This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 47

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Open Kitchen: Success = Production x Distribution

We spend way too much time on Production, and not nearly enough on Distribution.

I learned this lesson the hard way, failing not one but two businesses because I over indexed on 'making the thing' and under indexed on 'moving the thing'. I also got the sequencing wrong, doing first one then the other, when I should've been doing both at the same, or rather as I know now, both as the same thing.

In 2022, I'm seeing a lot of friends launch new businesses, new initiatives and new campaigns, so today's open kitchen is going to be about sharing some thoughts on the relationship between production vs distribution, why distribution is likely to be much more important to the eventual success of your idea and how to maybe achieve some success without actually hating your life.

1. Theodore Van Gogh

"Production" is what we want to do; this is usually our 'passion' - the thing that gives us enrichment such that we want to be doing this all the time. This is great, but also dangerous, because it almost always means you're going to be doing more of it than you should. If you're a painter and you like to paint, you'll almost certainly be spending 99% of your time and effort painting. Vincent van Gogh was a genius painter but he couldn't sell for sh1t and so it was up to his brother Theo to get his works the exposure they deserved. Vincent did the production, Theo sorted the distribution. Now in case you don't have a brother Theo to hand, you're going to have to handle both the production and distribution for your new idea. The way we most typically do this is illustrated in the visual above.

Note: it doesn't matter how big or small the idea is. We're talking about a business idea at the moment, but it could be anything which you make which you hope to impact other people in some way. Got a zillion blog posts in draft and none that are published? Guess what, you're over indexing on production.

2. Just World Fallacy

Now in a perfect world we wouldn't have to do any distribution. We focus on our passion, our passion leads to over indexing and over indexing actually leads to quality production - after all, we're spending tons of time / effort on something we intrinsically care about, so there's a good chance going to be great! However, we obviously do not live in a perfect world and our failure to truly accept this leads to Just World Fallacy - the idea that we will get what we deserve if we just keep going. When we finally realise that we will not get our just rewards - and that others, who better understand the world as it is, rather than the world as we would like it to be - unfairly get theirs, we get upset, become embittered and jealous of that other persons success. If you see two ostensibly good people have a seemingly mysterious professional animosity between them, there's a good chance one or both of them have succumbed to JWF.

3. Now I Hate My Life

Knowing what we now know, we make a super human effort to moderate time / effort on the thing we care about, and redirect the majority of our resources to distribution. We need to penetrate that imperfect market, acquire some customers or audience otherwise we are done for as a business.

There are tons of ways in which this can happen; if you're start up and just raised funding, you will spending most of the money on ads; if you're a solopreneur, you'll be promiscuously connecting on LinkedIn and / or sending a ton of email. If you're Vincent van Gogh, you'll be showing your work at a gallery and making no doubt painful attempts at converting the gawkers into buyers. Now some of us will succeed at this - full credit to those who have - but the general experience of those who do will be that you are no longer doing the thing that you love, and have instead become a sales & marketing person for that thing you love. Vox ran a really good post on this called 'I lost my hobby and gained a revenue stream' - it's a really good read and I think a fair account of achieving success through what seems to be the 'necessary compromise' - the prioritisation of distribution over production.

4. Web 2.5 Changed Everything

Yeah I know Web 3.0 is the thing now (btw I am interviewing Pedro Oliveira, CEO of Talent Protocol for Founder's Focus next week - register here if you want to learn more about how Web3 can apply to HR / TA), but most of us are really still very much in what I call 'Web 2.5' - that mini-epoch which began the moment social media companies, which created Web 2.0, switched their newsfeeds from chronological ordering to ordering based on relevancy.

No we can argue long and hard that this switch was a net negative for human society. Certainly we can attribute the political polarisation we are seeing in all of our societies as a direct outcome of the shift toward engagement over anything else. It probably is a bad idea at the end of the day. However, knowing what we know about how this world currently works, means that it may be possible for the little player, the solopreneur or the under resourced recruiter to gain market share, without relying on massive marketing budget, as the visual above (badly) illustrates. The trick to doing this, it turns out, is to do the production & the distribution at the same time - and actually as the same thing.

5. Transparency = Production x Distribution

I know that I am seemingly everywhere and that this can be annoying (truly sorry!) but the ubiquity of brainfood disguises something which all but the sharpest observers might've missed. And that is that I never actually promote it. Or more accurately, I never market alone. Rather what I do is work as openly as I can, sharing what I am thinking or doing, whilst I am doing it.

Practicing the 'Open Kitchen' or being 'open with your journey' is not an ethical decision but a pragmatic one. It is simply easier to do things in the open. And for someone who is time poor - which btw is you, if you are planning on launching a business, an initiative, a campaign - then you must operate in a way which conserves your time and effort to the maximum degree. As a bonus, you end up co-mingling the production and the distribution - because simply doing it openly is distribution - so you also maintain your morale and don't end up successfully hating your life. You have a chance to achieve success and maybe even have some fun doing it.

Now I haven't talked about audience or channel or community building at all, which it turns out to be compounding factor to all of the above, I might do this as a part two next week. Let me know in comment below if you are interested in this.

Anyways, transparency moment over - lets get out of the kitchen - and onto the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Hiretual raise $26 Million and rebrand, to hireEZ

Best news comes in threes - first in-person conference (sorry I couldn't make it), major fundraise and a full on rebrand - Hiretual no more, it is now, hireEZ. Congratulations to Steve Jiang and crew, especially the ever awesome Shannon Pritchard for leading the community efforts. Read about it here

SmartRecruiters acquire Career Site builder, Attrax

Big move by our buddies SmartRecruiters, who acquire career site builder Attrax. In a candidate short market, no employer can get away without a top class candidate attraction / acquisition / onboarding experience. It will be very interesting to see how SmartRecruiters integrate this career site technology into the offering. Press release here

Bulhorn gets into the VC game with Bulhorn Ventures

Technology focused on the staffing side of the recruiting business has always been underinvested and under supported - this move by Bulhorn is a hugely promising boost for companies building in this space. Smart strategic move of course, as you might expect from Art Papas . Keep an eye on this, should be some interesting companies emerge here.

If you are a recruitment service provider or technology business and have any news to share,?comment below,?this is your application to get into next week's addition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it

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What's On Offer?

So a ton of you have been asking what the '100 Tigers' offer is and basically it is a ridiculous unlimited job posting offer which I launched last week to celebrate Chinese New Year (which we're still in btw, last for about 15 days I think). Suffice it to say, if you are hiring more than 2 recruiters or HR people or people who have come from those backgrounds but which you could now use for other roles), this offer is going to make your CFO a very happy person. Comment below with the phrase '100 Tigers' if you want me to DM you the details. First come, first service hombres....

If you are a recruitment service provider or recruitment technology vendor have any?exclusive?offer for the community,?comment below?with your offer in order to be included in next week's edition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it.

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What's Going On?

Recruitment Agency Expo, 8-9 Feb, 10am - 5pm, London Olympia

Great to see massive expo's back in-person. Biggest one of the year this week, with two days dedicated to recruiting agencies and technology providers to this sector. Some fantastic speakers in the line up, including Brainfood Live regulars Neil Carberry, CEO (Recruitment and Employers Confederation), Charlotte Doherty, Co-founder (The Doherty Group) and James Osborne, Founder (The Recruitment Network). Should be good - register, for free, here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep142 - How To Know A Good Recruiter, Fri 11 Feb, 2pm GMT

With everybody focusing on how hard it is to find recruiters, let's have a think about what actually happens when we do. How do we tell a good recruiter from the bad? How do we find greatness? Are these characteristics or the person or contextual to the environment? How do we even do this in the remote era? Important topic for any business hiring recruiters - we are with Mark Deubel, Senior Technical Recruiter (Gitlab), Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill, Founder (Join Talent) & Farah Kanji, Chief People Officer (Founder's Factory). Register here

7 Recruiting Trends for 2022 & Beyond, 24th Feb, 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT

Super excited to present this with Matt Tague at Gem - we've both independently surveyed thousands of TA leaders to identify what they think are going to be the critical themes for our industry this year. We're taking a deep dive into each of these and you will come away with 7 tips on how to stay on top of your recruiting game for 2022. Don't miss this one folks - register here

How to Compare & Evaluate An ATS, Wed 2nd March, 2pm GMT

Excited to host this panel with our buddies at iCIMS where we discuss why the ATS market is so fragmented, how the changing world of work is impacting the product direction of next generation products and what recruiters need to do to accurately evaluate the ATS which best suits their needs. With Nicole Tucker, Talent Acquisition Manager and Matt Davis, Senior Product Marketing Manager. Register here

RecFest Super Early Bird Ends Today, 7th July, Knebworth, UK

Seriously - I am not paid by these guys ??. However, you have got to living under a rock not to recognise that this is incredible value for what is likely to be not only the biggest but almost certainly the best event for in-house / corporate recruiters this year. I'll be hosting a stage there, so if that is not reason enough to go, I don't know what is. Tickets here, bring your team (this price ends today)

If you have an event, webinar or podcast going on next week and want it featured on next week's newsletter,?comment below?with the link and event details. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Sourcing Lead, Shopify, Remote Global

Senior Tech Recruiter, Kinsta, Remote EU

Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Mid-Senior Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Business Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tech Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Berlin, Germany

Business Recruiter, WeAreKeen, Berlin, Germany

TA Manager Tech (In-house, Remote), Join Talent, Remote Global

Senior Talent Acquisition Expert - Tech, Habito, London, UK

Senior Tech Recruiter (f/m/d), Hive, Berlin, Germany

Talent Acquisition Lead (f/m/d), Hive, Berlin, Germany

Senior Sourcing Recruiter, McKinsey & Company, Tampa, FL, USA

Recruiter - Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Senior Sourcing Recruiter, McKinsey & Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Senior Recruiter / Recruiter - Quantum Black, McKinsey & Company, Manhattan, NY, USA

Recruiter / Senior Recruiter - Digital, McKinsey & Company, Manhattan, NY, USA

Senior Recruiter / Recruiter, McKinsey & Company, Manhattan, NY, USA

Executive Recruiter, McKinsey & Company, Manhattan, NY, USA

Blockchain or Fintech Recruiter, OntheBlock, Remote Global

Recruiter, EMEA, SentinelOne, UK, Czech Republic or Netherlands

Embedded Talent Partner, KANDIDATE, London, UK

(Junior-Mid) Tech Recruiter, OLX Group, Warsaw, Poland

Global Leadership Recruiter, OLX Group, Berlin, Germany

Senior Technical Recruiter, OLX Group, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Technical Recruiter, OLX Group, Lisbon, Portugal

EMEA Talent Acquisition Events Lead, Boston Consulting Group, London, UK

GTM / Sales Recruiter, Stream, Boulder, CO, USA

Recruiting Manager, First Mode, Seattle, WA, USA

People Operations Manager (f/m/d), Hive, Paris, France

Senior People Partner (m/f/x), FINN, Munich, Germany

If you want to get your job featured, post jobs on the Brainfood Jobs Job Board?here

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Who's Moving?

John Rose joins Turntide Technologies as Global Strategic Sourcing Partner. Truly on the good guys in recruiting, John has been delivering quality service and quality chat for the best part of 20+ years. Great hire and great move hombre ??

Thomas Waldman joins Getir, as Director of Rider Growth. Thomas is quickly building a unique skillset - few (if any?) recruiters have his experience of rapidly scaling on-demand delivery workforce. Needs a come back on Brainfood Live I think.

He-Young An joins DeepL as Senior People Operations Manager after spending 5 years working in and lead the People Ops department at SoundCloud. Very early in on the RecOps, this is a very sound from one generation of Berlin startup, to the next.

Martin Freeman joins Okta as Talent Sourcing Lead, after spending 5 years in a senior TA roles with Medallia. Marting is another of the good guys in recruiting - also a great collector of recruiting / sourcing resources. Hope you keep that part of the it Martin - congrats on the move.

Geoff Webb goes up to Global Talent Brand Leader at Organon, Aurélie Lamy-Ducasse promoted to Head of Talent Acquisition & Development at AssessFirst, Emilia Hope moves up to Manager, Customer Success at Codility, and finally Robert Symons who takes on the GM EMEA role at SmartRecruiters, and David Inskip, who follows him up to be promoted to Sales Director, EMEA. Congratulations all and good luck!

If you have made a senior exec appointment to your business,?and feel the wider community needs to know about it,?comment below?with the details and see it featured in next weeks issue.?Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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What Are You Doing?

Daniel Jakaitis is launching a new book Winning the War for Talent. I have had the pleasure of reading the draft of this - it is really impressive piece of work, for which I was very happy to provide a testimonial. Free e-book, well worth your email - get it here

Elizabeth Lembke launches the A-MAZE 2022, a monthly #doittolearnit interactive space where HR / TA / OD / L&D professionals can connect, share learning and unblock the internal hangups which are usually the most significant barriers to change.

Matt Bradburn launches Heron, an online service to provide 'compensation intelligence' to CFO / HR / TA leaders / Comp & Bens professionals and everyday employees who want to know what the market rate is. Looks like a solution to a genuine hole in the market. Early access here

Rassam Yaghmaei, Director of Sourcing at Doctorlib, is getting his team into the media business ??. Following very much the open kitchen philosophy, he and his team of 100+ recruiters will be showing you how recruiting works in one of Europe's fastest growing tech scale ups. Follow the updates on the Twitch (French language) channel here

If you are doing something new,?comment below?with what it is and share a link to where you want people to go. Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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End Notes

Building businesses is hard.

Building events businesses is the hardest. Last week it was announced that I would be attending an in-person event, only for it to be discovered that there are still restrictions which may prevent my participation. My disappointment is overshadowed only by concern for the event organising team and the conference itself, who have had to wrestle with two years of uncertainty and operating constantly under the threat of some exogenous factor beyond their control.

Nothing is more important than public health but when in-person events do indeed return, it would be a great thing for us all to give them the support they need and deserve.

Hope to see you at some of these, soon

Hung

Hung Lee is the curator of?Recruiting Brainfood, and now This Week In Recruiting. Subscribe to both if you are into recruiting or HR or just interested in world of work.