WeCruitr Podcast

Psychedelic psychotropics are gaining widespread attention. What used to be classified as illicit drugs is now becoming an accepted part of psychiatric and medical treatments for a range of issues, including depression and PTSD.

Joseph Araujo is a behavioral pharmacologist and Mindset Pharma cofounder, director and chief scientific officer. Mindset Pharma is a Canadian-based drug discovery and development company focused on creating optimized and patentable next-generation psychedelic medicines to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders.

VRdirect founder and CEO Dr. Rolf Illenberger shares his vision of a more practical, business-focused metaverse. He sees the metaverse beyond gaming and into marketing, human resources, manufacturing, training, safety planning and the offering of 360-degree virtual showrooms.

VRdirect provides virtual reality solutions to the likes of Siemens, Porsche, Deutsche Telekom and Nestlé. Its white-labeled technology ranges from interactive showrooms, human resources onboarding programs, safety protocols and museum tours.

A study by PwC projects the increase in global economic output through virtual reality and augmented reality at over $1.5 trillion by 2030.

With all of the upheaval happening in the world, we could use some uplifting and positive news. To offer a ray of hope, in an otherwise dark time, we turned to Steve Preston, the president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International.

For nearly 120 years, Goodwill has been a leading workforce provider, helping people empower themselves with the skills and job support services they need to thrive. Goodwill, among other philanthropic endeavors, helps individuals and communities build brighter futures through the power of work.

The organization is usually thought of as the thrift shop. However, Goodwill offers much more. The iconic nonprofit is a major provider of workforce development and skills training. In a wide-ranging interview, Preston shared the organization’s mission. In collaboration with employers and partners, Goodwill helps underserved individuals obtain training and upskilling. In this new tech-driven economy, Preston is focused on teaching digital skills, so that people can find a good job and develop long-term careers.

As technology is the dominant trend for the foreseeable future, it's important for folks to at least learn the basics to become competitive in this new economy. To future-proof the longevity of your career, you need to accept this reality and take actions to ensure that you acquire the necessary skills and tools to keep up with the fast-moving, online digital world.

Goodwill, in partnership with Google and other companies and government officials, will host the Rising Together Action Summit taking place on Monday, May 9th. If you would like to attend the event virtually, please email [email protected].

Ross Buhrdorf, the CEO of ZenBusiness, is leading the way for a new wave of entrepreneurs. ZenBusiness is on a mission to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, small business owners, gig-economy workers, and freelancers to take charge of their lives and futures by ditching the corporate world and working for themselves.

His company enables these intrepid folks to start, run, and grow a successful business. The amount of people that want to opt out of the traditional corporate rat race is staggering. Pre-pandemic ZenBusiness had roughly 30,000 customers—and the number recently exploded to 250,000.

Buhrdorf, a long time tech executive, early in his career saw older workers get fired at the company he worked at. This caused an epiphany—if they laid off the experienced talent, what would happen to him ten or more years later? He decided that since it's risky to pursue the traditional corporate route, he might as well chart his own course and be in control of his destiny. Buhrdorf then rebooted his career as a successful entrepreneur.

Buhrdorf is not alone. Americans are a relentless, maverick, rugged and determined bunch of people. While we like complaining and arguing with each other, Americans have this built-in sense of self-determination and grit. We refuse to give up in the face of disaster. Against all odds, we persevere and bravely forge forward, in pursuit of our dreams and goals.

Having spent more than a decade hiring in the rapidly changing tech world, Matei, shared his insights into finding the people who will create the internet of tomorrow.

In addition to recruiters broadening their talent search across borders, they should also consider developers with unconventional backgrounds, such as self-taught and bootcamp alumni.

Benefits should go beyond salary and companies should provide constant opportunities for learning, whether through external courses, internal knowledge exchange sessions or exposure to new technologies via project rotation.

According to Matei, there needs to be an overhaul of the education system to keep up with the surging demand. Currently, just 13.2% of schools offer computer science courses; however, 77% of jobs in the next decade will require tech skills.

A new law passed by the New York City Council—which was supposed to go into effect in April 2022—required employers in New York City to include the minimum and maximum starting salary for any "advertised job, promotion or transfer opportunity."

This piece of legislation was heralded as a complete game-changer for both people searching for a new job and current employees. It would pull back the curtain on salaries, which have often been cloaked in secrecy.

Without full disclosure, searching for a job is an unfair one-sided way of doing business, with the company having the upper hand. For example, an applicant would be forced to interview with three to six plus people for many months. After the culmination of the arduous and emotionally draining interview process, an offer could be made that is far below the expectations of the eager candidate.

Now, this new employee-empowering policy may not see the light of day. Right before the law was slated to go into effect, City Council members are attempting to either postpone it or enact alterations that could potentially “gut” the intent of the law, which was designed, in large part, to promote equal pay.

Unintended consequences were one of the reasons cited for a public hearing on the matter. The Democratic politicians pushing for the change said the law “would exclude businesses with fewer than 15 employees, allow for hiring notices that don’t specify a position to exclude salary info and exempt remote positions that can be done outside New York City.” Implementation would be delayed to November 1, if changed.

Some of the other reasons raised included that it was too rushed and concerns over disclosing salaries or wages would cause businesses to outbid each other to win workers. This would cause salary inflation, they claimed.

Check out the podcast to learn more about what is happening.

When there is a crisis, there will always be people who look to benefit from someone else’s misery. In this case, it's Wayne Pankratz, an executive director of operations for American Franchise Capital, which owns 50 Applebee's in the Midwest. Applebee’s has both company and franchised owned restaurants.

The food chain’s executive sent out an email to colleagues gleefully saying that the combination of skyrocketing gas prices, inflation, the ending of enhanced unemployment benefits and lush stimulus checks from the government, will give the company the upper hand in dealing with workers. This would include paying staff lower wages.

The tone-deaf manager wrote "Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck," and "Any increase in gas prices cuts into their disposable income." He added, "As inflation continues to climb and gas prices continue to go up, that means more hours employees will need to work to maintain their current level of living."

We also talk about Amazon and Starbuck employees joining a union.

The return to the office movement has highlighted the disconnect between executives, managers and their employees. Generally, the supervisors want everyone to come back to their offices. Meanwhile, employees are perfectly happy working remotely. If pushed, they’d be open for a couple of days in an office setting.

It's a tale of two cities. The executives at top investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms have a cushy worklife. They have their own luxurious offices with teams of assistants and secretaries, and people at their beckoning call. At home they can afford to live in New York City and don’t have to endure a three hour round trip commute from the suburbs.

Earning millions of dollars, they can afford large city apartments, nannies, childcare, private schools for their kids and corporate cars whisking them around town. The average worker at a bank does well, but it can’t compare to the top echelon.

Old school managers still can’t wrap their minds around remote work. They spent forty years dressing up in a suit and tie, watching over their minions in cubicles. They won’t likely admit it, but it’s an ego and power trip. The execs are doing what is best for themselves, enjoying the perks of being a boss, and disregarding the needs and wants of their people. They prize facetime in front of the boss as more important than production.

An uncomfortable amount of the 45-and-over crowd have been forced to take jobs at the Home Depot or accept gig-economy-type roles, just to pay the bills and get health insurance.

A large percentage have just given up on the job hunt and called it a day. Sadly, the experienced people were unceremoniously pushed out of the job market and did not leave on their own volition.

A new study from the Schwartz Center for Economics at the New School, entitled, ‘The March 2022 Status of Older Workers Report,’ showed that during the pandemic “many older workers did not leave their jobs voluntarily but got pushed out of the labor force.”

The retired population in America between ages 55 and 74 has boomed since March 2020. A lot of this was by force, not choice. More than one million people in this demographic left the job market. The number of those who retired involuntarily a year after losing a job was 10 times higher than pre-pandemic times, the report found.

The study indicates that workers didn’t leave the job market because of the Great Resignation. It was the Great kick-out-the-door. Things haven’t improved that much, despite a hot job market. The research shows that some older workers are returning, but “these flows do not make up for excess retirement.”

The numbers paint a bleak picture for the experienced workers. In March 2020, there were 35 million older workers who were gainfully employed. Only one month later, around 3.8 million workers ages 55 to 74, (11 percent of all workers in that age group), lost their jobs.

A year later, 400,000 workers in this cohort retired due to the inability to find a suitable job. By comparison, in a pre-pandemic environment, the number of people in this demographic retiring would be about 180,000. Those older workers who remained employed were more likely to postpone retirement during this period, as they’ve seen what happened to their contemporaries.

It would seem that a person who was pushed into retirement, now has a good chance of finding a new role as there are more than eleven million jobs open, a record setting high. However, it's not so simple.

Love or hate him, you have to admire Elon Musk’s chutzpah. Musk, one of the richest men in the world, recently disclosed a 9.2% investment in Twitter making him the largest shareholder, and a seat on the Board of Directors.

While the social media site is smaller compared to Meta, Instagram and other massive platforms, it serves as the public town square. Much of the public discourse takes place on the site.

Journalists, politicians, financial professionals and people from across all social and economic stratas weigh in with their thoughts and opinions.

It seems that everything becomes political, and people divide themselves into warring, squabbling factions. Concerns were raised by both internal workers and users over what will happen now that Musk is acting like he’s taking over. Some Twitter employees and users of the site openly complained and some said they’d leave the platform. Libertarians and conservatives were elated as they claimed they were ostracized and censored on the site.

One group who is very happy are the shareholders. Upon Musk’s announcement the share price of Twitter skyrocketed nearly 20% higher.

He hasn’t wasted any time taking charge. On Twitter, Musk has been tweeting his thoughts about new changes that should be made. He won’t be a typical investor and board member. The intrepid entrepreneur has a huge Twitter following, gets the zeitgeist of the platform and is an avid tweeter who mixes smart takes along with a sense of humor. This includes his creating a poll to determine if Twitter should “Delete the w in twitter?”

Musk proposed a subscription type of model, called Twitter Blue premium. It would charge around $3.00 per month to get a verified blue check–one that is different from “official account” and “paid 12 months up front & account doesn't get checkmark for 60 days (watch for credit card chargebacks) & suspended with no refund if used for scam/spam." The company currently has a feature for members sto tip creators with bitcoin.

There may be an option to pay the fee with dogecoin cryptocurrency, which is associated with Musk as he has referenced the token on numerous occasions. This new offering would provide for a steady stream of revenue and uncouple the social media site’s dependent upon corporate advertisers. The multi-billionaire also added that if the paid subscription expires, the check mark should also go away. This, he says, will mute the bots and scammers who try to game the system by signing up for only a couple of months.

Twitter Blue was previously launched in June 2021, as the first subscription service which offered "exclusive access to premium features" on a monthly subscription basis.