Selling Out.

Posted on December 1, 2015     8 Comments

An editor is not supposed to interject their own voice or agenda into their publication; ostensibly, similar to stage managers or offensive linemen or HR generalists, our job is to stay hidden in the background; like the above professions, the only time anyone takes notice of our work is when we screw up.

An editor finds writers, coaches and coaxes content from them, counsels them past missed deadlines and blocked nights and frantic calls and frenetic PR or product people.

Read More

Diverse Erection Careers.

Posted on November 24, 2015     1 Comment

If you think you have a hard time overcoming stuff like negative Glassdoor reviews, compensation that’s not competitive with the market or some of the other challenges most commonly ascribed to employer branding initiatives, trust me. You have nothing to worry about; some recruiters out there have it way worse.

Read More

Temporary Insanity.

Posted on October 30, 2015     9 Comments

“Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it.”

With those famous last words, she pivoted on a worn heel and walked back around the corner to the fluorescent drenched cube farm set aside for the office and administrative staff , leaving me alone at the oversized front desk.

The glass divider separating this desk from the waiting room beyond only added to my feeling of isolation. The air in the receptionist area was stale, and smelled like an odd cross between a Furr’s Cafeteria and a used bookstore. While an air conditioner chugged away above my head, for some reason, no one thought to add a vent into the tiny fishbowl that was my new workspace.

Read More

Fit Happens.

Posted on October 7, 2015     2 Comments

“I do this for my culture, To let them know what my peeps look like when we roll in a Roadster. Show them how to move in a room full of vultures; Industry is shady, it needs to be taken over.”

-Jay Z

We all understand the inherent importance, and strategic value, of company culture, particularly as relates to recruiting and retention; talking about the inherent importance this amorphous, ambiguous and largely subjective catch-all has become reduced to a tired corporate cliche, and an even more maudlin talent acquisition aphorism.

Company culture, supposedly the end-all be-all of recruitment marketing and employer branding, the single most critical competitive differentiator when it comes to attracting and hiring top talent, is one concept we all agree is important.

The problem is that as much as recruiting and HR professionals talk about company culture, very few companies actually know how to define their company culture, much less screen and select candidates against it. “Culture fit” has become a ubiquitous hiring consideration in today’s world of work.
Read More

Stop Selling Candidate Experience.

Posted on September 30, 2015     4 Comments

Fun fact: I own the trademark on the “slogan” (their term) candidate experience in the United States. I’m pretty sure that it’s unenforceable, but I’ve got the paperwork to prove that I at least paid the filing fee and was issued an e-mail confirming my registration was a success. Why did I pay $159 for the rights to intellectual property that’s pretty clearly no one’s property? 

It’s simple. It’s because vendors, increasingly and ironically, have actually managed to pull off a rather dubious and extremely nefarious repositioning and positioning themselves as solutions for improving candidate experience. This is a joke, but I’ll get to that punch line in a minute.

Read More

Enter your email address to follow MattCharney.com and have the latest content delivered piping hot to your inbox.