Recruiting Brainfood - Issue 357

Big tech's 'fake work' problem, autonomous transportation as a force multiplier for productivity, LinkedIn recommendations X-ray and the ethics of using LinkedIn as a dating app

This week’s Brainfood is supported by our friends Datapeople.

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SPONSORS

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Friends,

Brainfood Tribune - I think this is great for anyone community member who is looking for work. I profile finished pieces in This Week, In Recruiting every week and you end up with a document which you can share with prospective employers. Do you want to get involved? Comment below if you do 👊

Thanks to Garry Turner, Richard Bradley, Joey NK Koksal, Kevin Green, Neil Ray, Bas van de Haterd, Vicki Saunders, Rob Walker, Alexandra Gyetvai, Charlotte Lucy Hall and Dave Hazlehurst for your public endorsement of all things brainfood - so important to keep the newsletter going. Scores updated on the Brainfood Hall of Fame!

Can you help? Share this newsletter with your recruiter team mates and have them sign up - thanks 🙏

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

Well it looks like we generally fell for hype, we decisively voted for LK99 has the most impactful scientific breakthrough, only to find that it has now been confirmed that it never really happened in the way we all hoped it would.

Still, what a thrilling week of scientific discovery that has been, especially on how openly sharing replication efforts lead ultimately led to the correction, a vastly superior process than the corrupted ‘peer review’. Thanks for voting everyone (btw the 2151 figure is definitely a bug) - make sure you scroll to the end of the newsletter vote on this week’s issue.

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Founders Focus - Ep39 - Raj Mukherjee, VP & GM of Indeed

When the history of recruitment technology is written, Indeed will have it’s own chapter. One of the few organisations whose product roadmap can change other companies roadmaps, 2023 has been a year of massive change for the business. We’re going to up front and personal with none other than Raj Mukherjee, VP & GM of Indeed, and hear about how those decisions were made and what we can expect from the company in 2023 and beyond. Must watch folks - Thursday 17th August, 3pm BST. Register here

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Brainfood Live On Air - Ep219 - Expanding Scope: from TA to TA+

As the priorities of organisations shift, it is critical that we in TA & HR understand what that means for the roles that we play. Leaner, more agile, more resilient businesses directly means ‘less FTE’, which in turn means less ‘acquisition’. We’re going to talk to TA leaders who have expanded scope and learn how they did it and why more people should do the same. Friday 18th August, 2pm BST. Register here

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The Brainfood

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1. Autonomous Taxis May Have The Most Impact On GDP Of Any Innovation In History

Did you know that the cost-per-mile of a personally own vehicle had stayed at $0.70 per mile since the Model-T Ford? The argument from this research piece from Ark Invest (download the PDF here) is that automating transportation will radically reduce this cost, with profound implications for freight, mobility, consumption, safety and time. What might the cumulative productivity gains be if we convert the billions of hours of commute time to actual add value endeavour - or better yet, give it back to the people so they can do non-market stuff like looking after family and building community? Fascinating brainfood. H/T to brainfooder Trevor Vas for the share

SOCIETY

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2. Which US Workers Are Most Exposed by AI?

The other side of ‘productivity gains’ is of course, widespread displacement of human beings doing the work. What are the millions of people who currently drive for a living going to be doing when we have autonomous vehicles? Pew Research Centre with a Goldman Sachs-like research piece, breaking down jobs into tasks, scoring how significant these tasks are and then assessing how exposed they are to AI. Interesting twist is overlaying of demographic data. McKinsey incidentally also have a similar report out - Generative AI and the Future of Work in America. Read both of these as companion pieces, H/T to brainfooder Randy Bailey for the share

FUTURE OF WORK

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3. Google Results About You

Google’s original mission to ‘organise the world’s information and make it useful for people’ crashes headlong into values of privacy and security with this latest update, which enables everyone to Google results about you and request removal of contact information. We probably have a Janus-like perspective on this - as individuals we might welcome it, but as sourcers, this will become another point of friction to candidate engagement. H/T to brainfooder Brian Fink for the share in the online community

PS: US only atm, so VPN to check out beta

SOURCING

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4. The Reality of Big Tech's 'Fake work' Problem

"I think COVID was an accelerator for fake work because a lot of these tech companies hired. Then they weren't sure what to do with a lot of the people,"

Fascinating tale of misaligned incentives in organisations which grew too big, too fast. Switching between teams (a form of internal mobility…), empire building by managers inflating headcount and the individual career incentives in working in the latest, newest techniques and technologies as opposed to doing what is right for the organisation. Any of this sound familiar?

CULTURE

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5. We’ve Got You Covered: Employer vs Employee Responses to Dobbs vs Jackson

Does culture war in the US have implications for talent attraction and employer branding? Fascinating paper from brainfooder Pawel Adrjan exploring how demographic and political composition of organisations responded to US Supreme Court ruling overturning federal right to abortion. This will become a canonical piece of research, must read folks.

D&I

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6. LinkedIn, Do You Have Any Recommendations?

It might not surprise you to know that I am the most endorsed man on LinkedIn (for LinkedIn endorsements…) but I - like almost everyone else on the platform - have generally forgotten about this early social verification feature from LinkedIn. Not so brainfooder Mike Santoro, who has figured out the boolean search string to X-ray candidates who have them.

SOURCING

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7. Woman Accused of Being ‘unprofessional’ after LinkedIn Confession

Does LinkedIn really have ‘great filters?’ I’m sure most of us would instinctively say no, but compared to dating apps, it probably does provide more detailed, relevant information for the dating game - education, professional attainment, status and wealth. TikToker Candilicious has been put on blast last week for ‘mis-using’ the platform to find ‘A-grade men’. Maybe a Brainfood Live topic to explore - is there a right / wrong way to use social media platforms, and if so, who decides this? Let me know in comments if this is worth doing.

SOCIETY

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8. Global Office Real Estate Perspective Aug 2023

Cool interactive from JLL, showing the rates of change in office rental space. WFH is global phenomenon but unevenly spread across regions and even within countries. H/T to brainfooder Simon McSorley for the share in the online community

REMOTE WORKING

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9. AI Is Booming in China, But Its Grads Are Trapped in a Talent Gap

Something very interesting is happening in the global AI sector: demand of AI talent remains sky high, but it is not being met by the surplus of graduates entering the market: employers are looking for experienced contributors, ahead of both juniors who need training and hands off management who have left the work behind. Happy are those who have hit that sweet spot. And not a China only problem, either as youth unemployment appearing to be a global phenomena

AI

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10. Canonical’s Really Long and Complex Interview Process

Speaking of canonical earlier, this screed from a Redditor criticising Canonical’s interview process is a wonderful example of how we can get insight into how candidates feel when we put them through a hiring process. Some great comment replies too, including one insight about lowering the cost of bad hire, rather than lower the rate of bad hire. Final bit of fun, Canonical’s CEO chimes in with a lengthy response confirming the accuracy of OP’s post and defending the hiring policy. It’s an education folks.

CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

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The Podcasts

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11. Making Sense of Generational Stereotypes at Work

Age-ism is real (we’re doing a Brainfood Live on this next month, register here), but we’re not going to solve the inequity that come from it by denying the reality that different life experiences don’t create different preponderances. Nuanced and valuable conversation on generational stereotypes from McKinsey, impressive straight talking from the guests. Have a listen

D&I

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12. The Dark Side of H1B Visa

Being on an employer dependent visa makes employees indentured to that employer, perversely making them more attractive to employers who want to roll with the hire and fire approach. We’re seeing this in our own industry where community members find themselves having a desperately short timeline to find a new job in case of redundancy. Great explainer video on how H1B’s work, from the immigrant workers POV

D&I

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13. How Austerity Ruined Britains Economy

UK becoming the sick man of Europe is often blamed on Brexit or Covid but perhaps the groundwork for it was laid in the government response to the Great Financial Crisis, a decade long period of austerity which throttled economic growth, denuded state capacity and underinvested in critical infrastructure - energy, food, transport - which is all now coming home to roost. Excellent YouTube channel.

ECONOMY

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End Note

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We going to go back on the Linkedin-as-a-dating app story.

I’m reminded of a friend of mine who actually did the reverse of this and used Tinder as a business development channel, strategically matching with men who were founders / CEO’s types. Wasn’t sure of the ethics then and I’m not sure now in this case, but I keep going back to the known fact that almost all social networks started as one thing, only for users to repurpose them for their own needs.

What do we think of Candilicious and her (mis) usage of LinkedIn? Vote on the choices below and let me know what the community thinks

Ok that’s it

Thanks for reading everybody

Have a great week

Hung