Defying Gravity: The Year’s 10 Most Popular Posts On RecruitingDaily.

Let’s face it. Unless you’re a member of the Chicago Cubs, an editoral staffer for Breitbart or Beyonce, 2016 has pretty much been a giant dumpster fire of a year. A year ago, Ziggy Stardust and Princess Leia were still active on Twitter and Facebook, you could buy tickets to a Prince concert and Harper Lee had a new book out.

All, of course, fell victim to a year that sucked ever since last New Year’s, when the major national news story involved that Afffluenza Kid’s impropteau family vacation in Puerto. As the year went on, its inherent shittiness, by any standard, only intensified.

Consider what’s happened beyond just the good dying young, or Bruce Springsteen writing the best non-fiction book of the year, IMHO (although next to Dylan’s Nobel, the Boss’ long form version of “The River” seems kinda pedestrian by comparison).

In 2016, Drake went from Rhianna to J. Lo (that’s like going from a Macbook to a refurbished Dell); politics went from reforming the Affordable Care Act to Linda McMahon, Chair of the Small Business Administration (appropriations now decided by cage match?), and the year that started with Deadpool as its first tentpole release somehow finished with a friggin’ musical with that dude from the Notebook.

And for all the changes in recruiting, everyone was still stuck using Taleo and having major issues getting their job done because it, like every Oracle product, is pretty much an anachronistic piece of shit.

No One Mourns The Wicked.

Oh, and we talked about candidate experience and diversity some more, some startups (or never-weres, more accurately) fizzled out – Sayonara, SimplyHired – and even established players somehow screwed up with some spectacular failures in 2016, behooving of a year that we couldn’t be happier to see fade off into the sunset.

But 2016 had some decent moments here at RecruitingDaily – don’t get us wrong. Hell, we survived (and thrived) over the past year, thanks to some killer content, a growing readership, new leadership, a new event imprint (#HRTX, which had a hell of a rookie campaign) and, most importantly, historic highs in unique visitors, time on site, opt-ins and overall posts published.

One of the big reasons why people keep coming to RecruitingDaily, of course, is the fact that it’s our goal to put out content related to the world of recruiting and hiring today that isn’t, well, boring or obnoxious.

We want to add value to practitioners and leaders by giving them the tips and tricks they need to find top talent today – and introduce them to the companies who can help. In short, it’s our mission to help you make better hires faster through better content, connections and community.

That’s not a pitch, that’s context to understand that we don’t really give a shit about product releases, PR ploys or platforms well past their prime. We care about bringing our audience all the recruiting news and views they need, all in one place, and turns out, in 2016, we did a pretty damned good job of delivering on that promise.

While this was inherently intentional, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that our list of the most popular articles of 2016, in fact, represented such an ideal microcosm of what RecruitingDaily is all about.

Hell, we’re still figuring that out; we’re new at this, and every partner here is a former recruiting leader – we’re not in this for a buck. We’re in it because we’re giant geeks when it comes to recruiting and hiring, and we care about this industry and making it better for recruiters and job seekers alike. Yeah, that sounds cheesy. But truth is, we’re all in this together.

Editor’s Note: Speaking of, if you’re interested in partnering (which is a nice way of saying “spending money”) with us, please drop me a line, and I’d be happy to help. – Matt Charney, Executive Editor and Incentive Pay Recipient. Hey, a brother’s gotta try, right?

We appreciate each of the hundreds of thousands of recruiters all around the globe who read a post, listened to a webinar, opened an email, attended an event or engaged on one of our social sites in 2016.

It’s because of you that we’re able to get the word out about RecruitingDaily and increase our readership and reach every day, so thanks for spreading the love and taking the time out of your busy schedule to regularly read, spread the love and share (or comment) on our content.

Popular: The 1o Top RecruitingDaily Posts of 2016.

You also have immaculate taste, as the 10 most popular articles of 2016, as measured by social shares, post traffic and whatever else our “Most Popular Posts” plug in uses to figure out what to put in that part of the dashboard.

Yes, this list has a bunch of stuff with my bylines, but I didn’t do anything but see what the numbers said. Please know if I were to manipulate these numbers or selectively choose which posts to include, I’d never have had so many by Pete Radloff on here (kidding) – but his final tally was impressive. Unlike his beloved Mets or Islanders this year, he put up great numbers in 2016, too.

Just wanted to address the elephant in the room and let you know homey don’t play that.

Besides, even if the algorithm automatically calculating our most popular posts is ultimately wrong, we still think that this list turned out to be a pretty good primer for what you missed in 2016, what you need to know in 2017, and what RecruitingDaily is really all about.

For reals.

10. How Recruiters (And Candidates) Can Still Have Love for Job Interviews by Matt Charney

 Job interviews not only suck, but they’ve been proven to be ineffective in the past. This post looks at how you can measure, manage and maximize job interviews in the recruiting process – whether or not you’re a recruiter or a candidate: Click Here to read more.

9. The Good Wife’s Guide: Straight Talk About Shit Advice by Amy Miller

 Amy is a corporate recruiter for Microsoft, but somehow her posts are more raw and more real than pretty much anything else we post, period. She’s basically a badass – and so too is her content.

This post is a great introduction to one of our favorite bloggers. She’s also absolutely right in this scathing attack on “influencers” and “thought leaders” –and why you shouldn’t listen to their bullshit advice. It’s easier to tell someone what to do than do it yourself, which is why we’re telling you this one’s worth a read: Click Here to read more.

8. The Rise and Fall of LinkedIn by Pete Radloff

 This post from February lays out how LinkedIn’s market and product strategies looked like they couldn’t be sustained for much longer without either an exit event or insolvency. These predictions, of course, turned out to be prescient just a few months later: Click Here to read more.

7. Five Things Every New Recruiter Needs To Remember by Pete Radloff

 Pete has been in this business a while, and as recruiting lead at Comscore, continues to add to the long list of painful lessons he’s learned since his early days in the recruiting industry. That’s why this list of the five most important recruiting lessons any recruiter should know should be required reading for anyone just starting out in TA.

But the advice in here should prove indispensable for any recruiter or talent leader at any level, anywhere: Click Here to read more.

6. Going Dutch: Why Randstad Really Acquired Monster by Matt Charney

 I started my marketing career at Monster, and as a PR and corporate communications representative during the recession (God help us all), I still feel a strong sense of connection to the place where I first encountered this industry and built the foundation for my career.

That’s why I had to break down my thoughts on what this acquisition means for recruiters, and what I think will happen next as the “New Monster” emerges – and why I sincerely hope that it’s not a Fiddling Beaver this time. Click here to read more.

5. The Top HR and Recruiting Technologies of 2016 by Matt Charney

 I do one of these every year, and while the 2015 one performed way better, this year’s list is worth checking twice, particularly if you’re putting together your 2017 budget. There are a ton of turds out there, but these are my picks for the ones worth every employers’ time – unlike, say, Elevated Careers by eHarmony or Z2 by Zenefits.

Although unlike recently departed Zenefits CEO David Sacks, something tells us that Dr.Neil Clarke Warren probably doesn’t won’t become an advisor to the White House when he makes his next move (although since he’s a rich, old, white and homophobic millionaire who’s famous for being on TV, he’s basically qualified for any Cabinet position). Click Here to read more.

4. LION Hunting: Why LinkedIn Open Networkers Deserve to Be Shot by Pete Radloff

 This was one of our most controversial posts ever, but let’s face it – those people who connect with you on LinkedIn only to hit up your extended network or your inbox with a bunch of requests for introductions, business asks or other bullshit are the worst. Pete takes aim at the worst of them in this post that totally hits its target (unlike, say, LinkedIn advertising). Click Here to read more.

3. What the Microsoft Acquisition of LinkedIn Means for Recruiting by Matt Charney

 Spoiler alert: a lot. And even though this is old news, it’s still probably pertinent – and even if not, it’s got a whole bunch of gratuitous Clippy references. Hey, when you’re watching dinosaurs inch towards a tar pit, you need something to keep you entertained. Click here to read more.

2. Why Job Postings on Facebook Are the Beginning of the End for LinkedIn by Matt Charney

Here’s a life hack for content marketing pros: if you’re going after recruiters, LinkedIn is like the Kardashian of HR Technologies – everyone has some morbid fascination in every little thing that goes on in Mountain View. Obviously, that means we write a lot of these stories – although this one shows that Facebook might soon be the destination every recruiter loves to hate, instead. At least there isn’t InMail. Click here to read more.

1. 100+ HR Technologies to Watch in Q4 2016 by William Tincup

 William wrote only one post this year, and it was by far and away the most popular. The reason’s pretty obvious – it’s likely one of the most comprehensive lists of recruiting and HR related resources (particularly startups) on the market, and every buyer should probably print this out as a reference. It will come in handy – and we can’t wait until the Q1 2017 edition.

In the meantime, have a happy New Year and from all of us at RecruitingDaily, thanks for helping us have an amazing 2016 – and putting up with our occasional drama, take no prisoners approach  and perpetual contrarianism.

We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve got cooking for 2017 at RecuritingDaily – but let’s just say, the fun’s only beginning. Which makes sense, considering that’s about the last word anyone would ever use to describe 2016. Unlike, “craptastic” or “douchetacular.”

But the good news about 2016 is, it’s over. These most popular posts, however, proved that even in the worst of times, you can still have the best of content – and we hope you enjoy these posts as much as we did. See you next year – and thanks again for being a part of RecruitingDaily.

Have A Happy New Year. See You Next Year!

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