The Chad & Cheese Podcast

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

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.