This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 86

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Open Kitchen: Elon, the Inconvenient Billionaire!

I've spent the entire weekend making changes to the business operations of Recruiting Brainfood. Elon Musk's burn-it-the-the-ground approach at Twitter has placed Revue - the software I used to write Recruiting Brainfood newsletter - at risk of disruption or even cessation; and my understanding now is that the service will indeed be sunset at the end of the year, meaning no time to lose to migrate to another service. This in turn has triggered a cascade of long delayed decisions to reform the operations at Recruiting Brainfood: needs to be more resilient, more obvious, less dependencies and less effort.

Today's Open Kitchen is going to be an overview of what has happened and what is going to happen over the next few months:

1. Revue to Substack (subscribe to it here folks)

At one point in time Revue and SubStack were direct competitors, but post acquisition neglect (Twitter acquired Revue in early 2021) has mean the latter speeding away to a billion dollar valuation, rapidly becoming the OnlyFans for written content.

I didn't make the switch until now because Revue had integrated a web clipper / mobile app (collection) with CMS (curation), newsletter editor (creation) and the engine to send out the email (distribution). It was the most efficient way to write a curated newsletter and for a one man operation obsessed with reducing effort, it really was the best solution out there.

However, with Musk taking an axe to 50% of the staff, including what remains of the acquired Revue team (sic founder Martijn de Kuipers has reported that he still has a job at Twitter, as he didn't receive that email), what was initially a hedge turned into a full on migration. So yesterday, Brainfood subscribers got the same email but with a different look, via a new platform - Revue no more!

2. Revue to Pocket

So SubStack is a writing platform and the editor is actually fantastic - it's a superb writing experience. It can obviously handle the distribution side also. What it lacks is the clipper and the CMS, so this is what I had to replace next.

There are plenty of options out there - Evernote, Notion, Workona - but none of them perform like the Pocket, the now venerable service which still does the clipping better than most. Three factors made this decision easy - great chrome extension, multi-platform integration (mobile app, web app etc) and, crucially, the content tagging feature. A curated newsletter with 10-15 items has generally come from a selection 10 x that number, and a way to create a taxonomy (Blockchain, Sourcing, Employer Branding etc) is critical to staying on top it it. Thankfully this feature was in pocket since the early days and I was delighted to see it still there. Premium was only $39.99 per year, so I got my credit card out and bought it. I can now collect and curate, create and distribute albeit on two platforms rather than one.

3. Brainfood Archive

I don't know what to do about this. There have been 316 newsletters pumped out via Revue - 6 years plus of work, thousands of great articles - available on the online archive. Presumably all this will be deleted when Revue sunsets, which seems like a terrible shame. For nostalgia reasons alone I would like to keep it but it could be I just need to accept that it's going to go. I'm not sure of the value of cloning the archive, seeing as we already have a (slightly) better way of rediscovery through the Brainfood Larder. So yeah, this may be one for wayback machine ??

4. Brainfood Larder

The Brainfood Larder has long been one of the most popular innovations in Recruiting Brainfood. A searchable archive of every article ever sent since Issue No1. It's starting to become unwieldy now we are up to 5000+ articles but it still provided a great way to retrieve information which you found valuable but did not at that moment bookmark or otherwise save.

However, it is dependent on a custom web scraper - effectively scraping every new newsletter on that appear on the online version, ingested the data, organised the taxonomy and added the content for others to search. It could be a simple matter of repointing the scraper to the new SubStack online version, but it might be better to try and build something from scratch with better search, and perhaps connect it to Pocket clipper rather than any online newsletter. Anyways, it will still work but it might well stop adding, as there will be no more Revue newsletters from now on.

5. Wordpress and the Disaggregation of Properties

I've been annoyed with the Recruiting Brainfood homepage for some time. It looks tired, it's too hard to discover the resources people want to find and I don't think it does anything to drive subscriber growth. It's also on Wordpress which is a great way to get started on a web property but is way too clunky for the purposes that I need it for. I've had to do the basics, which is basically re-route the subscription options from Revue to the Substack, but the Musk cultural revolution has triggered an impulse in me to completely overhaul the concept - perhaps getting rid of the idea of a centralised place for anything where people spend 'time on site' in favour of a simpler sign posting site to the other places where Brainfood can be consumed.

I'm coming back to the Linktree concept - no nonsense sign posting site which link off into other domains. This should reduce the admin overhead of site maintenance, with resiliency coming not from self hosting but from using services hosted everywhere, so unless space war Kesslerizes the internet or I end up going full Kanye for some reason, there is going to be brainfood around somewhere.

Creative Destruction

It's a dangerous term, most often endorsed by radicals who see revolutions are the only type of change worth doing. Folks who evangelise this way are almost always those who've never directly experienced revolution and as such have no concept of the switching costs involved. However, sometimes revolution is brought to you - and in those circumstances we have no option other than adapt to new realities as quickly as we can. Human beings, I find, for our all our bellyaching, are uncommonly good at this. It may be defining characteristic of our species as much as walking on two legs and caring for our kids.

Anyway, we've got to embrace it, and the changes set into motion by Elon Musk this week should mean more and better brainfood for everybody here. PS: subscribe to the SubStack if you haven't already.

Out of the kitchen, onto the lounge....??

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What's in the News?

Eightfold launch Talent Flex

Eightfold are on an interesting trajectory. Backed by some of the leading investors, endorsed by some of the most prominent thought leaders, they are capable to launching major products that address the needs of enterprise customers today. Surprised they have not made a bigger splash in Europe so far - I am sure that that will come. HCM have a great summary of users can expect - have a read here

Jobandtalent raise - again!

Speaking of Europe, another raise for the Madrid based temp worker platform, this time a $500 million at a $2.35 Billion valuation - got to be one of the biggest valuations in the WorkTech market in Europe. Plan is to conquer the US though, so lets see how they get on with that. Recruiting Blogs have the report.

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?

Come on folks, we need some recruiting supplier or vendor to take advantage of this space by simply making an offer to the community. Can you give us 25% off something? Of course you can, we know about the mark up! Free advertising for anyone who steps up - comment below with what you've got.

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?

Caught In The Act: Behind the Scenes of a Candidate Fraud Detection Interview, Mon 7th Nov, 2.30pm GMT

Excited for this second parter on Candidate Fraud; I think its a topic which is about to go mainstream as we are beginning to be aware not only how prevalent candidate fraud is, but also how little we can do to prevent it. I'm with FloCareer who are going to be bringing a 'behind-the-scenes' view on how they have detected 10% of remote video interviews being potentially fraudulent. Must attend folks - later this afternoon folks - register here!

Talent Attraction, Development and Retention as New Worlds Emerge, Tue 8th Nov, 12pm

Jumping into this one with two feet - and very likely will be out of my depth, as we will be wandering far and wide, from TA to global geopolitics and the mood of the moment. Garry Turner (HEXO Change) and Sahana Chattopadhyay (Proteeti) will be having a conversation no doubt with contesting views but always in convivial atmosphere! Register here

The Champions of Talent: Empowering Recruiters and Elevating Recruiter Experience, Nov 10th, 10.30 EDT / 4.30pm GMT

The recruiter experience matters folks! It's impossible to conduct quality recruitment if your TA team are stressed, overworked and suffering from low morale. Our first step has to be to create an environment where our colleagues are focus on the most high value work, and get away from the mundane administration. How have employers achieved this? I'm speaking with Mitzy Bueno, Candidate Experience Senior Manager at Pfizer to find out. Register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep180 - Is Boolean Broken? Latest Update from Google, Fri 11th November, 2pm GMT

Lots going on with search atm - every recruiter I am speaking to is reporting unexpected results, broken searches and boolean operators which no longer operate. There is no better investigator of these trends than Irina Shamaeva, Founder (Braingain) perhaps the only person who could post a blog about Google search and actually have Google's search product team chime in on comments. If you're a sourcer, you're going to find out a lot about how search engines work today and how they are changing for tomorrow. Alla Pavlova, Recruiter (Riot Games) in the co-pilot seat - register here!

How Tech Layoffs Are Impacting the Developer Talent Gap, Weds 16th Nov, 3.00pm GMT / 8am PST

Big Tech Winter is here - I think we always knew it was coming - but there is now no denying the truth of it. How will hiring slow down / hiring freezes at the big tech companies, along with curtailed growth plans for the VC backed startups, impact how we hire for tech? Delighted to be joining this session with Raoul Tawadey, GM (Terminal), Anton Boner (Commercial Director), Screenloop, Christine Ng, Head of Talent & Media (Quantum Motion) and Gianluca Rosania, Head of Talent (Bitpanda). Register here

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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Whose Story? Tunde Makinde, Freelance Recruiter

I first got to know Tunde through his comments and posts online - maybe this is the new way to meet people? We hadn't shared a conversation before now, so it became obvious that one of the ways to get to know people better is to invite them to join the Brainfood Tribune. I asked Tunde 20 questions - here are his answers.

If you are interested in telling your story - and in raising your profile (hint: job seekers) then you are welcome to participate in the Brainfood Tribune. Simply comment below and let me know that you want in.

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Who's Moving?

Stan Rolfe joins Keywords Studios as Regional Talent Acquisition Lead - APAC. Back into the high tech, gaming space, I think Stan might've been one of the first to talk about AR / VR back in the day. Great to see the career journey hombre - hope we can catch up soon.

Enrico Heidelberg, joins BrightStar Studios, having previously lead active recruiting operations at Riot Games, GameHouse, Spil Games and more. I doubt whether many recruiters out there have this type of depth and breadth of market knowledge. This is the stuff the you can't automate folks. Congrats Enrico!

Jan Tegze joins Tricentis as Director of Technical Recruiting, after having spent leading recruiting for such companies as Invicti Security and Solar Winds. I'm sure everyone who reads this newsletter knows Jan - one of the most prolific, generous and impactful people in our industry. Any recruitment function will get better having him lead it!

Micole Garatti joins Fama Technologies as Director of Content Marketing, having previously led the content marketing at HR tech companies such as Aspect43, Talview and Fairygodboss. Great to see Micole stay in the industry, she is one of the few who really gets it when it comes to conversational content!

John Rose joins Volvo Cars as Senior Sourcer. One of the great people in the recruiting industry, John brings not only a wealth of experience and expertise to any employer smart enough to hire him, but also a fantastic personality who will mesh well with anyone. Great to see this move John!

Kelly Perry goes up to Head of HR Business Partners at Awin Global, Victoria Nadolski goes up to Lead Talent Acquisition Manager at DKB Code Factory and finally Bradley Franks who goes to Head of Sales at our buddies Applied - congratulations all!

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?

Thomas Moes, Founder of Homerun, is looking for job seekers, recruiters and coaches to beta test a new product. If you fit into this category, and want to get early access to a potentially cool new tool, comment below or get in touch with Thomas directly.

Vincens Riber Mink has built a dynamic interview question generator, Trovinto, which looks like it might be of great value for recruiters and hiring managers who want to upgrade their interviewing with some industry relevant questions. Early stages, so all are welcome to give it a try here - feedback to Vincens directly or via comment below.

Remco Strijdonk is building as Recruiter Directory - RecruiterSpot. Pretty much a no brainer for recruitment agencies to be registered on this - free to get a profile, and free to any customer browsing for agency support, as it is currently in Beta. Send en email to remco@recruiterspot.com for a free featured profile.

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

OK so an interesting week then. Lots of change externally, plenty of changes internally. Sometimes it feels like extra work but it can also be a great excuse to refresh the existing apparatus and ensure that what you're doing is fit for purpose. I should probably do an annual review of this, not only RBF but perhaps other aspects of life also. It is too easy to become comfortable and staid, don't you think?

See you next week folks

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.