The Chad & Cheese Podcast

In a heated discussion, the hosts tackle Personio's layoffs and its U.S. exit, exploring the impact on competition. Indeed's new Connect offering raises eyebrows, with critiques on its monetization strategies. The introduction of ARPJ gets debated, revealing possible manipulation to please Wall Street. They delve into economic woes affecting fast food and how inflation is squeezing wallets. Personal anecdotes about favorite fast foods add a nostalgic twist to the conversation as they reflect on changing consumer habits.

In this episode, exciting funding news includes Ridepanda's $12.6M for e-bike innovation and PlanBase's launch of AI tools for healthcare staffing. Scribe reaches a staggering $1.3B valuation, while LinkedIn takes a stand against artificial engagement. The latest job market insights reveal a spike in layoffs attributed to AI disruptions and wage pressures highlighted by Monster's report. Plus, hireEZ introduces a new feature to catch manipulated resumes, reflecting the ongoing evolution in the recruitment landscape.

David Weinstock, VP of Talent Acquisition at New Story, is a modern leader in fixing hiring processes. He shares insights on simplifying recruiting by focusing on the essential 10%, enhancing job postings, and utilizing AI in interviews. David discusses rising candidate expectations and the importance of personalized feedback. He dives into building AI job agents, implementing conversational bots, and using analytics to drive recruiting ROI. With his experience, he emphasizes the need for change management when adopting new technologies.

The discussion heats up around whether SAP and Workday can revolutionize hiring like Amazon, reducing candidate friction with AI. With LinkedIn and Indeed in a fierce battle for hiring dominance, the hosts analyze the power of conversational AI in transforming recruitment. Topics range from increasing site conversion through AI to Handshake's pivot into training models post-market shifts. They'll also explore the evolving roles of recruiters as AI takes on matching duties, and whether job seekers are ready for chatbot interactions.

An exciting discussion unfolds as VeroSkills secures $5.3M to boost its AI hiring platform for blue-collar workers. ADP's acquisition of Pequity aims to enhance pay transparency tools in response to evolving laws. Meanwhile, Waymo is making headlines by expanding its robo-taxi service to major U.S. cities. In other news, Deel appoints a new president and CFO as they surpass $1B in annual revenue, while Upwork announces record earnings amidst mixed client trends. Finally, ZipRecruiter reports strong revenue but a net loss.

High-volume recruiting is officially in its “everything is on fire” era. Applicant fraud is exploding. Screening is eating recruiter calendars alive. And scaling sourcing without torching your team? Good luck doing that manually in 2025 and beyond. So we’re bringing in the people who actually lived it… not analyst fantasy land. In this session — leaders from Rippling, Phantom, Foley and more break down the pain they actually felt, the bad solutions they tried first, and how they finally got ahead of the chaos. You’ll hear exactly how the speakers have taken a native approach in catching fraud before it infects pipelines, shrink screening overhead, and put recruiter time back into outbound sourcing where it actually moves the needle — not “spreadsheet archaeology.” Speakers include: Vijay Mani — Co-Founder & CEO, Covey Jay Patel — Sr Director Talent, Rippling (ex DoorDash) Laura Stapleton — VP People, Foley (ex Engine) Derrick Gellidon — Head of Talent, Phantom (ex Lyft, Instacart) And yes… Chad & Cheese stirring the bourbon into the chaos.

Another full serving of red meat on The Chad & Cheese Podcast. Joel unleashes the layoff bloodbath: Amazon axes 14K corporate jobs for automation, Target cuts 1.8K amid sales slumps, GM drops 3K+, Rivian 600, UPS a brutal 48K. Military.com? DOA via Valnet. Chad blames UPS pain on automation, ditching Amazon volume, and shrinking wallets; ties GM to the EV tax-credit cliff—“Trump economy killer!” Joel says companies hate chaos, froze post-election, now tariffs (⅓ each: importer, company, consumer) drip inflation, crushing spending and jobs. Amazon’s BlueJay bots are coming for warehouses. Emi (Europe) confirms global instability fuels automation through ’27; Target may need holiday humans, but HQ already slashed layers. Mercor—those zygote founders roasted for bias-free matching—pivots to AI-model eval, grabs $350M Series C at $10B. 30K experts at $85/hr tell OpenAI why outputs rock or rot. Chad salutes the “picks-and-shovels” genius; Joel dubs it the mother of pivots. AuditBoard scoops FairNow for AI-governance; Chad smells PE acqui-hire for HG’s $180B empire, Joel’s skeptical—flat headcount, no terms, RecFest whispers “smoke.” Emi loves Mercor’s 500M ARR path, reserves FairNow judgment. iCIMS wakes up: AI Sourcing Agent, turnkey I-9/E-Verify (backgrounds/assessments next), Apply Network adds LinkedIn/Veritone. Chad groans—5 yrs post-Opening.io, 3 post-Candidate.ID, rebranding old tech as “agents” in me-too panic. Joel sees ATS arms race: bundle sourcing/SEO or lose to SmartRecruiter clones. Emi hopes CTO Deepak Pandya saves the day; Chad/Joel want retention—“We’ve got agents too!” H-1B mess: White House defends $100K fee vs. Chamber lawsuits over fraud/wage suppression. DeSantis bans H-1Bs at FL universities (13.6% biz faculty gone), citing Chinese nationals teaching U.S. policy. Chad recalls 2020 Chamber suit—immigrants power innovation/supply chains. BC runs Reagan ads during NHL, fast-tracks Trump-weary U.S. nurses: 1.4K+ apps, 113 registered, 100+ hired. Joel predicts Canada-wide poach; Emi: fee won’t spawn American nurses. Bold (Monster/CB owners) drops 2007 cringe-video: wrinkled CEO, Trumpasaurus, resume subs, predatory paid services. Chad gags at “ick,” slams Jeff Taylor for cheering a flaming brand. Joel: ChatGPT could do better; Emi: euthanize the dead horse—trust gone. Trio signs off with Joel the Chicken & Agent Chad pitching iCIMS mascot gigs. Death, taxes, layoffs—baby.  Chapters00:00 - Intro13:32- Layoffs21:44 - AI News30:29 - iCIMS38:23 - H-1B47:04 - Bold 

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

What happens when a global powerhouse doing 180,000 hires a year gets tired of lighting cash on fire? Gotta listen to find out. In this live RecFest session, the boys sit down with Shay Johnson, VP of Strategic HR Partnerships at Compass Group USA, who reveals how his team went from 2% conversion rates and duplicate job posts to building a hiring machine. Shay drops real playbook tactics—SMS conversion tactics, re-engagement automation, database recycling, spend control, and high-volume hiring strategy that every enterprise TA leader should be stealing by Monday. This one has it all the maths, modern TA strategy, automation wins, and a guy with better hair than Joel. Grab a bourbon and listen up. Shay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelshayjohnson/ Dalia candidate conversion - https://www.dalia.co ENJOY! 0:00 – Meet Shay Johnson1:20 – 2% conversion + dumpster fire2:44 – 5 million candidates a year?3:45 – Hiring managers go rogue.9:56 – Stop buying new candidates—reuse the ones you already paid for11:35 – Dalia + Paradox = Batman & Robin of hiring16:17 – Hiring automation so good recruiters don’t know it exists21:33 – Spending smarter > burning budget on sponsorship confetti26:41 – In-house programmatic team = two nerds and a spreadsheet29:23 – Change management that didn’t suck

This week's episode opens with a layoffs avalanche that could bury a small HR department. Nestlé slashes 16,000 jobs—mostly white-collar, as AI now crunches numbers faster than accountants can say “chocolate river.” Meta cuts 600 from its super-intelligence team (the irony writes itself), Paycom drops 500 engineers (guess the bots finally learned to code), Handshake axes over 100 (pivoting to “AI-centric tech” = fancy talk for “we’re toast”), and even programmatic darling Appcast trims 32. The hot acquisition pitch? JobGet should buy Handshake and rebrand it Handjob.com—because nothing screams “career move” like a domain that triggers every corporate filter. The bullshit meter detonates. Facebook resurrects its job board after killing it in 2023—rumor has it Zuck’s prepping AR glasses where “Starbucks is hiring” beams directly into your latte-fueled daydreams. X quietly buries its LinkedIn-killer tab (Elon’s too busy monetizing outrage). Adzuna unveils a “revolutionary” search that’s basically ZipRecruiter’s Phil minus the creepy spokesperson—half-baked, no employer-side matching, and it begs for your email like a desperate Tinder bio. Metaview’s Chicago billboard (“Who says hiring has to be fair?”) gets flayed: four-second glance, logo smaller than a South Park punchline, and DEI messaging dumber than a rock. Fix? “Effective AI. Giant Logo. Metaview.com.” Done. Stop torching $35M on ego art. Funding fireworks: Findem.ai pockets another $51M, hitting $105M total (Intello 2.0, now with agent spice—same data warehouse, new flavor packet). Deel raises $300M, pushing its war chest to $1.3B at a $17.3B valuation—enough to buy a mid-sized nation and still tip the barista. Armstrong grabs $12M for AI dish-washing robots (Taco Bell’s drive-thru is about to ghost human order-takers faster than you can say “Doritos Locos”). Jack & Jill scores $20M for conversational job alerts—talk to your laptop, get emailed Indeed links. Groundbreaking… if it’s 2001. Economy’s a K-shaped tire fire: Hamburger Helper sales spike 14% (flashbacks to salty 70s trauma: “Dad tried to fix it with more salt—burned my mouth and my will to live”). Freight rates up 20%, subprime auto delinquencies worse than COVID, Great Recession, and dot-com bust combined. White Castle flips fully autonomous in Ohio—farewell, drive-thru jobs; hello, robot flipping your sliders while you doom-scroll in sweatpants. Finale: OpenAI green-lights erotic ChatGPT for verified adults starting December (the internet was literally built on the promise of pixelated nipples—Sam Altman’s just cashing the OG check). Age-gating? Cute. Show me a 10-ft wall, I’ll show you an 11-ft ladder and a forged ID. They also launch ChatGPT Atlas, an AI browser with a sassy sidebar—because Chrome’s 2:38 median tab time and 11.4 open tabs (recruiters: double that, easy) needed a drunk-texting career coach. Google infused Gemini; OpenAI counters by making browsing feel like your browser just joined a group chat.Buckle up—2026 will be wilder than a Meta glasses app that undresses your LinkedIn connections in AR. Chapters00:00 Introduction and Recap of Reckfest02:18 Reflections on MTV's Impact and Evolution04:57 The Changing Landscape of Job Platforms07:36 Layoffs and Industry Shifts10:09 The Future of Recruiting Technology13:08 Meta's Job Platform and Advertising Strategies15:42 Critique of Adzuna's New Search Features18:04 Closing Thoughts and Future Predictions26:35 The Power of AI in Recruiting30:44 Funding Frenzy in the Recruitment Tech Space34:59 The Impact of Automation on Fast Food Jobs42:49 Economic Indicators and Their Implications48:06 The Intersection of AI, Browsers, and Adult Content