The August Jobs Report Is In. Here’s What It Tells Us About the Fall Hiring Market
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about whether we would actually see the traditional “September Surge” in hiring this year. Now we have another important piece of the puzzle: the August jobs report. The U.S. added 162,000 jobs in August, significantly stronger than expected. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, and June and July were revised […]
Posting and Praying Won’t Win Talent. Strategic Preying Will.
Recruiting has quietly become one of the most reactive functions in business. Post the role. Turn on LinkedIn Easy Apply. Push it to job boards. Wait for applicants. Hope the right person appears. That is not strategic recruiting. That is posting and praying. And while companies are busy collecting hundreds of applications, their competitors are […]
“Ghost jobs” used to be called evergreen requisitions but the rebrand didn’t fix the problem
For years, evergreen postings were used to build pipelines, signal growth, or prepare for anticipated hiring. Internally, they felt strategic. Externally, candidates were applying to roles that were never approved, funded, or actively open. That gap is no longer just a candidate experience issue, it’s becoming a compliance and credibility risk. Across the U.S., hiring […]
Small Businesses Are Quietly Winning the Talent Game (Here’s Why)
There’s always been a narrative out there that small businesses can’t compete for talent. They don’t have the brand recognition. They can’t match corporate salaries. They don’t have the same resources. And yet… that’s not what I’m seeing in the current market. Many of the strongest hires I’ve been a part of lately are going […]
The Hiring Hangover: What Comes After the Talent Binge
Remember 2021? Talent was the hottest commodity on the planet. Companies, flush with pandemic-era capital and optimistic growth projections, went on a hiring spree unlike anything we’d seen in a generation. Engineering teams doubled. Operations headcount ballooned. “Move fast and hire everyone” became the unofficial motto of the era. Then reality arrived. The Hangover Sets […]
Your Hiring Manager Has Never Been Trained to Interview. And It’s Costing You Millions.
Remember when “manager” meant the person who decided who got hired? It still does. We just stopped pretending they were qualified to do it. I spent twenty years inside Talent Acquisition before I went out on my own. I sat through the calibration meetings. I wrote the offer letters. I owned the funnel metrics. I […]
Why Hiring Feels Harder Than Ever for Everyone Involved
Despite what the headlines tell us, there is a growing sense of frustration in today’s job market. Job seekers are frustrated because they can’t seem to land interviews, even after submitting hundreds of applications. Employers are frustrated because they can’t find qualified candidates, despite receiving hundreds of applications. Recruiters are frustrated because hiring processes are […]
Is a 4-Year College Degree Necessary? Maybe Not.
High school graduation season is here, and with it comes a flood of party invitations—and big decisions about the future. For many families, this time also sparks deep conversations about what’s next for their graduates. Should they go to college? Jump into the workforce? Pursue something different? I had a conversation recently with a friend […]
Is ChatGPT a Good Way to Write a Cover Letter?
With AI tools like ChatGPT becoming increasingly popular in job searching, one trend gaining traction is using AI to write cover letters. Candidates are turning to artificial intelligence to save time, streamline their applications, and ensure their language is polished and professional. But this raises a more fundamental question: Does anyone even read cover letters […]
How to Land a Job Faster (and How to Hire Employees Faster)
At Reflex Recruiting, we’ve seen it all—booming job markets, tight hiring seasons, talent shortages, and everything in between. If you’re a job seeker struggling to land your next role or a business owner frustrated by the talent pool, it’s time for some real talk: the job market is not static, and neither should your expectations […]