LinkedIn Plays Games

[00:00:00] Hi, it's your kids! Lock the doors! You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad Soosh and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where hers. Complete with breaking news, fresh opinion and loads of snart, Bop-a-Lop boys and girls. It's on for the Chad and G-bond cast.

[00:00:30] Oh yeah, because what happens in the Red Light District stays in the Red Light District. Hey kids, you're listening to the Chad and Chees podcast. I'm your co-host Joel Bango Cheeseman.

[00:00:43] This is Chad. Who gave me that fucking Yeager bomb so much?

[00:00:47] And on this week's show, LinkedIn plays games. Self checkout is fading and who do you rather? Let's do this.

[00:00:57] Yeah, I texted my wife that I had done a Yeager bomb and she said what is it your 21st birthday?

[00:01:05] Yeah, when they came to the table, thanks Bill Borman. Thanks Bill Borman. They came to the table two handfuls of Yeager bombs. I'm like, what is this shit? What is going on here?

[00:01:19] I was just a welcome to Europe from Mr. Borman. I don't even remember what's in a Yeager bomb outside of Yeager. Is it cool? Is it Red Bull? Like what?

[00:01:29] I think, okay, Red Bull and yeah, awesome.

[00:01:34] Homeboy is not human. He's like the Winston Churchill. Have you ever seen the Winston Churchill daily diet?

[00:01:43] It's like scotch and cigars all day. And he lived to 90. That's Bill Borman. Yeah, except Borman doesn't do it doesn't do cigars. He just doubles up on the scotch.

[00:01:53] Yeah, and the no sleep thing I think I think I think Churchill got some sleep while he was busy finding Nazis.

[00:02:01] But I mean, Borman's only like 30 years old.

[00:02:04] So it's taken a toll. It's taken a toll. He's not quite 90 yet. He only only looks at love that guy. Love that guy.

[00:02:17] Yeah, I also love leaving Van Evenhausen and and Rika Copen's in too bad either. My God, we had a blast yesterday.

[00:02:25] What a great show. So yeah, we we failed to mention that we're recording from Amsterdam. We are at the E recruitment Congress.

[00:02:31] Amsterdam, which is usually in in Belgium, but they put it in Amsterdam this year. What a great conference.

[00:02:39] What a hidden gem that most of people in states have no idea or in Europe. The music about.

[00:02:46] Yeah, it's this multi-billion dollar company, Bane Capital. They're growing this Congress. It could be a you know, it could be an up and coming thing that becomes mainstream for everybody all our rec fest and unleash but great conference.

[00:03:02] And I love how they utilize us. Yeah, they put us in the balcony. I'll hold up it guys.

[00:03:10] And so many conferences you get a presentation and they like, does anyone have a question in the audience? And it's this awkward sort of moment where who's going to ask the question what's it going to be.

[00:03:20] You got to run the microphone to the person that raises their hands. It's just awkward. Yeah, so with this setup, the presentation goes, they know they're going to get Q&A. They sit down on the couch.

[00:03:31] We hit them with the little little banter, little questions. And I think it's I think it runs much more smoothly. I think more more conferences should have journalists, podcasters, bloggers, whatever they're to ask questions right after their session.

[00:03:45] I think it's great. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. And I am ready just about ready to wrap up this world win tour. Doole and I went to Vegas. And that's when we left the house.

[00:03:57] Then we spent a couple of days in Houston doing visa stuff for Portugal. And then we came straight here from Houston. So it's been a whirlwind trip. It's been a blast.

[00:04:08] The Europeans are amazing. They always they always make it fun and they always want to show you around. Hope I get to see everybody. If I don't, I'm sorry. I'll see you next time.

[00:04:18] It's so laid back in chill here. I love it. Yeah. So you're here for a few more days. You leave one Saturday. Yeah, even Saturday afternoon. Yeah. So I'm headed out. I've never been to Germany. So I'm just going to take a few days.

[00:04:31] Going to go to Dusseldorf. We're Bill Bournemon is going to be I'm going to try to avoid him as much as possible. He's got a little valk thing there. Apparently I'm trying to try to I'm double it down on my penicillin. So I don't catch the vauntk while I'm in Dusseldorf. Good call.

[00:04:45] And then I'm headed to we call it Cologne. But apparently it's colon or colon. Yeah, anyway, I'll be there for a couple of days flying out of there coming back Saturday.

[00:04:56] And then we get a good month or so off of travel. So recovery time. It is weird how we I mean Americans can try to America.

[00:05:05] I'm going to fly all the and maybe it's not just us. Maybe it's the rest of the English speaking world, but yeah, the way that you spill Cologne is K-O-L.

[00:05:15] Oh, how's it new mouth? K-O-L-N, right? So Cologne. But we call it Cologne. So I find it. Yeah, it's probably a Cologne. Cologne.

[00:05:23] Okay, well this isn't abbreviated show. We're pretty hungover which if you're watching on YouTube, you can figure that out. If not, it's definitely in Chad's voice. I think my voice might be a little better this morning.

[00:05:37] But we'll get back to the birthdays but we cannot fail to mention that if you like free stuff go to chachys.com, click the free link.

[00:05:45] We're getting new t-shirts printed up so those will be going out shortly. We got bourbon selection from Texcarnel, free beer from Aspen Tech Labs.

[00:05:56] And if it's your birthday month you might just win from from from and if I can find the sound bite that everybody loves we can maybe at least give people some of that.

[00:06:10] Oh, there you go. Did you feel any tension in the air right now? I know I can. I can feel all the way down in my pocket.

[00:06:18] I could feel a little K-Boo in my plums last night if you haven't enjoyed some K-Boo kids. That's right.

[00:06:25] The narrow sensation. Yeah, K-Boo. All right, that's so.

[00:06:31] If you're in our socials, you've probably seen the K-Boo. That's enough of that this morning. Yeah, that's enough for that.

[00:06:38] I want to want to thank you know here, John who is here. We got to see him and then also got to see head hard from Texcarnel.

[00:06:48] T-shirt that you're wearing if you're watching on YouTube. I didn't see her art. I didn't get my her art time. I'm very upset about that.

[00:06:55] So yeah, I got the Texcarnel right in trying to duck you. He's a busy guy. I get it. I get it. He's a busy guy just like the news.

[00:07:04] Topics!

[00:07:09] All right, little LinkedIn goodness. Reports say LinkedIn is venturing into gaming with puzzle-based experiences like Queens and Infraints.

[00:07:21] Why do this you ask? Well, they're apparently aiming to increase user engagement and deep in connections expanding beyond its traditional professional focus chat.

[00:07:31] Is LinkedIn just playing games here? Or are they really serious this time?

[00:07:38] It's so bad. Yeah, I get the whole sticky part but this to me doesn't make any sense and this is not going to how's it going to deepen connections.

[00:07:47] I mean, I can see that you may be playing world-world gaming. Like a K-Boo.

[00:07:51] Like a K-Boo.

[00:07:53] I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Not to mention you're talking about a professional network which on the professional side of the house you want to stay with productivity and productivity in games don't go together.

[00:08:05] So instead of doing my jobs, my job are my project. I'm on LinkedIn playing a crossword puzzle or some stupid shit who knows what kind of fucked up games LinkedIn is going to play.

[00:08:17] But I just can't say it enough. LinkedIn needs to revitalize the platform itself. It needs to stop adding stupid shit on it.

[00:08:27] They've had what the videos and the Instagram and the podcast and all these things that just kind of like were thrown there and they really, they haven't gotten any traction.

[00:08:38] I mean, you could say they've been utter failures while the infrastructure that is LinkedIn is decades old.

[00:08:46] So I don't understand why they're spending so much time with these stupid little projects when they have a big issue.

[00:08:53] When the Titanic is sinking, you don't rearrange the Jack Chairs, okay?

[00:08:59] I like that. I like that. 60% of the time it works every time.

[00:09:05] When I first read this headline, I thought, oh, they're introducing some sort of like trade-ify, pymetrics, visual assessment gaming thing.

[00:09:15] No, no, this is like chess or checkers on LinkedIn which is, I just don't get it. Maybe it's a 20% extra time thing but they would be much more served if they did, if they were creating some sort of visual assessment that people could take as part of their LinkedIn.

[00:09:34] Experience. So that was, that was kind of a bummer. Look, I agree with you. They need to focus on the blocking and tackling their job search sucks.

[00:09:43] We've talked about that pretty extensively. Stability of the platform. All that stuff can be improved for sure why they're wasting time and resources on games is kind of ridiculous.

[00:09:55] I mean, just open up an app store and have people develop games like Facebook if you're going to do that which actually would be kind of interesting if LinkedIn opened up an app store.

[00:10:05] And you mentioned the video like I actually think they may, they may have bailed on video too quickly.

[00:10:11] Oh yeah. Just for more video experience, the shorts that we put out are very popular. I mean, they had shorts. Maybe they could have put it within the feed as opposed to like just up at top.

[00:10:23] I mean, there are ways to increase engagement. Video brings that they just scrapped and I think that would be a much better idea to bring back stories.

[00:10:32] Just do it better and learn from what TikTok and Reels has done to get more engagement. But yeah, I don't get the games.

[00:10:41] I think that's, it's just really, really stupid. It was kind of seen in the wild. Maybe it's an experiment that got loose.

[00:10:46] It shouldn't have. But if LinkedIn becomes this games platform, like it could be a jump the shark moment. I don't know.

[00:10:53] Well, I think what you're seeing is it's an advertising play and they need people to stay on the platform longer to click on more shit. They at least see more shit.

[00:11:01] Right? So you get the impressions that are playing through. Yeah.

[00:11:04] They're they're trying it's it feels like they're trying their damnedest to be an advertising platform right with a bunch of professionals on it.

[00:11:13] Fix the videos. Yeah, it's a shorts. Yeah, it's the shorts. You could do some things. You can do some really amazing things with videos with I mean there are connectivity opportunities within LinkedIn.

[00:11:26] They're always have been right that's where ads are going. That's everyone's creating TikTok ads Reels. Yeah, like dude, I don't get it.

[00:11:33] The LinkedIn lives. I mean people do them but they a lot of them don't get they don't they don't really get the traction, but still they're they're using it.

[00:11:42] I think they could amp that up. They could use more of that. They could they could actually do like Riverside does. Yeah.

[00:11:47] We go into Riverside after it. We're done. We click magic clips and it creates like 20 different snippet videos of our of our podcast.

[00:11:58] It's easy or an opus clip or something like that they could do something like that. You would have a you know your LinkedIn live and you can turn shorts into I mean there's just it could be a content generating machine, but they're doing stupid shit like playing chess.

[00:12:13] But again, if they were doing something I mean I don't want to talk about the the popping the balloon of pie metrics which I think is the stupidest fucking games I've we've ever seen and they say this measures your risk tolerance.

[00:12:27] No it doesn't you're fucking stupid right. We even heard Hilke Schoeman who who spoke this week who wrote the book called algorithm she was on the show a few months back.

[00:12:39] I'm even talking about how stupid that shit is right if there was something that could be used chess you know they're all these different things rankings and whatnot.

[00:12:50] That would help understand you know maybe mental fitness or something of that nature that might make sense but I still think it's outside of the tam of LinkedIn.

[00:13:01] Fix video and by the way Microsoft owns teams which is a video platform like it can be that hard to integrate some video shit partner I don't get it.

[00:13:10] Let's take a quick break. Okay, I need a new honey another glass of water and we'll talk a little who'd you rather.

[00:13:19] Chad it's time to play a little game that we like to call.

[00:13:26] Who'd you rather if you haven't heard us play this from before we talk about two startups that have gotten funding and Chad and I decide who'd you rather.

[00:13:37] All right, let's play here we go in corner number one we got Milan's talent where founded by Bain alumni they've secured 800,000 euros for their AI driven.

[00:13:48] SAS platform which aids companies and talent management development and retention through personalized skills based approaches funding aims to enhance team and foster growth that is talent where.

[00:14:03] Next up we have Nova a freelancer hub they've secured 1.75 million and seed funding the startup aims to empower creative freelancers and bring gaps in talent management the app facilitates connections job postings and.

[00:14:18] Career growth so that gives us talent where and Nova Chad who'd you rather.

[00:14:25] This is a hard one I'm going to let you go first I'm I'm either one of these guys right at 2 am i'm not sure which one I walk home with so I'm going to first I'm still thinking in my clouded brain the younger brain this morning on this okay,

[00:14:39] well I'm going to stay consistent with with talent where these these sort of secondary players that look at bigger companies that have a lot more money a lot more brand awareness a lot more resources you know the lattices the deals yeah the glutes the list goes on and on Bob look talent management software is a very competitive space

[00:15:03] and you can say like well they they've proven the model it's an in demand product by just think when you bring a squirt gun to a gun fight it's not going to end very well for you my prediction is within 24 months these guys are probably fold up or sell to a bigger fish Nova I originally thought well this is kind of like Camino which is has a head start maybe you know so

[00:15:28] I'm never quite understood why Camino Camino hasn't taken off more than it has they had a great start helping with some directors video production but this thing is really interesting in the organic nature of it so unless the near they've started as a private Instagram page sharing job postings for freelancers they've grown over 19,000 followers and they filled over 8,000 jobs

[00:15:55] and say that they've helped book nearly 10 million dollars in work they've got investors from Spotify Tesla and Burberry it feels kind of like Craigslist where they just kind of threw up something and the community embraced it and they've run with it so for me like what I think the better business might be the talent management

[00:16:19] I think it's way too competitive for what what talent where is doing so for me Nova is a super Nova my friend and that is what I'd rather bad bad okay so I thought Nova was interesting especially spinning out of Instagram

[00:16:39] Instagram account I mean that's just you don't hear that much right well this worked on Instagram it's a great way to at least start to see if an idea gains traction and they found traction right they didn't find traction on the talent where you're side of the house you're right not to mention there they're in Milan right so they're in Italy which means more than likely they are going to try to take this to Europe as a whole

[00:17:06] Italy's not a great market to try to to start in yep they there's not a lot of cash and Italy compared to trying to start in in Germany or France or the UK right but then again you have all the issues of languages and culture and and for me again for us learning a lot of this over the last you know few years here in Europe and working with a lot of European organizations

[00:17:33] to me with something like you said that is so competitive number one number two the tam is so big number three it's in Europe I mean how much more complex can you fucking get yeah they do have cash they do have backers that smart smart dudes but I think Nova has proven itself it is a very small

[00:17:54] tam by the way so I but I think they can grow out of that I think there's there's a there there right and when we're talking about Camino

[00:18:02] I think one of the hardest things is you know the guys we know the guys over Camino love those guys

[00:18:07] um they know the people in the industry the only problem is they don't know they're recruiting in the gig industry right yeah

[00:18:14] yeah um that's where a lot of companies fall down just because you know the industry that you're going into doesn't mean that you can recruit into that industry

[00:18:25] you can gig into that industry you can create technology that is sticky LinkedIn in that industry right so yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna go with the little very small although I think powerful Nova

[00:18:38] what are you all right that's true for Nova everybody in that closes another round of who do you rather we're gonna take a quick break remember folks listen to the ads there is no show without sponsors when we get back will talk a little self service and it may not be what you're thinking of

[00:18:56] all right Chad is this the end of self serve checkout big retailers like dollar general target and Walmart are scaling back on self checkout due to theft concerns and customer experience issues

[00:19:11] dollar general is removing self checkouts from some stores and limiting purchases and others target

[00:19:17] implements express self checkout with a limited number of items and Walmart is toying with Walmart plus members only getting self checkout is this the end

[00:19:29] and it's full service back in Chad your thoughts yeah well first and foremost we're an Amsterdam right now so there's no such thing as self service you've got full service

[00:19:38] at the red light district all you have to do is go window shopping and there's full service right there yes

[00:19:44] yeah this to me and I hate to take a dark turn here but this is what happens when the poverty line starts moving up people start stealing shit people aren't doing this we're not seeing the rise in crime and stealing

[00:19:58] shit because they want the high quality target you know jeans or you know clothes or what have you it's because they they need the food I mean it's just it's one of those things and they see gaps in security

[00:20:13] so therefore they take it right and they also called back to the article in around the pandemic saying that the pandemic it was great through the pandemic

[00:20:22] because you they didn't have to have people and obviously you know you had space and so on and so forth but they were doing self checkout way before the fucking pandemic right so I see I think we're seeing something happen here that people are trying to they're trying to

[00:20:40] associate to something that it's not I think this is a poverty issue I think that wages haven't climbed fast enough right yes wages are getting better but they haven't climbed fast enough and they're definitely not climbing as fast as the fucking CEO pay

[00:20:54] that's out there so we start seeing this kind of like spiral into the poverty when the poverty line raises we see these things happen so it's unfortunate it really is because I think this is a societal problem

[00:21:08] and when you're talking about some of these locations like San Francisco San Francisco is a expensive fucking place to live right I mean it just is and don't just think this is happening on the coast

[00:21:20] this is happening everywhere that escalated quickly sorry so so I'll try to stay away from the politics of this the other side of that argument would be that crime punishment has declined

[00:21:32] anything under a thousand dollars you can just walk out of the store and not get prosecuted so is it is it the left argument or right the fact is it's happening yeah

[00:21:41] earnings call after earnings call is like we're we're feeling this pain there's shrinkage people are hungry people are hungry doesn't matter doesn't matter but it's happening what

[00:21:51] what what ironic to me is yeah we're going to employ more people because of this yeah we're going to employ more people checking people out as a result of whether it's crime poverty whatever

[00:22:06] and I guess that's a good thing you know I not to sound the latest I've never stepped into a dollar general but my impression is that they are not the best places in the world to shop

[00:22:19] they're eliminating self checkout altogether so that means a lot more people employed by dollar general for better words target and I've shopped a target yeah and people bring the cart to self checkout and it is it is like a snake line

[00:22:35] it's it's waiting and it's almost you're almost incentivized to go to the full service because there's nobody in line so I mean target it feels just more like yes whether it's theft I don't think there's a much poverty poverty target or people that are desperate

[00:22:49] it's just assholes who want to check out 48 items in the self checkout so good for them for saying like look it's 10 items which has probably always been 10 items people just ignore it

[00:23:00] the Walmart's a little odd to me I know they want to be Amazon I know they want these prime members these Walnut plus members and it's kind of a nice little incentive

[00:23:09] they probably have an issue there as well with people loading up the cart and then trying to get out so ultimately this means more jobs

[00:23:17] it probably means a better shopping experience at least for me a target and all the moms the soccer moms that are there getting their you know getting their fragrances

[00:23:26] in there and their dockers so yeah I got nothing else but that and I'm sorry folks I usually have a witty way to end the show

[00:23:36] I'm hungover and I don't have one I'm sorry Chad you got anything funny you got any funny in the show I guess we could just

[00:23:42] sense in and some K-Boo that might be K-Boo would be great you're welcome world welcome no witty I'm ending just this is your up baby just some K-Boo

[00:23:55] I got to say coming out of a lunch break straight into K-Boo was freaking awesome I mean it in for those who weren't at the Congress

[00:24:08] it was hilarious everybody gets back in after lunch were all you know you get kind of like the the cloudy brain because all your all the blood in your head is in your stomach

[00:24:20] right so you can't think well they wheel out K-Boo you know and it just like amps the whole crowd up and that gets that gets the whole

[00:24:29] the whole afternoon that's the tone for the afternoon so I think at least leave it if you're listening K-Boo should be a staple

[00:24:38] should be a staple guy should get in his van from Finland and drive all those corg keyboards to wherever they're having the e-recruitment Congress every year

[00:24:49] some of the most European shit I've ever seen I was waiting I was waiting for a-ha and the sprockets guys to come out and start

[00:24:58] oh my god did we just do a weekly show in less than 30 minutes that's awesome all right well let's see next week everybody we out

[00:25:06] we out thank you for listening to what's it called a podcast the chat the cheese brand they talk about recruiting

[00:25:16] they talk about technology but most of all they talk about nothing just a lot of shout outs of people you don't even know

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