In this engaging episode of ‘Recruiting Trailblazers’, host Marcus Edwardes sits down with Laura Victoria, a seasoned professional in Talent Acquisition spanning 25 years across diverse industries. Their candid conversation delves into the challenges and triumphs of Talent Acquisition, exploring aspects such as the vital role of communication among TA leaders, changes brought by AI in the recruitment field, the significance of balancing structured interview processes along with intuition, and the impactful human element necessary in interviews.

They further touch upon likeability as a factor in the hiring process and chat about its diminishing importance in the face of skills and experience. They question traditional recruitment practices, notably analyzing the ‘would you have a beer with them?’ metric often used informally to gauge a candidate’s fit within a team.

A lighter moment is shared when Marcus recalls a peculiar incident when a candidate vaped during a zoom interview, underlining the exceptional circumstances recruiters sometimes find themselves in.

To cap off the conversation, they highlight the critical role communication plays throughout the recruitment process, the potential downsides and benefits of leveraging AI in interviews, and the importance of moving away from automated, impersonal interviewing towards a more human, intuitive mode of candidate interaction.