Economy

Submission Accomplished

This week I’ve been thinking about submissions. No, not arm bars, rear-naked chokes, or paying a leather-clad escort to urinate on me (although that has crossed my mind). I mean the increasingly common necessity for us recruiters to write stuff telling people how great we are at something in order…

Sean WaltersOctober 17, 2025

Employment Recruitment Work

I came to rant… but the market wouldn’t shut up

I don’t know what's going on currently. Each Friday, I sit here thinking I can go on some random tirade, and each Friday I seem to be presented with some actual recruitment news. In what should be a stagnant market, there seems to be plenty of winners, losers, launchers, sellers,…

Sean WaltersOctober 3, 2025

Employment Recruitment Work

Emergent SOLD! Guess who bought it…

I have many strange hobbies. I collect knives. I train and teach Aikido. I collect gold and silver bullion. And I stay up until the wee hours watching documentaries on serial killers, fraudsters, forgotten weapons, and unsolved mysteries. Perhaps strangest of all is my addiction to the Companies Office website.…

Sean WaltersSeptember 12, 2025

Employment Human Resources Politics Recruitment

Life after Recruitment, when recruitment is life

I read a semi-interesting Herald article about anti-abortionist Chris Luxon this week. Being semi-interesting, it was of course behind a paywall, so apologies if you can't read it. For those who refuse to pay for news, it highlights how Luxon's approval rating is at a two year low, having dropped…

Sean WaltersSeptember 5, 2025

Employment Recruitment Uncategorized

The Lynx Effect: The smell of success…or stench of desperation?

This is a story about a young recruitment entrepreneur selling his first business, whilst also building two other recruitment brands. Or maybe it's not. Perhaps it's a story about a fire sale of the last profitable remnants of a distrusted brand, made without choice to cut losses and pay debts.…

Sean WaltersAugust 29, 2025

Employment Politics Recruitment

Christchurch recruitment: Death by a thousand cuts

I don't blog about Christchurch much. Odd in some ways given that it's New Zealand's second largest city. In fact, based on the news coverage that the Garden City receives in general, it seems hard to believe that it's almost twice as big (by population) as Wellington. Wellington, being the…

Sean WaltersAugust 1, 2025

Employment Job Boards Politics Sourcing Technology

Drowning in a sea of candidates

Although I could use the data generated by our sophisticated CRM, I, like most recruiters, like to rely on a little thing known as gut-feel. Let's be real, who needs solid, defensible, researched and reasoned information, when we can provide anecdotes, hear-say, speculation, and rumour. If you're an agency leader…

Sean WaltersJuly 25, 2025

Human Resources Politics Recruitment Work

More job losses at Robert Walters highlight the cost of (mis)management

It's been another tough seven days at Robert Walters. Regular readers may remember my blog from last November, back when Robert Walters pulled-pin on their Christchurch operation, leaving 7 or so employees without a job just before Christmas. If my sources, and there are plenty of them, are anything to…

Sean WaltersJune 6, 2025

Employment Politics Recruitment

What does a good Recruiter actually bill?

Have you heard the good news?! Jesus Christ died to provide atonement and forgiveness for human sin, fulfilling prophecies and demonstrating God's love and justice. Also, New Zealand's most marginalised and disadvantaged group have received the funding they deserve in yesterday's budget. That's right, private schools will receive an extra…

Sean WaltersMay 23, 2025

Employment Human Resources Recruitment

High basics & high blood pressure: A curious correlation

Pay rises are great aren't they? A flasher car, a bigger house, nicer wine, hotter partner, stress, redundancy, unemployment, the inability to change jobs. They really are fantastic. And the great thing about a pay rise is that you never go backwards. Each year, and every time you move job…

Sean WaltersApril 11, 2025