Next at Work

Kevin McCarthy became CEO of UNREAL at just 24 years old. Ten years later, he’s still at the helm, leading the company as it has grown into the largest better-for-you chocolate brand in the U.S.

In this episode of Next at Work, Kevin joins host Brendan Jeannetti to talk about what a decade of leadership has taught him about building a company, hiring the right people, avoiding burnout, and creating a culture that actually reflects the mission behind the brand.

Kevin shares why he never felt completely “ready” to become CEO, why young professionals should focus less on chasing titles, and how his approach to leadership has evolved as UNREAL has grown from a small startup into a fully remote company of nearly 100 people.

They also get into UNREAL’s unique culture, including its policy allowing employees to expense chocolate from any brand, why Kevin believes leaders need to model healthy boundaries, and why great products and repeat customers matter more than building a CEO’s personal brand.

In this episode:

• Becoming CEO at 24 and learning to lead while doing it

• Why chasing titles can be a career trap

• Building a team around passion, curiosity, and low ego

• Why hustle culture and burnout are bad for business

• Leading a fully remote company of nearly 100 employees

• How UNREAL built a culture that reflects its brand and mission

• Why employees are encouraged to expense competitors’ chocolate

• What Kevin looked for in his earliest hires

• Why hiring the right leaders has been among his biggest wins as CEO

• The role product quality and repeat purchases have played in UNREAL’s growth

• Why leadership should be about the consumer, not the CEO

• What’s next for UNREAL

Next at Work is a podcast from Workable exploring the ideas, people, and shifts shaping the future of work.

Listen to the full episode and follow Next at Work for more conversations with the leaders building what comes next.

Hiring interviews have become full of unwritten rules, outdated questions, and “tests” that often have little to do with whether someone can actually do the job.

In this episode of Next at Work, Brendan Jeannetti sits down with Lorna Erickson and Victoria Gates of Expert Interviewers to unpack what’s broken about modern interviewing — and what hiring teams should do instead.

They discuss the infamous coffee cup test, why “tell me about yourself” needs to go, how bad interviews can signal a bad employee experience, and why interviewing should be a two-way conversation. Lorna and Victoria also share practical advice for creating more structured, transparent, and human hiring processes.

In this episode:

- Why “invisible tests” hurt the hiring process

- The interview questions Lorna and Victoria want retired

- Why candidates should be evaluating employers, too

- How to talk honestly about compensation and company culture

- Why defining “what good looks like” should happen before the first interview

- How recruiters and hiring managers can work better together

- The role AI should — and shouldn’t — play in hiring

Follow Expert Interviewers for more insights on making interviews better for everyone.

What happens when getting fired becomes the catalyst for your biggest career move? Leigh Elena Henderson, creator of HR Manifesto, joins us host Brendan Jeannetti talk toxic workplaces, AI, career risks, and her upcoming book Workable.

Matt Alder has spent 11 years interviewing talent acquisition leaders and accumulated over three million words of transcript in the process. In this conversation, recorded at Workable's London event, he shares what that archive reveals about where hiring is heading and what the best TA leaders have in common.

What we cover:

The CV problem. Alder argues the format is fundamentally broken, and that AI is finally exposing why. If a system can synthesize candidate information from dozens of sources in seconds, the reductive, 30-second-scannable resume loses its rationale entirely.

Speed at scale. In volume hiring, AI-driven interview tools are compressing time-to-hire from four weeks to two days. The timeline varies by sector, but the direction is consistent.

Risk aversion vs. risk avoidance. There is a meaningful difference between understanding risk and refusing to engage with it. In a landscape moving this fast, sitting it out is not a neutral position.

What high performers share. Alder used AI to analyze his full archive and identify what the TA leaders who went on to become CHROs, CEOs, and board advisors had in common: foresight, influence, talent thinking, and technology fluency.

Recruiting and job searching have never felt quite like this. In this episode of the Next at Work Podcast, Host Brendan Jeannetti sits down with Evlyn Fahey, Director of Talent Acquisition at Autodesk, to break down what's actually driving the friction on both sides of the hiring table.

In this episode:

- Why volume is the defining challenge for recruiters right now

- How AI-written resumes are making candidates look identical and what to do instead

- The case for cold outreach to hiring managers

- Where AI helps in recruiting (and where it shouldn't)

- What pay transparency means for candidates and companies

- The skills recruiters need to stay relevant

In today’s transparent, always-on workplaces, culture is no longer hidden, it’s visible, shared, and judged in real time.

In this episode, host Brendan Jeannetti sits down with Jamie Graceffa, Global Head of Learning, Development, and Culture at Quanterix, and CEO of Kind Cards, to explore why kindness has become a measurable business advantage.

They discuss how kindness shapes employee experience, strengthens collaboration, and drives retention — not as a “nice-to-have,” but as a repeatable, scalable skill organizations can intentionally build. The conversation unpacks why kindness resonates more than traditional culture language, how it shows up in everyday behaviors, and why it delivers real ROI across teams, performance, and employer brand.

About Workable

Workable is an all-in-one talent platform that helps teams hire and manage people with clarity, speed, and confidence. From sourcing and hiring to onboarding and performance management, Workable keeps recruiting and HR aligned — without unnecessary complexity.

Learn more or start a free trial at workable.com.

Talent acquisition is usually measured by speed, volume, and cost. Rarely by revenue.

In this episode of the Next at Work Podcast, Gabi Zanengo, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Gametime, joins host Brendan Jeannetti to share how her team turned recruiting into a measurable growth channel by connecting candidate experience to brand, product, and revenue impact.

They discuss how understanding candidate motivation leads to better hiring decisions, why Gametime’s emotionally driven product shapes a more human recruiting experience, and how the TA team transformed candidate traffic into product adoption, brand growth, and real revenue.

This episode challenges traditional TA metrics and shows what’s possible when recruiting is treated as a strategic lever across brand, product, and business outcomes.

About Workable

Workable is an all-in-one talent platform that helps teams hire and manage people with clarity, speed, and confidence. From sourcing and hiring to onboarding and performance management, Workable keeps recruiting and HR aligned without unnecessary complexity.

Learn more or start a free trial at www.workable.com

Next at Work by Workable is a new podcast exploring what’s next for teams, talent, and the tools that support them.

Through unfiltered conversations with CEOs, CHROs, and innovators shaping the future of work, we dig into the trends, challenges, and breakthroughs redefining how we work, and what’s coming next.

Follow and subscribe now to get notified when our first episode drops in the new year!

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