Recruiting is No Joke

Growing from 30 employees to over 130 in under two years is remarkable — doing it without any investors is even more uncommon. In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with Tristan Mackrory, VP of People & Talent at Almeida, to explore one of the most impactful scaling stories in tech. Tristan shares how a warning from veteran teachers pushed him into recruiting, how he rose quickly in a global agency, and how early exposure to AI-driven hiring shaped his approach long before ChatGPT. He also talks about nearly ignoring the LinkedIn message that led him to Almeida — one that casually began with “Do you want to make free cash?” — and how he convinced its 21-year-old founder to approve a full company rebrand immediately after joining. The conversation covers his experience scaling a Silicon Valley–backed startup from Europe during hypergrowth, surviving its collapse, and then helping Almeida grow from 30 to 130+ employees with no outside funding. Tristan explains what it really takes to build high talent density, the role of branding in recruiting, and how his team managed 22,000 applications in just three months. He also highlights how hiring a full-time data analyst transformed their talent operations from reactive to strategic — and why recruiters must evolve into business-focused problem solvers. In this episode: [00:00] Introduction [00:28] Tristan's background [01:54] About Almedia [02:27] From teaching to recruiting [04:08] Landing the first recruiting role [05:22] Rapid career progression in agency recruiting [06:17] Early exposure to AI in hiring [08:17] Consulting for European startups [09:50] Relocating to Berlin to scale a venture-backed company [11:54] The reality of hypergrowth work life [13:57] How Tristan vets resilience in recruiters [17:35] Scaling to 250 employees before the collapse [18:33] From unicorn valuation to mass layoffs [19:48] The “free cash” message that changed everything [21:55] Joining a 21-year-old founder’s bootstrapped company [22:55] Rebranding the entire company for credibility [24:25] Hiring at scale in a difficult global market [26:47] Managing 22,000 applications in 3 months [27:26] Why each recruiter hires only one person per month [29:47] Why every talent team needs a data analyst [32:05] Using AI to build salary bands and hiring workflows [37:12] Why recruiting must shift from reactive to strategic [38:12] What the recruiter role looks like in 2026 [41:01] Tristan’s top advice on referrals and outreach [41:52] Closing and where to connect About Tristan Mackrory Tristan Mackrory is the VP of People & Talent at Almedia, a bootstrapped adtech startup. With over ten years of experience, he has scaled high-growth tech companies across San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Europe. Known for stepping into chaos and building the structure, culture, and systems that allow teams to scale quickly without breaking, Tristan is a passionate advocate for high talent density, clear performance expectations, and a culture of ownership. He joined Almedia when it was 30 people and $90M in revenue and has helped scale it to 130+ employees and over $350M in revenue, all without external funding. About Joel Lalgee  Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships. Recruiting is No Joke Social Media LinkedIn Website Instagram TikTok   X (formerly Twitter Tristan Mackrory Social Media LinkedIn Almedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think about how wild this is. Starting out as a wedding planner and ending up as an HR executive responsible for 450 people. Most people work their way into HR through recruiting. Almost nobody begins in sales or customer success and rises to lead talent. A career pivot like that isn’t just unusual. It is rare, bold, and seriously inspiring. In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with Erin McCann, an HR leader with one of the most unexpected career journeys you will ever hear. Erin did not rise through the classic recruiting pipeline. She started as a wedding planner, shifted into hotel catering, moved into corporate sales, then customer success, and only later found her way into HR. Strangely enough, every twist in that path ended up giving her the perfect toolkit for leading people teams in fast-moving startups. Erin opens up about how she transitioned into HR, why she took a pay cut to reinvent her career, and how her sales and customer success background now give her a major advantage in understanding the business side of people operations. She also explains how she taught herself compliance, built processes from scratch, and built confidence through community, mentorship, and asking the beginner questions most people are afraid to ask. The conversation then gets real about the state of recruiting today, from bot candidates using AI voice tools to the growing difficulty of spotting fake resumes. Erin shares the red flags she is seeing, how her team is adjusting, and why human judgment is still irreplaceable even in an AI driven hiring world. Erin also talks about stability, layoffs, candidate trust issues, and what she believes HR’s real responsibility will be in the year ahead: being the steady, honest voice that keeps teams grounded and supported during uncertain times. In this episode: [00:00] Introduction [00:54] Erin’s background and career path [03:42] Transition to HR and early challenges [04:40] Comparing wedding planning and HR stress [05:41] Learning HR on the fly [07:46] Applying customer success skills to HR [10:00] Becoming a strategic business partner [12:32] Networking strategies and community involvement [16:18] Current recruiting challenges: spam and AI [19:27] Mitigating bot candidates and application fraud [22:14] AI in recruitment processes [24:13] Personalization vs. automation in outreach [25:59] Current job market sentiment [28:25] Evaluating company stability when job searching [31:21] Building custom GPTs for HR and sales [34:25] AI governance and best practices [36:10] Predictions for HR and recruiting [39:52] Closing and where to connect About Erin McCann Erin McCann is an executive HR and People leader with over 12 years of experience, currently leading the function at Genomenon, a global biotech company. With a first career in high-stakes sales, marketing, and customer success, she brings rare business acumen and a commercial mindset to building people strategies. Aaron is known for her practical, operational approach to scaling teams, her advocacy for strategic HR partnerships, and her early, hands-on experimentation with AI to solve real business challenges. About Joel Lalgee  Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships. Recruiting is No Joke Social Media LinkedIn Website Instagram TikTok   X (formerly Twitter Erin McCann Social Media LinkedIn Genomenon, Inc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered what separates recruiters who stay sharp in chaos from those who fold under pressure? Or why, even in a world full of AI tools and automation, the human touch still wins? In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with recruiting veteran Nicole Hirsch, who brings nearly two decades of agency and in-house experience across shifting markets—from the 2008 financial crisis to today’s AI-driven landscape. Nicole gets real about what’s changed, what’s repeating itself, and what recruiters must understand to stay relevant. She shares stories from her early days recruiting mortgage underwriters during the recession, how that shaped her resilience, and what pushed her to transition in-house. Nicole also breaks down how she built high-performing recruiting teams and why her agency roots still influence her approach. The conversation gets even better when they tackle AI. Nicole is pro-AI, but she gives a bold take: recruiters need to stop relying on generic AI outreach and bring back real, thoughtful, human messaging. She explains how authenticity drives stronger response rates and builds trust, referrals, and long-term career equity. Nicole also walks through how her team uses tools like BrightHire to improve interview quality, reduce bias, and elevate candidate experience—while keeping recruiter judgment at the core. If you’re trying to balance tech and humanity in today’s hiring world, this episode brings clarity, practical insight, and real-world perspective. Let’s dive in. In this episode: [00:01] Introduction [00:59] Nicole’s 17+ year recruiting journey and how 2008 shaped her [02:25] AI tools, market uncertainty, and the noise candidates face [03:59] Why personalized outreach still outperforms AI sequences [09:29] The agency mindset vs. the in-house mindset [13:10] Representing your company and yourself in the market [16:27] Referrals, relationships, and long-term trust building [19:01] Where AI belongs in recruiting (and where it doesn’t) [21:03] Nicole’s experience with one-way video interviews [22:12] The tech she actually uses: BrightHire + interview intelligence [26:44] The real risks: compliance, bias, and regulation [29:47] Job seekers, volume, and the reality of 2025 hiring [32:11] AI interviewers, bias, and candidate perception [34:49] Using AI for internal operations, Slack agents, and comp data [39:01] How Lattice links interview performance to quality-of-hire [47:00] The unsexy truth: candidate experience = prep + communication [49:46] Why transparency and phone calls never go out of style [52:02] Where to find Nicole and opportunities at Lattice About Nicole Hirsch Nicole Hirsch is a senior recruiting leader with 18 years of experience across agency, edtech, marketing tech, and HR tech. She currently leads recruiting at Lattice, where she specializes in interview intelligence, candidate experience, hiring strategy, and creating deeply human recruiting processes at scale. Nicole is known for her relationship-first approach, her operational rigor, and her belief that great recruiting will always center on people, not automation. About Joel Lalgee  Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships. Recruiting is No Joke Social Media LinkedIn Website Instagram TikTok   X (formerly Twitter Nicole Hirsch Social Media LinkedIn Lattice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel Lalgee sits down with Jeremy Lyons, co-founder of Rec Ops Collective and one of the most influential voices in the Rec Ops world. Together they unpack the nuances of recruiting operations (rec ops), the impact of AI and automation, and the importance of demonstrating business value in talent acquisition. Jeremy shares how his unconventional path into recruiting began long before his first official job. Influenced by his mother’s career in executive recruiting and shaped by early experiences in cheerleading and ballet, he learned the art of selling a vision and rallying people around a mission. That foundation guides everything he does today. Joel and Jeremy dig into the explosion of AI tools, the flood of point solutions, and why the real power lies not in mastering every platform but in understanding the principles behind them. They discuss the pressure on recruiters to quantify their business impact, the shift in ATS architecture toward data-driven design, and why Jeremy keeps his widely read newsletter free of sponsorship to protect its neutrality and credibility. Jeremy also reflects on reinvention, personal growth, and the importance of letting go of old personas. He talks about navigating uncertainty, the emotional weight of recruiting, and why genuine relationships will always matter more than automation. This episode is both practical and deeply human. If you work in Rec Ops, talent acquisition, or leadership, it is a powerful reminder that the future of recruiting depends as much on curiosity, adaptability, and connection as it does on any emerging technology. In this episode: [00:01] Introduction and guest welcome [00:59] Jeremy’s background and Rec Ops Collective origin [02:25] AI tools in recruiting and market uncertainty [03:59] Rec Ops Collective newsletter: purpose and growth [09:29] Content sponsorship and neutrality [13:10] Business impact and recruiting as a business function [16:27] Measuring impact and resume advice [19:01] Evolution of ATS and in-house vs. agency tools [21:03] Creativity and tech in talent teams [22:12] Jeremy’s entry into recruiting and early influences [24:32] Recruiting as relationship building [26:44] Family influence and corporate values [29:47] Human relationships vs. tech in recruiting [32:11] AI tools, job hopping, and career evolution [41:11] Rebranding yourself and embracing change [43:07] Uncertainty and the future of work [44:45] Closing and where to find Jeremy About Jeremy Lyons Co-founder of RecOps Collective, creator of the weekly RecOps Roundup newsletter, and a respected leader in recruiting operations, automation, process design, and TA systems strategy. Jeremy has worked across companies from 10 employees to 100,000+, helping teams scale, optimize, and rethink the architecture of recruiting. He is known for his neutral, insight-first approach to industry analysis and his commitment to making RecOps accessible and understood. About Joel Lalgee  Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships. Recruiting is No Joke Social Media LinkedIn Website Instagram TikTok   X (formerly Twitter Jeremy Lyons Social Media LinkedIn Newsletter: ⁠Rec Ops Roundup on Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that recruiting has drastically evolved since the mid-1990s? In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with talent acquisition leader Julia Levy to explore how recruiting has evolved and what still matters most. With more than two decades inside Fortune 500 companies, leading global TA operations and navigating major ATS implementations, Julia has seen every phase of the industry up close. She walks through her journey from career-counseling grad student to agency recruiter, to TA operations, and eventually to leading enterprise hiring teams responsible for more than 120,000 employees. Julia explains how recruiting shifted from relationship-driven phone sourcing to a landscape shaped by LinkedIn, automation, and AI, while reminding listeners that genuine human connection remains essential. She and Joel unpack why job descriptions often feel outdated, why resumes have become AI-optimized guesses, and how auto-apply tools are overwhelming recruiters and damaging the candidate experience. They also discuss fast-apply culture, what early-career job seekers are struggling with, and how Gen Z can navigate today’s competitive market. Julia highlights why understanding your ATS matters, how process decisions impact every part of the hiring cycle, and why data now drives modern TA. She also shares the motivation behind her new book From Hi to Hired, written for interns and new grads entering a challenging job market. Julia’s message is simple: great recruiting still depends on real connection, smart systems, and people who understand the work. In this episode: [00:57] Julia’s background  [03:05] Current projects and consulting work [04:03] AutoZone role and scope of hiring [04:53] Origin story: entering recruiting [06:09] What recruiting looked like in the 90s [07:12] Evolution of digital recruiting [10:44] Transition to internal roles and TA operations [13:12] Career progression across major companies [16:01] Importance of TA operations knowledge [18:11] What hasn’t changed in recruiting [19:29] Job descriptions vs actual job needs [22:17] Candidate experience and the application black hole [26:41] Strategic job search and candidate education [28:12] Defining qualifications and application strategy [29:49] What recruiters look for in resumes [33:21] Industry experience and risk in hiring [35:49] Julia’s book: From Hi to Hired [39:06] Advice quality and social media misinformation [40:45] Challenges for new grads in today’s job market [43:16] Where to find Julia + Coach Julia AI About Julia Levy Julia Levy is a veteran Talent Acquisition executive with a background in career counseling. She has led global TA teams at Fortune 500 companies like AutoZone and MetLife, specializing in transforming clunky recruitment processes into efficient, candidate-friendly experiences. Now recovering from corporate life, she is an author, advisor to HR tech companies, and a passionate advocate for job seekers. Her new book, "From High to Hired" provides a strategic roadmap for college students to land their first job. About Joel Lalgee  Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships. Recruiting is No Joke Social Media LinkedIn Website Instagram TikTok   X (formerly Twitter Julia Levy Social Media Website LinkedIn The Coach Julia AI Book: From Hi to Hired Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices