Recruiting Brainfood - Issue 351

Affirmative Action, Immigration, Searching GitHub and how CEO's are thinking in the age of AI

This week’s brainfood is supported by our friends Otta

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Friends,

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you who are going to Recfest this week.

It’s a sign of how big this event has become that a mini-ecosystem of other events and meetups have sprung up in the days preceding the big day, so no doubt I will see some of you at these as well. If you’re visiting the UK from overseas this week and stuck at a loose end in the days before Thursday, let me know (by reply to this email) I will make sure that you get included in what’s going on. At the very least, I will see you all on Thursday 👊

Thanks to Eugène van den Hemel, Joey NK Koksal, Colin Donnery, Kevin Green, Dave Hazlehurst, Matthias Schmeißer, Clair Mohammed, Geraldine Butler-Wright, Nathan Wilson, Juliana Park, Rob Walker, Kelly Hawpe, Clair Mohamed, Alexandra Gyetvai, Laura Johnson and Adam Gordon - thanks for your public endorsement of all things Brainfood - this is essential for keeping this show on the road. Scores updated in the Brainfood Hall of Fame.

Can you help? Share the brainfood with a friend who needs a boost 👇

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

Burn out is a very real phenomenon and employers under estimate the need for a proper rest. Holiday season is upon though and a lot of countries have mandated time off, which I think is probably a very good idea. Brainfooders like the beach and why not - you can’t do much other than relax on it!

Thanks for all who voted on this; it looks like this more personal polls are popular, so I’ll do more of them. I think it helps us get to know each other better.

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Brainfood Live On Air - Ep213 - Recruiters Moving On Up; Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Fresh from Recfest the day before, we’re getting together with a load of recruiters to talk about imposter syndrome - what is it, how does it affect us, do is happen to us equally and how do we combat it. Some of the panelists will have given their first public speeches the day before, so perfect timing to see how it has all gone. If you have ever felt like an imposter, then this show is for you. We’re on Friday 7th July, 2pm. Register here

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The Brainfood

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1. CEO Decision Making in the Age of AI

Dismissing AI is a luxury that TA / HR can ill afford, as top down pressure from C-suite will ensure our organisations become AI-enabled, with or without our contribution. The window of opportunity for us to lead is open, but closing fast. 3,000 CEO’s give their verdict in this report from IBM. Will we grasp this opportunity, or spurn it and suffer the consequences? H/T to brainfooder Martyn Redstone for the share in the online community.

AI

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2. Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2023

We’ve heard from the bosses, what about the workers? Timely survey report from PwC on the global workforce hopes and fears; interestingly, it seems that workers are also pretty much pro-AI, though this might be myopic belief that disintermediation always effect someone else. Readable website, be good if they provided a PDF also but nevermind. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the online community.

CULTURE

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3. Job Posts That Feature Skills Attract More Applicants, According to LinkedIn Data

Job posts with skills in the requirements section are correlated with an 11% increase in the view-to-apply rate, compared with job posts that don’t list skills among the requirements.

…yet doesn’t this chafe against the current consensus TA / HR view that putting more skills in requirements is a bad thing because it leads to too many people erroneously self selecting out? Makes you wonder how many of the things we like to think are true are luxury beliefs which dominate our domain but do not reflect what normal people believe or how they behave. Testable hypothesis this one, so do an A/B on it.

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

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4. Lets Search on GitHub

Been a while since we’ve featured a Boolean Strings post in brainfood, as I’ve basically been distracted by AI, but it remains a treasure trove of sourcing hacks which every recruiter who actively searches for candidates should be reading. This post, looks like a decent workaround on finding Github email profiles. Must read for any tech sourcer.

SOURCING

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5. Anywhere Workers

Beautifully presented research from micro-tasking site Fiverr, who surveyed their worker population on remote work. Common theme amongst these insights? On-premise trends seem to follow the remote work (s/w engineers earn most, gender income gap exists etc). And as, we discussed last week, loneliness and lack of community is the No1 issue for the full time remote.

REMOTE WORKING

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6. Returning for Good

Fascinating report from office design company Unispace, on where we are at with the remote vs on premise conversation. Discrepancies between employer perceptions and employee desires is hard to explain but they resonate as true; we may have fundamental incompatibilities based on the role we adopt in this discussion. Decent TA, onboarding and retention sections too.

REMOTE WORKING

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7. Techniques for Building Rapport with Tech Candidates

Some great do-it-today tips from brainfooder Tatev Blbulyan, on how to build great relationships with your candidates. In truth, the techniques could be applied as well to any relationship, and those people who say are ‘naturally’ charming are simply people who have developed these techniques in their own way. Great reminders - the next step is, how do we actually get great that these techniques?

ENGAGEMENT

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8. US Supreme Court Restricts Affirmative Action on College Admissions

The ongoing culture war in the US shines are light on different philosophical approaches in handling inequity in society, namely, is more or less information on applicants the best way to create fairer assessment and acceptance conditions? Worth thinking about as this ruling cascades through academia, with downstream impact on DEIB at company level. And given US outsized influence on the propagation of cultural values, toward everyone else. Might be worth another Brainfood Live on this, perhaps a cross cultural comparison on how different countries handle DEIB - let me know if you think this is a good idea.

D&I

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9. The AI Apocalypse: A Scorecard

Unusual, fun and useful article, comparing how leading thinkers on AI measure up on the big questions animating the debate, specifically, is AI an existential threat to humanity. As we use the tools these people build, this article might be worth referring back to. It’s also a very good way of understanding the contours of arguments which might otherwise be impenetrable to us lay people. Good read, great brainfood

AI

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10. They Left Teaching in Search of a Better Life. Did They Find It?

Technology innovation changes the work that humans do, and switching career paths is going to be something that many of the people we know - perhaps many of us also - might soon need to be thinking about. This article interviewing former teachers who gave it up in search for something better presents the challenge and dilemma in very real way. Not sure what lessons we can draw from it, but surely ‘career agility’ is something we all have to cultivate. Have a read and think

SOCIETY

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The Podcasts

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11. From Nigeria to Morocco - In Search of a Better Life in Europe

One hour documentary by director Ike Nnaebue, who retraces the steps he took as an 18 year old when he left home in Nigeria to an uncertain future in Europe. In the Global North, immigration is all too often a story told from only one side; here’s a vivid chance to see what it is like from the other. It’s great watch from a very decent YouTube channel ran by Deutsche Welle

SOCIETY

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12. Canada Tech Talent Strategy

Staying with immigration, the big news of the week was Canada’s reform of it’s already generous immigration laws, which now actively targets H1B’s (+family) in the US, who are now able to immediately travel north and gain better rights and security. This is talent attraction at national scale, smart and aggressive, and taking advantage of anti-immigration hysteria south of the border. Watch the announcement here, and the full text here

EMPLOYER BRANDING

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13. Germany New Immigration Bill

Germany, despite being the magnet for EU talent, still cannot find enough skilled workers to fulfil the functions in the tangible economy: nurses, construction workers, electricians, plumbers. There is a theory that the Global North has over educated itself, homogenised its labour force and elevated expectations such that work in the tangible economy is no longer considered fit for the natives. How governments respond to this challenge will probably be another line of division in the geopolitics of the near future. 60 second video, easy watch.

SOCIETY

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End Note

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Last Friday’s conversation on Demographic Crisis was one of the best we’ve had on Brainfood Live. The debate has continued to get me thinking about how the real talent pipeline is actually having enough kids who turn into tax paying adults who do the heavy lifting in supporting the rest of society. Immigration has been one way to solve the problem, but this has come with political challenges, as well as the sense of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Let’s have a think amongst us on how we solve for this problem - how do you think we best resolve the dilemma of societies age-ing, not having enough kids to replace those who die and ultimately running out of tax payers to support the rest of us?

That’s it - thanks for reading.

Have a great week everyone

Hung