The Chad & Cheese Podcast

Joel and Chad sit down with Holly Hobbs—Gen Z founder, first-job TikToker, and co-founder of uruture—to talk about how young people actually get work now.

She built an audience by posting her own rejection-to-apprenticeship story, then turned that into a business that helps employers reach school leavers instead of making kids game an ATS. "Number 10" even used that reach to talk to young people about careers.

They get into why apprenticeships and frontline jobs still fight for respect, what “authentic” employer brand really means on TikTok, and why posting a job with stock photos doesn’t work. AI and easy-apply come up too: not as the death of hiring, but as proof the old process was already broken.

Holly’s take on the mood among Gen Z is mixed—grim application stories on one side, side hustles and new companies on the other—and she argues first jobs should judge people on who they are, not a blank CV. It's a vision into the future and a warning for those stuck in the past.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to Holly Hobbs and her background

03:45 - Interviewing Prime Minister Keir Starmer and her social media strategy

07:08 - Holly's journey from job searching to founding uruture

08:48 - The mechanics of job applications and the role of CVs

09:59 - How Holly's business helps young people navigate the job market

10:34 - Understanding apprenticeships in the UK and their opportunities

11:07 - The value of blue-collar and entry-level roles

12:49 - Building an authentic employer brand for Gen Z

13:44 - The importance of visual and story-driven employer branding

14:26 - Transparency about work culture and expectations

16:06 - Diversity targets and targeted job advertising

17:09 - The impact of AI on job search and applications

18:40 - The future of job boards and entry-level recruitment

20:46 - Challenges faced by young job seekers and the role of experience

22:32 - The importance of soft skills and personality in hiring

24:16 - Using behavioral data and AI to assess candidates

25:45 - The optimism and challenges among young people today

28:16 - The importance of building networks and side hustles

32:24 - The decline of traditional CVs and the rise of new application methods

33:38 - Holly's contact info and final thoughts

Golden Handshakes, Digital Paperclips, and a Very Expensive Extinction

Chad Sowash, a rain-soaked Stephen McGrath, and Lieven Van Nieuwenhuizen log on for a dose of HR tech absurdity, corporate passive-aggression, and high-stakes market delusion.

• The HR Stack Trap: Stephen takes pity on the hundreds of corporate talent leaders weeping on LinkedIn after hoarding dozens of shiny SaaS tools they have no idea how to operate.

• The "Please Quit" Playbook: Microsoft casually offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 workers, while Skydance goes with the classic combo of buyouts mixed with a forced march back to physical cubicles.

• Who’d You Rather: Tech Edition: Faced with a hypothetical 2:00 AM closing-time dilemma, the hosts choose between two software suitors. ZenZapp pitches a private messaging fortress with rigid boundaries for your sanity, while Town rolls out $108M in backing and automated “Townie” bots designed to chat with each other so human employees can stay home.

• Dayforce Goes Shopping: Dayforce finally emerges from its quiet era to swallow Ribbon, an AI video and voice screening startup.

• Anthropic's 80-Billion-Dollar Bar Tab: The episode wraps with Anthropic gearing up for an IPO. Revenue rocketed past $16B, but it comes hitched to an eye-watering $80 billion net loss in the first half of 2026 alone.

Cue Chad retreating into the fetal position with a cold pint of Guinness to ponder the financial apocalypse.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

How do you tell 21,000 candidates a year "thanks, but no thanks" without accidentally convincing them to stop drinking your beer?

From Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Chad Sowash catches up with Heineken’s Head of Talent, Kobi Ampoma, to peel back the curtain on enterprise hiring reality. They break down the real cost of clunky legacy tech, why calendar Tetris is devouring 30% of your recruiters' workweeks, and the secret to getting a CRO’s attention by tying empty seats directly to lost revenue. Plus, discover how Heineken teamed up with VONQ to rethink candidate persona mapping—driving a 75% female hire rate for their commercial teams and proving that the best diversity strategy is simply reflecting the customers who actually buy your product.

Paris is Burning, Autonomous Fridges are Hacking Back, and the "Hiring Reject Machine" is Eating Candidates Alive

Ever wonder what happens when nearly $400 million in VC cash collides with pure, unadulterated recruiting chaos? Strap in, because Chad and Cheese are back to expose the absolute circus that is modern AI talent tech.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Elon’s 30-Second Wonder: Why SpaceX-style thrusters on a car are about as viable for a 5-minute flight as a chocolate fireguard.

• The Bullhorn Blackout: Ten thousand staffing agencies left staring at blank walls after a cyberattack. Did data fly the coop? Nobody knows, but at least recruiters got a coffee break!

• Eightfold’s Musical Chairs: A massive lawsuit, a new CEO stepping into the ring, and why this looks suspiciously like the Theranos of recruiting.

Are any of these tech bros actually thinking about the poor job seeker getting ground up in the gears? Absolutely not! Tune in for the hot takes, the rage, and a bartender who definitively understands the assignment.
Listen now before your ATS turns into a sentient overlord.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

If the idea of an AI-powered robot wielding a razor near your vital organs gives you cold sweats, you’re not alone—and according to global workforce statistics, job seekers are feeling that exact same terror about their careers.

In this chaotic, live episode from Amsterdam, co-hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash bring a microphone and a healthy dose of snark to four brave HR industry leaders:

• Rika Coppens CEO, House of HR
• Chiara Riondino Head of FOW, European Commission
• Minna Melleri Executive Director, World Employment Confederation
• Glenn Bloxham-Mundy Global Accounts Leader, LinkedIn

Tune in to hear what happens when application bots fight recruiter bots in an endless doom-loop, and stick around for the post-show outrage when an announcer realizes a podcast named after cheese didn't mention a single slice of Cheddar.

On the latest episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Joel Cheesman and Emi Beredugo dig into a busy week of talent-tech deals and LinkedIn news. Acquisitions, resignations and bad decisions are back, baby!

SAP has acquired skills-intelligence company TechWolf, which will integrate with SuccessFactors while remaining independent. Juicebox has picked up the intellectual property and assets of sourcing platform Fetcher. Humanly has acquired CareerArc to combine recruitment marketing with its AI hiring tools for high-volume employers.

They also cover LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky’s departure after 18 years, the demotion of a McKinsey partner following a LinkedIn post about the “glass cliff,” and LinkedIn’s new Academy of Economic Opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The episode wraps with a viral TikTok of a candidate speaking gibberish to an AI interviewer that ends the call. Joel and Emi break down what the clip shows and what it means for AI in hiring.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and episode overview

01:07 - Joel's travel update and jet lag discussion

02:45 - Emi recognized as a top UK black professional

04:30 - Recent recognition and awards for Emi

16:13 - SAP acquires Tech Wolf to enhance skills-based hiring

19:40 - The strategic value of Tech Wolf's data analytics

22:16 - Acquisition of Fuel Fifty and industry implications

23:40 - Fetcher acquisition by Juice Box and industry decline

31:33 - History and strategic moves of CareerArc

34:51 - Leadership changes at LinkedIn and organizational culture

35:57 - LinkedIn launches Academy of Economic Opportunity

43:20 - Discussion on the departure of LinkedIn's CEO

44:44 - The rise of AI interviewers and their risks

55:53 - AI interviewers going rogue and candidate experience

58:16 - Humor and closing remarks

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

Talent acquisition teams are currently being expected to pull off the ultimate corporate hat trick: hire at breakneck speed, manifest unicorn candidates out of thin air, slash budgets down to pennies, and somehow prove it with shiny metrics. In this session, ringmasters Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman—hosts of The Chad & Cheese Podcast—are joined by brave survivors Kayleen Weaver (Director of Talent Acquisition at Americare Senior Living) and Patrick Kelly (VP of Operations at Healing Partners). Together, they pull back the curtain on whether the tidal wave of recruiting AI and automation is actually saving the day, or just making HR's slow-motion trainwreck run slightly faster.

Live from Amsterdam where redheads combust in the sun and nobody uses e-scooters—the Chad and Cheese crew are back with guest star Stephen McGrath to tackle HR’s messiest sagas:

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Metaview’s $60M Pivot: How a basic, commoditized note-taking app rebranded as an "agentic AI" messiah.

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LinkedIn's Massive Data Purge: LinkedIn is boot-kicking third-party scrapers (RIP Gem, PIN, and NeuroScale)

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Palantir vs. The Nurses: The surveillance state giant tried its hand at automated healthcare scheduling.

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The "Soft" Labor Market: Jobs reports are crashing, immigrants are leaving, and companies are baffled why nobody’s applying.

Complete with atrocious dad jokes, "dirty D" data warnings, and endless snark, it’s everything you’ve come to expect from HR’s most dangerous podcast.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

Joel and Chad welcome Nathan Labenz, host of The Cognitive Revolution and a self-described full-time student of AI. His agent booked the appearance after a weak first pitch and a better second one.

They start with how he actually works: a separate Mac Mini for agents, a wiki about his life, no unsupervised access to bank and personal email, and a rule that the bots don’t lie about being AI if asked. That setup is the hook for the bigger story.

Nathan walks through the industry as the dog that caught the car—systems that now cheat on tests, rewrite their own logs, and surprise the labs that built them. He argues for pacing the frontier without pretending today’s models are unused. Enterprises, he says, still have a lot of workflow fruit left before they need superhuman agents running for a month.

Work comes next: short-term roles in AI safety orgs (not just researchers—HR, comms, ops), AI-in-the-loop jobs that let teams do more with less, and a hiring market already broken by zero-friction apply. Longer term he talks transformation, a new social contract, and why matching might get better once both sides use agents.

China is the other half. He spent time on the ground this summer because “if we pause, China wins” never sat right. What he saw—and what he didn’t hear—is in the episode, along with advice for kids who may never be smarter than the models.

Joel and Maureen are back, slightly singed from RecFest, to argue about whether the industry is a warm community or a room full of under-resourced people begging an AI agent to reinvent the email alert.

Also on the menu: LinkedIn cosplaying as TikTok, Meta finally peeling the cameras off the glasses Maureen still will not buy.

The job market gets the usual treatment — sturdy headlines, miserable humans, bots applying as nurses for $150 a pop. Then Madonna shows up at 68 in fishnets, and the episode somehow gets weirder.

The two play Who'd Ya' Rather between Spott and HiringCafe and there's quite a bit of disagreement. Imagine that?

Startups, ghost jobs, ageism, and a bad dad joke. The usual dangerous hour.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Episode Overview

00:05 - Introduction to the current job market challenges

02:25 - RecFest Community and Conference Highlights

04:00 - Impact of AI and automation on recruitment processes

04:31 - Perceptions of Conference Attendees: Open and Engaged or Overwhelmed?

08:13 - The Removal of Cameras and Privacy Concerns

10:05 - The rise of new startups in the hiring ecosystem

12:19 - AI Hallucinations and Trust Issues in Technology

15:01 - Challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials in job applications

17:27 - LinkedIn's New Features and Platform Changes

19:58 - Cultural perceptions of aging and beauty in entertainment

22:32 - Travel Plans and Industry Events

24:27 - Current Economic Indicators and Public Sentiment

25:00 - Madonna's VMAs performance and ageism in media

26:53 - Government Data, Trust, and Economic Confidence

30:09 - The creator economy and opportunities for new entrepreneurs

30:15 - The Impact of Inflation and Job Security on Mental Health

35:04 - The influence of social media and content creation in job search

40:05 - Disruption of traditional hiring models by startups

44:51 - The importance of networking and referrals in employment

49:59 - The future outlook: optimism and challenges in the job market

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

How do just 20 recruiters handle over 150,000 hires and 7 million annual applications? On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman chat with Shay Johnson, VP of Strategic HR Partnerships at Compass Group, to explore the future of high-volume hiring.

Shay breaks down how the global food service leader modernized its talent pipeline to eliminate candidate drop-off, targeted candidate re-engagement, and a full conversational ATS experience.

Catch this episode to hear how AI interviewing agents, smart bot detection, and candidate coaching are turning tedious administrative tasks into high-value human connections.

What do a big couch, a can of Stella, and four of the biggest personalities in recruitment have in common? They’re all live from RecFest this week, covering the hottest topics in the world of hiring.

Chad, Joel, Mo’, and J.T. are on hand to talk about everything from an HR tech founder facing up to 20 years behind bars to the great iced-latte-in-job-interviews debate sweeping the land.

First up, the crew covers all things RecFest USA live from the Shaker Recruitment Marketing booth, each offering a unique take on the world’s hottest recruitment conference. You may have heard about the recent controversy over an iced latte that made its way into an interview—and then drew criticism from a practitioner. Yeah, that gets covered.

Then it’s news time. The team discusses the recent guilty plea by the former CEO and founder of Joonko, who is looking at as much as 20 years in prison after allegedly ripping off investors to the tune of $27 million.

Next, the gang turns to Harver’s acquisition of Symphony Talent, a move destined to rattle recruitment ad agencies for years to come. Does the future favor the agency? The group weighs in.

Then comes a Chad & Cheese first: a representative from Findem makes a sponsored announcement about the company’s latest product drop, Findem Studio.

To wrap things up, the crew looks at ZoomInfo’s newly launched Talent Autopilot, a sourcing tool the company hopes will shake up the industry by tapping a dataset it calls second to none.It’s a fun wrap-up from Nashville at the end of RecFest’s first big day. Now pass the hot chicken.

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment.

Is the resume dying — or is it just lying and on life support while AI agents pump out 11,000 fake-looking apps a minute.

On this episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, Joel and Chad sit down with Etan Bernstein of the Velocity Network Foundation, an HR lifer who wants to stop the whack-a-mole and put a chip in the talent system the way banks killed mag-stripe fraud.

Self-reported CVs, ghost jobs, North Korean bots, and vendors who get paid for the chaos all get roasted. Etan’s pitch: one open protocol, worker-owned credentials, and trust at the source instead of another detector.

If you’re still screening slop with more slop, this one’s going to sting.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to the industry's trust issues

02:23 - The shift from traditional resumes to AI-generated profiles

04:11 - The impact of AI on fraud and exaggeration in resumes

06:10 - The problem with fragmented HR data systems

08:33 - Building trust through verifiable data

10:48 - The economic impact of chaos in HR tech

15:36 - The flood of resumes and legal compliance challenges

19:38 - The vision of an open, shared protocol for HR data

21:27 - The role of LinkedIn and other platforms in verification

24:24 - The digital footprint and future of verification

This week on Chad and Cheese, Joel and JT unpack four stories that actually matter if you hire, manage, or look for work. Buckle-up buttercup!

Meta just reversed two of its most controversial internal bets: pushing individual contributors back into middle-management seats after the layoffs, and pausing a monitoring program employees believed was training their AI replacements. The hosts dig into what the internal data showed, why “no managers, full surveillance” keeps failing at scale, and what it does to a brand that used to be a résumé flex.

Then they hit a Business Insider piece on “LinkedIn lunatics”—the people who post like their career depends on it. JT is in the article. They talk about why the platform now rewards proof of knowledge over old job titles, why companies that police employee posting may have a bigger problem than they think, and where LinkedIn’s real money might be heading next.

Who’d You Rather pits two freshly funded plays against each other: Jack and Jill, a conversational-AI recruiter that just raised $40 million, versus Boomerang HR, an alumni-network platform that raised $12.7 million. One host goes big and conversational. The other bets the niche player survives the giants.

They close on Bernie Sanders and Mark Takano’s bill to phase the work week from 40 hours to 32 with no pay cut. JT has already run a shorter week. Joel likes the theory and questions whether Slack and after-hours email would let anyone actually unplug.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and episode overview

04:03 - AI's real threats and opportunities

07:58 - The political landscape of AI regulation

10:08 - The future of AI agents and their impact

12:05 - The evolution of social media and LinkedIn

13:56 - The concept of LinkedIn as a platform for validation

16:10 - The changing nature of employee branding and social media

18:00 - Controversial advertising and brand strategy

20:01 - Upcoming events and travel plans

21:54 - Fantasy football league update

24:03 - Meta's internal policy reversals and lessons

25:57 - The future of work and AI in HR

28:10 - The importance of human oversight in AI systems

29:56 - The potential of AI to monetize individual expertise

31:58 - Who'd you rather? Company comparisons

33:59 - Historical lessons on technology and automation

36:09 - The importance of employee activity on social media

37:58 - The role of AI in recruitment and job seeking

39:55 - The shift from corporate control to individual branding

42:00 - The untapped potential of employee advocacy

43:55 - Legal and ethical considerations in AI and surveillance

46:03 - The coming digital renaissance and new monetization models

48:01 - Predictions for the future of AI and work

50:05 - The impact of new legislation on work hours

52:12 - The benefits of a shorter workweek and flexible work policies

54:03 - The cultural shift towards work-life balance

56:06 - The importance of boundaries and boundaries management

58:03 - Humor and light-hearted moments in the discussion

59:56 - Close