How has IT recruiment changed for the last 30 years
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
“Trevor, the last time I looked for a job was 5 years ago. It felt so much easier then. What’s happened to recruitment?”
I hear this all the time. The job market has changed - it’s always changing - but this time it feels very different.
The human side of the recruitment process seems to be disappearing in favour of efficiency and progress.
Are we losing the human touch in what should be a people-first industry?
On this fine Monday morning, I thought I'd take a walk down recruitment's memory lane - 30 years of job-seeking evolution - and what it’s meant for job seekers, recruiters and employers.
💛 The Relationship Era (1990s - early 2000s)
Faxed resumes. Office visits. Coffee catchups. Newspaper ads. Rolodexes full of real people.
Recruiters were trusted partners.
Employers picked up the phone.
Job seekers got feedback and jobs.
It was scrappy, human, and relational.
But it worked.
💛 The Job Board Era (2000s - 2010s)
Then SEEK, Monster and CareerOne arrived.
Ads went digital. Applications skyrocketed.
Recruiters became inbox managers.
Job seekers became keyword strings - a series of data points.
Then came Quick Apply, and suddenly everyone was applying for everything.
Applications exploded. So did the noise.
Efficiency went up. Personalisation went down.
💛 The LinkedIn Era (2008 - today)
LinkedIn didn’t just change the game - it rewrote it.
Recruiters could find anyone, so could employers.
Job seekers could build connections, visibility, voice and brand.
💛 The ATS & Automation Era (2010s - early 2020s)
Applicant Tracking Systems started filtering resumes before humans ever saw them.
AI began ranking people like Spotify playlists.
Recruiters chased KPIs. Feedback vanished.
The process took over the person.
💛 The AI & Algorithmic Era (2020s - now)
Now it’s chatbots, one-way video interviews and facial analysis.
Auto-responses. Endless silence.
And yes, apps now let job seekers apply for 100+ jobs in 30 seconds.
Autopilot interview apps offer GodMode to ace interviews.
It’s becoming bot vs bot.
And the humans? Optional.
We’ve made tech smarter.
But the experience feels colder.
And here’s the thing - most people don’t live in the job market until they absolutely have to.
They come back after 5, 10, even 20 years, expecting it to feel familiar.
It doesn’t.
The old playbook doesn’t work anymore.
And adapting? It’s hard - especially when you don’t even know what’s changed.
I’m not anti-tech. But I am very, very pro-human. And, generally speaking, humans are struggling to understand how to adapt quickly
Been around a while? What changes have you noticed, and how are you navigating them?
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