Michael Jordan once said, “To be the best, you have to learn from the best”. In recruitment, it’s no different – there's always something new to learn from people who’ve been there, done that, and emerged victorious.

LinkedIn is brimming with recruitment influencers who post endless content that includes invaluable tips, insights, and strategies for becoming a top biller and placing candidates in top-tier companies.

From sourcing and screening to closing deals and building relationships, these influencers offer tons of knowledge that can help you get Michael Jordan stats in recruitment.

So, without further ado, here are 12 recruitment influencers that are a must-follow.

1. Hung Lee

Hung Lee, a seasoned recruiter with over 20 years of experience, has co-founded two successful recruitment agencies. In 2017, he launched Recruiting Brainfood, a highly acclaimed weekly newsletter.

This newsletter is a must-read for anyone in the talent industry, offering valuable insights into AI, Blockchain, recruitment culture, the future of work, employer branding, sourcing, tech hiring, and more.

LinkedIn

Recruiting Brainfood

2. Benjamin Mena

Benjamin Mena is a headhunting pro with nearly 2 decades of recruiting experience under his belt. He’s worked for some of the biggest companies in the world such as Lockheed Martin, the United States Postal Service, and BAE Systems, sourcing the best IT talent there is. 

Benjamin has since become a managing partner at Select Source Solutions, headhunting the best Cyber and Data Science talent. In addition, he also runs a very successful podcast called The Elite Recruiter Podcast, where recruiters share stories on how they got where they are and what it took. 

LinkedIn

The Elite Recruiters Podcast

3. Vanessa Raath

Vanessa Raath is a seasoned talent acquisition pro who has been in the internal TA game for over a decade and has grown a company from 35 to over 200 employees on her own. Most recently, Vanessa launched a talent-sourcing training program and has trained over 1,000 recruiters from more than 100 countries.

Her workshops, such as "AI Training for Recruiters and Sourcers," equip recruiters with the right skills to effectively incorporate AI into their daily workflow and become a recruiting machine.

LinkedIn

Vanessa Raath Academy

4. Will Mcghee

Will Mcghee is a recruitment and talent acquisition superstar who’s been a talent acquisition manager and brand ambassador for some of the biggest tech companies in the world. He has since created a program called Recruiting With Dynamite, where he coaches recruiters to connect more effectively with the ideal candidates and clients. 

By developing highly engaging, multichannel outreach campaigns and leveraging the power of automation and AI tools, Recruiting With Dynamite gives recruiters a tailored solution that generates a strong reply rate of 20-40%. 

LinkedIn
Recruiting With Dynamite

5. Robin Choy

Robin Choy is the founder of The Modern Recruiter Podcast, a podcast sharing tips and tricks from recruiters who’ve built large teams from the ground up and hired hundreds of people for the best companies in the world.

Listeners can benefit from the hiring experiences of talent acquisition leaders at companies such as Y Combinator, Segment, Webflow, Sqreen, Gorgias, Saastr, Retool, and Lever.

In addition to The Modern Recruiter Podcast, Robin is also the CEO at HireSweet, a recruitment CRM and marketplace of 800+ software engineers for hire. 

LinkedIn

The Modern Recruiter Podcast
HireSweet

6. Natalie Stones

Natalie Stones is a veteran recruiter in the San Francisco Bay Area who has headhunted for some of the biggest names in tech,  managed numerous recruitment teams, and has been a director of recruitment for several large organizations.

Most recently, she founded the Talent Collective, a vibrant community dedicated to empowering and connecting women in the talent acquisition field. With over 400 active members, the organization aims to advance its members' careers and create strong professional networks through a variety of in-person and virtual events.

Talent Collective operates in major cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, Seattle, Denver, New York, San Diego, Austin, Chicago, and Toronto. It’s safe to say Natalie knows a thing or two about networking! 

LinkedIn

Talent Collective

7. Mark Whitby

Mark Whitby is the go-to guy for recruiters who want to bring their game up a notch. He's been dishing out recruitment advice for over two decades, and his website, recruitmentcoach.com, is basically a recruiter's university. Think of him as the Tony Robbins of the recruitment world but without the motivational speeches and weird handshake.

If you're looking for some great recruiting advice, check out his podcast, The Resilient Recruiter.

LinkedIn

Resilient Recruiter Podcast

8. David Paffenholz

David Paffenholz is the co-founder and CEO of Juicebox, an AI-powered people search engine that analyzes various data sources, including LinkedIn, GitHub, and published papers, to identify potential candidates for recruiters.

By leveraging real-time search, semantic natural language queries, and personalized outreach, Juicebox helps recruitment teams build diverse candidate pools and accelerate their talent acquisition process.

Follow David and Juicebox AI to learn how to find and engage with your dream candidates. 

David’s LinkedIn

Juicebox AI on LinkedIn

Try Juicebox AI for free

9. Lou Adler

Lou Adler is a renowned expert in the field of talent acquisition. As the founder and CEO of The Adler Group, he’s spent over three decades advising companies on implementing winning hiring strategies.

Lou’s Performance-based Hiring System has been adopted by some of the biggest companies in the world, including Lincoln Financial, AIG, Paycom, LinkedIn, McKinsey, and Disney. 

His recruitment knowledge has led him to be featured on Fox News and his articles have been published in prominent publications such as Inc. Magazine, BusinessInsider, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal.

With a significant following on LinkedIn and a weekly newsletter boasting over 250,000 subscribers, Lou Adler is a widely recognized and respected voice in the talent acquisition industry.

LinkedIn

10. James Caan

James Caan is a legendary figure in the recruitment industry, having established himself as a pioneer in the field. His journey began in 1985, nearly 2 decades before the invention of LinkedIn when he founded Alexander Mann, a talent solutions company.

His entrepreneurial acumen led him to successfully scale and sell Alexander Mann in 2002 for a whopping £130 million ($165.5 million).

Continuing his entrepreneurial pursuits, James launched Recruitment Entrepreneur in 2014, an investment firm dedicated to empowering recruiters to embark on their own agency ventures – like Y Combinator but for recruiters. Over the past decade, Recruitment Entrepreneur has enabled countless recruiters to build a successful recruitment agency, providing them with essential funding, guidance, support, and staffing resources.

In addition, James Caan has 3.3 million followers on LinkedIn, making him one of the most followed influencers on the platform. 

LinkedIn

Recruitment Entrepreneur

11. Stephanie Yu

Stephanie Yu, also known as "The Unicorn Recruiter," boasts over a decade of experience in recruiting for tech giants like Google, Uber, and Square. Her sourcing skills have led to successful placements of the most skilled and qualified candidates across various tech roles.

Since then, Stephanie has been a career consultant and content creator, dishing out advice and inspiration to her large following of over a quarter of a million on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

12. Liz Ryan

Liz Ryan is a powerhouse in the world of career development and HR. As the founder of Human Workplace, she offers a wide range of coaching, content, and consulting services to help recruiters and companies thrive.

With nearly 3 million followers on LinkedIn, Liz is a leading voice in the industry. Her content, including Recruitment Q&A, career development tips, and industry insights, has recruiters hooked.

She has also contributed over 2500 articles to Forbes magazine on recruiting and HR, generating an impressive 8 to 10 million page views per month.

A recruiting guru. 

LinkedIn

So there you have it: 12 rockstar recruitment influencers that you must follow to become an elite recruiting genius.

Follow them on LinkedIn and check out their content – it'll be like having Dennis Rodman as your personal rebounder, always there to snag the ball and give Michael Jordan another shot at success!

Happy recruiting!