Nate Wylie is the founder of Infinate Talent, longtime recruiter, builder, and one of those people in the industry who has quietly been paying attention to where recruiting is headed before most of us catch up. Nate and I have known each other through the internet recruiting world for years, and this was great to catch up on what’s going on in hiring right now.

We got into founder hiring mistakes, personal brand, recruiting as advisory work, AI tooling, layoffs, compensation resets, candidate experience, and the emotional reality of spending your career somewhere between business strategy and human decision making. And of course, we chopped it up on if recruiting is sales.

There are few folks in this industry I respect more than Nate. His reputation speaks for itself. Seriously. Ask anyone. Founders, hiring managers, candidates, internet fans. His personal brand and ability to build community is absolutely legendary. No one works harder on both sides of the hiring relationships than Nate. And I also straight up respect his hustle as a business owner.

Going out on your own as a recruiter isn’t for the faint of heart. But Nate has been able to successfully build a playbook that scales the way he likes to work with companies. On his terms.

Nate’s also been there for me over the last few years, supporting my professional and personal journey. So thank you for your friendship, Nate. You’re one of a kind.

Enjoy the conversation with Nate, it’s a longer one, but we had a ton to catch up on.

Connect with Nate: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nwylie/

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Timestamps

3:00 Building a personal brand in recruiting, staying independent, and why creativity matters more than people think

8:00 Founder hiring mistakes, candidate trust, and why transparency wins with top talent

16:00 AI hiring expectations, unrealistic job requirements, and the widening gap between what companies want and what exists

20:00 Layoffs, compensation resets, and the emotional reality of career pivots in today’s market

26:00 Recruiter burnout, layoffs in talent acquisition, and carrying the weight of hiring decisions

29:00 Why recruiting stays emotional after 15 years and how rejection impacts recruiters too

32:00 Using AI to improve stakeholder management, soften communication, and become a stronger advisor

38:00 Interview processes, candidate experience, and how founders unintentionally lose great people

43:00 Talent engineering, recruiting operations, and whether recruiters need to become systems builders

48:00 AI tools, hiring workflows, and the tension between sophisticated systems and simple recruiting fundamentals

52:00 The future of sourcing, AI-powered talent mapping, and what recruiters would actually pay for

1:20:00 Is recruiting sales? Nate unpacks the similarities, where the comparison breaks down, and why recruiting may be harder because the product can always walk away

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Shout out to our sponsor, Rooster.

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Building The Talent Machine

Episode 039 w/ Nate Wylie