Week of February 17th, 2025
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Editor Note: As a reminder, we’re still on our two-week hiatus. This is why the industry news is absent, specific jobs, and the events haven’t been updated. The regularly scheduled programming will return next week.
Art or Output?
In our newsletter survey for the Week of February 3rd, we asked our community about their biggest RecOps challenges. The overwhelming response? "Everything with AI." Given the current landscape, this resonates deeply.
Why could "Everything with AI" win?
Well, that's quite the loaded question! While we didn't get to follow up (blame our hiatus), AI dominates every tech conversation these days. Let's explore what's really keeping us up at night, both from the human side and the technical trenches.
Human Reasons:
Self-preservation: There's a lot of anxiety and fearmongering around AI replacing jobs. While we're not here to predict the future, we can't ignore how these conversations shape our perspective and influence our decisions.
Information maze: Between LinkedIn posts, vendor pitches, and daily headlines, AI information is coming at us from every direction. It's getting harder to separate reality from hype, leading to some interesting conversations about capabilities that don't quite exist yet.
The overwhelm factor: Every morning brings a new "AI revolution." It's exhausting, but we can't exactly hit pause on keeping up with these changes.
Technical Reasons:
The enablement puzzle: We're all learning to navigate this new landscape, from mastering capabilities to teaching our teams. Meanwhile, we're running into what we’re calling the Drone Pilot problem - those early drones that couldn't handle bad weather yet command kept pushing for launches anyway. Information was traveling both directions but both sides felt misunderstood
Evaluation challenges: We've all dabbled with ChatGPT, Claude, and their AI cousins. Maybe we've even found some favorite prompts. But how do we effectively evaluate these tools when we're still figuring out what "good" looks like in our space?
Documentation dilemma: When technology moves this fast, it's tempting to skip the documentation until things settle. But here's the catch - AI tools work best with clear, thoughtful documentation from the start.
Our position: Is it our place to decide what AI where are going to use or do we need to work and influence our stakeholders, who may or may not have their own thoughts.
Well that is a lot of theory…
We know! We promise more specific questions in future surveys.
So what's this about "Art or Output"?
Before our break, we had fascinating conversations with TA leaders that made us consider what this means for RecOps.
Here's something crucial about our field: We simply cannot be change-averse. Change-cautious yes but that distinction matters more than ever. Being change-averse in RecOps is like trying to convince your teams that recruiting doesn’t need thorough data in 2025 - it holds your entire recruiting function back. Change-averse teams dig their heels in, saying "no" to innovation until they're forced to adapt, usually reluctantly.
Being change-cautious? That's where strategy is living in our space. It means constantly researching, evaluating, and staying informed about new tools and approaches. It’s not jumping on every new AI tool that promises to revolutionize recruiting but also not ignoring them. Instead, taking a measured approach - gathering data, running small pilots, and making informed decisions about what actually makes sense for the team. This "not yet" mindset keeps us ahead of trends while avoiding the chaos of implementing every shiny new tool that crosses our path.
AI has moved beyond the "if" conversation to "when." It's not just theoretical anymore - candidates are using it, companies are implementing/using it, and we need to figure out how to make it work effectively for both sides, whether we agree with it or not. We simply have to find ways to avoid letting the John Henry Effect from setting in.
Using a relatable example: Think about craving sushi. Sometimes, you want the full experience - a skilled chef crafting each piece with precision, temperature, and artistry. Other times, you need to grab something quick from the supermarket. Both serve a purpose, right? You are getting sushi. The same applies to our AI approach in recruiting - sometimes you need the high-touch, artisanal experience, and sometimes you just need efficient output.
While recruiting is undoubtedly an art, and getting it wrong can be costly, we have to be flexible. Some situations call for that artistic touch, while others just need efficient results. Our job in RecOps? Design systems that can deliver both.
But what are your thoughts?
Weekly Survey
RecOps - The GPT
RecOps - Available in the OpenAI store and free to use.
Events
Week of February 24th
JobSync’s Roundtable: What Matters & What Doesn't for Candidate Experience in 2025
Findem’s Leveraging Technology for Better Recruiting Outcomes
Week of March 10th
Week of April 28th
Week of May 12th
Week of June 2nd
Talent Collective’s Talentsphere Summit. For an additional 10% off, use the code RECOPS.
Job Search
Additional Resource
ATS/Tool-Specific Job Boards
iCIMS's HR professionals job board aggregates all the HR jobs across their customers
Metaview’s job board highlights companies in their portfolio that use their product
Workable’s job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use Workable
SmartRecruiters’ job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use SR
Denys Dinkevych's remote job board, which aggregates jobs from all the major ATS
Drew Callin’s list of VC and PE job boards for their portfolios (pay attention to the comments too here since there are more)
TrueUp’s Has a fantastic job board filled with information others don’t like the last time the company did a layoff, application experience based on the ATS, and more.
Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search
We’ve consolidated our list of boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out the list here. Kaitlyn Elting also built a generator for you if you are worried about your attention to detail.
Thank you to Steve Levy for contributing so many beautiful and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent boolean and sourcing content.
#YourNextHire / People Looking In the RecOps Community
Are you a RecOps professional looking for work? If you have 5 minutes, take the opportunity to complete this quick questionnaire. Not only will you be featured in an upcoming Roundup, it will also help us mention your name when people ask for referrals.
Here is a Google Sheet View for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.
🎉 Reminders and Disclaimers 🎉
If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
Please use this form if you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section. The only condition is you are a RecOps professional.
Disclaimer #1: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author. As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. They are not to be held in perpetuity.
Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one, as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.
Until next week, Regulators 😊