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- Gen Z hates your career page
Signal Summary: Gen Z wants job TikTok-style job sites, hiring’s moving slower than a hungover turtle, summer’s secretly the hottest time to snag talent, and sometimes cocaine can’t even kill a job offer.
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HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK ↓
SIGNAL 1
Fortune 500 Job Sites Are Older Than Your Mom’s Myspace
The disconnect: 47% of younger workers (18-34) want career sites that learn their preferences like social media algos, but 87% of Fortune 500 companies aren’t delivering.
What's broken:
88% don’t suggest related jobs based on skills
83% lack job recommendation chatbots
76% can’t detect location for nearly jobs
Meanwhile, the cool kids are building solutions:
Boostie turns your boring ATS into targeted ad campaigns that hunt passive talent across the web
Staffing Future deploys AI matching that makes applying feel as smooth as ordering an Uber
SourceFlow builds recruitment sites with Google-level job search that predicts what candidates want before they finish typing
Signal → Strategy: Review the above platforms while your competitors insist their 2005 career sites are “perfectly fine”. First-mover advantage expires fast.
Go deeper: Phenom’s 2025 Candidate Experience Report
SIGNAL 2
Hiring has officially become slower than the McFlurry machine
Just in: 93% of managers say hiring takes longer now than two years ago. Shocking absolutely no one who's tried to fill a role recently.
The bottlenecks:
Evaluating applications (51%): Drowning in resumes like it’s a bad episode of Hoarders
Check references (47%): Because apparently we still need to call Karen’s old boss from 2012
Scheduling and conducting interviews (43%): Calendar Tetris is no joke.
Signal → Strategy: Pitch contract staffing as hiring insurance. Market 3-6 month "try before you buy" arrangements that reduce permanent hiring mistakes while keeping projects moving during endless evaluation cycles.
Go deeper: Robert Half Hiring Research
SIGNAL 3
Summer recruiting is having its main character moment
The opportunity: August is peak job-seeker season, with July and June in the top 4. While your competitors are posting #BeachDay selfies, the talent pool’s overflowing with:
Burned-out teachers (55% are ready to yeet their chalk and run).
Recent grads realizing their anthropology degree buys jack sh!t.
Layoff victims from corporate and government purges looking for a comeback.
Signal → Strategy: Host "Beat the Heat" recruiting BBQs at your office. Invite burned-out teachers, new grads, and passive candidates for casual Friday afternoon events where they can network without the pressure of formal interviews. Food trucks, good vibes, and zero competitors.
RECRUITING CONFESSIONAL
When Cocaine Couldn’t Kill a Hire
Recruiting Confessional: A weekly series featuring anonymous stories from recruiting and staffing professionals. Submit yours here.
The Setup: Working an accounting role for a healthcare client. Found the perfect candidate; experienced, great interviews, cultural fit. Guy quits his job, accepts the offer, agrees to drug screening. Smooth sailing…or so I thought.
The Plot Twist: Drug test comes back positive for cocaine. I call him expecting some explanation, maybe a mix-up with medication. Nope. His response: “I didn’t think it would still be in my system.” That’s it. That’s his entire defense strategy.
The Shock: I call the client, expecting to restart the search. Instead: “So when can he start?” I’m thinking I misheard. Nope. They wanted to proceed anyway. Apparently, his pivot table skills outweighed his extracurricular activities.
The Aftermath: Guy worked there for years. Still connected on LinkedIn. Probably still posts motivational Monday content about “overcoming challenges.”
The Lesson: Sometimes the client’s definition of “deal-breaker” is more flexible than you think. Also, maybe don’t assume your weekend activities have cleared your system by Monday.
Got a story? Submit yours here
SHARE THE SIGNALS
3 people you should share these signals with:
Your friend’s website that screams ClipArt and Comic Sans
The prospect who takes 3 months to fill a receptionist role
Your recruiters who think “summer is dead”
WEEKLY POLL
When was the last time you updated your careers page? |