Lowlights from The 10 Minute Talent Rant
Tomorrow will mark the 100th episode of The 10 Minute Talent Rant. Let’s celebrate by looking at the 5 worst takes we’ve made so far. 👇
👉1. Episode 4 “Maybe Contract-To-Hire Isn’t Dead? – September 23, 2020
Apparently pre-covid contract to hire was dead. I think? I barely remember those days. Seems like forever ago.
I do know that in boom markets, it becomes less popular. If you can land a perm hire job, why would anyone take a contract? And so employers are forced into more perm hire starts due to competitive pressure.
But in Fall 2020, with the largest spike in unemployment we’ve seen in our lifetimes (and hopefully ever), when hiring started to come back, contract-to-hire was wildly popular. So in our 4th podcast, we declared it wasn’t dead.
Absolutely genius take. 4 stars.
👉2. Episode 5 “Can LinkedIn Stories Make Recruiting Easier?” – October 7, 2020
We seriously followed up that banger by advocating that LinkedIn Stories might benefit recruiting.
You probably don’t even remember Stories. Yeah they actually tried the Snapchat/Instagram thing for a minute then realized how boring this place is.
I will say: my ongoing Stories series “James Reads Bad Glassdoor Reviews” was top shelf stuff.
They killed the feature in September 2021.
👉3. Episode 23 “Unlimited PTO is a Scam” – July 14th, 2021
This one is a bit more nuanced. In reality, “Unlimited PTO Can Be a Scam” would have been accurate, but no one likes a weak title.
Tldr – Yes, it is true that some companies do unlimited PTO because it saves on payouts when people leave. And some companies say you have unlimited PTO but the workload and social pressure don’t accommodate and people actually work more time.
But…that’s not all companies. In fact we had several reach out – both leaders and employees – who work at great places with unlimited PTO. Places that understand the need to unplug, recharge, and even mandate people take time off.
Also we went to unlimited PTO and haven’t heard a single complaint, so there’s that. (Right team? Hello? Is this thing on?)
👉4. Episode 51 “Will Gen Z Kill Bad Companies?” – September 21th, 2022
But I can’t think of a bigger “we’re in a hiring bubble” indicator than thinking junior level employees were going to be the catalyst for a toxic culture clean up.
I mean, we wanted that to happen. Hiring demand was so high and Gen Z hadn’t yet had their dreams crushed like the rest of us, I guess it seemed plausible?
Anyway…wait. Yes, I can think of a better bubble indicator…
👉5. Episode 35 “There’s Not Enough Experienced Hires To Go Around” – January 19th, 2022
Oof. This didn’t age well. I mean my promo copy for this show pretty much said it all:
“Record setting VC funding + Remote training is difficult + Low unemployment = There’s not enough experienced hires to go around”
I guess under those exact conditions, the Office Dork™️ hiring bubble of 2021-2022 made perfect sense.
On the bright side, if you’re always right it’s because you’re never really saying anything.🤷♂️
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
