Episode
Behind the Hiring Curtain: What’s Really Happening
- Podcast
- The Job Hunting Podcast
- Published
- Mar 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4020
- Processing state
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Summary
Episode 330 - Patrick Dunlop, organisational psychologist and Future of Work professor, shares what he learned from studying recruiters, what’s overhyped, what’s still painfully manual, and how experienced candidates can move with confidence through modern selection processes. Spend enough time around job seekers and you will hear the same diagnosis: “Hiring is broken.” Spend enough time around recruiters and you will hear a different one: “We’re drowning.” Both can be true. What has changed in the last few years is not simply the technology inside recruitment. It’s the volume, the noise, and the mismatch between what candidates think is happening and what is actually happening inside organisations. In my conversation with Professor Patrick Dunlop, an organisational psychologist at Curtin University, one theme kept resurfacing: the biggest misunderstanding is not about AI. It’s about realism. Hiring varies wildly from one organisation to the next, and much of what candidates assume is “automated” is still surprisingly manual, uneven, and dependent on human judgement. What follows is a structured, evidence-informed way to think about modern hiring if you are an experienced professional, particularly in your 40s and beyond. Read the full Blog on the Website 31 Days of Action for Job Seekers Find Your Talents: Learn About Your Strengths, and Watch Your Career Grow Join 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe Now Lear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Timestamps to guide your listening: 00:00 Understanding Assessment Tools 00:52 The Importance of Job Analysis 03:48 Designing Effective Assessment Processes 06:53 The Role of Simulations and Case Studies 09:59 Concerns About Psychometric Testing 12:56 Faking in Assessments and Its Implications…