Recruiting Braingfood - Issue 443

The Evolution of Talent Acquisition, Anthropic's taxonomy of AI-able tasks, How to Viral on LinkedIn, getting BANNED from LinkedIn and a CTA for young workers to embrace RTO...

Apr 06, 2025

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Friends,

I’m in Hong Kong and delighted to be spending time with family, even though this can also come with its challenges 🤣. For real though, its great to reconnect with your roots, I think especially as a person who travels as much as I do. Obviously I need to improve my Canto, so if anyone speaks Cantonese and wants to help me improve, reach out!

Going to pop over the border tomorrow to visit Shenzhen - need to spend some proper time in that city, I’m ashamed IShowSpeed got there before I did. Anyways, here in this part of the world til end of April, so let me know if you’re about and want to chat.

Thanks to: Joey NK Koksal, Eugene van den Hemel, Rob Walker, Lyndsey Taylor, Kanwar Singh Kohli, Alexeuy Geht, Juliana Park, Nathan Connolly, Katrina Kibben, Liv Jenkins, Paul McArdle and Dave Hazelhurst - your public endorsement of all things brainfood keeps this show on the road - cheers!

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What Do Brainfooders Think?

Well that was the lowest poll participation we’ve ever had 🤣. I think in large part this was because it was a poorly phrased question and maybe weird answer options. Thanks for all those who voted anyway - I think we get a decent picture…we think that AI is coming and vendors are going to deliver it 👊

Brainfood On Tour & Brainfood Live On Air

Double header for this week - make sure you tune into Wednesday show How to Hire in China in 2025 & Beyond - it’s the second (or first) largest by economy in the world and clearly we don’t know enough about it. Lets talk to local candidates, hiring managers and consultants on what it is to hire in the People’s Republic - Wednesday 9th April, 1pm BST - register here.

Sourcing Automation: What can you do in 2025? - must attend folks. Some live demo’s what a single recruiter can do to massively scale up your efficiency. We can sit here and wait for a vendor to roll it out to us, but if you want to get ahead of the curve, this one will be an education for you. Friday 11th April, 1pm BST - register here

The Brainfood

1. The Evolution of Talent Acquisition

200+ Talent Acquisition professionals answer TQ Solutions survey on the current vs future state of TA. The first bar chart struck me hardest - these are the skills / activities which we see as growing or declining as AI transforms business organisation. Talent might stay, but the ‘Acquisition’ part might no longer describe what we do. Have a read. PS: well done brainfooder Nadine O’Regan for putting this awesome report together 👊

RECRUITMENT OPERATIONS

2. Deel Spy Confesses to Espionage, Implicates CEO

The Deel Spy story continues to play out in real time, mercilessly pushed by Rippling CEO Parker Conrad, as he tweet threads the alleged spy’s confession which implicates senior execs at Deel, including CEO Alex Bouaziz. Two players in the worktech category, taking competition too far.

CULTURE

3. Why is America Acting this Way on Trade?

Richard Baldwin ability to rise above condemnation and provide a humourous and persuasive argument on how we have collectively arrived at this point is commendable. One of the best commentators on international trade around, he’s well worth a follow on X and LinkedIn. Have a read of this if you want to get context on the drivers behind the trade war launched by Trump 2.0, and the attempt to unwind the system upon which US built is hegemony.

ECONOMY

4. Anthropic Economic Index: Insights from Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Claude Sonnet has become the default model for the STEM community, with a reputation for being the best AI for software development, so watch out for the sample bias in this research. That said, this is an exceptional piece of work outlining how AI is being used, particularly in the classification of tasks. This is a ready-to-go taxonomy which can be repurposed for any project you might on the future of work.

5. Adway Social Recruiting Report 2025

The job applicant tsunami is not likely to abate any time soon, so can innovation in how and where we advertise jobs make difference? Candidates are people, and people spend most of their time on other places in the Internet other than job boards or professional services sites. Report on the state of social recruiting by our friends at Adway - download it here. H/T to brainfooder Sara Dalsfelt for permission to share outside of reg wall 👊

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

6. Most People Post the Wrong Way on LinkedIn…

Count myself amongst the masses! Everyone evolves their own style and I think we fall into a crude form of ‘templating’ when we post on social media. This excellent post by influencer Charlie Hills gives us a theory on how content viralises on LinkedIn. The best news? You don’t know have to believe it, you simply can test it next time you post. H/T to brainfooder Jim Berrisford for the share.

CONTENT MARKETING

7. Are People Bad At Their Jobs....or Are The Jobs Just Bad?

Interesting conjecture: are there bad performers, or do the job conditions increase the likelihood of worker error? The story of the bed frame assembler doesn’t emphatically prove the case either way, but it is worth considering what happens when workers get squeezed by platforms they work for - it’s rational to preserve your energy when you’re getting a bad deal. PS: the understaffed bit is resonant to us in TA too I suspect.

GIG ECONOMY

8. When LinkedIn Is Banning Freedom Of Speech

De-platforming is a form of digital exile which has meaningful negative impact on a person’s quality of life. Hence I read with alarm that my friend and brainfooder Balazs Paroczay had his account permanently banned after posting a passionate yet innocuous message in support of LGBTQ rights following Hungary’s banning of Gay Pride. It is hard to underestimate the harm this ban does to Balazs personal and professional life, as well as to the previously accepted idea that it is ok to voice your opinion on matters of societal import. That Balazs account has now seemingly been restored (well done brainfooder Steve Levy!) is a great relief, but surely it should not require public outcry for decisions like this to be reversed? We need to pressure social media platforms for much greater transparency on how / when accounts get restricted, as well insist on fair methods of appeal for users whose accounts are restricted. Community guidelines must be respected but freedom to express opinion should almost always override 👊

D&I

9. Return to Work (RTW) is a Life Hack for Young Workers!

Brainfooder Tim Sackett with a (predictably enough!) a firecracker of a post extolling the virtues of working on premise for early career talent, whilst simultaneously shaming remote work evangelists for being solipsistic elites protecting professional privilege. Great thread on the post also, make sure you read the comments. In the end, Tim casts light on how remote work helps some more than others, especially those who have already built professional social capital / domain knowledge - mainly by previously working on premise. Worth a brainfood live? Let me know if you’re up for me bringing Tim on the show.

REMOTE WORKING

10. CEO Barometer Beyond Associates 2025

What is the demographic make-up of European CEO’s? Super interesting study from our friends Beyond Associates who profiles the biographies of 600 CEO’s across Europe’s leading companies. From a hiring POV: 67% of CEO’s were internal promotions and less than 15% of the outsiders came from another industry. Is the CEO the position were domain experience & institutional knowledge has more value than for other roles? Probably is…

D&I

The Podcasts

11. In Conversation with Damon Klotz

I’m going to start doing this - impromptu podcasts with people who I am meeting and talking unscripted about the things that matter to us. Delighted to see brainfooder Damon Klotz at Talentpalooza2025 in Melbourne last week and had to take the opportunity blast out this 15 minute chat. Learn about building a purpose led community eco-system, right here.

COMMUNITY

12. 44 Harsh Truths About Human Nature - Naval Ravikant

Confession: I have not yet listened to this podcast. However, I am a fan of Chris Williamson’s interview style and Naval Ravikant always has smart takes to give. Highly circulated podcast, so I’m taking a flyer on this one - have a listen and let me know what you think!

SOCIETY

13. AI Agents, Adoption & China

Substack have a podcast option, which Azeem Azhar has activated and it looks kind of like this. Great conversation with American physicist, entrepreneur and political commentator Steve Hsu an Agentic AI and perhaps more importantly, how AI gets distributed and adopted.

End Note

The Internet gods failed on Brainfood Live last Friday, when the show simply wouldn’t go live no matter how many times we tried to get it out there. We’re going to reschedule that event for May but in the interim, it got me thinking about the topics we’re covering of late. Lets put it to the community to see what you’d like to see most - have a look at the choices below and vote, and if you don’t see your preferred option, comment below on what it is.

Recruiting Brainfood