Adam Karpiak never set out to become a recruiter. In fact, he didn’t even know it was a career until a recruiting firm saw his resume online and reached out — they liked his sales experience. Turns out, it was his calling.
Today, 333,000+ LinkedIn followers await daily advice from the self-described “recruiter helping job seekers rediscover their value.”
Those followers count on Adam to make them smile or even laugh out loud. His humor — delivered in bite-size servings and remarkable for its uncanny accuracy in targeting the absurdities of some hiring practices — has kept his fan base growing. Quickly.
But his followers also look to him for his empathetic advocacy. He uses wit and sarcasm to post about what he feels are flawed hiring practices and about how the imbalance between job seekers and companies can be corrected.
His aim: Improve the hiring process and help job seekers successfully navigate its thorny ins and outs.
Accidental beginnings blossom into a booming business
Adam didn’t exactly set out to be a “candidate therapist.” Like everyone else, he’d post job listings on LinkedIn. (He has a contingent recruiting company that helps CPA firms hire accountants.)
“I used it to find candidates,” he says, “and my original posts were boring, like, ‘I’m searching for a senior property accountant, four to seven years of experience.’ But I’m not a boring person. I don’t think I’m funny or exuberant, but I’m not a boring person.”
Adam began punching up his online presence as a recruiter to attract more of the top candidates for his clients and to make his posts better reflect who he is. “I started experimenting with new ideas,” he says, “and I began writing my own articles, being myself.”
That meant speaking his mind — about hiring practices and candidate experience hiccups that he finds bewildering or downright maddening.
Why is he so vocal about job seekers? Well for one, he used to be one of them. After a painful unemployment stint, Adam says the pitfalls of his job hunt stuck with him.
“I had a hell of a job search,” he says. “I hated it. I know what job seekers are dealing with, so let’s all be honest and talk about it.”
He wishes the folks he dealt with during his own search had shown more empathy, and his personal experience — and frustration — fuel his humor and his posts.
“Recruiters have to understand,” Adam says, “who they’re dealing with in terms of job seekers. If someone is less than happy to talk to a recruiter, odds are there’s something behind that. There’s something to be unpacked.”
From belly-laughing to a burgeoning community on LinkedIn
Adam’s built a seemingly cathartic interactive community on LinkedIn, with followers swapping job leads and calling out ineffective organizations, HR people, and hiring managers.
“We come together,” Adam says, “and we say, ‘I’m not alone, not the only one getting beat down. I’m not the only person burned out by this.’”
He sees job seekers starting to prioritize their mental health and be honest about what they want and need. And he’s empowering them.
“Don’t put up with it,” he says about disrespect in the job search. After all, this is a record-breaking job seekers’ market and countless amazing career opportunities are up for grabs. Why not go for broke?
“If people looking for work see a hiring practice they don’t like,” Adam says, “or they feel a company is flexing a total power move — wanting to know everything about you, your desired salary, and that two-month employment gap in 2004 — if you’re not comfortable with that, screw them. [Job seekers] deserve respect, and they don’t have to play the game if they don’t want to.”
Employers who are flexible and transparent will stand out from others
Adam says he thinks some companies are waking up — particularly since the pandemic struck — to applicants’ growing frustrations. He hopes that by telling it straight he can get companies and the hiring managers who are following him to hear candidates’ stories and consider more candidate-friendly ways of doing things.
He says the companies having the hardest time filling openings right now are the ones that are most rigid. They may, for example, focus entirely on degree requirements instead of experience or skills.
“The talent is out there,” Adam says, “and talent is being hired by companies that are flexible, that aren’t rigid when it comes to employee responsibilities and requirements, and that’s the biggest change.”
Be authentic and be a partner
Adam’s brand is built on being authentic and honest. His advice for new recruiters looking to make their mark?
“You need to find your voice,” he says. “[Some people] have tried my approach, whether it’s sarcasm or humor, but that’s not who they are, and it falls flat. And I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m saying they’re not comfortable with it and they have to be comfortable with what they put out.”
Adam knows that his fellow recruiters have a lot on their plate.
“When I talk with other recruiters,” he says, “there’s always that moment of simpatico. I’ve been in their shoes, and we crack inside jokes about it.”
Successful recruiters, he says, listen to and appreciate where candidates are coming from.
“Candidates want to have conversations that are a lot different than, ‘Hey, I found this, and I see your background, and this is what I have for you,’” Adam says. “Plenty of other people do that, and I think you differentiate yourself by being honest. Tell them, ‘Hey, job seeking sucks. No one likes doing it, but this is what we’re working with.’ Then they feel more a partner in the process, as opposed to working with the recruiter as a necessary evil.”
Final thoughts
Adam will continue to be a champion of candidates and better candidate experiences.
“In recruiting, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry,” Adam says. “You deal with a lot of time pressures and deadlines. You have to just laugh at them. If you’re not laughing, it’s going to wear at you. Keep it real. Be you, and I’ll be me.”
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Topics: Industry humor and fun Recruiting tips Community voices
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