bio that they didn’t even notice that wasn’t the question. It’s so hard to stop someone once they are on it and it’s so hard not to feel bad for them and their nerves clearly getting the best of them. But it’s still our job to hire the best person and I love that this recruiter told them point blank why they will not be getting hired.

Communication and time management skills are critical in most roles. Beyond that, the kind of person who can not stop rambling at the wrong times is such a detriment to high performing teams, but when you try to say that to jobseekers you are usually met with pushback.

Congrats to this recruiter for calling it out, hopefully they’ll learn the lesson moving forward, but I think we all probably doubt it. The more likely reality is you just became the villain in their version of the story they will tell everyone about the awful recruiter.

The joys of this job!

Cope of the Week

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

A week at HR Tech will fry anyone’s circuits. After four days of neon lights, keynote buzzwords, and sales decks promising to “redefine the future of work,” my brain is basically one big AI swag bag.

But it was so clear that talent teams and HR practitioners are constantly being told how far behind the times we are, and I think that might be ok for now.

When the vendors can’t keep their stories straight, I think it’s ok if you’re sitting at your desk worried you don’t fully “get” AI yet. That means you are exactly as far along as most of the people selling it.

That’s the cope this week. You don’t need to be the first to adopt every shiny tool or master every buzzword. What will outlast the hype is exactly what recruiters have always needed:

• real human judgment

• curiosity to keep learning

• and the ability to call BS when someone waves an “AI-powered” slide in your face

The podcast is finally live, the book is out in the world, and conference season isn’t slowing down, but the best way to survive this next wave isn’t panic or perfection. It’s staying grounded, asking hard questions, and remembering that even the “experts” are making it up as they go.

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