What’s Working In Tech Hiring Right Now...And What Isn’t
Depending on what numbers you look at (and who you are actually talking to), you’ll get very different responses to how the job market is right now.
The numbers aren’t consistent across Big Tech, as these charts published in Business Insider show. So what’s going on locally? We had conversations with Southeast recruiters, CEOs, founders, and hiring managers to learn more about what local hiring trends are looking like. How would they describe the hiring landscape?
“Overall, I would describe the tech hiring landscape as "weird,” said Chris Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman Talent Solutions. “There is contraction in some traditional areas alongside real momentum in innovative and high-growth businesses.”
Another take: “Despite the headlines, it’s not a hiring freeze. It’s a flight to quality. The era of hiring bodies just to inflate headcount is over,” added Judy Price, Vice President of Client Development at Humans Doing in Atlanta. “Companies are trimming low performers, but they are competing fiercely for high-impact revenue generators and core technical builders. Every seat now has to tie directly to ROI, revenue, or product delivery.”
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What That Means Inside Local Startups
Across the board, the companies we talked to are being more selective, are hiring for specialized skills, and are taking measures to stop AI generated applications.
Cassidy Stallings, Sr. Director of People Operations at Atlanta-based EyeQ Monitoring, told us that her company is increasingly asking whether it is facing “a capacity problem” or “a process problem” in order to figure out exactly when is the right time to hire.
“If we can give someone several hours back each week through AI or automation, that can absolutely influence the timing of an additional hire,” she said. “But if the gap is strategic thinking, accountability, leadership, creativity, technical depth, customer relationships, or complex decision-making, that still points to a people need…The goal should be better leverage, not just more output.”
PackPay founder-in-residence Jeremy Carter, based in Birmingham, said AI’s impact on the job search was very apparent when he was out hiring for his first engineering role.
“I quickly realized that every application was the same…the length, the wording, the tone, the answers. It was all written by AI,” Carter said.
So he scrapped the written questions and asked applicants to submit a video demonstrating something they had built. Candidates who moved forward completed interviews and worked through a technical problem with the company.
The startup PitchGhost (based out of the Atlanta Tech Village) took another approach. Founder and CEO Marc Frankel, who recently was hiring for a GTM Lead and a Customer Success Manager based in Atlanta, used role-specific questions to test whether applicants had researched the company and were interested in the actual job.
"For the GTM, it was: 'What's one thing about our website that can be improved?' and 'What marketing channel is a must for us and why?'" he told us. "these questions helped candidates show care and effort in lieu of a cover letter."
But AI still has a place in the hiring process. Frankel used it to research salaries, analyze job descriptions, record screening notes, and develop candidate scorecards, which was helpful as the startup looked to bring on the right people quickly.
“It helped cut a week’s worth of work down to a day,” he said.
Maija Ehlinger
The Application Process Is Breaking Down
As the startups we talked to noticed all too well, there is a clear bleak spot in the hiring world right now. And that is the sheer number of poor applications flooding companies who are hiring.
Price said companies are being flooded with customized resumes that appear strong but do not always reflect a candidate’s ability to execute. In response, some early-stage companies are responding by turning off public postings and relying more heavily on referrals and direct outreach.
Wasserman added that organizations are having to wade through “unqualified applications and, increasingly, fraudulent profiles” more than before, he said.
Larger companies are adopting AI screening systems to manage that volume, but Wasserman said those tools can miss qualified candidates whose experience or responses do not match the patterns they are designed to recognize.
“Candidates still want genuine human interaction, particularly when making an important career decision,” he said. “For early-stage and growth-stage companies, that human connection can be an advantage.”
Experience + Adaptability
In our AI Age, the skills companies want are shifting. And that’s changing the job descriptions that are getting posted.
Carter said AI did not change the personal qualities he wanted in PackPay’s first hire. He still prioritized someone who worked hard, moved quickly, and contributed to the culture. But it did change how he evaluated technical ability.
“Rather than an expert coder, I needed someone who could produce the code we required for the output we were seeking,” he said. “Being able to use the tools available and, more importantly, continue to use the tools as they evolve was extremely important.”
Wasserman is seeing particularly strong demand for experienced professionals who can work across AI, data, and cybersecurity. The old organizational triangle, with a wide base of junior employees supporting fewer senior professionals, is beginning to look more like a diamond as AI absorbs some task-oriented work, he he added.
But geography still matters. KP Reddy, founder and CEO of Zero RFI, has concentrated engineering hires in San Francisco and Atlanta.
“The West Coast engineering talent is very concentrated, strong, and highly competitive,” Reddy said. “Atlanta talent is also technically very strong but has less experience with venture-backed, high-growth companies. Our teams get the best of both worlds.”
Ready For Part 2?
Next, we want to hear from those out on the job hunt or those that have recently landed a tech job. Reach out here to share your experience!
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Featured Photo by Trent Erwin / Unsplash
