LISTEN: https://www.thepozcast.com/523
ecorded live at Transform 2026, this episode features Alessandra Pegnim — known as Ale — Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Brand at Udemy, the public online learning platform with nearly 1,400 employees globally. Oli spent 16 years on the agency side before making the move in-house, giving her a perspective on recruiting that flips the typical career narrative and brings a closer-and-urgency mindset to every search she runs.
The conversation covers the full recruiting stack at Udemy: how they manage a 50% inbound hire rate (unusually high for a company of their size), why they eliminated referral bonuses and watched referral quality improve, how they build skills-based hiring rubrics in partnership with hiring managers, and what it looks like to realign a search when the role evolves mid-process. Oli also talks through their outbound sourcing tools, the balance between inbound and outbound, and how internal mobility factors into their talent strategy.
The AI section of this episode is one of the most practically useful in the series. Oli shares a team exercise she ran to reduce AI anxiety — asking recruiters to list what they did at the start of their careers that they no longer do today, then what they do now that didn't exist before — and why that simple reframe changed the conversation. She also walks through how she personally uses AI to transform job descriptions into job ads, reverse-engineer sourcing strategy from role requirements, and push her team to experiment through what she calls FIFO: F around and find out. The episode closes with Oli's advice to job seekers — lean on your network, don't get discouraged, and use AI to identify the adjacent industries and roles your skills could transfer into.
Connect with Ale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandrapegnim111/
Learn more: http://www.udemy.com
These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at PIN. AI recruiting tools that automate candidate sourcing, screening, and scheduling across 850M+ profiles. Built for recruiters, agencies, and hiring teams.
Learn more and check out a demo: https://www.pin.com/book-a-demo?via=adam-posner
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