Buzzwords in Recruiting: A Survival Guide for 2026
Posted on November 11, 2025 3 Comments
Recruiters have always been fluent in a language that sounds intelligent and insightful, even if it’s more or less meaningless. The “shop talk” in our industry is a essentially a pastiche of buzzwords, bravado, and borrowed business jargon, designed less to inform than to impress. It’s equal parts survival mechanism, sales tactic, and performance art meets Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Every year, a new batch of noxious “talent transformation” phrases (like “talent transformation”) shows up to make hiring sound like quantum mechanics when it’s really just matching résumés to job descriptions written by people who’ve never done the work they’re hiring for.
Read MoreJoin the Spooktacular Halloween Bash at Work!
Posted on October 31, 2025 1 Comment
🎃 From the Desk of Your Chief Happiness (and Human Resources) Officer: Let’s Get Spooky! 🎃
Team,
It’s that wonderful time of year again; the crisp autumn air, the faint scent of pumpkin spice wafting through the office, and the glorious return of our Annual All-Hands Halloween Hullabaloo!
I can feel the excitement already. You can, too, right? RIGHT?
This is our chance to really show the world, and ourselves, what makes our company culture so special. Not the benefits, not the flexible work policy, not the groundbreaking innovation.
No, friends. What truly sets us apart is our unwavering commitment to seasonal enthusiasm.
Read MoreAI or Alibi: Judgement Day for Knowledge Workers?
Posted on October 30, 2025 6 Comments
Amazon fired 14,000 people this week.
Not from the warehouse floor. Not from supply chain or logistics. Nah, these were white collar workers, the kind who work out of an office, in functions as disparate as tech, recruiting, product and HR.
And while those layoffs might seem like just another entry in the running list of unfortunate events brought to you by Q4 earnings season, this one hit differently.
Because when Amazon makes a move, the rest of corporate America doesn’t blink.
They reload.
Read MoreThe System is Broken: HR Technology and Trump
Posted on October 15, 2025 Leave a Comment
In the corridors of power, the companies that quietly manage paychecks, benefits, applicant tracking, and workforce data have randomly become some of the best-connected soft power peddlers in the Trump era, stepping into shoes previously occupied by private sector doyens Elon Musk, Maria Bartolomeo and the My Pillow Guy.
These enterprise technology executives are closely tracked and widely covered for what they do in Sun Valley, San Francisco or Saint Tropez (depending on the media outlet).
But make no mistake about it: what happens on K Street is as inexorably intertwined with HR Technology as anything that happens on Wall Street or Sand Hill Road. For some firms, maybe even more so.
Read MoreNow Is the Time We Dance: Humanly Acquires Qualifi, Sprockets, and HourWork
Posted on October 14, 2025 Leave a Comment
If you’ve been around HR technology long enough, you already know how this is supposed to work.
Company A buys Company B, puts out a press release, maybe an official blog post and some splashy graphic announcing how the acquisition aligns with the company’s “long term vision,” or how it “unlocks value,” or maybe even talk about how the combined product will revolutionize the very future of talent acquisition and hiring. Or something similarly specious.
Then, there’s the breathless, totally speculative and esoteric insider takes from the pundits and the podcasters (present company included) wildly overstating the implications of what’s often a pretty niche, fairly nuanced transaction.
Of course, this is accompanied by the posting of the official LinkedIn announcement from the brand (followed by furious liking and reposting by every employee, all of whom are either “proud” or “excited” by news most haven’t even been briefed on yet).
And let’s not the email to customers and partners talking about how this transaction is an investment in the “future of work” (even if it’s just slapping on some golden handcuffs or overcoming a capability gap). Then, six months later, the company quietly kills the product, never to be spoken of again.
Hey, I know what you’re thinking, and that’s not cynicism; it’s called pattern recognition.
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