I’m Doug, head of candidate experience and engagement at Joveo. Three hundred rejection letters from Madison Avenue agencies taught me that sometimes the career you don’t get leads to work that actually matters.

Fresh out of Iowa State with a degree in journalism and advertising, I was ready to conquer Madison Avenue. But I quickly learned that agencies had little interest in someone without connections or big-city credentials. So I opened the Red Book, pointed blindly at a page, and called Deutsch, Shea, and Evans. They hired me the next day to do recruitment marketing – work I’d never heard of but would spend the next forty years perfecting.

The Work That Chose Me

Helping people find work turned out to be more compelling than convincing them to buy products they didn’t need. There’s something fundamentally different about marketing that changes lives versus marketing that fills shopping carts.

That realization has sustained me through four decades and four companies. The technology has evolved dramatically, but the core mission remains the same: connecting people with opportunities that matter to them.

What Hasn’t Changed in Forty Years

When I started, candidates mailed printed resumes and rarely heard back. Today, they click “apply” on digital platforms and hope for responses that rarely come.

The mechanics have evolved from envelopes to algorithms, but the fundamental problem persists: candidates still disappear into systems designed for internal efficiency rather than human experience.

We’ve automated the mechanics without improving the outcome.

Systems Built For The Wrong User

The problem with most recruitment technology is that it wasn’t designed for candidates. Applicant tracking systems exist to help companies manage volume and satisfy reporting requirements – both internal and governmental. They’re productivity tools, not experience platforms for job seekers.

This creates a misalignment. Companies optimize for their convenience while candidates navigate systems that treat them as data points rather than people with real circumstances and needs.

A recent grad with $120,000 in student debt fills out the same application form as someone casually browsing. The system can’t tell the difference and doesn’t try to. A professional laid off after fifteen years – mortgage due, kids in college – gets the same black-box process as someone comfortably employed and just testing the market.

The mother coordinating applications between school pickups faces identical workflows as the recent graduate with open afternoons. These systems treat urgency and browsing as the same thing because they were built to process volume, not serve circumstances.

Technology should serve human needs, not the other way around.

What Candidate Control Means

True candidate experience means candidates understand and control their journey. They know where they stand, what happens next, and how to get the information they need. When they finally speak with a recruiter, both parties are prepared for a meaningful conversation about culture and fit.

At Joveo, we’re building toward this vision through our agentic platform. Instead of pushing candidates through predetermined workflows, we’re creating systems that respond to their questions and circumstances. Want to know about benefits? Ask. Curious about the team structure? The system can provide relevant information.

When human interaction finally happens, both sides should be prepared for something meaningful.

The Future Belongs To Candidates

The next generation of job seekers won’t tolerate the frustrations that previous generations accepted. They expect transparency, responsiveness, and control over their experience.

Companies that continue treating candidates as an inconvenience to be processed will lose access to the best talent. Those that recognize candidates as customers to be served will gain competitive advantage.

This shift requires more than new technology. It requires rethinking the entire relationship between employers and potential employees.

Forty Years Of Good People

After forty years, what keeps me engaged isn’t the technology or the process improvements. It’s the people.

This industry attracts individuals who genuinely care about helping others find meaningful work. Perhaps that’s inevitable – when your job is connecting people with opportunities, you attract those who find purpose in others’ success.

The best professional memory isn’t an award or recognition. It’s the accumulated relationships with colleagues who chose this work because they believed it mattered.

That belief still drives everything we do.

Curious what the rest of our leaders have to say? Explore the full series on YouTube.