Digital Recruiter Podcast

SUMMARY In this episode of the ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit podcast series, host Clark Wilcox sits down with Jen Jones, Senior Technical Recruiter at Cedar. While new to AI, Jen has quickly transformed her workflow by adopting automation and practical tools. She went from a curious learner to a team trainer in less than a year. Her upcoming session, “AI Fundamentals for Recruiters: Building Co...

SUMMARY Jay Olson didn’t just ride the wave of recruiting trends, he’s been shaping them for decades. From the dot-com boom to today's AI revolution, Jay brings a seasoned, thoughtful perspective as the Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Medtronic. In this conversation with host Clark Wilcox, Jay opens up about the real challenges and opportunities AI presents for recruiting leaders and why...

SUMMARY In this high-energy episode of the Digital Recruiter Podcast, Clark Wilcox sits down with the ever-electric Brian Fink, Managing Partner at the WeWork Group and MC of the upcoming ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit. Known for his sourcing wizardry, bold AI workflows, and relentless optimism, Brian dives into what makes this event, and this moment in recruiting, so powerful. The episode kicks...

SUMMARY In this special episode from the ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit series, host Clark Wilcox sits down with Michael Vroman, Senior Executive Talent Acquisition Researcher at Equinix, to unpack his unique journey into recruiting, his philosophy on sourcing, and his role in this year's SourceCon Hackathon. What begins with a childhood obsession with rare car parts evolves into a sourcing care...

SUMMARY In this episode from the ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit series, host Clark Wilcox sits down with Anita Chandrasekhar, Global Head of Talent Strategy and Operations at Zapier, to explore one of the most urgent challenges in modern recruiting: candidate fraud and AI misuse. From deepfakes to fraudulent interview swaps, Anita shares how this new wave of deception is transforming hiring risk...

SUMMARY Elaine Orler didn’t plan on disrupting the candidate experience. She lived it. With roots in early childhood education, she transitioned into recruiting at Qualcomm before launching a consulting firm and co-founding the Candidate Experience Awards. In 2023, she took a bold leap again, joining forces with Doug to tackle one of the industry’s biggest pain points: the candidate black hole. In...

SUMMARY Joel Cheesman didn’t just witness the evolution of recruiting media, he helped shape it. In this candid conversation, the co-host of the iconic Chad & Cheese Podcast sits down with Clark Wilcox to share how a friendship, a few blog posts, and a bold bet turned into 1500-plus episodes and one of the most trusted voices in HR tech. They dig into the early days of podcasting, back when it mea...

SUMMARY In this episode of the Digital Recruiter Podcast, Clark sits down with Shally Steckerl, known across the industry as the godfather of sourcing, for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked elements in executive hiring: how to actually make selection decisions faster, smarter, and fairer. Shally shares his journey from transforming niche fellowship reviews to streamlining Fortune 100 hir...

SUMMARY In this special ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit edition of the Digital Recruiter Podcast, Clark sits down with tech visionary and Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor. If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re on the right path, Jeff’s story will shift your perspective. From DJing in Boston clubs to founding one of the first 500 websites on the internet, Jeff’s nonlinear career path is a testam...

SUMMARY What if your recruiting agency could scale without the cash-flow headaches or backend chaos? Jon Davis, CEO of Signature Back Office Solutions, shares how he went from placing rural physicians in the ‘90s to leading one of the most trusted EOR partners in the staffing world. In this episode, Jon breaks down what makes Employer of Record (EOR) services such a game changer for recruiters, es...

SUMMARY What if your sourcing tools could surface candidates no one else sees? In this episode of the ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit series, Clark sits down with Ravi Tandra, founder and CEO of ProvenBase, to explore the evolution of sourcing tech, the real promise of AI, and how ProvenBase is helping recruiters discover hidden talent at scale. Ravi shares the origin story behind ProvenBase, bor...

SUMMARY Riana Maus, SVP of Talent, Inclusion, and Diversity Acquisition at UMB Bank, joins Clark to unpack how recruiting leaders in regulated industries can approach AI not with fear or hype, but with strategy. As financial institutions face pressure to “do something with AI,” Riana offers a practical, phased roadmap to adopting innovation while staying compliant and human-centered. With nearly a...

SUMMARY Ron Pritchett didn’t just move from staffing to health tech, he mastered both. Starting his career at TEKsystems in Charlotte and Nashville, he learned the grind of full-cycle recruiting and sales. From there, he transitioned to sourcing leadership roles at Dropbox, Marqeta, and now Cedar, where he leads a small but mighty team focused on engineering and G&A roles. In this conversation, Ro...

SUMMARY In this episode, Clark sits down with Luis Derechin, founder and CEO of NIR-YU, to unpack what really makes offshore and near-shore hiring succeed or fail. Luis shares how his journey from Mexican-born entrepreneur to U.S.-based startup founder led to the birth of NIR-YU, a company helping businesses scale with top-tier Latin American talent. What started as a cost-saving measure turned in...

SUMMARY Jeremy Roberts didn't start with much, no chair, no computer, just a headset and a phone. Today, he's the Founding Customer Success Lead at Tenzo AI and a veteran voice in the recruiting world. In this energizing episode, Jeremy reconnects with Clark to unpack the evolution of recruiting from listservs and Boolean strings to AI recruiting agents and automation. Jeremy shares his deep roots...

SUMMARY In this special ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit edition of the Digital Recruiter Podcast, Clark sits down with Jennifer Cotie Kangas, known as JCK, Chief Solutions Architect at White Rock Consulting. Jennifer’s path to AI and HR tech strategy is anything but typical. Following a severe accident that resulted in major memory loss, she was forced to relearn not just who she was, but how mod...

SUMMARY In this ERE series kickoff, host Clark Wilcox sits down with Conor Kline, Head of Revenue at PIN.com, the sourcing platform that’s rapidly gaining traction in the recruiting world. Conor shares how PIN aims to empower recruiters, not replace them, by acting like an “Ironman suit” that multiplies human output while preserving human judgment. Unlike many AI recruiting tools promising full au...

EPISODE SUMMARY When Matt Schalsey, CEO of Perfect Hire, faced a costly hiring mistake in a previous company, he realized the real issue wasn’t just the candidate, it was the broken hiring process. That experience ignited the vision for Perfect Hire, a next-generation applicant tracking system (ATS) built not just to organize workflows, but to empower recruiters and People Ops teams to operate as...

Episode Summary Jack Shirley didn’t set out to become a thought leader in recruiting tech, but his journey from SaaS sales to leading strategy at TA Tracker has made him one. In this episode, Clark Wilcox sits down with Jack to unpack the nuance behind picking the right ATS, especially for boutique and founder-led recruiting firms. Jack shares how TA Tracker was designed to serve lean, high-touch...

Episode Summary When Jessica Oliver left her full-time job in late 2023, she didn’t just go out on her own, she reinvented her entire career. In less than a year, Jessica has launched an agency, built an AI-driven GovCon platform, and become a standout voice in the recruiting space through strategic content and intentional outreach. This episode is a crash course in how to build a solo recruiting...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, Clark Wilcox reconnects with longtime friend and Digital Recruiter OG, Travis Janko, for a deep dive into what it really takes to scale a recruiting business in 2025. Travis shares how he went from frustrated sales leader to founding a high-performing recruiting firm focused exclusively on helping SaaS founders hire top 5% sales talent. They cover the hard truths a...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, Clark Wilcox sits down with Brian Hunt, CEO of Kore RPO and Kore BPO, to unpack the art and strategy behind outsourcing in recruiting. Brian didn’t start in recruiting, he came from tech consulting and software implementation but his passion for solving complex problems led him to build teams across continents and eventually into staffing. After acquiring a staffin...

SUMMARY Greg Fisher didn’t set out to be a recruiting entrepreneur, he started as the first hire for a solo recruiter in Los Angeles and helped scale their healthcare firm from a modest team to a $4M powerhouse. But that journey wasn’t easy. They were stuck at $1M in revenue for years until Greg cracked the code: building a high-performing offshore team that actually worked. After cycling through...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, Clark Wilcox chats with Conor Kline, Head of Revenue at Pin.com, a fast-rising tool shaking up the recruiting tech world. The two first connected at the ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit, bonding over their UMass Amherst roots and quickly diving into a bigger conversation about quality tech, real relationships, and what’s broken in today’s recruiting stack.   Conor...

EPISODE SUMMARY What do you get when you combine a former pro athlete, a corporate leader turned author, and 30+ years of recruiting wisdom? You get Chris Mader, someone who’s coached hundreds of recruiters, sold millions in staffing services, and still makes cold calls for fun. In this episode, Chris joins host Clark Wilcox to unpack the power of emotional intelligence, long-game selling, and the...