Three months ago, Tom Cruise was presented with the US navy’s highest civilian award, for “boosting the force’s recruitment of pilots” thanks to his performance in Top Gun.
When both films were released (1986 & 2022) the Navy & Air Force set up recruitment booths outside of cinemas across the US, attracting fueled-up octane lovers at record rates.
Just. Brilliant.
Now, next-generation companies are taking a leaf from this high return stunt.
CEOs aren’t doing Thach Weave manoeuvres in Fighter Jets or performing Mission-Impossible-esque stunts? (Yet).
Though they are leaning into the target-influencer recruitment model.
Google has long utilized its engineers’ YouTube presence to attract Engineers. Similarly, many popular GitHub devs have emerged as significant tech influencers, too.
And now, because of the state of hiring*, more and more companies are trialling and benefiting from this strategy.
*Seek & LinkedIn are turning into sess-pools.
In 2022 the average number of applicants per job advertisement on Seek was 60.
Now it’s over 350, and rising.
Why?
AI (shifting org structures) > resizing > redundancies > recruitment automation (causing chaos trying to ‘streamline recruitment’).
We’ve actively stopped advertising many roles because of the overwhelming waves or irrelevant applications (900+ and rising for a recent Lead Engineer position).
Good candidates have stopped wasting their time applying to Job Ads.
In record numbers, they are coming directly to specialist recruiters or direct to companies as a work-around. And it’s working.
But what’s this all got to do with Maverick again?
Talent Intelligence guru Toby Culshaw sums it up perfectly: “The Top Gun effect wasn’t just about fighter jets. It was about the power of storytelling to shape career aspirations. In a world where trust in traditional institutions is declining but belief in peer influence is rising, this might be the future of how we attract and develop talent.”
I’m not telling you to download TikTok and start shaming yourself. I’m telling those who are hiring in competitive markets, looking for a competitive edge and wanting to hire better people to start leveraging their assets.
Leverage your profile, your top performers, your culture, what your company is solving… The authenticity that the best candidates are searching for.
Get ahead of your competition by telling a story. Let the best candidates in on what makes your company great and they will be connected before they even apply.
