Recruiting Brainfood for the week ahead - Issue #306

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OSINT and Bellingcat have been synonymous since founder Elliot Higgins started publicly sharing open source intelligence techniques that outperformed the likes of the CIA and MI6 - two of the most well funded intelligence services on the planet - in validating claims in the Syrian War. Well, Bellingcat have now conducted a survey on tools usage most popular by membership - it’s well worth a look at what they are - some obvious applications to sourcing here.

Arguably, the best time to post is all the time, but if you don’t have time for that type of commitment then this breakdown of 35 million posts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn will let you know what time / date is best for a more deliberate posting approach. H/T to brainfooder Jan Tegze for the share in the fb group

Thousands of UK students got their A-Level and GCSE results last week, so this is a well timed update from Indeed Hiring Lab on what the graduate career market look like. Some good news - graduate job market has bounced back, though internships still suffering as employers can’t quite figure out how to deal with remote…. Accessible, quality research

Super interesting essay on why skills - and presumably, job performance - seem to decay over time. No solutions here but important questions to ask, such as should we continually test for skills in order to measure decrepitude? And if the pattern is actually there, what should we do about it? Uncomfortable brainfood.

I have been banging on to recruitment vendors to pulse out more reports, more regularly, and great to see some of the responses. Thanks to brainfooder Sarah Ali, Global Economists at our buddies at Radancy for producing these monthlies. US data is what we now expect - a confusing mix of messages, which simultaneously tell us about slow growth, high inflation, concurrent with continual challenges to hire. Have a read here. Incidentally, Sarah will be joining us on Brainfood Live next month, when we talk about ‘Where Are All The Missing Workers?’ - make sure to register.

This is a brave share by a LinkedIn user who got scammed out of thousands of dollars from what looks like a fake remote job offer. This story got me thinking about fraud, and in particular how the shift to remote has created opportunities for enterprising criminals to exploit new territory where we are all exploring for the first time. We love remote, but opportunity for fraud has increased with it.

This is an overly long post but I have to share it because each one of these recommendations will have some value for some business, somewhere. If you are struggling to move from stated goals to actual outcomes, then this post is for you. H/T to brainfooder Michael Blakely for the share

A quick copy and paste of this headline into a search engine brings up a host of identikit articles from the UK right wing media, which barely bothers to cover the detail before launching into what is becoming standard ‘anti-woke’ messaging. Slightly more detail from the Guardian tells this problematic story in a different way, that of an organisation working to the KPI’s rather than to the purpose.

The ‘grey rhino’ is a high impact, high probability exogenous event with an unknown time frame. We know it’s going to happen but we don’t know when, so we don’t do anything to prepare. From the villagers of Pompeii to all of us citizens of the world in Covid-19, its a pattern of behaviour which we need to break. 4 tips on how to do it, in the context of the firm. Excellent framework, which might help you, some day.

This is a great series of experiments from brainfooder Marcel van der Meer - checking the filters on various LinkedIn accounts and then seeing whether they are accurate. Seems that they are always wrong in some way, rendering significant numbers of profiles invisible if you solely rely on them. Some D&I implications, as well as general efficacy of the search. Have a read here

Passionate and well written response to Gladwell’s condemnation of remote working (listen that podcast below), which will resonate most with the educated, knowledge worker class that most of us probably are. We do like our walks in the park during the day and it does matter that we can do an errand without taking a half day off. First world problems are problems nonetheless…

Nice twitter thread from brainfooder Tony Wilson on the recently released Labour Force Survey. Long term ill health showing up as a factor in economic inactivity, a massively under rated effect of pandemic mismanagement. Tony will also be joining us for the Brainfood Live on the 30th - it’s going to be panel of expert labour market economists - make sure to sign up.

If there is one thing we know about diversity and inclusion, is that we humans are endlessly creative in the ways in which we exclude the other. One of the most interesting cases, which true cultural outsiders might well be entirely unaware of, is caste discrimination. And in case we did not think this was an issue, news that another tech giant, Apple, has officially banned caste discrimination in India.

I used to think emoji’s were childlike and therefore not hung-like, but I’ve had a road-to-damascus conversion on them - and I think this article from language learning app duolingo nails the explanation why - they replace gesture & facial expression in textual communication, pretty essential for effective communication.

‘Sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me…’ . Never true was it eh kids? 🤣

Criticism is painful because we are evolved to avoid doing things that draw it. Problematic for a world where we need diversity of voices, and where aggressive policing of consensus can quickly become indoctrination. Have a read and think.

As society becomes ever more fragmented, it stands to reason that market opportunities will emerge to replace what was once performed by friends we no longer have. Particularly interesting in this example from Japan was the moving criteria of qualifications for this new career path of ‘bridesmaid’s for hire’ - mainly, are you shorter than the prospective bride? Fascinating futures, already here.

Since the 1970’s, we’ve kind of behaved as if it can, aggressively promoting globalisation and integration, and - in the first world at least - reaping the benefits of ever high standards of living. Whether this idea is sustainable or not might determine whether you support Elon on his mission to colonise Mars….easy 6 minute animated video.

Rather more tough-in-cheek than has been received by many others, this interview with Malcolm Gladwell presents theory through biographical lens - what has worked for one may work for others, but not for all. Great listen, podcast as whole well worth a follow.

You can’t do a bad podcast if you put brainfooders Madeline Laurano, John Sumser and Jeanne Achille together in conversation. Wide ranging conversation, which covers recruitment tech, assessment, candidate psychology, future of work and the state of the economy. Needs more than 30 minutes...