AI amplifies all work. Good, bad, ugly. [#138]

Right now, the job market is f**ked:

• Founders complain that it's impossible to find good hires
• Candidates complain that it's impossible to find jobs

And somehow, both are right. From where I am, running a recruiting company for early-stage startups, it comes down to 2 reasons:

1/ Market inefficiencies

Candidates use AI to auto-apply to 100s of jobs daily → creates lots of noise → companies fight fire with fire and use AI screeners → higher bias & rougher heuristics → everybody filters out the same candidates → you only get invited if you have 2 of the 20 "correct" logos (think: MBB, IB/PE, scale-ups, TUM / WHU / Mannheim).

I wrote about this at length last year, and nothing's changed.

But now there's a second dynamic on top of it.

2/ AI as force multiplier

AI amplifies our work in all directions:

• If we're good at our job, AI helps us create more good output.
• If we're average, AI creates a ton of average output.
• If we're bad, AI creates equally terrible output.

Which means: making a hire today comes with more variance than it used to. The upside is higher, as is the downside.

That's why I see companies add an extra interview round, screen a bit more tightly, and pay more attention to "traditional" markers of excellence.

So: if you don't have those markers, but you're still good at your job – what do you do?

1. Show, don't tell. Anyone can write that they're great at their job. Doesn't mean s**t. Instead, show it. Write blog posts. Share screenshots of results you've generated. Build small products. Record yourself talking. Every position has some sort of work product; if you can show that you produce it at high quality, you stand out. NB: quality beats quantity here. I'd much rather see one really good case study than five mediocre ones (which would just show that you're using AI as a force multiplier for mediocre work).

2. Write your own job description. Founders & hiring managers have exactly zero mental capacity beyond running through a checklist in an interview (we have to assume this, at least). If your CV requires extra thinking work, you need to do that work for them. Show up to the interview with a job description for you, based on their open positions and your assumptions about the company. Chances are, they might just make that your job.

3. Start building a personal brand. At the end of the day, every hire is a personality hire. If the hiring manager likes you, your chances go up massively. And you can build likability (or hate-ability, I guess) on social media. Sounds trite, but it works: get your head out of your ass and start posting on LinkedIn.

Everybody has a unique story.

But if the story doesn't tell itself, it's on you to tell it in a way that makes sense.

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Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:

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[2] Hire your next Founder's Associate or other business generalist position with my startup, Generalyst Recruiting.

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