The Reality of Recruiting: Confessions, Chaos, and Red Flags ft. Colleen Pelly, CEO and Founder of The Linchpin Co

Demoted

Demoted Productions

Comedy, Business, Careers

4.8 • 778 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When talent meets opportunity…and sometimes total chaos. This week, we’re joined by Colleen Pelly, CEO and founder of The Linchpin Co, to pull back the curtain on how recruiting actually works. From her time hiring for companies like Lululemon and Tesla to building her own firm, Colleen shares the wildest candidate stories, the nightmare clients, and why some companies still won’t hire women. We dig into personality bias, the decline of DEI, and whether AI is about to ruin the hiring process completely. Plus, we debate "crying a little for the bag," if referrals really matter, and whether recruiters ever read the résumé you spent four hours formatting. We want to hear from you! Send in your Corporate Confessions, Dear Demoted questions, and Shout-outs right here: ⁠https://forms.gle/nJc667dUL65Xh63C6⁠

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wait, so the candidate used themselves as a reference. There is a candidate. Most professional guy I've
0:04.7	ever met. Shows up on the first day and what I'm going to only call medieval garb. Wait, so he was a knight.
0:09.5	Are they looking for a job? Can I hire them? Are some companies unwilling to hire women?
0:13.8	I think it goes without saying, but that's pretty terrible. We're unpacking all of this and more on today's episode with Colleen Pelly. I actually left my job to chase that
0:21.4	bag and it did not work out so well. Imagine going through a full cycle of recruitment and then
0:25.5	getting your offer rescinded.
0:35.1	What's up, motorheads? Welcome to Demoded.
0:37.8	We've got another fantastic guest episode today,
0:40.3	someone that I'm working with,
0:41.7	and she has worked with directly for a few years.
0:44.4	Yes, I've been in Aruba.
0:46.2	You've been in the pool, it appears,
0:47.8	at swimming lessons.
0:48.8	That'll be kind of a motif of this episode.
0:50.7	Yeah, it's been a while since we've been together in person.
0:52.8	In person. You know, you were going through graduation week with your fiancee. I was sobbing into a pillow.
0:59.6	I was sitting cross-legged in my video game chair. I actually haven't played video games in a week.
1:05.3	Wow. Because I was on set for this short film, which like, don't pity me, but like, low key, I need to play some video games
1:11.2	with my boys. Well, and that's huge for you that it was a week. It was, it's a whole week. I still
1:15.2	haven't played. We were, we've been trying to coordinate one of the guys I play with. His wife has
1:19.2	a friend in town who's living in his gaming room right now in their guest room. So he's banned until Thursday. Kevin. This guy's shaking. Kevin.
1:27.9	I'm sorry, bro.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Demoted Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Demoted Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.