Lia Economos discusses the evolution of interview processes, particularly in the context of integrating AI tools and adapting to the changing landscape of technical interviews. She emphasizes the importance of structured interviews as companies grow and the need to design interview questions that challenge candidates beyond the capabilities of AI. The discussion also touches on the ethical implications of over-employment and the necessity for candidates to network effectively during their job search.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A brief overview of her background and what brought her to Replicate.

• Lia tells us about the 18-month hiatus that she took between jobs.

• The importance of practicing interview skills even when you aren’t seeking a job.

• How to help candidates who haven’t interviewed in a while prepare for interviews.

• Lia tells us about her interview process with Replicate and the recent one she conducted.

• When companies need to consider creating a structured interview process.

• How she sees AI tools being used in candidates’ interviews.

• Why AI can make technical screenings less effective.

• How Lia would handle finding out if an employee was lying about having multiple jobs.

• Lia shares advice for people reentering their careers after a hiatus.

Quotes:

“If you’re hiring for a team and you’re hiring more than one person, you have to create structured interviews around [the] principles that you’re looking for.” — @liaeconomix [19:22]

“There are so many tools right now that exist for technical candidates to use AI without the interviewer knowing that you have to redesign your interviews to make sure that you’re allowing for and working around these tools.” — @liaeconomix [22:44]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lia Economos on LinkedIn

Lia Economos on X

Replicate

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

In today’s fast-paced world where candidates are always looking for the next opportunity, it’s rare to find someone dedicated to growing within one organization. As today’s guest Lani Montoya demonstrates, internal growth may be the best way to develop exceptional people leaders. Lani is the Chief People Officer at Pernod Ricard, the world leader in premium international wines and spirits, and she begins by explaining her path to joining the company and why she chose to grow in it instead of seeking opportunities elsewhere. We discuss how to rise above workplace complacency, the value of persistence and commitment, whether a work-life balance is real or myth, and the role of modern people leaders. Lani also describes how she makes new hires, how she helps others realize their people-leadership potential, what Pernod Ricard has cooking in leadership development, and her advice for choosing between staying at a company and pursuing other avenues.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Lani describes Pernod Ricard and how she became its Chief People Officer.

• Why she chose to grow within the organization instead of looking elsewhere.

• How to stay at a company without becoming complacent (and still adding value).

• What Lani is busy working on today, and what she still hopes to achieve at the company.

• Why she believes in balance as a whole but not in work-life balance.

• Understanding what’s expected of modern people leaders.

• How Pernod Ricard prepares its people to become the type of leaders it needs.

• Lani’s process for helping others embrace and explore their people-leadership potential.

• Whether leadership and career growth go hand-in-hand

• Unpacking Pernod Ricard’s leadership development platform.

• Pernod Ricard’s strategy for becoming known as a skills-based organization.

• Lani’s advice for deciding whether to leave or stay at a company for personal growth.

Quotes:

“I always found the work I did [at Pernod Ricard] very interesting. I love the trust, the independence that I had, and I always felt like I was making a difference.” — Lani Montoya [11:41]

“I’m not so sure that I believe in work-life balance, but I do believe in balance.” — Lani Montoya [14:57]

“Strengthening the role of the people leader is a big opportunity for driving engagement, driving results, and driving our culture.” — Lani Montoya [22:39]

“Being a people leader is as much an art as it is a science.” — Lani Montoya [25:05]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lani Montoya on LinkedIn

Learning & Development | Pernod Ricard

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

What does it take to build a people-first hiring culture from the ground up, without sacrificing speed or scale? In this episode of Talk Talent to Me, returning guest Anna Chalon, Head of People at Runway, shares how she intentionally navigated her career from startup to acquisition and back again, fueled by a love for building and a clear sense of purpose. She unpacks her criteria for choosing the right company, the power of gut instinct balanced with measurable data, and how candidate experience can be both human and scalable. Anna also offers insights into how she assesses founders during interviews and why speed and thoughtfulness in hiring are good indicators of long-term cultural alignment. Tune in to learn how to build resilient, high-trust recruiting processes and make smarter career decisions rooted in self-awareness and intention!

Key Points From This Episode:

• An overview of Anna’s journey from Frame.io to Adobe to Runway.

• How she used Adobe’s acquisition of Frame.io as a career checkpoint.

• The importance of being clear about the size and pace of the company you want.

• Values over industry: the creative culture and visionary founders that drew Anna to Runway.

• Founder responsiveness as a hiring signal (and what to look for in the first interview).

• Reflecting on hiring wins and misses as opportunities to learn and improve.

• Blending data and intuition to ensure that a role truly excites you.

• Building scalable, human-centered hiring from scratch with speed, structure, and soul.

• The impact of timely check-ins, personal touches, and radical hiring transparency.

• Starting lean but thinking long-term: balancing agility with a premium candidate experience.

• The power of seeking out quick wins to add value in the short term.

• A simple strengths-enjoyment framework for informed career decisions.

Quotes:

“Even though I'm not going to be using the product every day, the company culture is still shaped by the type of tool you create.” — Anna Chalon [08:15]

“[Hiring] is not a perfect science. All these things are still human-based decisions at the end of the day. You do the best with the information you have.” — Anna Chalon [14:44]

“My goal when I'm building these foundations is: how do we have enough structure and repeatability that we could hire 100 people – if we need to but every single candidate [also feels] like they're alone in the process?” — Anna Chalon [19:14]

“Any kind of communication is better than ghosting. – When people are looking for a job, anxiously waiting to get a response, it's just not the right thing to do.” — Anna Chalon [26:24]

“What am I good at? What do I like? What is the overlap? And how does that apply to work?” — Anna Chalon [37:52]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Anna Chalon on LinkedIn

Runway

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

What do the Sunday scaries have to do with how happy you are at work? Today we sit down with Molly Minczeski, the Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Brand at MANSCAPED, the global men’s lifestyle consumer brand and male grooming category creator trusted by over 12 million men worldwide. Molly unpacks what the Sunday scaries really mean and why work-life balance looks different for everyone. She takes us inside MANSCAPED’s thriving remote culture, shares her journey into talent acquisition, and explains how she positions herself as a strategic business partner. Plus, she offers expert insights on how candidates can respectfully challenge hiring managers and assess how a company truly values them.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The correlation between job satisfaction and the Sunday scaries.

• Why it’s vital to understand that the work-life balance looks different for everyone.

• Exploring MANSCAPED’s office setup and how it keeps its remote employees connected.

• Molly’s professional history and how she ended up in her current role.

• What her day-to-day looks like and what she’s most passionate about at work today.

• How she goes beyond her job title to contribute to the business at a fundamental level.

• Why candidates should challenge hiring managers (and how to go about it).

• What Molly is looking for when she asks candidates specific questions.

Quotes:

“There might be a correlation between job satisfaction and where on the [Sunday scaries scale] you fall.” — Molly Minczeski [03:04]

“Every company is finding a rhythm that works for them. [MANSCAPED has] found that productivity has not slowed with everyone working fully from home.” — Molly Minczeski [09:36]

“I’m a fan of transparency in any opportunity that I can find. [By calling] the elephant out in the room, you can just get so much more done that way.” — Molly Minczeski [26:13]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Molly Minczeski on LinkedIn

MANSCAPED

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

Kenzie discusses her tansition from big tech to an AI startup, and how positive hiring manager relationships are more important than specific AI upskilling.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming Kenzie (Keller) Hoelscher to the show.

• Kenzie tells us about herself and how she got into recruitment.

• A little bit about Kenzie’s fascinating career.

• The importance of building relationships with your hiring managers.

• The role AI is going to play in recruiting in the future.

• How she landed up at AssemblyAI and what it’s like working there.

• The kinds of questions she asks hiring managers when sourcing.

• How Kenzie filters resumes to narrow down her search.

• Kenzie shares some advice for anyone who wants to get into AI.

Quotes:

“With any role while you’re recruiting, as long as you’re having those conversations with your hiring manager and understanding what those main skillsets are, I do think it’s easy to go out there and source for them.” — Kenzie (Keller) Hoelscher [22:48]

“There’s definitely risks to being in a startup but I think now we’re seeing that there’s risks at being at bigger companies as well so why not take the risk?” — Kenzie (Keller) Hoelscher [30:40]

“AI is a booming industry [and] there’s a lot of energy around it right now.” — Kenzie (Keller) Hoelscher [31:24]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Kenzie (Keller) Hoelscher on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

Referrals are an active, internal marketing campaign that recruitment leaders need to leverage alongside their external marketing campaigns. Today, global talent leader Neeti Upreti joins the show to discuss the power and importance of referrals in the recruitment industry. Hear all about Neeti’s incredible career, why recruiting isn’t only a push but also a pull, the importance of senior leadership roles in recruitment, handling referrals, and so much more! Neeti’s experience in various industries has helped her identify the dos and don’ts of recruiting and in this conversation, she delves into some of the best ways to increase referrals before talking about when to encourage employees to make referrals.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming today’s guest, Neeti Upreti.

• Neeti shares her career journey and how she ended up where she is today.

• The push and pull of recruiting: why there needs to be a buy-in from both ends.

• Neeti outlines the imperative role of senior leadership in recruitment.

• Balancing hiring referrals with the best-qualified candidate.

• A few of the best ways to increase referrals within your company.

• Why employees should be encouraged to make referrals from onboarding.

• The importance of bringing an element of fun into recruitment.

• Why Neeti is so excited about transformation in the industry.

Quotes:

“Behind everybody’s success, there are leaders who lean in to provide that development opportunity.” — Neeti Upreti [5:48]

“The reason why I think that [senior leadership roles are] important and why I still enjoy it is because I feel like you really need to be close to a problem in order to be able to find the solution.” — Neeti Upreti [8:01]

“We should – be working on an internal campaign to see how [we can] network with our internal employees to find – talent.” — Neeti Upreti [22:42]

“When you drive fun into a process, you get more engagement.” — Neeti Upreti [28:55]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Neeti Upreti on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

A Beautiful Working World

Rich shares invaluable insights from his time at Google and Facebook, explaining why he transitioned into the startup world and how Anyscale is tackling the challenges of machine learning talent acquisition. We also discuss the importance of sourcing differentiation, the role of AI in recruiting, and why every employee should think like a recruiter.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Why Rich left big tech for startups and the lessons he brought with him.

• Selling shovels during a gold rush: how Anyscale enables AI and ML scalability.

• Anyscale’s plans to expand from 135 to 200 employees by the end of 2025.

• The importance of sourcing differentiation in hiring.

• Reflections on the role of AI in recruiting: what works, and what doesn’t.

• Insight into the power of referrals and empowering employees as recruiters.

• What goes into shifting from traditional referrals to proactive sourcing.

• Different ways that hiring managers are embracing LinkedIn Recruiter.

• Measuring hiring success as part of performance management.

• The impact of helping hiring managers understand the realities of recruiting.

• Rich’s mindset-focused advice for mid-career talent professionals.

Quotes:

“As a sourcing and recruiting team, you have to find differentiation – faster than your competitors. Otherwise, you're pulling up LinkedIn Recruiter, putting the same 150 engineers into a project folder that your competitors are, and going after the same talent.” — Rich Adao [12:45]

“I'm still waiting for a magic AI tool to emerge. – You still cannot replace the human connection [with] a recruiter that can get to know somebody and explain the business.” — Rich Adao [15:09]

“Recruiting is everybody's job. It is important. It is paramount for our future success.” — Rich Adao [26:02]

“Don’t put limitations on yourself. If you have the right approach in your current job, you can surprise yourself with what you can do. Always continue to reach above and beyond. At the same time, be realistic about where you are. Seek out feedback.” — Rich Adao [38:33]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Anyscale

Rich Adao on LinkedIn

LHH Recruitment Solutions

In the age of AI and rapid technological evolution, skills planning has become a greater challenge than ever before. But how else can businesses ensure clear succession paths across their organizations? As we dive down this rabbit hole, we are joined today by Lupe Colangelo, the Director of Alumni Engagement and Employer Partnerships at General Assembly – a company focused on closing the global tech skills gap and connecting tech talent with top companies across the globe. We begin with the work being done at General Assembly and what Lupe’s role entails before examining the current state of the hiring market from the candidate’s perspective. Next, we discover how organizations are staying on top of candidate expectations, the guidelines to follow for employer branding in current market conditions, the reasons behind candidate frustrations, and how AI literacy fits into the recruiting conversation. To end, we unpack General Assembly’s State of Tech Talent 2025 to help define a ‘sustainable talent pipeline’, the challenges of developing one, how AI and technology affect skills and succession planning, and why it’s a good idea to brush up on your AI skills even if AI is not at the forefront of your work responsibilities. Lupe Colangelo also shares invaluable advice for leveling up your candidate experience as a recruiter.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Assessing the current state of the hiring market from the candidate’s perspective.

• Why some recruiters won’t discuss salary expectations in the early interview stages.

• Unpacking the general sentiments of frustrated candidates.

• Automation, online talent portals, and other ways to improve the candidate experience.

• How recruiters select candidates, and how you can stand out in any talent pool.

• The role of AI in the hiring market and where AI literacy fits in.

• Defining a ‘sustainable talent pipeline’ and exploring the possible risks of developing one.

• How skills and succession planning become more difficult as technology evolves.

• What it means to have AI skills even in non-AI-specific roles.

• Final takeaways from General Assembly’s State of Tech Talent Report 2025.

• Lupe’s advice to recruiters hoping to improve their candidate experience.

Quotes:

“From an HR perspective, you never want to make a promise that you can’t keep.” — Lupe Colangelo [11:29]

“Anything that you can include from an HR perspective that tells people where they are; when they can expect to hear back; if they’re still a candidate in the running, that makes such a difference to how a candidate perceives you and if they’re willing to reapply in the future.” — Lupe Colangelo [13:57]

“We kind of assume everyone is using [AI], but now it’s [about] how you’re using it. So, you probably shouldn’t pull it up in an interview.” — Lupe Colangelo [21:35]

“If your leaders aren’t scared of [AI], your employees are not going to be scared of it.” — Lupe Colangelo [31:20]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Lupe Colangelo on LinkedIn

General Assembly

General Assembly on Instagram

General Assembly on YouTube

How We Work

The State of Tech Talent 2025

LHH Recruitment Solutions