The Recruitment Still Sucks Manifesto

I

People are unique. Jobs are not.

Hiring has treated it the other way round, and everything broken follows from that.

II

Respect is not conditional.

We uphold it before we ask for it. Every interaction with a candidate or an employer deserves an answer. Silence is a choice we do not make.

III

Transparency is not optional.

Everything needed to start is on the table before anyone applies — the pay, the stages of the process, the work as it truly is and where it leads, and a factual representation of who we are and what we bring to the table. No one should have to enter a process to discover what they are entering.

IV

Everyone is measured the same way.

Two candidates for the same job meet the same questions and the same bar. When the measure is known and equal, no one needs to inflate or perform — and we do not.

V

The burden of proof is ours to carry.

A candidate brings the evidence of their ability — the record, the portfolio, the references, the credentials the work calls for. An employer brings proof by public transparency. Any party asking for more than that pays for what it asks: the tests, the travel, the hours.

VI

Bias is disproven, not declared.

Employers must be able to prove their processes are free of bias and prejudice, from the job spec to the decisions made at every gate. A process is answerable for the outcomes it produces, not for the intentions behind it.

VII

What we are under scrutiny is what we remain.

Neither party performs a version of itself that expires once the risk has passed — not when the offer is signed, not when probation ends, not when we cross to the other side of the table.

VIII

We judge the application, never the person.

A rejection is not a verdict. What we decline is a fit against the published requirements for the role, not a human being.

IX

We are all responsible.

I hold myself to this on both sides of the table, as one who applies and as one who decides. This problem is not difficult. It just lacks ownership.