Yes, I’m old enough to remember when resumes showed up in the mail. And get this, we posted job ads only in the local newspaper. Yikes…
Actual newspapers and snail mail.
Resumes delivered by the United States Postal Service. To an office. In an envelope. On expensive “executive” resume paper that could double as a medieval weapon once you caught a paper cut opening it.
You’d sit at your desk with a letter opener and a cup of coffee sorting candidates into three piles:
- Yes
- No
- Maybe
That was the applicant tracking system. Yes, really.
And somehow, despite no cell phones, no email, no texting, no LinkedIn, no AI sourcing tools, no automation, no CRM drip campaigns, and no algorithmic keyword matching… we still found great people.
Crazy concept.
You called candidates on a landline phone. If they weren’t home, you left a message on an answering machine. If they even had one. Then came the glorious game of phone tag that could last three days but somehow still felt more productive than today’s “easy apply” culture.
Back then, recruiting required effort from both sides.
Candidates wrote cover letters. Sometimes handwritten notes. They dressed professionally for interviews because appearances mattered in business. Recruiters and hiring managers actually communicated. Feedback loops closed. If a company wasn’t interested, they told you.
“No further interest.”
Simple. Respectful. Adult behavior.
Today? For some, silence has become acceptable corporate policy.
Ghosting used to be something candidates did occasionally. Now everybody does it. Candidates ghost employers. Employers ghost candidates. Recruiters ghost recruiters. Hiring managers disappear into internal meetings for three weeks while “HR recalibrates the process.”
The modern recruiting process often feels less like talent acquisition and more like digital purgatory.
And let’s talk about the technology.
Corporate applicant tracking systems were sold as efficiency tools. In reality, many became giant depersonalization engines. Their primary function is not to identify great talent. Their primary function is to eliminate people at scale.
Wrong keyword? Rejected.
Resume format slightly off? Rejected.
Applied through the wrong portal? Rejected.
Didn’t include 14 years of experience for a role paying $62K? Rejected.
Somewhere along the line, recruiting stopped being relational and became transactional.
The irony? Companies scream constantly about a “talent shortage” while simultaneously creating hiring systems specifically designed to prevent human interaction. Yes, read that again.
And some companies do not even have a consistent hiring process. It’s literally the “Wild West” out there with hiring managers tasked with going at it mostly alone…While also performing all of their (additional) job duties.
A recruiter used to evaluate intangibles:
- Communication skills
- Presence
- Character
- Coachability
- Executive polish
- Hunger
- Emotional intelligence
- Did the candidate’s career trajectory (or decline) make sense?
- Could a candidate have that “up-and-coming” superstar potential?
Now we evaluate whether somebody stuffed enough SEO terminology into a resume to survive an automated screening bot.
Progress.
And while we’re at it, some “recruiters” today are not even recruiters. They were yanked out of another department, had a magic wand waved over them, and suddenly were anointed as talent acquisition professionals. No formal recruiting training. No formal recruiting process background. No long-term corporate talent strategy. Perhaps just a LinkedIn license, stale social media posts blasting “strong” outdated job descriptions, and a job title change. Sure, they “speak the language” and give it a good go. Again, yikes…Ask your hiring managers how that’s working for your group.
And in the media industry specifically? The situation is even more fractured.
This business values mentorship, leadership presence, newsroom culture, sales swagger, creativity, market knowledge, and relationship-building. General Managers know their teams. News Directors develop talent. Sales Managers recruit continuously because they understand one truth:
Great people build great stations.
Now too many companies treat recruiting like procurement.
Post the job.
Wait.
Complain about the candidate pool.
Repost the job.
Add another interview round.
Lose the best candidate to a competitor that moved faster.
Rinse. Repeat.
Meanwhile, exceptional candidates — the ones actually producing results — are not sitting online refreshing job boards waiting to upload a PDF into Workday at midnight.
They’re working.
They’re winning.
And they’re usually talking to recruiters they trust.
That’s the part many companies forgot: recruiting is still fundamentally about trust. Process. Dignity. Respect. Professionalism. Communication. An art. A respected corporate function that takes years to learn. Process. Strategy. Execution. Metrics. Analytics. Legally compliant. Candidate experience. Continuous improvement. Hunting. Selling. Closing candidates. Truly partnering with hiring managers as a craft/business expert.
Technology should support recruiting, not replace humanity inside it.
The best recruiters were never résumé sorters. They were talent evaluators, relationship builders, negotiators, career advisors, psychologists, salespeople, diplomats, and occasionally therapists with a caffeine addiction.
Recruiting used to have craft attached to it.
Pride attached to it.
There was etiquette. Professionalism. Follow-through. Class.
Not perfection — but accountability.
Today, speed has replaced substance. Automation replaced conversation. Volume replaced relationships.
And despite all the technological advances, many companies are hiring more slowly, communicating worse, and struggling more than ever to secure top talent.
Maybe the old way wasn’t so outdated after all…
Ty Carver has over 30+ years of recruiting, HR management, sales, and leadership experience…including the last 15 specific to the broadcast media industry. He is the Founder/CEO of Carver Talent, a local broadcast media management recruiting firm. As the former Head of Recruiting for Raycom Media, he has deep industry relationships. Have a media corporate executive/management or television station management recruiting need? Contact ty@carvertalent.com for more information.