How to avoid buying a dud

Executive
Leadership

July 10, 2026

Avoiding a 'dud' now could be central to whether or not you're judged a success in the future.

This month, I’m reprising an article I published some time back, in fact in 2017!

I’m reminded that it is extremely rare for a truly new, fundamental principle around which life revolves, to be “discovered”. Most central ideas have been around for decades, centuries and even Millenia.

The threat of *Y2K in the year 2000 and the promise, and threat, of AI in 2026, reminds me yet again that “most things rarely turn out as bad as predicted and rarely turn out as good as predicted”.

*For those not old enough to remember, Y2K was a predicted global doomsday event, supposedly to be triggered by the fact that much of the worlds computing infrastructure would shut down because many early systems had only used two digits (for e.g. 85) to represent a year instead of four (ie 1985). The theory went that the year 2000 would therefore be indistinguishable from the year 1900. For those interested in more detail Wikipedia explains it better than me.

Year 2000 problem - Wikipedia

And so to today, it strikes me yet again that the two industries my business straddles (mining and talent/recruitment) are both well and truly into a “buyer beware” phase. Avoiding a “dud” now could be central to whether you’re judged a success in the future.

I hope this article helps you avoid falling into the trap of buying a dud:

Executive
Job
Mining investment
Sexy looking piece of recruitment search technology.

In Australia's junior mining space

As capital markets open and money is raised, the pressure to spend it increases.

Way back in March 2016, I wrote an article entitled Beware the market miners.

Even though that was a decade ago, it remains relevant today. In that article, I described junior miners as having:

“…serial track records of talking a great talk, sometimes bending the truth, while never explaining the risks.

In many cases they truly believe their own story.

People who invest in these market miners without doing their background checking (which isn’t that hard with our easy access to information today) probably mostly deserve to be fleeced.

With markets at cyclical lows, I predict we will see a few market miners emerge in the next stage of this cycle. As an employee or an investor, beware and consider things like ...”

I also said that:

“If you’re a senior executive looking to join a new flashy company, as I’ve commented previously, you have but one reputation to ruin!

We all need to do our homework. It's not that hard.”

Obviously today in 2026, we are not in the cyclical low referred to, but conditions are starting to look extreme at the other end, so the lessons apply. Whether you are a mining company board or investor fielding pitches from savvy salespeople, I recommend you carefully consider the points made in that article.

In the recruitment and search space

It seems that we’ve entered an AI gold rush. Every day, there is a new platform or piece of software to:

Enable seamless connections between jobseeker and employer
Eliminate old-school recruitment fees and shonky recruiters
Sift through the entire population of planet Earth and find “the perfect person” for your company, with nothing more than a few keystrokes
And so on. You get the drift.

The particular product or platform aside (and we use more and more of them in our business), I’ve noticed two clear trends in these pitches:

You are but one app or piece of AI away from global domination
The project manager’s capacity to deliver “seamless integration” of said platform significantly lags their sales ability.

In industries like recruitment and search, being reshaped by AI and automated technology, or mining where money needs to be spent to find that next big thing, it is easy to feel that you’re getting left behind and to respond by replacing measured risk-taking with punting.

An example I’ll share involved a candidate using AI as a prank to make it all the way through the recruitment process and secure a job. To me, it raises a different question around risk. If candidates are using AI to apply for jobs, and employers are buying AI to read them, who’s doing the hiring?

You can read Ross Clennett’s article on that prank here: Why I am optimistic about the future of the recruitment industry - Ross Clennett: High Performance Recruitment Coach

When AI appears to outsmart AI, we create conditions that attract people who are principally coming for your money. They know you have some and encourage you to spend it by preying on your FOMO (fear of missing out).

So what should you do?

I apologise in advance for what will sound like an incredibly dull answer but the only real way to avoid this is to run an old-style research process. Whether it’s a person, a job, a project, or a piece of technology you seek to buy:

Conduct comprehensive market research to establish the talent pool
Create a longlist based on an initial screen against your broad criteria (include candidates on the fringes — it is too early in the process to get cute)
Create a shortlist, based on meetings, products review and references
Subject every one to the identical full-rinse cycle of the selection machine.

Yes, this will take a bit of time and yes, you will still need to take a risk at the end of the process, but the chances of buying a dud will be significantly reduced.

Whatever you do, don’t get lost in the hopeful haze whipped up by the first person who comes pitching!

Happy buying and thank you Ross for the inspiration.

Lastly, if you need help uncovering top talent, MPI’s successful 31-year track record of doing exactly that might add some value. If so, please consider making contact.

Here's another article you might be interested in:

How to avoid being caught in a mining scam.

by Steve Heather

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