Recruiters historically narrowed LinkedIn searches by schools and former employers, concentrating attention on a small prestige pool. Searching first for the skills required by the job exposes a larger and less contested group of qualified candidates, although human habits still pull recruiters back toward credentials.

School and employer filters rapidly shrink the candidate pool
Many qualified people receive no outreach under prestige-based search
Skills-first search can improve efficiency and equity
Changing the tool is easier than changing recruiter habits

“Recently, we've switched it to in the Recruiter tool, the first thing we ask you to do is to actually sort, uh, or search by…”
Ryan Roslansky · 28:00

“being able to get hired for what you're good at, um not who you know or you where you went to school, I think it's…”
Ryan Roslansky · 29:00

#recruiting#skills first#talent

Myth Buster37:30

The Open to Work Badge Is a Strength Signal, Not Desperation

The green Open to Work banner began during COVID as both a job-search signal and an invitation for community support. Roslansky says users who display it are 27% more likely to be hired, and frames the deeper lesson as taking ownership of adaptation, learning, and networking.

The badge makes an otherwise invisible job search visible
A network can connect a known candidate to a suitable opening
Roslansky reports a 27% increase in likelihood of being hired
Openness represents career agency during rapid change

“if you have that, you know, green banner on, uh, you are 27% more likely to get hired.”
Ryan Roslansky · 38:30

“OpenWork more than anything is a mindset shift on my career is in my own hands.”
Ryan Roslansky · 39:00

#open to work#job search#career agency

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take13:30

AI Makes Human Skills More Valuable, Not Less

As AI democratizes coding, spreadsheets, and other traditional hard skills, Roslansky expects human capabilities to become the differentiator. Communication, compassion, creativity, courage, and collaboration under difficulty determine who can turn accessible tools into coordinated results.

AI access commoditizes some traditional hard skills
The label soft skills understates their economic importance
Communication and collaboration convert technical capacity into action
Human skills improve through practice with other people

“We've historically talked about that as soft skills and we call them soft skills, it kind of feels like oh, they're not that important or…”
Ryan Roslansky · 14:00

“I think you get them by practicing them like you would anything else.”
Ryan Roslansky · 15:30

#human skills#communication#ai careers

Hot Take39:30

Replace the Five-Year Career Plan With a Three-Year Experience List

Roslansky calls five-year career planning outdated in a labor market changing too quickly for fixed role predictions. A better near-term question is which experiences to acquire over the next three years so they expand the repertoire available for future opportunities.

Rapid change weakens fixed long-term role plans
Experience acquisition is more controllable than a specific future title
Multiple forms of work can accelerate learning
New experiences create options for unique future work

“it's not about having a five-year plan. I think that that's outdated career advice”
Ryan Roslansky · 40:00

“over the next three 3 what are the experiences that I want to try and learn and get to help, you know, kind of put…”
Ryan Roslansky · 40:00

#career planning#experimentation#learning

Explainer· 3

Explainer07:30

Why AI Feels Unlike Every Previous Technology Shift

Roslansky describes AI as a work shock because it combines extraordinary speed with unusually low clarity about how the technology behaves. That uncertainty affects workers, companies, and markets even as capable models produce obvious gains.

AI is evolving faster than prior mobile and social shifts
Even experts do not fully understand how the models operate
People and institutions struggle to plan under persistent uncertainty
The technology can still feel transformative when properly directed

“this one just feels like it's moving at a much faster pace.”
Ryan Roslansky · 07:30

“There's just a lot of uncertainty in it and it's moving faster than anything that we've ever seen.”
Ryan Roslansky · 08:30

#ai#work shock#future of work

Explainer32:00

Why LinkedIn Is Finally Investing in Video Creators

LinkedIn sees millions of members whose occupation is creator, even if their income is earned elsewhere. The platform is investing in video and advertiser connections to create more opportunity on LinkedIn itself, despite resistance from established users who associate professional content with text.

Four million LinkedIn members have creator as their full-time job
Younger members welcome video as a way to show who they are
Some senior users resist video on a professional platform
LinkedIn wants to connect creators with its B2B advertisers

“right now there are 4 million people whose full-time job on LinkedIn is creator.”
Ryan Roslansky · 34:00

“we're investing more in actually, you know, uh, creation of opportunity on the platform”
Ryan Roslansky · 35:30

#linkedin#creators#video#monetization

Explainer36:00

The Hidden Human Marketplace Behind Better AI Models

Model engineers need domain experts to judge whether generated answers are correct. LinkedIn is developing a marketplace where specialists can evaluate prompts and outputs, earn side income, and return judgments that model companies can use for improvement.

Engineers cannot personally verify every specialist-domain answer
Experts grade model responses for correctness
Those evaluations feed back into model improvement
AI growth creates new paid work for human judgment

“a cardiovascular surgeon on LinkedIn can, you know, make money on the side by looking at, you know, some of these prompts in the model…”
Ryan Roslansky · 36:30

“the reason that a lot of these models are so amazing what they do is because at the end of the day, there's a lot…”
Ryan Roslansky · 37:00

#ai evaluation#domain experts#data annotation

Story· 1

Story11:30

LinkedIn's Builder Role Collapses Five Specialties Into One

LinkedIn combined parts of design, product management, marketing, front-end engineering, and back-end engineering into an entry-level builder role. Candidates are assessed on what they can build with AI rather than college credentials, allowing one person to move from idea to output with fewer handoffs.

AI broadens what one early-career employee can execute
The application asks candidates to show what they built
College history is not the primary filter
Fewer specialist handoffs can accelerate customer response

“So, we've started uh a new role at LinkedIn that's just called builder.”
Ryan Roslansky · 12:00

“The application process is like show us what you've built using AI.”
Ryan Roslansky · 12:30

#hiring#builder role#skills first#linkedin

Tool· 1

Tool06:30

The AI Tool Is Only as Useful as the Context You Give It

People who merely dabble with AI may blame the model when the real deficit is missing context. Roslansky's practical habit is to talk to Copilot for an extended period so the next request is grounded in his goals and situation.

Weak outputs can result from insufficient context rather than weak models
Long voice input is a fast way to transfer working context
Accumulated context improves the quality of later questions
Useful AI collaboration requires deliberate investment

“It's quite frankly because you haven't put the time and effort to, you know, really set the context or train it or put in the…”
Ryan Roslansky · 06:30

“I'll just, you know, like open up Copilot on my phone and just, you know, talk to it. And like I'll just talk for like…”
Ryan Roslansky · 07:00

#ai context#copilot#productivity

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway18:00

Middle Management Shifts From Task Control to Coaching

Managers who mainly check whether tasks were completed become less necessary as AI expands individual autonomy. The durable management work is coaching performance, resolving conflict, clarifying lanes, configuring systems, and making difficult trade-offs.

Task supervision loses value as tools increase worker autonomy
Coaching helps employees adapt their skills and behavior
More building capacity can create more overlap and conflict
Managers must clarify ownership and facilitate trade-offs

“if your manager is just someone who thinks that their job all day long is to ensure you're doing your tasks, um that job is…”
Ryan Roslansky · 19:00

“that manager's job now becomes uh ensuring how to get these people to work together correctly, uh ensure they're, you know, they understand the lanes…”
Ryan Roslansky · 19:30

#management#coaching#conflict

Takeaway23:30

Build at the Intersection of Doing Good and Doing Well

Roslansky says LinkedIn's mission and commercial model reinforce one another: useful products create economic opportunities while supporting the business. He argues that integrating positive impact into the core product can become a competitive advantage, unlike treating it as a charitable afterthought.

Mission can sit inside the business model
Positive user outcomes need not conflict with commercial success
Sidecar charitable activity is weaker than product-level alignment
Coherent mission also helps employees understand how their work connects

“I try and find opportunities that are where we sit at the intersection of doing good and doing well.”
Ryan Roslansky · 24:30

“when you can seamlessly combine doing good and doing well in what you're building, I think there's real competitive advantage”
Ryan Roslansky · 25:00

#mission#business ethics#competitive advantage

Frameworks in this episode

Onlyness Career Advantage

Three-Bucket Career Task Audit

Three-Lever Career Signaling

Insights & moments

⚡Myth Buster· 2

Prestige Filters Hide Qualified Talent From Recruiters