Chris Hyams, the CEO of hiring platform Indeed, has announced that he is stepping down from the job. He would serve as board member for a year while Hisayuki Idekoba, the CEO of the company’s parent firm Recruit, would return as Indeed’s CEO after a six year break.
“Today, over 300 million job seekers use Indeed each month. Our revenue has grown 200x. Most importantly, 27 people get hired on Indeed every minute — one every 2.2 seconds. Since we started measuring hires, more than 75 million people have gotten jobs thanks to Indeed — and we know that number is a dramatic undercount,” Hyams said.
Hyams, who joined Indeed in 2010 as vice president of product, has had an unusual career path. After graduating from college, Hyams worked with young addicts and alcoholics in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital. Later, he moved to Vermont, and spent two years teaching special education at a public high school. He then tried out a number of different jobs, ranging from working in his grandfather’s production business to being the drummer in five different bands.
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He then returned to school to get a master’s degree in computer science.
Hyams joined a company called Trilogy as a software developer, and rose to become the vice president of product. He launched and shuttered a tech startup before landing another VP role at Indeed in 2010.
While Hyams’ career journey is scattered, he claims there is a connecting thread of “a desire to be useful and helpful.”
Hyams credits his maternal grandfather George Spota for giving life-changing advice that shaped his career. “Every job is the most important job in the world, and you should treat every job as if it’s the most important job in the world,” Hyams says as an example of such life-changing advice.
Indeed had just 130 employees when Hyams joined as VP. He succeeded Idekoba as CEO in 2019, and led the platform through unprecedented labor market conditions including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise of AI in recruitment. Under his leadership, Indeed managed to rise and solidify its position as the world’s largest job board.
Hyams is known for his unique approach to interviewing candidates. In an interview with Fortune, he revealed that he asked over 3,000 job applicants the same question: “Do you use iPhone or Android, and why?” The goal was not to judge technological preferences but to explore how individuals make decisions. “You can actually have a really interesting set of conversations around how important it is when you choose a product, that you can get stuck with that thing for a very, very long time,” Hyams had said.
Idekoba said in a statement that Indeed would not be what it is today without Hyams’ efforts as he “led the company through its transition from a simple job search engine to a two-sided talent marketplace.” “We’re so grateful for everything he’s done,” he added.
This change in leadership has triggered speculations over the company’s long-term strategy. As noted by AIM Group cohost Peter M. Zollman, Idekoba’s return may be temporary. Potential successors include Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO of Glassdoor (Indeed’s sister company), and Chris Forman, the former CEO of Appcast, who recently stepped aside from his role.