Episode 115: The Recruiting Ops Blueprint They Don't Want You to Know with Alexa Lane

Episode notes

What happens when you’re the only recruiter at a fast-growing startup? In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke , host Joel sits down with Alexa Lane, Head of Recruiting at Placements.io, to find out. Alexa’s path to recruiting wasn’t a straight line. She started in marketing and sales (yes, even cold-calling at Yelp) before stepping into a role where she’s now a “team of one” responsible for all hiring. When she joined Placements.io, there was no ATS, no structured interviews, no real process, just a few spreadsheets. She walks us through how she built it all from scratch: rolling out Greenhouse, creating scorecards, training interviewers, and even helping shape company values to use as a hiring compass. The conversation digs into how the recruiter’s role has shifted from high-speed order-taking to a deeply strategic function where quality and alignment matter more than ever. Alexa shares how AI has become both a game-changer and a curveball. It is great for automating tasks like scheduling and writing job descriptions, but tricky when it comes to AI-generated resumes and fake candidates.