We’ve all been there. You spend ages crafting what you think is the perfect LinkedIn post, researching stats, polishing every sentence, adding valuable insights from your recruitment experience. The result? A handful of likes and maybe two comments.
Meanwhile, your colleague quickly shares a simple thought about their recruitment day and somehow generates dozens of comments and a flood of engagement.
It’s enough to make you question everything you thought you knew about LinkedIn.
If you’ve been wondering why your carefully crafted LinkedIn content is performing worse than your colleague’s hungover musings, you’re not alone. LinkedIn’s algorithm has become increasingly unpredictable, and as a rec2rec agency that lives and dies by our social presence, we’ve been obsessively tracking what works and what doesn’t.
The algorithm’s dirty secrets
After months of testing (and plenty of bruised egos from failed posts), we’ve cracked some of the code. LinkedIn in 2025 has essentially become a dating app for professionals. It’s not interested in your fancy qualifications, it wants to see if you can start and maintain a conversation.
The platform now rewards:
Content that triggers discussions. Controversial opinion? LinkedIn loves it. Mention ‘working from home’ and watch the algorithm swoon.
Posts that keep people on LinkedIn longer. The second you try to send people to your website, LinkedIn treats your post like it found your dating profile on your partner’s phone… instant rejection.
Stories with emotional hooks. We saw a employer post about rejecting a candidate because they showed up 25 minutes late to the interview. That post outperformed their last six “look at this amazing placement” posts combined.
Authenticity (or at least the illusion of it). LinkedIn can smell corporate speak from a mile away, and it’s not impressed. Even their own employees don’t talk that way in private.
The content that’s secretly bombing your engagement
Want to guarantee your post disappears faster than free doughnuts in the staff kitchen? Here’s what to do:
- Start with “I’m excited to announce…” (LinkedIn’s algorithm immediately files this under ‘boring corporate drivel’)
- Post a job link in your main content (Congratulations, you’ve just told LinkedIn you’re trying to steal its users)
- Write long paragraphs without breaks (Nothing says ‘please scroll past me’ quite like a wall of text)
- Use corporate stock images of people in suits pointing at screens (we’ve tested this – engagement drops drastically)
- End with ‘thoughts?’ (Everyone knows this is the desperate cry of someone who didn’t actually say anything thought-provoking)
What’s actually working for recruiters right now
After dozens of experiments with our own content (some brilliant, many embarrassing), here’s what’s cutting through the noise:
The ‘insider reveal’ approach
Want to see LinkedIn go wild? Share those juicy hiring truths that everyone suspects but nobody admits. Posts revealing the uncomfortable realities behind rejections, like hiring managers feeling threatened by exceptional candidates, consistently blow up. These “pull back the curtain” moments on recruitment decisions trigger an avalanche of comments because everyone’s either experienced it or witnessed it. The algorithm absolutely feasts on this content.
The ‘real talk about money’ angle
Let’s be brutally honest… nothing makes LinkedIn’s algorithm happier than someone talking cold, hard cash. Posts that expose the shocking gap between what people are paid and what they should be paid get shared faster than office gossip. When recruiters hint at just how severely underpaid some loyal employees are (we’ve seen gaps of £20K+), comment sections catch fire. The formula is simple: reveal what companies don’t want candidates to know about market rates, then watch the engagement explode. There’s a reason salary transparency terrifies certain employers.
The ‘make it absurdly specific’ question
Generic questions like ‘what makes a good CV?’ are LinkedIn death sentences. They scream ‘I’m posting because my marketing calendar told me to.’ Instead, try questions with unexpected specificity: ‘What’s one strange thing you’ve seen on a CV that actually helped someone land a job?’ or ‘Which interview question have you seen trip up even the most qualified candidates?’ The more specific and unusual, the better. These questions tap into people’s love of sharing their weird recruitment war stories.
The ‘slightly controversial but hard to disagree with’ statement
Want to get shared? Say what everyone’s thinking but few are brave enough to post. Statements like ‘If you’re still sending template InMail’s in 2025, you’re not a recruiter, you’re just a spammer with a LinkedIn license’ trigger immediate reactions. These posts work because they call out industry bad practices while making the reader feel like one of the ‘good ones.’ The best controversial statements aren’t actually that controversial, they just articulate frustrations that candidates and quality recruiters already share.
The ‘it’s not you, it’s the algorithm’ reality check
The truth is, some brilliant recruiters are terrible at LinkedIn, and some mediocre recruiters have mastered the game. Your LinkedIn performance isn’t a reflection of your actual recruitment skills, it’s how well you understand a constantly changing algorithm.
At Harrison Sands, some of our most successful placements come from consultants who rarely post on LinkedIn but have exceptional candidate relationships.
What to do tomorrow
If you’re going to do just one thing differently this week, stop posting generic content that any recruiter could have written. Start with a specific experience you had yesterday. Write exactly what happened, what you said, what they said and what you learned. No marketing fluff. No corporate speak. Just the raw story.
The algorithm rewards what feels human. And ironically, in the increasingly AI-dominated world of recruitment, being unmistakably human is your greatest advantage.
And if all else fails? Post a picture of your dog wearing a tie with the caption “Take your assistant to work day.” Works every time.
