AJ Mizes: Why Recruiters Ignore 99% of LinkedIn Posts (And How to Be the 1%)
By The Human Reach Editorial Team
LinkedIn has become the de facto platform for executive career visibility — but according to AJ Mizes, founder of The Human Reach and former Meta HR executive, most professionals are using it completely wrong. The result: their posts get ignored by the very recruiters they’re trying to attract.
The Attention Economy Problem on LinkedIn
With over a billion users on LinkedIn and millions of posts published daily, the competition for recruiter attention is fierce. Mizes, who spent years on the HR side of the equation at companies including Meta, understands exactly what makes a recruiter stop scrolling.
“Recruiters aren’t looking for inspiration on LinkedIn. They’re looking for evidence of expertise. When they see a post that demonstrates deep knowledge of a specific domain, they take note. When they see a generic motivational quote or a humble-brag about a promotion, they scroll past.”
What the 1% of LinkedIn Posts Get Right
Mizes identifies three characteristics that separate high-performing LinkedIn content from the noise:
Specificity of insight. The posts that get recruiter attention make a specific, defensible claim about a professional topic. Not “leadership is important” but “here are the three things I learned about managing remote teams at Meta that most leadership books get wrong.”
Proof of lived experience. Recruiters and hiring managers are trained to detect authenticity. Posts that draw on specific, personal professional experiences — with enough detail to be credible — signal that the author has genuine expertise, not just the ability to summarize articles.
A clear point of view. The most engaging LinkedIn content takes a position. It says something that some people will agree with strongly and others will push back on. Controversy (within professional norms) drives engagement, and engagement drives visibility.
The LinkedIn DM Strategy That Opens Job Offers
Beyond posting, Mizes teaches his clients a specific outreach methodology for LinkedIn direct messages. The approach is built on a simple principle: lead with value, not with need.
Most job seekers send LinkedIn DMs that essentially say, “I’m looking for a job, can you help me?” This immediately positions the sender as a supplicant and gives the recipient no reason to respond.
The Mizes approach flips the script. The message leads with a specific observation about the recipient’s company, team, or recent work — something that demonstrates the sender has done their homework and has something genuinely interesting to say. The job search angle comes later, if at all in the first message.
Building a LinkedIn Profile That Attracts Inbound Opportunities
Mizes emphasizes that the goal of LinkedIn activity isn’t just to get seen — it’s to get inbound. When your profile and content are positioned correctly, recruiters start reaching out to you, rather than the other way around.
The key elements: a headline that speaks to the value you deliver (not just your current title), an About section that tells a compelling professional story, and a content strategy that consistently demonstrates expertise in your target domain.
Through The Human Reach’s Career Amp program, Mizes works with executives to build LinkedIn presences that generate consistent inbound recruiter interest — often within 30 to 60 days of implementing the strategy.
About AJ Mizes: AJ Mizes is the founder and principal coach of The Human Reach. He previously served as global head of HR within Reality Labs at Meta and has coached thousands of executives through career transitions.
