Have you ever wondered what separates recruiters who stay sharp in chaos from those who fold under pressure? Or why, even in a world full of AI tools and automation, the human touch still wins?

In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with recruiting veteran Nicole Hirsch, who brings nearly two decades of agency and in-house experience across shifting markets—from the 2008 financial crisis to today’s AI-driven landscape. Nicole gets real about what’s changed, what’s repeating itself, and what recruiters must understand to stay relevant.

She shares stories from her early days recruiting mortgage underwriters during the recession, how that shaped her resilience, and what pushed her to transition in-house. Nicole also breaks down how she built high-performing recruiting teams and why her agency roots still influence her approach.

The conversation gets even better when they tackle AI. Nicole is pro-AI, but she gives a bold take: recruiters need to stop relying on generic AI outreach and bring back real, thoughtful, human messaging. She explains how authenticity drives stronger response rates and builds trust, referrals, and long-term career equity.

Nicole also walks through how her team uses tools like BrightHire to improve interview quality, reduce bias, and elevate candidate experience—while keeping recruiter judgment at the core.

If you’re trying to balance tech and humanity in today’s hiring world, this episode brings clarity, practical insight, and real-world perspective. Let’s dive in.

In this episode:

[00:01] Introduction

[00:59] Nicole’s 17+ year recruiting journey and how 2008 shaped her

[02:25] AI tools, market uncertainty, and the noise candidates face

[03:59] Why personalized outreach still outperforms AI sequences

[09:29] The agency mindset vs. the in-house mindset

[13:10] Representing your company and yourself in the market

[16:27] Referrals, relationships, and long-term trust building

[19:01] Where AI belongs in recruiting (and where it doesn’t)

[21:03] Nicole’s experience with one-way video interviews

[22:12] The tech she actually uses: BrightHire + interview intelligence

[26:44] The real risks: compliance, bias, and regulation

[29:47] Job seekers, volume, and the reality of 2025 hiring

[32:11] AI interviewers, bias, and candidate perception

[34:49] Using AI for internal operations, Slack agents, and comp data

[39:01] How Lattice links interview performance to quality-of-hire

[47:00] The unsexy truth: candidate experience = prep + communication

[49:46] Why transparency and phone calls never go out of style

[52:02] Where to find Nicole and opportunities at Lattice

About Nicole Hirsch

Nicole Hirsch is a senior recruiting leader with 18 years of experience across agency, edtech, marketing tech, and HR tech. She currently leads recruiting at Lattice, where she specializes in interview intelligence, candidate experience, hiring strategy, and creating deeply human recruiting processes at scale. Nicole is known for her relationship-first approach, her operational rigor, and her belief that great recruiting will always center on people, not automation.

About Joel Lalgee 

Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships.

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