Field notes on hiring
in the AI age

Sharp dispatches on candidate screening, one-way interviews, and what changes when every resume is AI-polished. Written by the team building Truffle.

Essays: 309
Cadence: Updated weekly
Bylines: 3 columnists

Do you need a camp counselor or a camp director this season

Job postings use the two titles almost interchangeably. The American Camp Association's own standards don't, and neither should your hiring plan.

Rachel Hubbard 8 min read

Read the dispatch

Do you need a camp counselor or a camp director this season

By topic · 76

Candidate screening software

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Jul 2026 9 min read

Ghost jobs backfire hardest on the person who has to read the resumes

Most ghost job coverage blames big companies for lying to candidates. For an owner with no recruiter, the real problem is posting before you're ready to screen, and you're the one who inherits the pile.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

How to hire for multiple roles at once as a solo founder

Most startup hiring advice assumes one open role at a time. When you're hiring an SDR, a coordinator, and a content person in the same month with no one to hand any of it to, what actually wears you down is switching between three different definitions of good, not the process itself.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

How to screen technical candidates when you're not technical

Every guide on hiring technical talent assumes you have someone technical to lean on. Here's what to do when you don't.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 76

Interviewing & screening practices

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Jul 2026 7 min read

Front desk coordinator vs office manager and how to tell which you need

Small businesses often can't tell these two titles apart from a job description. Here's the actual dividing line between them, the pay gap that proves it's real, and a rubric for telling which one you need before you post the role.

Aliye Menzies

Jul 2026 9 min read

A first-timer's checklist for hiring a role you've never hired before

Most 'first time hiring' advice is written for a business hiring its very first employee. Yours is a different problem: judging candidates for a role type you've never filled, in work you've never done yourself.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

A first-timer's guide to setting up pre-employment testing

You don't need a validated baseline to run your first pre-employment test. You need four decisions and a willingness to fix your first guess after your first batch of candidates.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 45

Recruiting tech & ATS

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Jul 2026 10 min read

What to actually look for in staffing software for a small agency

Every staffing software checklist reads like it was written for a fifty-desk shop with a compliance officer and a systems admin. Run the desk yourself, and most of that checklist is testing you on modules you'll never open.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 12 min read

The best hiring software for small businesses in 2026

Most roundups rank hiring software for small businesses by price per seat. Almost none of them tell you which job the software actually does, and the one job most owners are missing isn't posting the role or tracking who applied.

Rachel Hubbard

Jun 2026 10 min read

Ashby vs Greenhouse: which ATS wins in 2026?

Ashby is the data-heavy all-in-one for scaling startups; Greenhouse is the structured-hiring incumbent built for the enterprise. Here's how to choose.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 25

AI recruiting & automation

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Jul 2026 9 min read

Can AI screen candidates fairly? What small businesses need to know

AI resume screening has real, documented bias. Here's the honest answer on whether it can still help you screen candidates fairly, and the one thing that actually decides it.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 11 min read

Is candidate data safe with AI screening tools? A privacy checklist

A plain-language checklist for evaluating whether any AI candidate screening tool, including Truffle, handles your candidates' data safely. No legal team required.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

AI hiring tools for small businesses that actually help you hire

Most AI hiring tools promise to decide for you. The ones that actually help a small business show their work instead, so here's how to tell the difference before you buy.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 35

Hiring metrics & ROI

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Jul 2026 10 min read

How many hours does manual screening cost you

Time to hire gets reported in days. If you're the one reading the pile, the real cost is hours, and here's the actual math, sourced from real screening-time research, not a guess.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

Steal our simple recruitment dashboard excel template

Most recruitment dashboard templates are built to manage a team of recruiters across departments. If you're the only one filling it out, here's the three-tab version built for a hiring desk of one, plus every column and formula to build it yourself.

Rachel Hubbard

Jul 2026 9 min read

What a recruiter or screening software really costs a small business

A recruiter's salary and an agency's placement fee both look manageable once. See what they actually cost a small business that hires the same role again and again, and how a credit-based screening tool compares.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 19

Hiring by industry

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Jul 2026 8 min read

Home health aide vs certified nursing assistant, and which one to hire

Most guides rank a CNA above a home health aide on training alone. The federal training floor for both is identical, so the real decision comes down to your payer model and what the case in front of you actually requires.

Rachel Hubbard

Jul 2026 7 min read

Personal trainer vs fitness instructor, and which one you actually need

Personal trainers and fitness instructors sound like the same job at different experience levels. They aren't. Here's the real difference in scope, certification, and pay, and the one question that tells you which role your studio actually needs to post.

Rachel Hubbard

Jul 2026 8 min read

Property manager vs. leasing agent, and which one you actually need

Every guide to this question lists the same two job descriptions and calls it a decision. The real dividing line is what each role is legally allowed to do with your leases and your money, and that's the part that actually tells you who to hire next.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 18

Employer branding & candidate experience

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Jul 2026 9 min read

How to write a job posting that doesn't attract unqualified applicants

Most job posting advice only fixes half the posting. Here's the other half, the part almost nobody edits, and why skipping it is the real reason the flood keeps coming back.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

The salary transparency laws quietly catching small businesses in 2026

Most owners assume pay transparency rules are a big-company, big-state problem. The size thresholds say otherwise, and several states now require it starting at one employee.

Sean Griffith

May 2026 11 min read

A practical guide to candidate NPS in a funnel where the bots don't fill out surveys

Most candidate NPS guides treat the score as operational. It's lagging. Here's the leading indicator that predicts what cNPS will say six months later.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 04

Product updates

See all 4 essays

Apr 2026 5 min read

April 2026: full assessment suite, plus a brand identity overhaul

Personality, Situational Judgment, and Environment Fit are now all live. Plus a redesigned brand identity setup and the usual round of cleanup.

Sean Griffith

Mar 2026 4 min read

March 2026: Reviews and Scorecards v1

Individual star ratings, structured recommendations, and team roll-up. The first version of structured team review in Truffle.

Sean Griffith

Feb 2026 4 min read

February 2026: Magic Review goes live

Side-by-side panel, keyboard shortcuts, no page reloads. The first version of the candidate review flow we built Truffle around.

Sean Griffith

By the columnists

Three voices. One publication.

Field Notes is written by the team building Truffle. Founders, operators, and the people who hire without a recruiter.

Sean Griffith

Founder, Truffle

Sean began his career in leadership at Best Buy Canada before scaling SimpleTexting from $1MM to $40MM ARR. As COO at Sinch, he led 750+ people and $300MM ARR. A marathoner and sun-chaser, he thrives on big challenges.

Hiring strategy
Tool comparisons
Compensation

Rachel Hubbard

Senior people and ops lead

Rachel is a senior people and operations leader who drives change through strategic HR, inclusive hiring, and conflict resolution.

Strategic HR
Inclusive hiring
Conflict resolution

Aliye Menzies

Senior recruiter

Aliye is a people-first recruiter and team leader who supported $80M+ in revenue growth at Meta by guiding hiring and process improvements across emerging tech roles.

Recruiting
Emerging tech roles
Hiring process

Our manifesto

Hiring software was built for a recruiter you don't have

Most hiring happens without a recruiter. Here's who we build Truffle for, and why the decision should still be yours.

Read the manifesto

The full archive

309 essays · Updated weekly

Field notes on hiringin the AI age

Do you need a camp counselor or a camp director this season

Ghost jobs backfire hardest on the person who has to read the resumes

How to hire for multiple roles at once as a solo founder

How to screen technical candidates when you're not technical

Front desk coordinator vs office manager and how to tell which you need

A first-timer's checklist for hiring a role you've never hired before

A first-timer's guide to setting up pre-employment testing

What to actually look for in staffing software for a small agency

The best hiring software for small businesses in 2026

Ashby vs Greenhouse: which ATS wins in 2026?

Can AI screen candidates fairly? What small businesses need to know

Is candidate data safe with AI screening tools? A privacy checklist

AI hiring tools for small businesses that actually help you hire

How many hours does manual screening cost you

Steal our simple recruitment dashboard excel template

What a recruiter or screening software really costs a small business

Home health aide vs certified nursing assistant, and which one to hire

Personal trainer vs fitness instructor, and which one you actually need

Property manager vs. leasing agent, and which one you actually need

How to write a job posting that doesn't attract unqualified applicants

The salary transparency laws quietly catching small businesses in 2026

A practical guide to candidate NPS in a funnel where the bots don't fill out surveys

April 2026: full assessment suite, plus a brand identity overhaul

March 2026: Reviews and Scorecards v1

February 2026: Magic Review goes live

Sean Griffith

Rachel Hubbard

Aliye Menzies

Hiring software was built for a recruiter you don't have

Truffle is candidate screening software built for the AI age

Field notes on hiring
in the AI age