Being a recruiter in 2026 is wild. Right now recruiters are faced with more challenges than ever. We’re in the midst of AI transformation, managing candidate fraud, issuing identity verification, working more reqs, adapting offers with changes in compensation packages, keeping up with all the latest tooling, and managing more unqualified inbound applications than ever. That’s why on the hard days of hiring, I’m thoroughly convinced it really is the community that gets us through.
In the last few years, my friend circle has expanded exponentially, many of whom are recruiters. You know you who are. And if you don’t, then that means I have some more work to do as a friend. Because life is truly too short not to work on interesting problems with cool people. And Building the Talent Machine is all about connecting with the cool people in our industry and sharing those stories.
And when it comes to interesting problems, here's a crazy stat for you....
1 in 4 recruiters say they catch candidate deception multiple times per month.1
That's insane. One in four recruiters have to deal with candidate fraud in some capacity. Whether it’s lowercase fraud like embellishment, or capital Fraud, like nation state actors infiltrating companies.2
Yes, nation-state actors infiltrating companies through the recruitment process to deceive well-meaning recruiters, steal company data, extract payroll dollars, and worse, threaten national security. If you’re a recruiter, the stakes are higher than ever. This isn’t the feet up in slippers recruiting from a luxury apartment during ZIRP, where every company was ripping six-figure offers to anyone with a decent company or school logo on their resume. It’s time to sit up straighter, hold ourselves to high standards of operational excellence, and earn the seat at the table we’re at.
Not the next one. Not the one we think is more important. Stop thinking about an invisible feeling of what it would be like to be around the table the executive team gathers around. If you have an open requisition today, there is no seat more important to be at than the one you are in right now. What an incredible responsibility to the businesses we service and opportunity to make an impact?
This is exactly why I'm answering the phone for my recruiter friends when they call. So they have a sounding board. A friend who will show up. Quite literally.
Season Two of The Greenhouse Recruiting Roadshow took us to Boston where I caught up with two amazing talent acquisition minds.
In Episode 03 I spoke with Beth Marceau. Beth is truly remarkable. Her energy is contagious and she’s genuinely someone you want to work a req with. She’s quietly operating a successful fractional recruitment agency and championing RecOps excellence. Be sure to say hi to Beth on LinkedIn where she documents her journey and has some strong takes. (Her post about inbound went viral.)
In Episode 04, Laurie David, an incredible talent leader at the Fedcap Group, brought sharp analysis and pointed perspective of the state of recruiting. Her candor is what you want at the executive table, making decisions for process design, while focusing on what matters…developing recruiter fundamentals. She pays it forward as a founding member of the Talent Collective Boston chapter. Connect with Laurie.
Both conversations focus on sourcing. Which if we fast forward through all of this “AI in recruiting” talk will be how recruiters are measured. The effectiveness of their submits. If we rewind, this has actually been the value of recruiting all along. We just get distracted at times by those problems keeping us up at night. Just focus on finding the next great candidate.
Because if you cant open a req and fill a pipeline within two weeks with three candidates the HM would hire, you might not have a place in recruiting for very much longer. That’s a hill I’ll die on, because for years recruiting got easy. Now it’s time to elevate our impact. And with Building the Talent Machine, I’m all in on upskilling and uplifting the recruiting industry, one conversation at a time.
If you're not a "Strong Yes" on cool recruiting content, it's not to late to get caught up.
See you on the road! ✌️
https://grow.greenhouse.com/download/en-2026-ai-in-hiring-report
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/07/alert-to-countries-companies-and-other-entities-regarding-north-korean-it-workers
