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: 256
Cadence: Updated weekly
Bylines: 3 columnists

Candidate screening software for staffing agencies starts with the first read

Every guide for staffing agencies points you at an ATS. But if you run a small book, the bottleneck isn't pipeline software. It's the hours you spend on the first read of every role before you can hand back a shortlist.

Sean Griffith 8 min read

Read the dispatch

By topic · 55

Candidate screening software

See all 55 essays

Jul 2026 8 min read

How to screen 100+ applicants without reading every resume

The advice for screening 100 applicants assumes a recruiter and a free afternoon before the pile arrived. You have neither. Here's how to clear it today by reading almost none of it.

Sean Griffith

Jul 2026 9 min read

The candidate screening workflow that works when you have no recruiter

Every screening workflow you can find online assumes you have a recruiter's time. You don't. Here is the one built for an owner-operator who runs hiring alone.

Sean Griffith

Jun 2026 10 min read

HireVue pricing in 2026: real costs and what teams actually pay

HireVue doesn't publish a price, so here's what the platform really costs, what's in each tier, and where the numbers come from.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 62

Interviewing & screening practices

See all 62 essays

June 2026 11 min read

A practical guide to pre-employment testing

What pre-employment tests actually measure, which types to use and when, what makes a test useful versus risky, and how to fit testing into a screening process without tanking completion rates.

Rachel Hubbard

June 2026 10 min read

How to hire a bookkeeper who keeps your books clean

A practical guide for small business owners, ops leads, and office managers: what a bookkeeper actually does, where they differ from accountants and controllers, how to write the posting, what to test, and the red flags that matter.

Aliye Menzies

June 2026 10 min read

How to hire a customer service representative who can actually handle your customers

The skills that make a great CS rep don't show up on a resume. This guide walks through sourcing, job posting, screening, interview questions, red flags, and comp. Use it to hire someone who holds up under volume, pressure, and difficult customers.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 44

Recruiting tech & ATS

See all 44 essays

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

Jun 2026 11 min read

Greenhouse vs Lever: which ATS is right for you in 2026?

Greenhouse leans into structured hiring and deep integrations. Lever pairs your pipeline with a built-in CRM. Here's how to pick between them.

Rachel Hubbard

Jun 2026 11 min read

Jobvite pricing in 2026: real costs and what enterprise teams actually pay

Jobvite hides its price behind a sales call, so here's what real teams report paying, what drives the number, and how to budget before the demo.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 22

AI recruiting & automation

See all 22 essays

Jun 2026 10 min read

Findem pricing in 2026: what AI sourcing actually costs

Findem sells AI sourcing intelligence but won't show a price, so here's what teams report paying, by seats and modules, and where the numbers come from.

Rachel Hubbard

June 2026 10 min read

Responsible AI in hiring: a practical framework for recruiters

AI in hiring is useful, but only if you're honest about what it does and doesn't do. Here's how to use it in a way you can defend to candidates, hiring managers, and regulators.

Sean Griffith

June 2026 9 min read

How to build a salary benchmarking tool with Claude

Most teams rent salary data because building the tool felt out of reach. That stopped being true. Here's the exact afternoon-long build, prompt by prompt, and the one step that decides whether you end up with a tool or a toy.

Rachel Hubbard

By topic · 32

Hiring metrics & ROI

See all 32 essays

June 2026 9 min read

Most talent mapping stops at a list of names that decays

Every talent mapping guide treats the map as the asset. But a map of names you haven't screened decays into a stale contact list, and the proactive advantage only lands if you can screen a mapped list into a shortlist the week a role opens.

Sean Griffith

May 2026 11 min read

Most data-driven recruitment programs are optimizing the wrong layer of data

The 5 best practices SERP winners teach are still right. What's worth measuring underneath them stopped being right around the time AI started writing the resumes.

Sean Griffith

May 2026 11 min read

What a chief people officer actually does in 2026

Most chief people officer guides describe a 2019 role. Here's the new structural responsibility nobody on the SERP will name.

Sean Griffith

By topic · 11

Hiring by industry

See all 11 essays

Mar 2026 12 min read

Microsoft hiring process: what smaller teams can actually learn from it

The Microsoft hiring process gets studied because it's structured, not because it's complicated. The principles behind it work at any company size.

Sean Griffith

Feb 2026 18 min read

15 mass hiring strategies that scale your team in 2026

Struggling to scale your team fast? This guide breaks down the exact strategies, tools, and workflows you need to streamline mass hiring...without sacrificing candidate quality or burning out your recruiters.

Rachel Hubbard

Feb 2026 6 min read

9 recruiting campus strategies to win in 2026

Discover modern campus recruiting strategies that attract top early-career talent through virtual events, authentic branding, and student-first experiences.

Aliye Menzies

By topic · 16

Employer branding & candidate experience

See all 16 essays

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

May 2026 11 min read

How to create a candidate persona template that survives 2026

Most candidate persona templates assume your applicant pool hasn't shapeshifted. Here is one that ships with a feedback loop.

Sean Griffith

May 2026 10 min read

Why your employee poaching defense keeps losing to a recruiter call

Most employee poaching advice splits the legal page from the operational page. Here's the bridge that no top-ranking post will name.

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

256 essays · Updated weekly

Field notes on hiringin the AI age

Candidate screening software for staffing agencies starts with the first read

How to screen 100+ applicants without reading every resume

The candidate screening workflow that works when you have no recruiter

HireVue pricing in 2026: real costs and what teams actually pay

A practical guide to pre-employment testing

How to hire a bookkeeper who keeps your books clean

How to hire a customer service representative who can actually handle your customers

Ashby vs Greenhouse: which ATS wins in 2026?

Greenhouse vs Lever: which ATS is right for you in 2026?

Jobvite pricing in 2026: real costs and what enterprise teams actually pay

Findem pricing in 2026: what AI sourcing actually costs

Responsible AI in hiring: a practical framework for recruiters

How to build a salary benchmarking tool with Claude

Most talent mapping stops at a list of names that decays

Most data-driven recruitment programs are optimizing the wrong layer of data

What a chief people officer actually does in 2026

Microsoft hiring process: what smaller teams can actually learn from it

15 mass hiring strategies that scale your team in 2026

9 recruiting campus strategies to win in 2026

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

How to create a candidate persona template that survives 2026

Why your employee poaching defense keeps losing to a recruiter call

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