Welcome to The Final Interview!

Hey friends, it’s Jason Zoltak. 👋

I started a company called Tofu, an AI-powered talent marketplace. We want to change the way people hire. Although you’ve likely heard this countless times from others who’ve started companies in the space, throughout these newsletters I’ll share why I think (no bias of course 😉), we’re different. 

I had the idea for Tofu while working at Shiftsmart in 2021, a well-funded labor marketplace startup. I joined Shiftsmart mid-Series A. Then we raised a massive, $95M Series B and began hiring in droves. It was through this process I observed the waste that is created from hiring, both in dollars and time. It pushed me to start thinking about how you can repurpose the sunk interview time and costs poured into the recruiting process. I started thinking about networks and tinkering with different concepts of qualifying talent signals, with the end goal of creating a product that helps you do more with less.

So I started the business in 2022, and since then I’ve likely spoken with over 1000 talent leaders, investors and recruiting pros involved in hiring across dozens of industries.

Through these conversations and my work building and scaling Tofu, I’ve developed what I believe to be a unique birds-eye perspective on the hiring landscape as it exists today. And one thing is obvious: the recruiting and talent management industries are shifting dramatically. Several trends I’ve noticed driving this shift over the past 3 years:

➩ AI will become the norm in recruiting, but certain areas of the value chain will lag in adoption because of an increased desire for human community and connection.

➩ Economic pressure is changing the composition and structure of the talent function, forcing recruiting teams to automate just to keep up with the work, and do more with less overall.

➩ Access to better signals will empower teams to run lean with more data and targeted insights.

➩ AI adoption is freeing forward-thinking recruiters to massively scale their output and retain their jobs.

I’m pumped that we’re on the edge of so many great things. 

However, if you’re in recruiting, you know how shitty the reality of this massive shift feels. 

As the economy ebbs and flows, some recruiters are being laid off while other understaffed teams struggle to handle the work it takes to manage their talent pipeline. Big teams are using applicant tracking systems and implementing AI into their workflows, but still only 27% of talent professionals report that they’re using or experimenting with generative AI in their roles. 

Everything is happening fast, and the tension among anyone working in the hiring and talent management landscape is palpable. 

That’s why I’m launching The Final Interview. Here I’ll do my best to study, dissect, and (sometimes) roast the trends and movements happening on the front lines of the recruiting space. Together, we’ll dive deep into the inner workings of recruiting technology, spotlight the top ideas and solutions driving talent management innovation, and highlight change-makers leading the talent tech revolution. I’ll also share what we’re working on at Tofu through product launches and updates.

You’ll get the inside scoop from my research + convos on social media, in person, and with Tofu’s client network of 300 industry-leading teams and counting. To kick things off, I have to be honest about the elephant in the room far too many recruiters are scared to face:  

If you think AI can’t replace parts of you, you’ll soon be out of a job.

As strong as this headline may sound, I’m not here to fear-monger. But I’ve watched recruiters across the industry struggle as the way companies hire and candidates apply changes rapidly. And as we near the end of 2024, a full 2 years since ChatGPT hit mainstream consciousness, it’s clear to me that recruiters need a massive wake-up call. 

Too many well-meaning, talented talent professionals are completely missing the point. 

It’s not uncommon to hear people confidently stating they “can’t be replaced.” But if you dig deeper, at the core of those confident statements often lies a fear. No one really knows how deeply AI will embed itself into our systems, or just how much it’s going to change the way we work in 3, 5, or 10 years.  

There is, however, one thing most recruiting leaders agree with me on: some parts of every recruiter’s job will be replaced by AI. That’s a positive thing, despite what the skeptics say: the tasks AI is uniquely qualified to complete (data filtering and analytics, automated reminders and followups, etc.) are the mundane, repetitive details most of us hate.   

Boom. There’s the positive case for AI in recruiting. Yes, the industry is going to shift. Certain roles won’t exist as you know them. The way recruiters connect with talent will change dramatically. But there’s never been a more open market for AI-powered, human-led hiring and talent management solutions.  

Smart recruiters understand this. They outsource repetitive tasks to AI and create systems to better support their ability to do the things only humans can do (at least for now). A few of those unique skillsets include: 

⇢ Learn the jobs you are recruiting for, inside and out.
⇢ Understand nuances like culture fit and personality match, and pick up on body language + context.
⇢ Spot future potential that can’t be captured on a resume, through knowledge from point #1.
⇢ Penetrate new channels to connect with talent (i.e: communities where talent hang out, etc..)
⇢ Build human rapport and trust.

3 steps to empowering your recruiting team to cultivate human-first, AI-empowered skillsets: 

#1 Network online, or offline, but be where your desired candidate audience is.

#2 Learn how to piece together AI tools to gain first-mover advantage and connect with top talent before anyone else.

#3 Build a name for yourself online, authentically, to get in front of more top talent.

In the end, no one has to fear AI replacing recruiting jobs for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, with the way the market has gone and recruiting jobs in shorter supply, what you do have to fear are smart recruiters powered by AI–they will get the job over you. For anyone currently at a company with a well-staffed recruiting team, the chopping block may come, and those who can do more with less will be noticed and rewarded with a spot on the team. 

If you’re not ready to embrace this new technology, frankly, move aside. But if you’re willing to accept the reality of the technological revolution and embrace the power of generative AI to fuel your human capabilities, AI will be the key to freeing you from mundane tasks so you can focus on creating meaningful human connection, building trust across your network, and drastically multiplying your capacity to do. It will be the key to getting and retaining your role.

To me, there’s no better opportunity in front of forward-thinking recruiting leaders who are visionary enough to embrace this technological shift as their #1 superpower. 

That’s why I’m optimistic. 

Jason