We are now witnessing tectonic shifts in the history of humanity caused by global political and economic instability. Each industry suffers changes in its own way. We observe how the job market evolves. Once highly demanded professions become obsolete.  

Recruiters since the very beginning of such profession have always been in the middle between work demand and skill proposition. We have witnessed various good times and downturns over the past several decades. Today, we should admit that our job is being tested for survival. In this series of articles I will try to decompose causes and outcomes, as well as analyze our chances to save the profession of a Recruiter. 

Remember when IT job ads sounded like dream offers? Unlimited vacations, four-day work weeks, coworking spaces in Bali, and lunchtime yoga classes. The market was candidate-driven: specialists were scarce, projects expanded rapidly, budgets grew generously, and companies competed fiercely to offer the best perks. 

Today, all that became history. 

A crack in reality 

High demand sparked high expectations and endless appetites. Companies hired rapidly and extensively, especially from 2020 to 2022 when thanks to COVID the World suddenly went all digital. Opportunities seemed endless; IT community felt near-immortal. It was becoming obvious the bubble should burst. And this is exactly what happened: global turbulence—economic, political, and technological—soon shifted the landscape dramatically. Devastating layoffs followed, wave after wave hundreds of thousands of technology people were pouring into the unemployment ocean. 

Unlimited vacations and four-day weeks, once symbols of progressive workplaces, suddenly appeared extravagant. While some companies successfully experimented with flexibility, many found these practices impractical. How efficient would such a liberal business be, especially when coordinating with global partners, clients in various time zones, and tight deadlines? Product companies might retain some flexibility, but service companies have less room to maneuver. 

How employers’ focus changed? 

Over the past two years, the world witnessed multiple waves of layoffs, initially believed to be temporary setbacks. However, 2023 proved challenging with widespread downsizing, and 2024 offered little respite. Now, in 2025, a new hiring reality is firmly established. 

Candidates no longer hold the upper hand. Many professionals today are simply grateful to be employed, especially those who've endured layoffs firsthand. The luxury of casually muting LinkedIn notifications and selecting only the most attractive offers has largely vanished. As a result, employers are no longer thirsty for talents. They have plenty to choose from as each job ad yields hundreds of applications. 

Who would technology companies hire today? 

Previously, companies hired separate specialists for front-end, back-end, QA, DevOps, and analytics roles, etc. Now, they would prefer to hire a generalist, who is capable of managing multiple responsibilities—ideally, at lower costs. Just imagine that one person needs to be a full-stack developer, also capable to perform DevOps duties, write unit tests, and provide on-call support. Top it up with experience in some rare technology. 

What of Recruiters? 

For recruiters that means that the times of narrowly specialized jobs are long gone. Clear and obvious job descriptions are now history. Each requisition demands a “purple squirrel” that needs to be unearthed from the most distant and darkest corners of the world wide web. And that, my friends, requires a special talent. Just like poorly-qualified technology professional are now forced to switch into something else, low-qualified recruiters are moving away from their jobs. Only the smartest and the most curious ones remain. They are the so-called recruiting cyborgs who can find anyone anywhere, for any budget, and negotiate to given terms. True magic. 

We will discuss how we tackle these tasks in the next article. I’ll talk about this in more detail in the second part of the article.