AI broke hiring...what now?

This is an edited transcript of my conference talk. It has been tightened for reading while preserving the argument and examples from the stage.

Hiring is not about you

I am a self-taught engineer from Montgomery, Alabama—not exactly a thriving tech hub. I did not have special connections when I was trying to break into engineering, and every role in my career came through the ideas we are going to cover here.

Before anything else, you have to internalize an uncomfortable truth: hiring is not about you. Your job, career, and future obviously matter to you, but the company is the main character in its hiring process. You are there to fill a supporting role.

If you approach a job search as the main character, companies hear a lot about what matters to you. They are listening for what matters to them. The candidates who stand out are not always the ones who know the most; they are the ones who understand what matters to this company right now and communicate it clearly.

The real question is trust

Capability, communication, collaboration, and fast learning all matter because they are signals for the question every company is trying to answer: can I trust you?

Resumes, portfolios, and interviews have always been proxies for trust. AI has made each artifact easier to produce at a level of polish that used to signal effort or ability. The artifact may be flawless, but the company can no longer assume it proves what it once proved.

From the company’s perspective, hiring is risk. One bad hire can cost more than leaving a role empty, and its effects spread through everyone else’s performance. AI did not remove that risk; it obscured the signals companies used to evaluate it. Doubt is now present from the start, and the candidate has to provide stronger proof.

There is no hack for this. Trust cannot be told; it has to be shown. The goal is to become so trustworthy that you take risk off the table—to become a no-brainer.

Lever one: become noteworthy

Being noteworthy does not mean being famous. It is your ability to earn attention and a positive reaction through the work you do. Think of it as gravity. As your work becomes more noteworthy, your job search no longer depends entirely on finding opportunities. Opportunities begin to find you.

Mindset creates internal momentum

The first ingredient is love of the game: excitement about solving problems and a willingness to keep returning to them. Problem-solving is a loop. You evaluate a problem, form an opinion, turn it into a solution, observe the result, and try again with what you learned. Mastery is not just skill; it is a war of attrition. Mindset supplies the grit to keep running the loop.

For me, building a game engine from scratch in Gleam restored that energy. Sharing the project led to my first conference talk, invitations to live shows, material for more talks, and a job offer from a founder who was deeply interested in game engines. Loving the work was more load-bearing than I realized.

Habit creates external momentum

Nobody knows what you are doing, why it is interesting, or what you are good at unless you make it visible. You do not need to go viral or gather a giant audience. You need to share consistently enough that people can find the evidence.

A public habit increases the surface area for opportunity. If someone discovers your 345th post, they can also inspect the previous 344. Small Worlds demonstrated this beautifully by publishing one tiny science-fiction story every day for a year. At the end, all 365 stories were acquired by a Hollywood studio. The habit built momentum; making it public made that momentum discoverable.

A tactic creates targeted momentum

The strongest signal you can send a particular company is work that demonstrates you understand its problems and can solve them—before a single interview. Contribute to the product. Build a focused exploration of a problem its users care about. Publish an informed opinion and show how you would approach the solution.

Yes, that is a lot of work. We have to operate in reality as it is, not as we wish it were. If your case for a role stops at meeting the minimum requirements, expect minimum consideration. Targeted work makes the risk of choosing you easier to understand.

Lever two: build a network

Noteworthiness is gravity; networking is visibility. Relationships lift the fog of war around opportunities, and noteworthy work attracts the opportunities that your network makes visible. It may take only four or five people to transform a career, but you cannot know in advance who those people will be. Networking is a flywheel: difficult at the start, then easier as each relationship creates the next.

Join smaller communities

Large social networks are useful for reach, but niche communities make it easier to build genuine relationships. Use a recognizable identity consistently. Participate in casual conversation instead of appearing only when you need something. Let a specific expertise become associated with you. Watch for recurring problems that could become projects or articles. Most importantly, work through questions with people instead of pretending you already have every answer.

Create media

Podcasts, live shows, and videos are trust-making machines because they reveal the person behind the work. Appearing on someone else’s show also borrows a little of the trust its host has already earned. Those invitations often arrive after you have built some noteworthiness, but you do not have to wait to create your own show.

Before anyone in the industry knew my name, I made a podcast about Elm. I invited people from the community to explain how they would approach a CMS I wanted to build. It lasted one season and not many people listened. Still, I built relationships with every guest—and one listener gave me my second job.

Change your role at events

Events accelerate everything because relationships form faster in person. Speaking is powerful: other speakers become peers and attendees have a reason to approach you. Volunteering may be even more accessible. It gives you a natural reason to talk with guests, sponsors, organizers, and speakers. Real networking is bonding, and few things build a bond as quickly as mutual effort under a little pressure.

You can also become a connector. Notice people doing excellent work and bring them into each other’s orbit. The best networking does not have to be about you. You may become one of the few people who delivers an opportunity that changes someone else’s life.

Curiosity is the currency

The best time to start sharing work and building relationships was five years ago. The next best time is today—and not merely because that sounds good on a poster.

AI broke parts of hiring and is changing how companies expect us to work. It also broke the status quo. Nobody knows exactly what the future workflow looks like. Tooling will eventually stabilize, but right now everyone gets to start from zero again. That uncertainty creates a massive opportunity for curious people willing to try new tools, accept new challenges, pursue projects, and share what they learn.

Companies need explorers because companies cannot see the future either. They are looking for people willing to move into the unknown and do the work. Why can’t that be you?