If you’re active in HR spaces on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Bonnie Dilber’s posts.
Dilber, a recruiting leader at workflow automation company Zapier, has amassed over 440,0000 LinkedIn, 86,000 TikTok, and 16,000 Instagram followers. Some of her popular posts discuss “white lies” that are okay for candidates to tell in interviews, and how job seekers can better use LinkedIn to find opportunities.
Dilber first started posting on LinkedIn after joining Zapier in 2021.
“I was new to tech. I was coming from the education nonprofit space, so I started posting on LinkedIn to say, ‘Hey, I’m at this new company. It’s awesome, I love working here. If anyone’s looking for a job, you should apply here,’” she told HR Brew. “Then I started sharing some thoughts on recruiting, and that kind of took off.”
She also has a newsletter, “HR for Good,” and offers job seekers a wide range of resources and a job board.
As hiring at Zapier has picked up recently, she’s had to “pick and choose” the projects she prioritizes. But the key motivator behind her recruiting career—the impact of successfully matching a candidate to a role—still extends beyond her day job.
“There’s something really cool about getting to help people land jobs,” she said. “There’s not much more rewarding work than that, in my opinion.”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?
Getting hiring managers to see their role as getting to know someone and winning them over instead of grilling them. A previous employer had the orientation that we should make the interview process uncomfortable to see how folks stand up to pressure and I’m proud of shifting that!
If that’s your style as a leader, I guess it’s good to be transparent, but you can just explain that to someone, versus trying to create an environment that feels almost hostile. […] If you want to win the best people, they have options, and if you make them feel crappy in the interview process, there's a decent chance they’re not going to stick around or choose you. What you’re going to get is the people who can't get anything else.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Landing a great job is one of the biggest things to happen to people and getting to play a role in that is really fun. I’ve seen people cry during offers as they receive a salary that’s lifechanging for them and their family. I love getting to be a part of that.
Quick-to-read HR news & insights
From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?
I think HR in many places is getting less process-y and rigid, and more people centered. That will shift perceptions of HR over time.
There’s this narrative that HR is just there to protect the business. Well, one of the ways that we can protect the business is by actually taking care of employees and making sure they have a good experience, and making sure candidates have a good experience.
A lot of like processes that have emerged are not actually [tied to] anything. …Sometimes it is an overly-rigid interpretation of some law or some extreme level of risk mitigation. Like companies have a “no feedback” policy. […] There’s really no great legal reason for that, but they’re so afraid of the one chance that someone gives feedback improperly [and] someone sues them or claims discrimination. […] The reality is the risks of that are so low, a little bit of training can address that, and then you can actually create a much better experience for all parties involved.
I think sometimes people just need to stop and [ask] “Wait, why? Why did we do this?”…If you can’t [find the rationale], then stop doing it.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?
Over-reliance on AI and automation in ways that lose the human touch.
I do think that it’s turning into a cycle where applicants are using AI, and companies are using AI to try to keep up with that volume. Everyone’s frustrated with the interactions.
I just think top talent doesn’t want to interact with an AI chatbot. They don’t want to feel like the emails they're getting are all templates that some AI tool is generating. If companies go down that path too aggressively, I think that they’re going to start pushing away really great talent.
Companies need to kind of think about: What are our priorities? And maybe it is speed and efficiency—be honest about it. Some of this can, you know, you can get around it with just transparency, like [saying], “We’re using AI at this stage for this reason,” or giving choices.