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The hiring process is not just “broken” right now, it’s starting to feel openly hostile, and that’s the part we can’t ignore. I’m joined by Keirsten Greggs, better known as the Trap Recruiter, to talk about what’s happening inside talent acquisition and recruiting as the job market tilts toward employers. We get into why empathy disappears, why candidates get treated like placeholders, and why TA teams often end up fighting everyone at once: hiring managers, HR, compensation, vendors, leadership, and even each other.

We also dig into the internet layer that’s making job search harder: fake job postings, recycled openings, and LinkedIn influencer culture that rewards the loudest take over the truest one. Keirsten breaks down how to vet job search advice, why “guaranteed placement” programs can be predatory, and why anyone claiming they can teach you how to beat the ATS is selling a fantasy. We ground it with real recruiting reality: the ATS is mostly a filing system, rejections at odd hours have boring explanations, and there is no straight line from application to offer.

Then we go deeper into the human cost: cliquey TA communities, conference safety, tokenization, and the exhausting cycle of trend chasing from DEI to AI. Keirsten shares what it’s like to be a job seeker while pursuing TA leadership roles, including how an online brand can be treated as a “risk,” and what her dream role looks like across TA ops, storytelling with data, and customer education.

If you care about candidate experience, recruiting ethics, and how hiring actually works, this conversation will stick with you.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s job searching, and leave a review with the biggest hiring myth you want us to take down next.

Follow Keirsten: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traprecruiter/

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Belonging sounds simple until you try to live it. If you’ve ever walked into a room, a workplace, or even your own body and thought, “I don’t think I belong here,” this conversation puts language to that feeling without sugarcoating it. John joins me to unpack why so many of us treat acceptance like something we have to earn through achievement, polish, and overperformance, and what it costs when one small mistake can feel like a permanent label.

We draw a hard line between fitting in and true belonging. Fitting in is the exhausting work of becoming the version of you that a room will tolerate; belonging is what happens when you can be known and still be safe. We talk psychological safety at work, why representation and “a seat at the table” are not the same as being able to speak, disagree, and influence decisions, and why corporate culture can hit especially hard for people with marginalized identities. We also get real about the bigger systems underneath it all: capitalism, layoff culture, scarcity mindsets, and the limits of what any one person can fix alone.

Then we go wider. Belonging can be healthy, but it can also be weaponized. We explore cult dynamics, internet communities built on exclusion, online radicalization, and how social media creates dopamine loops that simulate connection while pushing us to sand ourselves down into something more “consumable.” We close with practical ways to lower the stakes, make better change decisions, and move toward people and places where you can put the mask down. If you want more honest conversations about belonging, identity, and work, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find us.

follow john: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfgorman/

work with him!: https://saintorange.co/

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