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FutureProof You is a team comprised of: Career Pivot Expert Dan Yu, Recruiting Master John Lovig, and AI Consultant Aaron Makelky. Listeners will hear discussions of job trends, career advice, and actionable tips for making sure their careers are future proof!
FU Podcast EP21 Q4 Hiring Trends
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Aaron: [00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of The Future Proof You Podcast. Go f yourself. I am your co-host, along with my colleagues, Dan, you and John Loick. Good day, gentlemen. The topic for today is Q4 hiring trends. Since we have two recruiters who are in the trenches in the LinkedIn search bar, living this. We're gonna start off with John.
What have you seen most recently in terms of hiring trends, like who's hiring, who's not, and what do job seekers need to know going into Q4 of 2025?
AI's Impact on Hiring (AI roles, AI-enabled positions, executive searches)
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John Lovig: Yeah. A lot of, uh, who I'm working with are tech companies, and a lot of them are hiring for people to enable AI in some capacity. So either I'm, I'm working with a lot of AI companies or AI enabled SaaS companies. So, make with that what you will, but. Almost every single one of my clients has been talking about AI and actually [00:01:00] even roles where I'm, I've, I have a client that's a, um, like a software. Development services provider, right? They build zero one products. they're looking for people with AI skills like ai, first style recruiting. They're looking for marketers and, and an ops person who use AI to make their work better. So combination of AI as an actual role and then also how people use AI in their role. And then the other thing I've noticed is, um, one, I'm working on a lot of high level like executive. Level searches. So companies look like they're going to be growing again. Uh, and my most recent check on LinkedIn to see, you know, get a, get a pulse on who's hiring as, as anyone who listens to this more than once probably knows.
I always check what kind of recruiters are being hired to figure out what's going on in the market. And there's. [00:02:00] A high number of recruitment postings up, and a lot of them are for tech recruiters specifically.
Aaron: Yeah. What about you, Dan? What? What's similar versus different in what you're seeing in Q4? Hiring right now?
Seasonal Hiring Patterns & Budget Spending
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Dan Yu: that, uh, you know, it's a seasonal thing, right? And so. Even though there is a lot of job hugging and, um, you know, we have seen in the past quarter the trend of the no fire, no hire. Um, you know, seasonally companies, you know, usually will hire in New Four 'cause they need to get things done before the end of the year where a hiring manager might, you know, lose their hiring budget for the following year.
So they have to, they have to spend the money. And so, you know, I totally agree with John, you know, that, um, you know, we're, we're, we're seeing it here as well. So, you know, there's, um, definitely a need to for talent. Um, I think that, uh, companies are a little bit more mindful as, you know, [00:03:00] John alluded to with, you know, being AI first.
There are definitely. Looking at people's, uh, skills and willingness to be AI first, right? Being ai, you know, really mindful about, you know, how they, how they go about their day. so yeah, there's, there, there's a lot of things moving, but, uh, you know, it's, it's kind of like the same, same story, you know, different year.
John Lovig: Yeah. Yeah. This feels very similar to like Pranav 2021, like when, when COVID started to unlock hiring. Now we, we didn't get the lows of C this year. It feels like when, when we were going through 2020, this part of the season feels exactly the same to me. And then what happened after that was the hiring boon of 2021. So I'm hoping we don't have the same hiring boon, because that also resulted in a huge, [00:04:00] huge restructuring and tons of layoffs. Right. You know, not too far after. I'm hoping companies can maybe just, you know. Get it together and know who they have to hire and, you know, predictably grow instead of just hire fire, hire, fire.
But we'll see.
Aaron: And Dan, could you, could you define the job hugging, uh, phrase for the people who didn't listen to our episode on that? And then tell us like, what does that mean for job huggers?
Job Hugging Trend Explained
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Dan Yu: when, uh, you really will do anything to stay in your job and not really risk for a new job. Right. And so what does that mean for job huggers? Well, they're, you know, gonna take on maybe, you know, a little more extra work. You know, maybe they'll. Um, you know, really, uh, make an effort to manage up so that their bosses know how great they're doing. you know, all of those little things, right? To make sure that, you know, they're not [00:05:00] gonna be put onto a list. And so, you know, the, you know, John, you know, spoke about, uh, you know, overhired over fire, you know, that's definitely a thing. And, um. You know, we've seen that, you know, yes, there is a trend that more companies are gonna be using ai, right?
And so, you know, that's, um, this job hugging trend is real, right? They're, you know, they're, they're trying to take on more things and then use AI to make themselves more effective in doing those extra tasks, which is a great thing actually, right? Increased pro productivity. I think there's, there's gonna be, uh, um, the new talent coming in, right?
LinkedIn Profile Optimization for AI Search
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Dan Yu: You know, the, the younger talent they're going to have to get those skills somehow. so, and then also demonstrate, and then if anybody that's out, anybody that's out in the, you know, in, in the job market, they've been laid off maybe this year. You know, we've seen so many people get laid off from, you know, government jobs. Um. [00:06:00] know, companies that expanded too fast, right? The over hire. And so it's so important for people to be ready right at all times in case that does happen. And so, super important to have a really strong, robust LinkedIn profile, right? And making sure that, you know, periodically you're downloading, know, your contacts and you know all, all of your accomplishments. Making sure that, uh, you memorialize that not just within the four walls of your company, but also on LinkedIn publicly, and be proud of it.
John Lovig: I think too, you know, you, you mentioned LinkedIn and right now we're seeing a shift. We, we, we've, we, wow, what was that? Uh, we, we were talking about AI a moment ago and then LinkedIn. Those two are getting a lot closer together than they were before too. The, the recruiter backend of LinkedIn, and we mentioned this in our a MA last week. It's shifting, it's [00:07:00] changing. They're creating agentic ai, essentially AI agents to do two things, um, way better. Uh, and that's finding candidates and writing messaging. Uh, and so now as a recruiter. I can ask AI to go and search for specific criteria. Um, if you don't have a profile for the AI to find. It might not show up for me. You know, might use AI to do a more sophisticated search than what I might normally do. You know, sometimes I actually go in with, alright, here are the target companies I'm going after and I'll look at titles against that company. Other times I need more specific experience and so I'll, I'll filter down. Those agents might not capture those folks and we don't know how it's gonna behave because we don't know how agentic AI search is gonna apply to LinkedIn.
Agentic AI in LinkedIn Recruiting
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Dan Yu: important to make sure you have the keywords right in your, in your LinkedIn profile, and use the ubiquitous, right, the commonplace
John Lovig: Exactly.
Dan Yu: [00:08:00] that will go across industries, not just be specific to you. Right?
John Lovig: not both? Right? The specific and common,
Dan Yu: Yeah.
John Lovig: it's just more data.
Dan Yu: matters. We've seen that, right John? So more mentions of keywords is better than less.
John Lovig: Well, frequency. And then, you know, one thing we don't usually talk about, but that's important is, is recency, right? Because sometimes I'm doing a search and what people don't realize is you put in keywords and LinkedIn search parameters, it highlights them on the page. And if I'm looking for something really specific I'm like, this is a actual example, I was looking for someone who has a agentic AI experience, who's an engineer. If I don't see a gentech in their current job, I'm assuming they don't actually have it because it's a relatively new term. So if it's not in their about section or their current job, I might scroll one more [00:09:00] down to see, but at at a certain point I'm like up. For some reason it's not showing up, or it's like one of those endorsed skills at the very bottom that's collapsed. so if you are doing something like that not calling it out in your current role and you're just using the skill section to call it out, you're actually really hurting yourself because the way that we process information to make a determination has to be pretty quick so we can actually get candidates in front of our clients as fast as possible.
Keyword Strategy for Visibility
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Aaron: And one of Dan's favorite ways to to do that is pin a post about the thing that you want the recruiters to see because you get three posts that show up. So as someone's scrolling down from your banner and profile picture down, let's say, as recruiters, is it fair to say you get six to eight seconds to either confirm or go on to the next candidate?
That's, that's like how the window of time to engage your interest.
Using Pinned Posts Effectively
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John Lovig: Yeah, I would say that's a fair assessment.
Aaron: Okay, [00:10:00] so one of the things you can do to get that in there besides, you know, keyword packing with both the spelled out term and the acronym is make sure one of your first three pinned posts also speaks to, let's say you're an engineer looking for the agentic ai, uh, role is have an article or a video or a post about that thing, and it's just another way to go confirm, confirm, confirm.
I'm seeing this everywhere on their profile.
John Lovig: I mean, the way I use it as a recruiter even is I pin every job that I post so that the three most recent ones show up underneath me. So you can get an example of what I recruit for. Um. You could also just sort of see what I'm actively working on at any given time.
Aaron: And so last question, Dan. We talked about knockout questions in the interview. What about knockout mistakes in a LinkedIn profile? As you scroll through someone's profile looking for their, are they suitable for this role? What's some. Thing that makes you go, Nope. Done.
LinkedIn Profile Knockout Mistakes
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Dan Yu: Well, [00:11:00] I've, um, I've done some recruiting for some communications and marketing roles. And if they don't have good examples in posts of things that they might've worked on, um, you're in, you're in communications, you're in marketing, you're in a creative style role. You should have things in your posts about the things you've, you know, you've worked on.
And, and, and you should be proud of them. And if you're not. Is, is that the subliminal way of saying that you don't really care about your work? You know, so, you know that's, that's been standing out recently. Um,
John Lovig: And I'm actually working on a marketing role right now. We're the hiring manager. If the person doesn't have a professional picture and if they don't have. A, um, background. The client's very suss about it because the, they feel you're the, [00:12:00] you're the, the front facing person for our brand. Right. You're the senior most marketer in our business, and you don't even have a profile picture up. Right. And so that's that does come up too.
Dan Yu: talking about these things right in our classes coming up. So, uh, is it, it's, uh,
John Lovig: Yeah.
Dan Yu: 6th is our LinkedIn, quick
John Lovig: November 6th is our live course.
Dan Yu: quick
John Lovig: Yeah.
Aaron: If you're, if, yep. If you're listening to this at a time where that's not, uh, relevant and timely, you can find the downloadable version if you go to future proof yau.com and we'll have a list of upcoming live classes if you want that format or downloadable, asynchronous ones that are recordings, and you get the video and you get the notes along with it If you wanna work at your own pace.
Well, gentlemen, thanks for joining for another episode of Future-Proof Use Podcast. Go f yourself, it's time to sign [00:13:00] off and let you, recruiters go. Hire some roles for Q4. Uh, I'm your co-host, Aaron Makelky, joined by Dan Yu and John Lovig.
~Now I gotta think about how I'm gonna sign off. I'll edit this part out. Um, ~
Watermelon
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Aaron: ~what was our tagline like? Help, help helping you take control of your career today? Or what did, what did we,~
John Lovig: ~Oh yeah. Um,~
Aaron: ~a good CTA at the end.~
John Lovig: ~on our website, I think.~
Aaron: ~I hope it's on our website.~
John Lovig: ~I think I added it. Oh no, it's on one of our versions of our logo.~
Dan Yu: ~with skills? No, it's, uh,~
John Lovig: ~it's, it's, take control of your career today or something like that. I'll find it.~
Aaron: ~Take control of your career today.~
~Okay?~
John Lovig: ~about that I, I'll, find it.~
Aaron: ~Yeah. Okay. Watermelon. Um,~ it's been a pleasure helping you listeners take control of your career today. We'll see you on LinkedIn and on future proof.com.