The Chad & Cheese Podcast

It is officially Joel-Free June, which means Joel is off on an extended European holiday while Chad holds down the fort with two brilliant industry heavyweights: Emi Beredugo and JT O'Donnell.

From boardroom coups and high-stakes acquisitions to massive corporate grifts, the trio dives deep into a chaotic week of HR technology news.


Stepstone's Plot Twist


JobGet Snaps Up Ripple Match


The Job.com Meltdown


The Point Solution Funeral

Billionaires, Layoffs, & Job Slop


AI Lost in Translation

Listener Shoutout: A massive shoutout to TA champion Terry Dewey for slashing their organization's Indeed spend over the past 12 months by putting our podcast strategies to work! Keep the cash, Terry, but feel free to ship that bottle of whiskey to the studio anyway.

Don't miss Chad and Emi live at Recfest UK on July 2nd at Knebworth Park! Emi is taking over the Innovate Stage as MC, while Chad and a freshly returned Joel will be bringing the noise to the Disrupt Stage.

Get your incredibly soft The Chad & Cheese t-shirts, free beer, and free whiskey by heading over to chadandcheese.com/free.

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.

HR’s Most Dangerous Podcast Just Dropped a Big Gulp of Truth. 🥤

Think automated hiring is just a cold, heartless robot out to steal your corporate badge? Think again.

Chad and Cheese sit down with Rachel Allen, Senior Director of TA at 7-Eleven. She manages over 110,000 hires a year and automated 95% of their store recruitment.

The result? They slashed time-to-hire from 10+ days to under three (and sometimes three hours, because speed kills).


Meet "Rita": The AI assistant so good, store managers literally asked to meet her in person. (Awkward...)


"Help is Coming": How to drop a massive tech overhaul on your staff without causing a mutiny.


The Marketing Hijack: How the TA team hitched a ride on product shipments to score free recruitment marketing.


Accidental Quality: How solving for pure speed accidentally fixed their crap candidate quality and retention problems.

"Where we mess up sometimes is we lead with the technology—the shiny new thing—versus what are we solving for?"

— Rachel Allen, 7-Eleven



Whether you’re drowning in high-volume resumes or sweating bullets that a chatbot is coming for your sourcing desk, Rachel drops a masterclass on putting humans where they actually matter.

Grab your pastel shorts and a cold drink because Chad is broadcasting live from Portugal, celebrating his birthday alongside a local bar owner while Joel prepares for a milestone anniversary trip to Italy. 

In this high-energy, unfiltered episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, the boys take a sledgehammer to the current AI hype cycle, contrasting Workday’s massive earnings and $500 million agentic AI run rate against the harsh reality of Microsoft and Uber scaling back their tech due to exploding compute costs.

From Stepstone’s new EU compliance push to Indeed’s automated features, Chad drops a massive hot take on how over-engineered recruiting tools create dangerous compliance risks and automation bias.

They tie up the loose ends of the global economy by breaking down everything from the historic Indy 500 finish and a comedic eulogy for Schlitz beer, to the Pope's latest tech warnings and the EU's pivot to renewable energy as a national security weapon.

It is the perfect, loose, and brutally honest mix of global geopolitics, HR tech consolidation, and birthday banter that you absolutely cannot miss.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Personal Milestones

02:08 - Joel and Chad's Birthdays and Anniversaries

04:27 - Industry Conference Insights: Old Dogs vs. Disruptors

08:34 - Shoutouts and Personal Highlights

11:28 - Indy 500 Race Highlights and Experience

16:28 - Workday's Earnings and AI Investment

20:04 - AI Market Race: Google, OpenAI, and Industry Disruption

23:06 - Historical Perspective: Netscape and Microsoft's Browser War

27:39 - Top Tall's Acquisition Strategy and Market Position

30:02 - EU and US AI Regulations and Industry Impact

40:05 - AI's Cost Challenges and Economic Realities

44:23 - Public Perception and Future of AI

47:50 - Global Energy Transition and Geopolitical Implications

54:38 - US Dollar, Oil, and Global Power Dynamics

55:23 - Humorous Close and Birthday Wishes

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.