Do you know what it felt like the last time you fell in love?
I mean, real love?
The kind of love where you talk 42 times per day, in between text and Facebook messages, and feel physical pain from being apart? Ok, maybe for some, it’s been a while, and you didn’t have the texts or Facebook! But, you remember those times when you really didn’t think about anything else or even imagine not seeing the other person the next day, hell, the next hour. Falling “in” love is one of the best parts of love; it doesn’t last that long, and you never get it back.
I hear people all the time say, “I love my job,” and I never used to pay much attention; in fact, I’ve said it myself. The reality is that I don’t love my job. I mean, I like it a whole lot, but I love my wife, I love my kids, and I love Diet Mt. Dew at 7 am on a Monday morning. The important things in life! But my job? I’m not sure about that one. As an HR Pro, I’m supposed to work to get my employees to “love” their jobs. Love.
Want to know the difference between like and love? The next time your significant other tells you, “I love you!” just say in return, “Yeah, I like you as well!” Then get ready for an argument!
Let me go all Dr. Phil on you for a second. Do you know why most relationships fail? No, it’s not cheating. No, it’s not the drugs and/or alcohol. No, it’s not money. No, it’s not that he stops caring. No, it’s not your parents. Ok, stop it. I’ll just tell you!
Relationships fail because expectations aren’t met. It seems logical knowing what we know about how people fall in love and lose their minds. Once that calms down, the real work begins. So, if you expect love to be the love of the first 4-6 months of a relationship, you’re going to be disappointed a whole bunch over and over.
Jobs aren’t much different.
You get a new job, and it’s usually really good! People listen to your opinion. You seem smarter. Hell, you seem better looking (primarily because people are sick of looking at their older co-workers). Everything seems better in a new job. Then you have your one-year anniversary, and you come to find out you’re just like the other idiots you’re working with.
This is when falling in love with your job really begins. When you know about all the stuff, the company hid in the closet. The past employees they think are better and smarter than you, the good old days when they made more money, etc. Now is when you have to put some work into making it work.
I see people all the time moving around to different employers and never seeming to be satisfied. They’re searching. Not for a better job or a better company. They’re searching for that feeling that will last. But it never will, not without them working for it.
The best love has to be worked for. Passion is easy and fleeting. Love is hard to sustain and has to be worked on, but it can last forever.
If you’re a close follower of mass media, we are currently being led to believe that the world is coming undone, and everyone is losing their job. That’s not really the case, so let’s dig into some reasons why that is…
Enjoy your day. Enjoy your weekend. Keep hiring great talent that produces excellent work, and your world will be a much better place!
This might seem rather obvious, but it’s not. I have people reach out to me frequently looking for a job. Most out-of-college job searchers are only doing front-door applications/applying online. The more experienced you get, you are probably doing a little backdoor work, but honestly, even with experienced professionals, I’m shocked at how much time they spend on job boards applying for jobs with zero success.
There was a great Twitter thread recently by a hedge fund professional answering the age-old question about how do you get a job in a hedge fund? Here’s a link to the thread –
Brett gets way more detailed in his thread about the process, and he also gives two different scenarios of how people can get in – one traditional A-school education and one B-school grinder. I’m taking some creative liberty with his concept to talk about Front Door applying for a job and Back Door networking for a job!
Talent Acquisition Spends 99% of Their Time on the Front Door Process!
I’m not sure this is a problem. It’s more of a philosophy. TA/HR are true believers in the process. Build a great process that is repeatable and equal for everyone. There’s a ton of merit in that philosophy. It’s hard to argue with the righteousness of that philosophy.
Repeatable. Equitable. Fair. (Even though that’s in theory, not, in reality, we control what we control)
In many organizations, there are as many positions filled via the back door as the front door. I like to tell the kids this is called “networking.” It’s how LinkedIn was built. And before LinkedIn, it’s how most business and job filling got done, at a high level. The lower down the pay scale, the more front door work is needed. As you rise up the pay scale, the more the back door process comes into play. But, this isn’t just about how we fill executive roles. Mid-level and entry-level professional roles get filled in this way a lot.
The question really is, what’s more valuable?
If you’re an applicant and if you’re an organization?
It seems like both parties are served better in the back door process if you have the network, and therein lies the problem. Not all people have the same networks. If you graduate from a great school, you have a better network than someone who didn’t. If you have professional parents who have a long history and network in the market and industry you want to get into, your network will be more helpful than someone who didn’t have those advantages.
Getting hired through the back door isn’t wrong for organizations, though. Many will tell you it is, but in so many ways, this networking uncovers high performers much more efficiently. The problem truly lies in nepotism when hiring managers don’t hire for high performance but only for relationships. But throwing the baby out with the bath water doesn’t make sense either.
The Reality of How People Get Hired That Isn’t Going to Change.
Most people will get hired by their network. Everyone has a network. Every network is different. I can’t get you hired at Apple, I don’t have a good network in that world. But I can get you hired by a lot of companies! I can get you hired if you’re a teacher, but I can get you hired if you’re in HR or TA. My network is robust, but it’s specific.
I will never discount anyone who uses their network to get hired. That’s just intelligent. You use what you have to be as successful as you can be. If you got the job you don’t deserve from your network, it will play itself out in the end when you fail. People like to think this isn’t true. “Tim! My boss’s nephew is horrible, and he got promoted!” Yep, that might happen, but 99% of the time, it doesn’t play out that way in reality.
I have had CEOs I’ve worked with in my career come to me and demand I hire one of their relatives. “Put Timmy in this job. Period.” What did I do? I put Timmy in the job. If Timmy worked out, it is what it is. Timmy has to deal with that. If Timmy failed, I went directly to the CEO, and we had that conversation, and 100% of the time, they supported me in getting rid of Timmy!
Hate the game, but if you fight the game, you’ll lose. Front door hiring is inefficient and doesn’t have a better success rate than back door hiring. So, you can hate it, but you look foolish to your executives who know the reality.
It started out a couple of years ago as “Broetry” a writing trend where mostly men did what I like to call “Hustle Porn” on LinkedIn. Some wannabe tech dude leaning on the hood of an expensive sports car telling you to work as hard as him and you can get the fancy sports car as well.
Mostly young, attractive, social media influencer types have quickly turned hustle porn/broetry into something I’m sure we even have a name for yet! Maybe it’s “Empathy Porn” or “Positive Porn” I’m sure one of these folks will come up with a great title! This LinkedIn viral content has a definite flavor and structure to it. It’s so similar in its style that it’s actually funny once you’re able to identify it.
Whatever it is, it’s not professional content, which I think the vast majority of folks come to LinkedIn for, but you also can’t argue the successful viral nature of this type of content! It’s so popular you start to question why people actually come to LinkedIn! Are we sure it’s a professional networking site?!
This isn’t a LinkedIn bashing post. I love LinkedIn. I use it every day. I don’t like this new type of viral LinkedIn content that basically delivers zero value to anyone except the creator, whom I’m guessing is at a level of narcissism that is incomprehensible!
What does the LinkedIn Algorithm love in a piece of content?
Positive. Maybe overly positive.
A certain structure to how it’s written (see example below).
A selfie and it helps if you’re ridiculously attractive and show some skin, but not too much skin.
Some emoji bullet points towards the bottom.
These posts are getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of interactions in some cases! Thousands of comments.
Will all of this interaction and comments, you must think, “Tim, you’re just a hater. These people must be sharing some amazingly valuable content!” No. They mostly share personal stories, most I’m sure are made up, that has a narrative of overcoming and succeeding, lifting yourself up and succeeding. Failing and then succeeding, etc.
One of the best I’ve seen at creating this content is Cat Philip. Most likely, you’ve seen her content as the LinkedIn Algo loves Cat! Why? Well, she’s a young twenty-something who’s just trying to make it in the business world as a woman, but people keep judging her, but she’s not going to allow that to stop her! I mean, at least that’s pretty much every post, along with a selfie!
Cat Philip from LinkedIn (these are all actual LI post pics)
No judgment. Cat is killing it on LinkedIn. Her business is social media, and she’s good at it. It’s just not the content I thought I would ever see on LinkedIn. She is far from the only one, there are now millions of LinkedIn users doing this content in different ways, but the structure is almost always the same! I saw a Dad do one on his young daughter and her struggle, same exact format, same viral spin with the algorithm.
Another commonality of these viral positive porn posts is that almost always, they are done by someone in the “business.” The business of making or wanting to make viral content. Some sort of marketing person, influencer, speaker, author, bullshit life coach, someone selling essential oils, etc. It’s not about truly selling the “story” it’s about selling themselves. And it’s really effective if you want to make a viral post!
Can a normal person create a LinkedIn Viral post?
Yes! Because I made one up, and it worked!
Part 1Part 2
So, this post was up for less than 24 hours, and I deleted it because I had so many friends in real life who know me who were making such nice, awesome comments about me as a person! And it was all fake! I didn’t want to embarrass anyone, I was just testing the algorithm!
I mean, a Homeless Puppy with One-eye! You can’t make that up! Well, yes. Yes, you can make it up, actually!
What did I learn about my little LinkedIn Viral Algorithm Test?
Many people have figured out how to get the LinkedIn Algorithm to pick up their post.
My own post wasn’t as popular but still strong because I didn’t make it personal enough about myself with a puppy. Also, because I’m a middle-aged, average-looking dude. Very attractive people have an easier time going viral, which is why I chose a cute puppy!
It’s wrapped in “positivity” and “overcoming the struggle,” but that’s not what it’s really about.
The format is fairly easy to follow, and it tends to work better from mobile, but you can create the post on word/Google docs and copy and paste it.
If your audience knows you, I mean truly knows you, there will be a lot of favorable reactions since they believe what you’re putting on LinkedIn. And honestly, many of these folks believe their own bullshit. That’s very similar to the hustle porn culture.
For some odd reason, the algorithm loves emoji bullet points 2/3s of the way down your post.
I think LinkedIn as a platform is worse for this type of viral content.
I was speaking at an HR conference, and I was telling some people this story and how I created it. Across the board, 100% of people all immediately recognized the content I was describing, and all didn’t like it. But, many also admitted to interacting with this type of content because we all actually love a positive, uplifting story! We also love when people bare their souls, even if it is a bit weird to do in a professional setting.
I get frustrated because really great professional content gets lost in this type of algorithm environment. People I follow and respect share some great stuff, and instead, the algorithm feeds me homeless one-eyed puppies because everyone else, apparently, wants homeless puppies!
FWIW – to the audience who interacted with my test and thought I was some amazing person, I apologize! I mean, I am amazing, but I’m not a homeless one-eyed puppy amazing!
My buddy John Hill works for Techstars as the VP of Network. Go connect with him, he’s completely an awesome guy who will sit down and have a beer with you and talk about how to change the world for hours! Last week he got to meet the latest crop of Techstar startups and came away motivated with some great learnings.
Here are John’s takeaways from the newest Techstar startups:
1. Nothing beats hustle. Nothing.
2. The world is full of good ideas, but only a few will execute them.
3. Relational capital is vital.
4. Networks matter. Surround yourself with those who can help you.
5. There are some wicked smart people in the world.
6. To build a great company, you need help with funding, talent, and connections to business/industry to scale and the understanding of how to navigate each.
7. Suspend disbelief!
I’m drawn to each of the seven for different reasons, but #2 jumps out because I witness this on a daily basis. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who execute and those who talk about executing. Hire those who execute. Understand that they are rare, and you should overpay for this ‘skill.’
Do you notice nowhere on his list does he talk about failure. John is a motherfucking doer! He gets shit done. Techstars will only take a chance on startups led by people who will execute. John talks about ways to succeed, not about just throwing caution to the wind and failing. The reality is most will fail. Setting yourself up for success is key.
I love that he ends his list with “Suspend disbelief.” The world is a critic. Those who make it big have that special combination of John’s list. Great idea, ability to execute, the right network to make it happen, super smart, etc. What they also have is true belief! At the end of the day, you have to believe 1000% of your idea is going to work. No part of you even questions that it won’t.
If it didn’t work, you would be destroyed because your belief was so strong that you never saw it coming when it failed. That’s how most great ideas actually make it. You find a combination of all of these things and you put money and resources behind it.
These seven learnings aren’t about how to make a startup successful. These are how you make anything successful that you’re working on.
How are those hiring manager “intake” meetings going?
You know, those meetings you have with a hiring manager every single time they have an opening. You sit down with your hiring manager face to face and ask them a page full of questions. Why is this position open? What would make a candidate most successful in this role? What color of skin would you like this candidate to have? Boobs or no boobs? Whoops! Scratch those last ones. We would never ask those…
We begin to hate these meetings. They feel forced.
The reality is Talent Pros really only have one question they need to ask hiring managers. That question is this:
“Do you trust that I can find the talent you need?”
Ultimately, this is all that really matters for your success. If they trust you, they’ll give you all the information you need to be successful. If they don’t trust you can find the talent they need, they tend to hold stuff back.
Yes, I know that doesn’t make sense, but that’s real world talent acquisition stuff! Welcome to corporate America. A lot of stuff doesn’t make sense!
Most hiring managers have no faith you’ll find them great talent. They have this belief because of so many bad Talent Pros before you failed them. So many before you didn’t really go out and find the best talent, they just delivered whatever warm body came into the ATS.
I just come out and ask the question. The first answer you’ll get from 99% of hiring managers is a weird, “Well, sure, I do.” If you really dig into this answer, you’ll get the true answer which 90% of the time is, “Hell no! Why would I? Your department has really never gotten this right!”
Thank you! That’s what I really needed. I needed to get that out in the open, so now we can really build trust and make great things happen. They’re mostly right. Talent Acquisition fails many of our hiring managers for a number of reasons. Right now, your hiring manager doesn’t need to hear those reasons, they need to hear why this time will be different.
Then, you have to live up to ‘different’! You have to be better. You have to get it right. Getting it right earns trust.
Once they trust you, great things will happen. Earn that trust.
On Wednesday, July 20th at 2 pm EST – next week! – I’ll be leading a webinar and discussing the Top 5 HR and TA-related trends for 2022 and moving into 2023! If you can’t make it, register anyway and the content will be sent to you once we’ve completed it!
You can register for free simply by clicking the button below:
Interview Intelligence technology, Pillar.hr, and I will be hosting this webinar, and we have gathered a bunch of data around what is trending today in HR, but also what I see as the trends that will continue into 2023 and beyond. It’s perfect timing in that it’s well before budgeting season for most HR and TA functions!
What will be talking about?
The role of data and insights in every aspect of HR and TA.
What many organizations are doing to attract more talent and make more hires.
What world-class organizations are doing today and planning on doing in the future to meet the needs of their business, their candidates, and their employees.
What’s happening with DEI and Recruiting?
This will be a live event and I’ll be taking questions – so hit me with your best shot!
2022 has been an amazing year for HR and Talent Acquisition, and 2023 looks to be another year where our organizations will be relying on world-class people practices brought to you by the HR and TA pros that bring it every day. Use this webinar to stay on top of where the industry is moving in our fast-paced world!
I’ve said this at least a thousand times but my single favorite event of the year is the HR Technology Conference’s Pitchfest competition! 30 HR/TA Technology startups competing for the honor to be named HR Tech Startup of the Year! $30,000 dollar prize, plus a booth at the 2023 HR Technology Conference, and an invaluable amount of publicity that comes with participating and winning this event!
The Application Deadline is July 29th, so you have to get on this if you want to try and get into the competition! Huge shoutout to the Randstad Innovation Fund for their continued support of the Pitchfest. The lifeblood of great HR Tech is more and more startups are given access and opportunity to develop the next generation of technology. Last year the Pitchfest had more female founders presenting than I’ve ever seen, and they were amazing!
For Pitchfest 2022 I’ll again be one of the judges and I’m looking forward to seeing all the great tech!
One of the most difficult things for HR Tech startups to do is break through all the noise. There are roughly 10,000 different HR technology products on the market worldwide. Most buyers can name just a handful, and usually, it’s only those they are currently using, or have used in the recent past. It’s events like the Pitchfest that give these startups a chance to break through all the noise.
What Am I Looking Forward to For The 2022 Pitchfest at HR Tech?
Pandemic Tech! So many great workplace pandemic-related HR technology solutions are hitting the market with real applications to the modern workforce.
Talent Acquisition Tech! Double the amount of current openings today than in 2019 and even a recession will leave us with million of jobs to fill. AI has made major advances in recruiting tech and more keep hitting the market.
Intelligence and BI Tech! Data is king, but actually being able to easily understand and use the insights of your data is even a better king! HR Tech is finally understanding this in a major way.
If you haven’t signed up for the 2022 HR Technology Conference, I’ve got a special code that can save you $300 off the current early bird rate! Code – “HT22MA26” for your special Tim Sackett discount!
I was over in London during the 4th of July holiday. I hosted the DisruptHR London event and attended RecFest 2022. The weather was very un-London like in that it was amazing!
This was my third time in London and every time I learn a little more:
London –
Still the best mass transit system around. Nothing beats the Tube!
London is a better New York. Big city. Big city stuff to do. Smells wonderful and seems like a smaller city. Flowers everywhere. There’s so much to see.
Food is improving, but mainly that’s all the non-English food coming in.
Shopping is funny in London. So many people from different countries and middle east tourists love the gaudy logo brand clothing! The gaudier the better! They wait in line to get into the biggest brand name stores! Like, you never have to ask what they are wearing, you can read it clearly across their chest! The English, tend to not be so loud about their dress.
They still laugh at how much soda Americans drink, but that’s only because instead of drinking soda they drink the same amount of beer.
The English men dress exponentially way better than American men on average. Also, almost none of them wear shorts. I had folks comment on my “American” shorts, mostly that it was too cold for shorts. It was in the ’70s every day.
It’s one of the most diverse cities I’ve been to. You meet people from so many countries it’s unbelievable. And no one is complaining that England is trying to make the country their country. London is London, you came here, welcome to London. We’re going to stay being London, we hope you like it. If you don’t, you’re free to leave. That doesn’t mean they aren’t accepting and welcoming, they are. But they are also English, no matter your skin color or nationality.
I had drivers from six different countries – Afghanistan, Italy, South Africa, Iraq, Norway, and Croatia. Each one was excited to talk about America and all couldn’t wait to go back or go for the first time. They seemed truly excited. Also, unfortunately, most wanted to go to Las Vegas or New York. To them that’s America! This wasn’t normal driver chit-chat, these folks really wanted to talk about America and many had stories of them trying to get to America, but England was easier.
DisruptHR London –
Just an amazing group of HR professionals and speakers. The London HR crowd was so engaging.
We struggled to get 200 folks to sign up. Which is strange, but it’s really about advertising and marketing. Everyone who came raved about the event, but almost 100% said they had never heard of it. It felt like we hammered the marketing for eight straight weeks. Also, this was actually the 16th DisruptHR London, so it begs the question of who was coming to the first 16?!
If you’ve never done a 5-minute DisruptHR talk – as a speaker – it might be your greatest challenge! You must try one!
RecFest2022 –
4,000+/- Recruiting professionals at an outdoor festival. Jamie Leonard, the founder of RecFest, hates when I call it the world’s largest Recruiting party, but it is! It’s also a festival and conference and it’s amazing.
It was a warm, sunny day, and I and like 50 other people had on our American shorts!
Word is, RecFest might be coming to America in 2022, but if you have a chance to go over to London for RecFest 2023, it’s a must-do!
People in the UK seem to love to queue (that’s standing in line, for Americans). When I arrived at the festival there were 1,000 people in the queue just waiting to get in! Eventually, they just opened the gates, then people went right back into the queue for coffee, food, and beer. I think the English just walk around looking to stand in a queue! That won’t work in America. Jamie and the crew will have to figure that out. If Americans stand in line for ten minutes, they’ll never come back!
There is nothing like this anywhere in the world! The RecFest folks truly have something special on their hands.
