Talentless

Sean Kennedy (“Sean The TA Guy”), Founder & Chief Content Officer, Kennedys Content; fractional Head of TA Guest links: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/ - Newsletter: The Recruiter Reality Check: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-recruiter-reality-check-7420456125470318592/ - The Talking Talent Podcast (RecTalk, guest host): https://www.linkedin.com/company/rectalk-podcast/ Recruiters take the blame for everything, but is it deserved? Sean Kennedy, aka Sean The TA Guy, joins Desiree and Ashley to break down what it actually takes to earn a hiring manager’s respect: saying no, keeping your receipts, and following through. Plus a Lord of the Rings slide deck, the promotion “conspiracy theory,” and four words of advice every recruiter needs. Resources & links Sean Kennedy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/ The Recruiter Reality Check newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-recruiter-reality-check-7420456125470318592/ The Talking Talent Podcast (RecTalk) https://www.linkedin.com/company/rectalk-podcast/ Desiree’s book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality (out October 27, 2026) Watch Talentless on The HR Channel (Roku and Fire TV) Talentless newsletter, The T-Hive: talentlesshive.beehiiv.com This episode’s sponsor: JiMMYBAR, https://jimmybars.com/TALENTLESS code TALENTLESS for 15% off

Recorded: Live at RecFest USA, Nashville Sponsor: RecOps Collective Live from RecFest Nashville: your brain runs on bias, so what happens when recruiters stop pretending it doesn't? Ashley breaks down anchor bias, decision fatigue, and why "bias-free" AI isn't, and the hosts debate where influence ends and manipulation begins. Resources and Links RecOps Collective, recruiting operations community and consulting Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini Dutton and Aron (1974), the suspension bridge study on misattribution of arousal Darley and Latané (1968), the original bystander effect research Women in the Workplace 2025, McKinsey and LeanIn.Org TalentED, Ashley's recruiter university Catch us at HR Tech in Las Vegas, October 20 to 22, 2026 Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality by Desiree Goldey, out October 27, 2026 The T-Hive newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com www.talentlesspodcast.com Segment note: Talent Outside the Box is included in this episode (the bystander effect).

Recorded: Live at RecFest USA, Nashville Sponsor: RoundOne AI (roundone.ai) Disclosure: Desiree is Head of Growth and Partnerships at RoundOne AI. Live from RecFest Nashville, Desiree and Ashley ask what "qualified" means when AI can optimize every resume. Ashley breaks down her four-quadrant recruiter performance model and time to find, a metric nobody tracks. Desiree asks whether any CEO will actually pay to hire this way. Resources and Links RoundOne AI, voice screening that keeps humans in the decision: roundone.ai TalentED, Ashley's recruiter university Watch Talentless on The HR Channel (Roku and Fire TV) Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality by Desiree Goldey, out October 27, 2026 The T-Hive newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com Subscribe on YouTube (please, we're begging) www.talentlesspodcast.com Segment note: Talent Outside the Box is included in this episode (validity versus reliability).

Amit Parmar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cliquify LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parmar79 | Company: cliquify.me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliquify/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cliquify Cliquify CEO Amit Parmar says the best recruiter he ever managed refused to look at the applicants. In a conversation that went completely off the rails in the best way, Amit, Desiree, and Ashley take apart what storytelling actually means, why companies can get five tools approved but not one more recruiter, and the line between active and passive recruiters that decides who still has this job in two years. Plus: the Competitive Plateau, the Wadabot Layer, and how your job posting got on Indeed without anyone ever posting it there. In this episode: What storytelling actually means, stripped of the buzzword, and the one question to ask a hiring manager that changes a job post Why the storytelling that moves the needle most is recruiter to hiring manager, not recruiter to candidate Ashley’s real example of a candidate who failed the screen and became the best hire on a two-and-a-half-year-old req What the Edelman trust data actually says, and why "people trust their employer" is a ranking, not a win The Competitive Plateau: what happens when a high-volume worker has already worked for every competitor in town Bots talking to bots, and the ATS filter stack built to clean up a mess we created Why companies can get five tools approved but not one more recruiter Strategy, process, people, tech, and why everyone runs that order backward Humans innovate because we are lazy, and what that means for every product purchase in TA Why products sell you symptom relief, and how root cause analysis always defaults to "top of funnel" Active versus passive recruiters, and Amit’s case that one of them has about a year left How Cleo maps who is stealing your data scientists in Hungary, and what Cliquify will not use AI for How your job posting got on Indeed without anyone ever posting it there Resources & Links Amit Parmar on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parmar79 Cliquify: cliquify.me (also cliquify.ai, both redirect) People Brand Collective, where Amit is a founding board member James Ellis, name-checked by Desiree on employer brand Desiree’s book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality, out October 27, 2026 Catch Talentless at RecFest USA (Nashville, Sept 23-24) and HR Tech this fall

Just Send The Email: What Hiring Transparency Actually Takes Alex Feder, Founder of Ghosted.work LinkedIn · Ghosted (ghosted.work/trace, free, public beta) Alex Feder spent the last year job searching and getting ghosted, so he built software to fix it. Desiree and Ashley talk candidate experience from the other side of the table: what real transparency actually sounds like, why "the system is broken" is the wrong excuse, and why sometimes the fix is just sending the email. In this episode: Why Alex built Ghosted.work after his own brutal year of job searching, and why he built Trace as a second, narrower product instead of scaling the first What "transparency in hiring" actually means in practice, from both the candidate side and the recruiter side Ashley's own ghosting story: rejected before the interview, then invited back to interview for the role she'd already been rejected from The fake-job problem, response rates under 1%, and a real (anonymized) story about a company posting fake listings just to farm LinkedIn followers AI on both sides of the hiring table, and Alex's line: "these are two cars racing to a red light" Why Alex is skeptical of the existing "call out the ghosters" sites and how Trace's approach differs Homework assignments and live presentations as a harder-to-fake alternative to standard interview questions Ashley's "Rate My Recruiter" pitch and the case for hiring the long-term unemployed as a wealth-gap lever Resources/Links: Ghosted.work: https://ghosted.work/ Trace: https://ghosted.work/trace Alex Feder on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexfeder Desiree's book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality, out October 2026 Talentless at RecFest and HR Tech this fall