A recent article by US News reviewed survey results from 1,000 leaders in corporate America. Just over 20% stated they had fired a new hire within one week, 27% of leaders said they fired a new hire within a month. A recent article by the Wall Street Journal stated that 81% of leaders reported that their college grad hires are incapable of accepting constructive criticism or managing workplace conflict. As someone who interacts with many different organizations, leaders, and professionals, I can tell you with certainty that developing a career extends far beyond your technical acumen. How good you are at your job is massively influenced by how well you collaborate with co-workers, engage with leadership, and grow as an individual. Notice that the article said “constructive criticism” and not just criticism. This is important to keep in mind because it means a leader is trying to invest in a new hire to help them in their career, and the help is viewed as an attack.

I’ve signed up for two different services in the last year and, unfortunately, had the same incredibly disappointing experience with both. It is so frustrating that it prompted me to write this article on a topic that I hadn’t even thought up with regard to recruiting: Customer Service. Have you ever felt like you were the last person on Earth who seems to value this simple idea?

While reading a new report from Indeed.com looking at hiring trends in 2025, I found it odd that two of the top 6 trends are “proactive candidate engagement” and “recruiting automation.” I’ve written about the importance of engaging with candidates before, as well as how AI is hurting the application process and the hiring process. While I completely agree with increasing candidate engagement, this is a critical step often overlooked or forgotten about by most corporate and 3rd party recruiters, I don’t think the best way to go about this is by automated processes. This seems like good intentions gone awry.