

The Chad & Cheese Podcast
Evergreen Podcasts
Everything people and workforce—recruiting, marketing, technology, talent management, and workforce economics—delivered with biting sarcasm and unapologetic snark. Industry misfits Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman bring their no-holds-barred opinions to dissect news, trends, and the occasional dumpster fire. If you’re a hiring company, staffing firm, or vendor looking for insights (and a thick skin), these two won’t just tell you what’s happening—they’ll tell you why you’re probably doing it wrong. Buckle up, buttercup.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 1, 2023 • 35min
Getting The Pulse w/ Mike Woodrow
It’s helpful to check the pulse of the recruitment industry from time-to-time. It’s especially useful when the company rep who comes on the show has a newsletter called The Pulse. That’s why we brought industry veteran Michael Woodrow, CEO at Aspen Tech Labs, on the podcast. With over 120K source sites and 9M jobs in their kitty, Michael is able to speak from a position of deep understanding about the labor markets. We discuss job openings, popular trends (ChatGPT alert!), just how bullish Michael is on ZipRecruiter and whether or not a hard or soft landing is on the offing. Tune in and get smarter.Mike's last interview - Woody's Google for Jobs LOVE/HATE

Apr 28, 2023 • 36min
Beer and Podcasting in Las Vegas
We are unleashed this week as, um, UNLEASH America makes its third trip to the states. The boys wax poetic about their time in Vegas, which includes a Chad & Cheese party, a pot party and selfie consultants … don’t worry, it’ll all make sense. News-wise, CV Wallet raised money, Jobcase cuts heads and CEOs are still losing their minds over remote work. Pass the Tylenol, bet it all on black and enjoy this live episode from a Vegas dive bar.

Apr 27, 2023 • 6min
Shredded: CV Wallet, Sonet.io, Spayr, Whale, Abby & More
The Shred is a weekly roundup of who’s raised funds, who’s been acquired and who’s on the move in the world of recruitment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

Apr 26, 2023 • 33min
Technical Debt Happens with Sean Luitjens
There’s all kinds debt. Like our bar tab. Don’t even get us started. Or technical debt, the kind that makes life difficult of developers everywhere, but especially the tech behind a lot of HR tech. That’s why we’ve invited Sean Luitjens, vice president of product management for Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud to the podcast. After a walk down Memory Lane, highlighting Sean’s days at Monster in the ‘90s, we come back to the 21st Century and talk about issues creating headaches for tech teams today. Additionally, we discuss smart questions customers (that’s probably you) can ask vendors to make sure landmines aren’t stepped on in the future. We also explore if the technical debt can be a good thing, and what the hell is wrong with LinkedIn and its crazy high debt.

Apr 24, 2023 • 35min
iCIMS' Front Row Seat w/ Al Smith
Al Smith, CTO at iCIMS, is back on the podcast recording from his front-row seat to the AI race, he talks ChatGPT, chatbots deciding to compete with applicant tracking systems like his, what we can expect from the upcoming INSPIRE conference (icims.com) (new CEO on stage alert!) and why, exactly, he dislikes the term “ATS” so much. Al is always smart, candid, and transparent - almost like he has no filter at all - so this is a must-listen if you want an honest breakdown of the current state of tech at his company and the industry at large.

Apr 21, 2023 • 51min
Indeed Retreats
Companies rise and fall - usually because of of ego and hubris - and our industry is no different. Take CareerBuilder and Indeed for example; each to varying degrees are facing headwinds thanks to the unbridled belief that the good times will always roll and the competition is unworthy. Based on news this week, it’s looking more and more like Indeed is on the road to be the next CareerBuilder, and the boys dig in. Additionally, consolidation continues, as Fama has acquired Social Intelligence, making them a juicy acquisition target for the likes of Checkr and Sterling. What’s more, the CEO of MillerKnoll put her foot in her mouth and is paying the price on social media, while Amazon’s AWS is taking aim at Google and Microsoft’s OpenAi as another player in the artificial intelligence arms race. By the way, if you’re in Vegas for UNLEASH America next week, stop by the WorkHuman booth on Wed. and say Hi (you might even get a T-shirt).

Apr 20, 2023 • 8min
Shredded: Zoom, Workvivo, Fama, Pera, Astrix, Loopin, Innential, Augmentir & More
The Shred is a weekly roundup of who’s raised funds, who’s been acquired and who’s on the move in the world of recruitment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

Apr 19, 2023 • 40min
EUROPE: Zoom'ing with Workvivo
Zoom - yes, that Zoom - has made an acquisition in the employment space and to say the boys have an opinion is an understatement. Will it be enough to fend off Microsoft, Salesforce, Google and others? So we’re sayin' there’s a chance, and I’ll leave it at that. Then it’s time for Buy-or-Sell with startups Loopin, Pera, and Equitas, which gets pretty ugly, not gonna lie. Lastly, “strategic autonomy” is something we should all add to our bandwidth as France’s Emmanuel Macron talks about moving away from the United States and becoming a third superpower. It all ends up in a pretty animated, colorful episode. Enjoy.

Apr 17, 2023 • 44min
Should Brands Go Woke?
Warning: This episode might make you hungry, as Chik-fil-A, In-N-Out, McDonald’s, and others get mentions. If you dare listen, however, you’ll get knowledge bombs on the trend of remote layoffs, how Hilton is turning happy workers into big profits and taking on AirBNB, and whether employers are “going broke by going woke.” Google’s pay-per-click for job postings gets airtime too … imagine that. And chicken nuggets. Lots of talk about chicken nuggets.

Apr 14, 2023 • 48min
Textio is Toast
Textio is Toast, OnlyFans is Sleepless & LinkedIn “Clears” UpListening to Chad & Cheese is like going to your favorite restaurant: You know what’s on the menu, and you know that you love it … which is why you keep coming in for more. Cheese is back from vacation and the boys are covering acquisitions, artificial intelligence, robots, LinkedIn, OnlyFans and so much more. All the flavors you know and love. Specifically, Mitratech has gobbled up Circa and Trakstar, Textio is toast thanks to ChatGPT and the White House sounds off on AI best practices. Then, LinkedIn partners with Clear to verify IDs, Digidog is back on the beat in New York City and Walmart keeps automating to phase out more and more workers. Lastly, the boys introduce you to Claudia, OnlyFans' worst nightmare.


