Live Event Summary: Data or Ads? Future of Job Board Advertising in the Era of GenAI

Last week I had the opportunity to be part of one of the most engaging live talks this year with some real titans and legends of the online recruiting industry Bill Fischer from VONQ, Louise Triance ⭐️ from UK Recruiter, Yazad Dalal from Joveo,  Steven Rothberg from College Recruiter and Chris Russell from RecTech Media. This was a free LIVE event organized by Hung Lee from the mighty Recruiting Brainfood.

You can watch the replay here:

We talked about a lot of exciting topics; here are some of the highlights:

• AI-driven resume creation tools are becoming prominent, with expectations that major job boards will integrate these into their platforms. This could help job seekers present themselves more effectively but will cause issues across the recruiting infrastructure.
• Can we rewrite job ads in real time and attract better matching candidates or more diverse applicants? There is a reluctance from employers to allow job boards to rewrite job postings due to potential biases and legal issues. However, there's an opportunity for job boards to support diversity by creating dynamic job ads that cater to different communities.
• The concept of verifying candidate qualifications, such as language proficiency or work permits, can be seen as a potential new service for job boards. This would help in ensuring that candidates meet the specific requirements of jobs, particularly in multilingual or regulatory environments. We discussed the example with German recruiters facing applicants not speaking German.
• The integration of AI into job boards might shift them towards becoming more like staffing agencies, with a strong emphasis on the potential for AI to improve job matching and reduce the volume of unqualified applications. However, this has implications for liability and discrimination in hiring.
• The future might see job boards utilizing large language models and other AI tools to facilitate and optimize job matching, potentially transforming the recruitment industry. VONQ got some pretty good examples on how they use LLMs for things like parsing, taxonomies and job classification.
• The conversation pivoted to the profound impact that large language models (LLMs) and semantic search technologies could have on the recruitment industry. Entities like Microsoft, with significant assets like ChatGPT, a major word processing tool, and LinkedIn, might leverage these capabilities to revolutionize recruiting. This potential transformation can be visualized as Microsoft evolving into a $3 trillion job board that efficiently connects job seekers and employers through advanced data-driven technologies.
• We also discuss a key challenge identified in the conversation: the misalignment between job postings and resumes. Job postings are oriented towards future needs, whereas resumes reflect past experiences. This discrepancy particularly affects those early in their careers or those looking to change careers, as traditional matching software may not adequately capture the nuances needed for these transitions.

What a great conversation.

As we march towards this AI-enhanced era, we must tread carefully, considering both the technological capabilities and the ethical implications.

The journey towards AI-enhanced recruitment is just beginning, and it's thrilling to contribute to this evolving conversation.

Stay tuned, folks! The future of job boards and recruitment is changing fast, and I’ll be right here, sharing the latest and greatest with you all.