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The story of the week is this proposal from Deutsche Bank to tax the WFH 5% of salary in order to support those who cannot do WFH. The reaction has been, fair to say, fairly emphatic, but I suspect this will be the first in a recurring wave of legislative attempts by governments i to reverse the shift to remote working. Meanwhile, governments in other regions, actively compete to do the opposite. ‘The war for talent’ is being reborn with an entirely new meaning along an entirely different axis. H/T to brainfooders Glenn Southam and Pedro Oliveira for the share in the fb group

Start of a promising series on Forbes by brainfooder Heather McGowan, who makes the case for deeper investment in human capital in order to create the sort of self-updating workforce which can keep with the rate of change. An excellent essay with a signature McGowan visualisation on the stages of life.

Check out LinkedIn’s own virtualised onboarding programme. Can’t disagree with any of their moves here - they all make perfect sense - and serve as a sense check for all of us if we’re missing any here. Accessible, practical, high value reading. PS might be useful if more of us published these types of ‘how we do it’ type material

It is Irina Shamaeva so you know what this means: a succinct single page post with some simple workarounds to what previously seemed to be intractable search problems. Irina is a must follow, and this post - for sourcers at least - is a must read

Never thought I’d share Immanuel Kant in recruiting brainfood (got an ‘F’ in Moral Philosophy…), but here I am, shouting out Mr Categorical Imperative himself. This post explains the difference between values-as-PR vs values as the ethical operating system of your business. It really is a superb piece of writing, unlike anything Mr Kant ever wrote….

Fascinating analysis on the role of the ‘micro businesses’ in South East Asia, and how economic development is following a unique path according the local conditions of those markets. Lots to learn here, especially as ‘micro-entrepreneurship’ (spoiler alert: basically what brainfood is) has been recently touted as a way out of tech unemployment apocalypse. Have a read

The intellectual arms race between tech candidates vs tech recruiters never ceases to fascinate me. Jumping over the fence now and again to the candidate side can be a smart way to learn about what you need to know. This ‘how to beat the tech interview’ guide book is actually really useful for tech recruiters thinking about how to structure tech assessment.

Of course these are crude generalisations of individually complex, dynamic and diverse cultures…..but there’s value sometimes in one paging things.

Great value add content from Juggle Jobs. Particularly brave in naming vendors and describing what they may be best for (glad to see several sponsors of brainfood mentioned in there btw). You’re not going to like everything in this how-to but there is enough of it to be practically useful to a lot of recruiters, so download here. H/T brainfooder Denys Dinkevych for the share

Love it when hiring managers write about recruiting. This CTO talks about how writing can help build talent pipeline. Note the difference in how a recruiter might otherwise have written this post. Something about the non specialist take which makes this post both refreshing and valuable. H/.T Chris Yea for the share

This is an interesting experiment - a roll on / roll off ‘bot battle’ of conversational AI who compete rap battle style. It’s fascinating to observe how automated agents talk to, and learn from, each other when they do it. Future is being made and like I have said before - it isn’t waiting around for us to get comfortable with it. H/T to brainfooder Martyn Redstone for the share in the fb group. 

Interesting research from Dropbox, whose content team are regularly finding ways to dive a little deeper than most on the implications of the shift to remote. This study on focus presents more questions than answers, but maybe the right questions are most important right now. Have a read (and see if you can make it through without being distracted)

What happens when the digitally native really go native - and return the village? As we see an unprecedented reversal of decades of urban agglomeration, this fascinating post describes the impact of what may occur when the metropolitan elites go back home. H/T Bas van de Haterd in the fb group

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Four more community members join the Brainfood Tribune this week - Wayfair’s Head of Tech TA Oana Ioardachescu, Ubisoft’s Francois Gauthier, Green Umbrella MD Christina Robinson and the one and only Lars Schmidt. Read their personal stories on the links above.

If you are a brainfooder, I invite you to share your story with the community. Email me at [email protected]

Check out the list here. If you want to add a podcast to this list, access the google sheet here and add to the bottom of the spreadsheet

Great podcast episode from all time great podcast, this gem explains the productivity costs that come from having noise pollution in your work environment. The fascinating science will have you jumping onto Amazon for the nearest noise cancelling headphones. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the fb group

Well this was a crossover you never knew you needed - NBA superstar Steph Curry interviews inspirational figures, kicking off with Bill Gates. Cute part? Curry asks Gates a few tech interview questions to see how he would answer as a candidate. Fun experiment, maybe something to try with hiring managers. Which could also. be good EB fuel. H/T brainfooder Debbie Widjaja for the share in the fb group

Super interesting online event by our buddies at Bunch.ai 👇

Renowned leaders sharing untold stories of humility, challenge, and growth. Expect special guests and a surprise announcement. Looks different and useful, register here (free)

This is a brilliant event 👇

50+ of the most cutting edge recruitment technologies available on the market, delivered in a format of 10-minute hyper-focused demos. If you want to update your know how of the rectech market and save yourself hours of demo time, this is event to attend. Agenda here, grab your free ticket here.

Brainfood are doing a JV with our buddies at Landing Jobs -join us as we talk about the changing conditions of the tech candidate marketplace and how best to interact with the engineers in this new environment. I’m moderating the panel - register here