Hiring: Why the Process Feels Broken and What Corporate Professionals Need to Know

I wrote this newsletter last week but forgot to press send. I hope you don't mind, but I am sending you two newsletters this week. This one is related to last week's episode (287), and the next one, which will be sent out on Thursday, will contain information about this week's episode (288).

For many professionals, the process of seeking employment can be confusing and frustrating. Despite easy access to AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT, as well as recruitment platforms like LinkedIn Jobs, job seekers navigate an increasingly opaque job market, while hiring managers dread the very process they are expected to lead. As a career strategist and executive coach, I see both sides of the equation, and it’s clear that hiring, as it stands today, is broken.

At the end of last year, I sat down with Michelle Redfern, Host of the Lead to Soar Podcast, to unpack this topic. This episode was originally released on her podcast and is part 1 of a 2-part series. She has allowed me to share it with my audience, and I will also release part 2 next week (i.e., episode 288).

What began as a conversation about recruitment challenges quickly evolved into a broader reflection on systemic issues affecting how we find, hire, and retain talent. I listened to the episode again yesterday, and here is a summary of my thoughts about it.

Hiring Has Become a Burden. Here’s Why

Many of the corporate leaders I coach admit they feel their hearts sink when a key team member resigns. This is not because of the departure itself but because it means going back into the hiring vortex. And it’s not hard to understand why. Hiring is expensive, time-consuming, bureaucratic, and high-risk. The cost of getting it wrong is substantial, not only financially but also culturally.

A major contributor to this burden is the illusion that hiring managers can, and should, find the “perfect” candidate. The result? Endless job descriptions that read like superhero wish lists and selection panels that unknowingly reward performance over potential. Candidates, in turn, feel compelled to present a polished façade rather than their authentic selves — a recipe for short-lived success.

Ghost Jobs and the Ethics of Recruitment

Perhaps the most distressing trend is the rise of “ghost jobs,” positions advertised without the intention of being filled. These are sometimes used for talent mapping or building a pipeline. In more troubling cases, they’re used to extract ideas from senior professionals under the guise of a hiring process. I’ve had clients deliver pitch-perfect presentations only to hear nothing back, only to discover later their ideas are being used by the very companies that initially ignored them.

This kind of behaviour is corrosive. It undermines trust and discourages talented professionals from engaging with the process at all. And while I’d like to say these cases are rare, they’re not. They are becoming an integral part of the corporate recruitment landscape in 2025, and that should concern us all.

Workforce Planning: Still Missing in Action

Another recurring theme in conversations with executives is the lack of integrated workforce planning. Hiring decisions are frequently driven by budget approvals or end-of-year metrics rather than long-term strategy. A resignation becomes an opportunity not to refill a role, but to redistribute the workload, or worse, to freeze the position entirely until further notice.

This reactive approach leaves teams overstretched and demoralized. It also fuels the very problems that hiring is meant to solve: talent shortages, poor performance, and leadership gaps.

How Job Seekers Can Navigate the Uncertainty

If you’re currently looking for work, the good news is this: none of what’s happening is about you personally. The dysfunction in hiring processes says more about organizational systems than it does about your value.

But that doesn’t mean you can sit back and wait. Here’s what I advise my clients to focus on:

1. Be clear about your professional identity. Know your strengths, leadership style, and the problems you excel at solving. Communicate this confidently, not just in interviews but also in your LinkedIn profile, cover letters, and networking conversations.

2. Don’t waste time chasing unicorn roles: If a job description reads like a fantasy, it probably is. Apply when there’s a genuine alignment, and don’t assume that a long list of “must-haves” reflects reality.

3. Recognize the value of downtime: If hiring slows down during key periods, use that time strategically. Update your materials, expand your network, and reflect on what kind of work you want next.

4. Stay alert to red flags. If you’re asked to perform unpaid work as part of an interview, protect your intellectual property. NDAs aren’t just for employers; job seekers can use them, too.

5. Invest in being found: LinkedIn remains the top tool for passive recruitment. If your profile isn’t optimized, you may be invisible to the people trying to hire someone like you.

How Companies Can Fix What’s Broken

It’s not all on job seekers. Organizations must also do better. That starts with rethinking the purpose of hiring. Are we filling gaps or building teams for the future?

Companies should stop chasing perfect profiles and start investing in potential. That means training interviewers to recognize talent that doesn’t conform to typical norms. It means valuing neurodiverse, introverted, or non-traditional candidates, not in name only, but in process.

Leadership needs to look beyond metrics and remember the human element. Every hiring decision is an opportunity to shape culture, reinforce values, and build resilience.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Hiring won’t get easier overnight. But with the right mindset, it can become more purposeful. For professionals navigating the market, this is a time to double down on your strengths, be proactive in your visibility, and treat every interaction as a chance to tell your story.

For organizations, this is a moment of reckoning. The war for talent isn’t about finding more people. It’s about creating better systems. Systems that respect the intelligence and time of candidates. Systems that reflect what work in 2025 actually looks like, hybrid, flexible, dynamic, and, yes, human.

Let’s stop pretending hiring is a side task. It is a leadership responsibility, and it deserves the same strategic thinking we apply to product development or customer experience.

Because when hiring works well, everyone wins.

Listen to this week's episode: 

I hear this from clients every week: hiring, in many organizations, feels broken. But understanding why is the first step toward finding smarter, more strategic ways forward. This week on The Job Hunting Podcast, I had a thought-provoking conversation with leadership expert Michelle Redfern about the current state of hiring. I believe this episode is a great listen for both job seekers and managers, and I hope that our insights can help improve the recruitment experience for all involved. 

• Listen to the full episode on the podcast website
• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Audible

Time Out

I unplugged over the long weekends (we had two in a row in Australia!), went to the beach, went to the gym, had friends over, and enjoyed the unusually warm autumn weather in Melbourne. 

• We watched Mickey 17, a sci-fi black comedy in which Robert Pattinson portrays an "Expendable" - a disposable worker on a space colonization mission who is repeatedly cloned until something unexpected leads him to challenge the system. If you enjoy dystopian sci-fi, dark satire, and critiques of bureaucracy (think Brazil, by Terry Gilliam), you will likely appreciate Mickey 17.
• Charli XCX admitted in an interview of being jealous of Lorde. They were estranged, and she wrote a song about it. Last week, the two appeared on stage at Coachella, sang the song about their frenemy situation, and it was so relatable. The sound is terrible, but the music and the moment are iconic. In the end, Charli passed the "Brat" baton to Lorde for Summer 2025, and I admit a tear rolled down my eye. 
• What's on my playlist: Coachella 2025 live streams, The Strokes Vagus (I especially love "I'll try anything once"), Nerve Sound Healing (great before sleep). 

If this newsletter helped you:

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• Visit my website for more information about career coaching. There are services and courses available to help you achieve your career goals.

To your career success

RBX

Renata Bernarde | Career Coach | Host, The Job Hunting Podcast