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According to a recent study by SmartAsset using data from the Census Bureau's 1-year American Community Survey for 2022, millennials are moving to new cities in large numbers. The study ranked the top 10 cities where millennials are relocating based on the rate at which they are moving in as a percentage of the total population.
In 2022, Cambridge, Massachusetts had the highest rate, with nearly 38% of the total population being millennials. Santa Clara, California, and Seattle followed closely, with millennials making up a significant portion of their populations as well. Cambridge was named the best U.S. city to live in earlier this year due to its prestigious universities and vibrant tech sector, which likely contributed to its high influx of millennials. Santa Clara's position as the second-highest city for incoming millennials is attributed to its location in Silicon Valley, home to many prominent tech companies. Seattle also saw a substantial number of millennials moving in, with over 41% of its population belonging to this generation.
Artificial intelligence will be a game changer for headhunting. In a conversation with Nancy Xu, the founder and CEO of Moonhub, an AI recruiting company, Xu detailed how automation and machine learning will radically change the recruitment process and improve the candidate and job hunter experience.
“My passion for AI stemmed from realizing its outsized societal impact,” Xu stated. “I'm driven by the fundamental belief that talent is universal, but opportunities aren't. I started to think, how could I use AI to democratize access to jobs and get people hired because of their talent and not just pedigree?” She lamented, “On one hand, I could help really talented people find better, more fulfilling jobs, and I could help companies that are solving important problems get matched with the best talent to do those jobs.”
Xu is on a mission to make Moonhub, backed by investors including Day One Ventures, Alphabet’s GV, Khosla Ventures, Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures, and former YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki, one of the world's first AI recruiters. Her goal is to help recruiting teams find the best, most appropriate candidates for a job opening more efficiently than traditional headhunting. “I'm really passionate about the potential AI has to give people opportunity and agency, and eliminate barriers for underserved talent to accessing quality jobs,” Xu said.
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Her company leverages AI to enable internal corporate talent acquisition teams and outside third-party recruiters to source and screen candidates. After the AI provides several appropriate on-target applicants, human recruiters will pick up the process and usher the candidates through the interview and hiring process. The AI-powered platform offers an advantage in finding and assessing relevant talent quickly and at scale.
From The Past To The Future
For years, the typical recruiting process remained little unchanged. It would start with human resources and a manager needing to find candidates to fill an open position. The company would have its talent acquisition team briefed on what the hiring manager is looking for in an applicant and then start scouring LinkedIn, and job boards and tapping into its internal database to find candidates that fit the job description. The firm would also invite third-party recruiters to help with difficult searches to supplement the efforts of the internal corporate recruiters.
Headhunting can be a lengthy and challenging ordeal. It takes a lot of time and energy to search for people who look like they have the right skills and experiences for the role. Recruiters will spend time sifting through hundreds of résumés and sending texts, emails, and cold reachouts to find potential candidates for a position. Searching for a mid to senior-level, white-collar professional can take weeks to several months to find an appropriate slate of candidates, interview them, go through the hiring process and ultimately find the right fit.
Instead of doing the drudgery work, by leveraging AI, recruiters are empowered to hone in on potential candidates with all the right qualities, experiences, background, education, skills, and appropriate licenses and credentials. Automation saves recruiters time and energy by finding the on-target applicants quickly and easily. According to Xu, customers report finding candidates 2x faster using Moonhub.
Allowing AI to do the behind-the-scenes work frees recruiters to focus on the relationship-driven aspects of the hiring process to ensure the match is suitable for both the candidate and the company.
Xu spoke to the importance of facilitating a seamless candidate experience for the hiring organization, as it directly influences their reputation, employer brand, and ability to attract top talent. “The recruitment process serves as a candidate's initial interaction with a prospective employer, shaping their perception of the company's values and culture. A positive experience characterized by clear communication, efficient processes, and tailored and relevant outreach will increase the likelihood of actually hiring talent. On the other hand, a negative experience can deter qualified candidates,” the founder stated.
How The AI Recruiting Process Works
The startup helps companies find and hire talent across many sectors. With conversational AI, a real-time people database, and a focus on sourcing and outreach, Moonhub helps find hidden gems that traditional recruiting methods might otherwise miss.
Day One Ventures' founder and general partner Masha Bucher said of Moonhub’s value add for companies that want to hire the highest quality talent quickly, “The AI is a game-changing tool that’ll enhance hiring managers and recruiting leaders’ abilities to do their jobs more effectively. Recruiters tell Moonhub what type of candidate they’re looking for, and in five minutes, the AI will recommend a list of 50-plus targeted candidates, saving them dozens of hours of work.”
It looks beyond the typical attributes to find candidates who are an excellent fit for any job opportunity. The platform leverages AI and data science to identify and source potential candidates from across the internet, searching GitHub, StackOverflow, LinkedIn, and other sites.
After identifying candidates, Moonhub screens them through automated assessments to further validate their skills and abilities that match the job description. This helps filter candidates before human review, saving time for recruiters from having to go through hundreds or even thousands of résumés manually.
Human recruiters then manually review the screened candidates to evaluate their experience, portfolios, projects, and other qualifications. The process uniquely combines AI screening along with the human judgment of recruiters.
Xu urged that human recruiters not feel threatened by automation but view it as a valuable tool that complements and enhances their capabilities.
She said, “The essential things that recruiters do—persuading and communicating with candidates—that can’t really be replaced. However, most recruiters spend time on tasks that don’t relate to these core competencies.”
AI recruiters excel in handling repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as resume screening and initial candidate assessments, allowing human recruiters to focus on more strategic and relationship-driven aspects of the hiring process. AI can swiftly analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, source candidates, and calibrate back and forth with the recruiter and hiring manager.
Moreover, AI can help eliminate bias in the recruitment process by making decisions based on objective criteria rather than subjective judgment.
“While AI brings efficiency to certain aspects of recruiting, human recruiters remain essential for building personal connections, understanding nuanced candidate qualities, and navigating interpersonal dynamics. Ultimately, an AI recruiter will only supercharge human recruiters’ abilities to do their jobs and fill roles more effectively,” Xu stated.