What the World I Entered Says About How I Work in Talent Acquisition

I was born in 1971, and the world I arrived into was not exactly humming with stability.

The so-called post-war golden years were slipping away, and Britain was staggering under economic pressure, industrial decline, and a growing sense that the “old way” was running out of road.

The summer of ’71 was not swinging London anymore. It was about strikes, inflation creeping in, power cuts waiting around the corner, and a nation that had begun questioning the competence of its institutions. The optimism of the 60s had faded. The realities of a fracturing economy and divided politics were taking over.

That’s the world that shaped Generation X, my generation. 

We weren’t handed certainty, and that has left a mark on how we see things even decades later.

Being born in the 70s meant growing up with contradictions. On the one hand, we had the tail end of Britain’s industrial age, think coal mines, steel plants and shipbuilding.  They were still there, but with visible cracks. On the other hand, technology was creeping into daily life, from cassette tapes to colour television, paving the way for the digital wave to come.

We had Cold War paranoia in the background, yet by the mid-seventies, punks were on the streets of London, shouting about a new order. We saw Thatcherism remove some of the structures of the past, putting consumerism front and centre. 

We were latchkey kids more often than not, raised to figure things out ourselves rather than wait for an adult to provide the answer or hit the internet looking for a hack.

That left us with a view on the world that is sceptical of authority, allergic to spin, and deeply independent. We don’t automatically trust what we’re told, and we’ve had to adapt to change more times than we can count.

All of that spills over into how I approach Talent Acquisition. 

That 1971 imprint means I don’t look at the profession through rose-tinted glasses. I don’t have the love of chasing money that others have; I see it as a necessary and valued profession, and yet recruitment is messy. It’s full of promises that don’t line up with reality, compromises and it’s as we have seen, vulnerable to every economic wobble that comes along.

But what has this got to do with talent acquisition?

Well, for me, I think it’s these things:

• Bullshit radar
  I grew up in an era of politicians overpromising and underdelivering, from three-day weeks to broken manifestos. I think it’s why I have no time for corporate words dressed up as “employer brand.”
  Candidates don’t buy it, and neither do I.

• Comfort in ambiguity
  The UK in the 70s and 80s was defined by volatility, strikes, recessions, and mass layoffs. When I joined the workforce, that feeling was still there. I feel that has given me a sense that nothing is permanent. In Talent Acquisition, I have seen huge hiring ‘asks’ quickly undone by a freeze.  Most of my Talent Acquisition career has been defined by volatility and ambiguity.
  
  But I’m ok with that.

• Bridging generations
  I was lucky, the early part of my career was in technology, but it still means I come from a world before the internet, before the wide use of mobile phones, and recruitment was done by letter and fax.  But I now operate in a world where I embrace  AI-driven sourcing, diagnostics, and automation.

  I think that puts me in a special place, where I can speak to business leaders who are still thinking that hiring is a 1990s funnel, as well as those who think hiring can be done without a human in the process. I’m hoping it's going to help me talk with people and organisations that will shape the next decade, and what will be my last decade in talent acquisition.

But for this trumpet blowing about me and my generation (authenticity, pragmatism, and adaptability), it’s not all good news.

My instinct is to distrust the new until I’ve tested it myself. 

That’s useful when it filters out the bullshit, but it can mean I dismiss things too quickly. And like many Gen Xers, I don’t always shout about my achievements loudly enough; we were raised to crack on, not to brand ourselves like a product.

Why does any of this matter to a hiring leader today? 

Because the conditions I was born into are back with a vengeance. Economic turbulence, political mistrust, cultural division… Does this sound familiar? 

The difference is, I don’t just cope with that environment; I was forged in it.

That’s why my approach to Talent Acquisition works.  It might sound pessimistic, but it means I don’t sell fairytales about the “future of work.” I don’t oversell glossy visions of recruitment hidden in platforms that collapse as soon as the CFO changes their mind. 

What I do is tell the truth.  I try to build systems that will last and, above all, help Talent Acquisition teams thrive, whatever is going on.

About
Martin Dangerfield,  Talent Acquisition Strategist. Straight-talker. Community builder.

I help in-house TA teams get better with a combination of sharper strategies, smarter hiring, and no-nonsense support.  Since selling my business, I have been helping to grow the rec hub in it’s global mission to deliver an amazing embedded recruitment solution.  I’ve built TA teams from scratch, scaled global functions, sold a business, and consult on all things talent acquisition.

I run #truManchester and #truLeeds because I believe the best ideas don’t come from panels, they come from people talking honestly in a room. I’m not here for buzzwords or silver bullets.

I’m here to help TA people do the job properly.

South African-born, UK-based, and European in perspective, I’m Gen X, proud of it, and not afraid to say what others won’t.

This is the work I care about. If you care too, stick around.