The Jim Stroud Podcast

The Jim Stroud Podcast

The Jim Stroud Podcast is part therapy, part exposé—and grounded in reality. Some weeks, I talk with insiders. Most weeks, I say the quiet parts out loud—no filter, no fluff, and no patience for corporate nonsense. This isn’t career advice theater. It’s the raw, unvarnished side of work: AI misfires, hiring hypocrisy, culture scams, and why the future of work increasingly feels like a Black Mirror episode in business casual. This podcast is for leaders, recruiters, advisors, and job seekers who want unfiltered clarity about what’s actually happening at work—and what it means for the decisions ahead. It’s not for anyone looking for motivational fluff, corporate talking points, or sanitized “best practices.” Because what’s coming for your job, your company, and your peace of mind won’t show up in an all-hands meeting. But you’ll hear it here. This podcast is brought to you in part by The Recruiting Life newsletter—clarity on what’s happening now and next in the world of work. Subscribe at 👉 https://jimstroud.beehiiv.com

Episodes

August 31, 2026 14 mins
Your candidate nailed questions one and two. Question three broke him. That's hiring now: the chatbot did the prep, and you have to find the person underneath. This episode is the fix. How to hire thinkers, keep the ones you have, and spot the moment your team stops thinking. ... This episode brought to you by Career Intelligence Weekly - Tracking the hidden job market for smarter career decisions. https://newsletter.jimstroud.co...
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What happens when AI makes you more productive—but less capable? Jim Stroud explores the hidden “cognitive debt” of outsourcing your thinking, the growing divide between AI-fluent workers and passive dependents, and why recruiters can no longer trust polished resumes as proof of real ability. The new hiring challenge: finding candidates whose brains still work when the machine steps away. Sponsored by: Career In...
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A model spends 300 milliseconds on your resume and the decision follows you for years. Courtrooms are fighting over whether hiring algorithms tilt toward some candidates or against others, and both sides are arguing about the wrong thing. This episode makes the case that the real scandal is not the bias setting. It is that nobody has to sign their name next to a rejection. ... Brought to you by: Career Intelligence Weekly https...
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August 10, 2026 14 mins
In this episode: One in five LinkedIn users has rewritten a job they already left. A new Stanford study caught "time travelers" adding AI skills to old roles, deleting DEI, and letting chatbots ghostwrite their pasts. What the edits reveal, and why a freshly polished old job is the loudest hire-me signal nobody is watching. ... Brought to you by my newsletters: The Recruiting Life Career Intelligence Weekly https://newsletter.jim...
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August 3, 2026 30 mins
Jim Stroud speaks with Susan Anderson, Chief Services Officer for Mitratech’s HR Solutions Division, about why human judgment, accountability, and transparency still matter in an AI-powered workplace. They discuss AI-driven hiring decisions, workplace policies, employee productivity, algorithmic management, compensation, and whether AI agents should be treated like workers. Susan explains how HR can help organizations redesi...
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July 27, 2026 30 mins
What does fairness at work really look like, and who is responsible for creating it? Jim Stroud speaks with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, author of Seeking Fairness at Work, about workplace expectations, manager accountability, employee engagement, unwritten rules, and when it may be time to address a problem or move on. ... Connect with Hanna Hasl-Kelchner via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahaslkelchner/ ... Book Website:...
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Companies claim they cannot find enough talent while routinely rejecting professionals with decades of experience. This episode examines the “overqualified” trap, age bias in recruiting, and how outdated hiring systems may be creating the very talent shortages companies are struggling to solve. Brought to you by my newsletters: The Recruiting Life Career Intelligence Weekly https://newsletter.jimstroud.com Learn mor...
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July 13, 2026 31 mins
Is AI really replacing workers, or are companies using it to justify decisions they already planned to make? Jim Stroud sits down with technology equity activist and AI for Job Security Foundation President Leigh Felton to discuss AI washing, failed automation experiments, responsible AI, workplace bias, and the risks of allowing algorithms to make decisions about human potential. They also explore why some companies are rehiring ...
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July 6, 2026 13 mins
The retirement map you were handed at 25 is wrong. It told you to work hard, hit 65, and disappear. Clean ending. Simple math. It was always a lie. The labor force is aging, and companies are not ready. Artificial intelligence (AI) is eating the entry-level jobs that used to grow the next generation of leaders. And the people with the deepest knowledge, the ones who know where the bodies are buried, are being passed over by hirin...
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What if college is no longer the only path to a meaningful, high-paying career? In this episode of The Jim Stroud Podcast, Jim sits down with Reuben Ogbonna, co-founder and executive director of the Marcy Lab School, a tuition-free, one-year alternative to college helping young adults launch careers in tech. Reuben shares why the traditional higher education model is failing too many talented students, especially those facing cru...
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June 22, 2026 34 mins
AI is reshaping work, hiring, dating, leadership, and how we connect. But as technology gets smarter, are we becoming less human? Jim Stroud talks with Victor Cho, CEO and founder of Emovid and former CEO of Evite, about empathy, leadership, automation, and building AI that amplifies people instead of replacing them. Learn more at www.Emovid.com. ... Victor ChoCEO and Co-Founder Emovid Corpvictor@emovid.com Starting your job sear...
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June 15, 2026 9 mins
After months of rejections, a 58-year-old man decides to test the system. He submits two nearly identical job applications to the same company—one with his real work history and graduation year, the other carefully scrubbed of any age clues. One gets an immediate rejection. The other gets a callback. What starts as a quiet experiment to beat the algorithm quickly turns into something much darker once he lands a job inside th...
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Are there really jobs out there, or just openings nobody plans to fill? In this episode, Jim Stroud breaks down the strange, tangled reality of today’s labor market, where job postings are up, hiring feels frozen, recruiters are stuck in limbo, and job seekers are losing trust in the system. The market is not booming. It is not collapsing. It is entangled. This episode brought to you by: The Recruiting Life & Career In...
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Brought to you by: The Recruiting Life Newsletter - Clarity on what's happening now and next in the world of work. https://newsletter.jimstroud.com ... AI may not take your job overnight, but the spreadsheet might decide your team needs fewer people. In this episode, we move past the sci-fi panic and look at the real workplace question: how employers will use AI to change headcount, hiring, productivity expectations, and caree...
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Gartner studied 350 executives at billion-dollar companies. Eighty percent had cut staff for AI. None of it correlated with higher returns. Goldman Sachs found the stock bounce is gone. Forrester predicted half of all AI-attributed layoffs would be reversed by 2027. The data is in, and it says the same thing from every angle: the cuts were theater. This episode breaks down who knew, who stayed quiet, and what the companies actuall...
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Jim Stroud reports from the Recruiting Innovation Summit with Ben Mones, founder and CEO of Fama, to discuss how social media background checks are changing hiring. They unpack what employers actually look for online, what job seekers should and should not worry about, and why compliance, context, and public behavior matter in today’s screening process. Our guest: Ben Mones, CEO at Fama web: https://fama.io linkedin: http...
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May 4, 2026 8 mins
What Your Face Is Worth at Work What if your career isn’t just shaped by your skills—but by your appearance? This episode dives into the rise of “looksmaxxing” and the uncomfortable truth about lookism in hiring and workplace success. As Gen Z responds to what gets rewarded, we’re forced to ask: Is this extreme behavior… or a logical reaction to a biased system? Because if merit isn’t ...
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It's 11:47 PM. You hit submit on another application and watch it dissolve into the void. You did everything right — the degree, the internship, the certifications squeezed between finals — and still, silence. That low ache behind your sternum? It's not anxiety. It's intelligence responding to a system nobody explained to you. Here's the truth the career center will never say out loud: the job market is not a meritocr...
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April 20, 2026 15 mins
You're panicking about the wrong thing. While you doomscroll about AI stealing your job, the real threat is gutting the workforce behind your back. No headlines. Just math. Picture a burst pipe. Wednesday morning. Water in your drywall. You call a plumber — and wait three weeks. Because he's 61, his apprentice retired, and the new kid doesn't exist. The skilled trades shortage is already costing the U.S. over a billion a y...
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In this compelling episode, HR futurist Jim Stroud sits down with Dr. Deepak Bhootra of Sandler to explore the powerful intersection of talent acquisition, sales strategy, and leadership development. Tailored for recruiters and HR leaders, this conversation reveals how organizations can align hiring, training, and performance to drive measurable business results. Discover how consultative selling principles can transform recruiti...
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