Traditional job postings are dead.

Duh.

Traditional job postings are dead. (Maybe they were never alive to begin with.)

3 reasons why & 2 things to focus on:

1. Job descriptions were never designed to attract. Only to cover HR’s ass.

Shout out to Mitch Sullivan, who’s long said: job descriptions are not job ads.

Legal disclaimers. Bloated jargon. Unrealistic wish lists. Usually copy-pasted.

Thinking compliance-driven copy is effective marketing is silly. And somehow, still common.

Mitch explains it better than I can, so go check him out. Moving on…

2. Most top talent isn’t looking. They’re listening.

Without starting a flame war over what qualifies as “top talent,” I think we can all agree that the people scrolling job boards are either not working or really, really hate their job. Anyone engaged in work is…working.

And yes, there are great people who are unemployed or hate their boss! But they’re a small slice of the total talent pool.

The point is this: as a marketing tool, job ads only pop up with a sliver of the population because you have to actively seek them out. Most people aren’t doing that.

3. AI inverted the candidate pipeline.

I won’t rehash how AI lets job seekers apply to hundreds of jobs in 1 click, breaking the inbound funnel. (Job seekers, if you thought competing against a hundred other candidates was bad, now it’s a thousand.)

But here’s the part most miss:

👉Sending a job application is not the end of the research process for job seekers, it’s the beginning.

Every recruiter is familiar with that candidate who applied, and when connecting with them live, doesn’t really remember doing so. Not a new concept.

But it’s happening all the time now.

Some people research companies thoroughly before applying. Others bang the send button and figure it out later.

The first group shrank. The second exploded.

Which means: most applicants don’t know who you are. Let alone care.

Meaning:

👉Talent acquisition teams need to sell to their inbound candidates. Far more than they used to.

This in itself pops up in two ways:

1. Content is not only the top of the funnel, but sells though the funnel.

I know, I know. “Guy on LinkedIn says content matters. Shocker.” But it does.

But it is. Since 2021, 50% of Hirewell’s new hires first heard of us through content. Not a job posting.

Video job briefs. Personalized voice DMs. Thought leadership pieces by execs/hiring managers. And my personal favorite: an FAQ.

(Literally write down every question interviewees ask you, answer them all, post them on your web site and pieces of it on social media.)

Attracting talent has to occur where they hang out. Not where AI is spamming their resumes.

2. Recruiters have to actually recruit inbound candidates.

No offense to newbie recruiters, we all had to start somewhere.

The days of passively scheduling inbound applicants are over.

👉You have to headhunt them. Just like your outbound candidates. Wild.