Clockout with Tejal Rives

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Episode Summary:

Season One | Episode 17

“Clockout with Tejal Rives” is a conversation about finding power where the system told you not to. Tejal opens up about navigating the job search and promotion process as a woman of color and how that experience pushed her to change how hiring works—starting with transparency and empathy. From helping others decode what recruiters really look for to talking openly about DEI and neurodiversity, her story is as honest as it is empowering.

 Catch the full episode below and hear how Tejal redefined what a career in recruiting can look like.

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Desiree Goldey (00:10)

⁓ my gosh people, welcome, welcome to Clock Out with Talent List. This is that after hours show where we talk to talent legends, influencers, creators, HR legends, all the people you want to hear from and are changing the world and the industry that we work in today. So we are so glad to have Tejal with us tonight. she is someone in my opinion that's doing

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (00:10)

Recording in progress.

Desiree Goldey (00:38)

the greatest work with purpose, right? She's the powerhouse behind caffeinated careers, especially where she helps women and people of color learn what recruiters are really looking for, and that's important. And how to get promoted and do this job search thing without losing your sanity. She's been there, done that, and we're so glad to have her. Welcome to y'all, how are you?

Tejal (01:01)

I'm I'm good, how are you both?

Desiree Goldey (01:04)

you know, surviving another Monday.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (01:06)

Yeah, we thriving and surviving. I like that little, what was this, that shimmy? Yeah. Yeah.

Tejal (01:08)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (01:09)

We're doing it, we're doing it. So as, you like my little pom-pom? You like that? It's my

Tejal (01:17)

Yeah, I

got no rhythm.

Desiree Goldey (01:18)

seven, it's my seven o'clock at night energy. Okay, so you know, we asked three questions to everybody on this show. And so we're gonna start with the first, which I'll ask, which is what is the story behind your journey? How did you get to this point in your career?

Tejal (01:37)

my, ⁓ I feel no one when growing up, none of us were like, I'm going to be a recruiter, I'm going to be an HR person. That was none of our dreams, right? We all wanted to be an astronaut or the president or a doctor or maybe even a teacher. And I ended up falling into HR and recruiting. I knew I wanted to be in business and I knew I wanted to be more in the...

corporate side. My mom owned a business back in India, so I had seen her going through management and leadership and handling employees and handling customers. So I knew I wanted to be in that on that end and I ended up

in happenstance with an HR specialist role, fell in love with staffing and recruiting and moved across the country, found a job at Robert Half and has just like kept going ever since. is for recruiting so far has been the perfect career for someone like me because I have ADHD and I'm a massive extrovert. So it kind of like gives me enough of both sides of things. And about a year ago, I was like, you know what, I want to do something different.

I've spent a decade, I'm done. Let me try product marketing for shits and giggles. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (02:54)

I

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (02:54)

Hahaha!

Desiree Goldey (02:55)

love it!

Tejal (02:58)

So I'm still

in talent acquisition, more on the product marketing side. I market the product to recruiters.

Desiree Goldey (03:05)

Right. Yeah, that's an interesting job. was just I was just talking to someone about recruiting and how it can poise you to do other roles in the universe, right? Especially in this market, like don't be thinking just a recruiting role. Think about those other roles that you could possibly with your skill set bring to the table and product marketing is like top of that list. How are you finding it?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (03:05)

Hmm.

Tejal (03:26)

Yeah.

I enjoy my role now. I am doing a lot of strategy. I'm doing a lot of adoption metrics and whatnot. So it was it was something different up until I came back and after I came back it like I went into a completely different communications channel and I enjoy this communications channel so much more because it's not like email or newsletter. Let's be honest. No one's reading those.

Desiree Goldey (03:54)

I know.

I know.

Tejal (03:55)

Right. ⁓ So

and I like, I'm like, listen, no one's reading those things. So let's talk about like how we can do make in app.

adoption better. So that's what I've been doing is and I get to bring my recruiter perspective on in here and say, okay, like as an recruiter, these are the steps I would take. So let's try and figure out if this is true for most recruiters and try and figure out how we can lead them to the behavior change that we want them to get to.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (04:25)

What are the products that y'all have that would be recruiters would be using?

Tejal (04:31)

Yeah, so mostly it's internal, our internal applicant tracking system. ⁓ That is like our major product that we, and it's so many updates that every week I have like one or two that I'm launching. ⁓ So it's, even if it's like small changes, right? If you ever go to a website and it's something new and then like there's a pop-up says, hey, this thing is new, tour this thing. Yeah, I am the person that creates that.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (04:34)

I see. Okay.

Wow wow.

Desiree Goldey (04:46)

Wow. Wow.

Yeah.

I love that. So I know you have that part of your life and you know, I know it's a strong part of your life, but I know you have the creator, you know, influencer side of you as well. When did that journey start? Why did you kind of decide to do all of that?

Tejal (05:15)

Yeah, I want to say I started in 2016, 2015-2016. I was working at a corporate job and I was told from my leaders that I cannot prep my candidates. That if I give them too much information about

Some of the behaviors that they should expect from hiring managers that was cheating on my part. And I was helping the job seekers cheat. And I, that didn't sit right with me, but I needed a job. So I like, it was a lowly employee, right? And when it comes from the VP of the company, you're like, okay, I won't do that anymore. So I started sharing those tips on LinkedIn. was like, if a recruiter, if a candidate happens to come across my page and I am sharing what I look for, or I'm sharing.

how my hiring managers are reacting, at least they will know some insights without me directly giving it to them and handing it to them. So that's how I navigated that whole space. And when I first joined and started creating content on LinkedIn, and we still see this, but back then it was, my entire feed was full of, like.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (06:11)

Hmm.

Tejal (06:25)

Who's that? What's that person's name? Just a bunch of like, ⁓ know, sun is shining today and, you know, go out there and get the day kind of deal. Early bird gets the worm kind of. And there was not a whole lot of people that were sharing advice for job seekers. ⁓ That's how I got started in.

Desiree Goldey (06:30)

Hehehehehe

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (06:41)

Mm-hmm.

Tejal (06:45)

I haven't been as consistent as I would like to be. Again, ADHD. I start projects and I end them very quickly. However, I just, when I...

Desiree Goldey (06:50)

No.

Tejal (06:57)

I think content creation is more about authenticity rather than consistency in the sense that if I authentically want to talk about something in that phase of my life, then it will come through to the person rather than me just like chasing the content and writing the same content over and over again. So that's how we ended up with content creation.

Desiree Goldey (07:12)

Right.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (07:13)

Mm.

Desiree Goldey (07:16)

Yeah.

Yeah,

cool.

That's awesome. I think everybody's journey to that is very different and how consistent you are. I agree with you, authenticity is the key to it all. And you can start to, as you've been doing this long enough, you start to repeat yourself, right? It's like, just did this post like three months ago. So taking breaks from it or not being consistent to me is way more authentic to me. I don't know. I know everybody who's a LinkedIn.

and like guru says, you you have to be consistent. But I do think there's times where it's necessary to step away from it wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly.

Tejal (08:02)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (08:02)

Yeah,

I want to ask so because I always so many people are always like I fell into recruiting. What was the plan prior to the fall?

Tejal (08:11)

being a director of ⁓ operations. Like the seven year goal was like, I ended up being a director of operations and I wanted to work at a, not a company like Amazon, but I lived in Illinois, so we had a lot of manufacturing companies and supply chain companies. So one of those companies is like what I was interviewing at.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (08:16)

Okay, so we went adjacent.

Desiree Goldey (08:16)

Mmm, yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (08:31)

Mmm.

Tejal (08:37)

A lot of those companies. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (08:37)

Interesting. I like that because no matter

Desiree Goldey (08:37)

Interesting.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (08:40)

what you were always looking for like inefficiencies and things to fix and strategies to use to help people like at all points in time. So that's hey, you're true to form. I dig that.

Desiree Goldey (08:51)

Yeah.

Tejal (08:53)

I'm

a problem solver. honestly, I am such a problem solver that I have to like I seven years ago, I adopted this phrase when somebody comes to me and they say I have a problem. I'm like, do you need me to be a black hole or do you need me to help you solve a problem? Because I realized I was just like constantly jumping into solving the problem. And sometimes people don't need that. Sometimes they just want to vent, right? And being an HR being in recruiting, I kind of had to be like, OK, I am a black hole. Whatever you put information here,

Desiree Goldey (08:54)

Right?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (09:15)

Mm-hmm.

Tejal (09:23)

It's not going anywhere. It's going to stay right here. But I need to know that before we start having this conversation. And you can change your mind in between, right? But I needed to know that information so I didn't engage that problem-solving mind side of my brain.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (09:38)

Yeah. Let me ask with

Desiree Goldey (09:39)

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (09:41)

now your change into product marketing, if like, if caffeinated careers, like if everything was full on paid and money didn't matter, what would it that you would be doing with like your day? Like, would you still be doing product marketing? Would you completely halt and go towards caffeinated? Like what if it's the dream, no money matters? What are we picking?

Tejal (10:04)

I think if no money matters, the dream is to continue the job search advice and career advice and create that space again.

I look at it right now and I need a break because of the new motherhood journey that I'm on. But also my brain is super fried. I only have so many spoons to give. And unfortunately, this content creation on the recruiting jobseeker side, I'm like, there are so many voices that are so much more impactful and are so much better at it right now than I am that I'm just adding to the noise. So would rather show up and support the two of you or Amy or Kristen.

Desiree Goldey (10:22)

Yeah.

Tejal (10:43)

rather than like creating more noise in that space by creating my own content.

Desiree Goldey (10:45)

Yeah.

Tejal (10:48)

So if money was not an object and if I could do something, would 100 % do job search, helping and career coaching to more people. Specifically, what I would want to do is help underprivileged domestic abuse victims, veterans, homeless veterans, ⁓ low income kids on how to navigate the corporate world and how to get ahead. Because I was a low income.

and I didn't know anything about corporate world because my dad is a cab driver and my mom had passed away but like we were in India when she had a business so I didn't know anything about America American corporate side so I learned a lot of it by like doing so I that's what I would do I would spend a majority of my time volunteering it back

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (11:32)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (11:38)

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. mean, that I think Ashley and I would agree that we'd be just doing something more valuable for the world.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (11:38)

I alert them.

Desiree Goldey (11:47)

right? We probably would, we may still be chatting, but it may be a little more crazy, a little more raw. But we definitely probably we would do something that impacted the world in a real way. So that's awesome to hear. And it's, really speaks to my heart of true volunteerism and helping especially low income and people coming from because this corporate space is tricky, y'all. It's tricky. It's so tricky. And if you're coming from the streets,

Tejal (11:51)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (12:09)

Hmm.

Tejal (12:14)

So tricky, so tricky.

Desiree Goldey (12:17)

What do you know about dealing with Karen and Bob? You know?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (12:21)

Yeah. There's, there's always a knowledge

Tejal (12:21)

I

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (12:23)

ceiling. I always think of the black napkins. Like to me, that's a corporate knowledge ceiling. Like whenever you go to VP dinners and you're wearing whatever outfit, you need to have a black napkin so it doesn't get the white frillies on your black pants. And so to me, black napkin, napkin, black napkin has always been like the litmus test of like

Desiree Goldey (12:26)

Right?

Yeah.

Tejal (12:45)

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (12:46)

you know, because once you've gotten to that point, then there's this cultural literacy, literacy, but until Black Napkin Night, it's kind of like, I didn't even know there's this knowledge ceiling I didn't even know existed.

Desiree Goldey (12:57)

You know what's funny? I was talking to someone the other day and they were like, LinkedIn, what's that? And I'm like, what? Like it's my whole life. I literally see.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (13:04)

Must be nice!

Tejal (13:06)

want to live in that bubble.

I want to live in that bubble. What is LinkedIn?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (13:10)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (13:11)

Well, this guy was like a, you know, a generator guy or something. But like, I would love to live in the world where LinkedIn does not influence my life or like, have anything to do with how I go about my day to day. Like, wouldn't that be like, wonderful? I keep saying like, but you know, I would be wonderful.

Tejal (13:15)

Hmm.

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (13:25)

Mm-hmm.

Tejal (13:28)

Yeah, I

would love to be in a space where I didn't want feel the need to be on social media and just not have that. I have friends that don't have social media. I'm like, what do you do with your day all day? Like what? I'm on TikTok all day. I'm on LinkedIn all day. What do you do with your day? They're like, we read books. I'm like, I read books too. But like, they're like, we watch YouTube videos. I'm like, that's.

Desiree Goldey (13:37)

Yeah.

I know YouTube's a big thing. It is

really a big thing for people who don't really spend their time on like TikTok and stuff like that. just was talking because I work in marketing and talent right now and we were just having this conversation about how we have no presence on YouTube and how many people really are on there all the time. It's crazy. It's really, really nuts. All right, let's skip to the next question because I don't want to take up too much time. But is there anything you would change or warn others about as they start their journey to whatever?

Tejal (14:00)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (14:23)

Maybe in recruiting. Let's try to narrow it down. Or even content creation. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (14:26)

Or even content creation. I'm kind of into it. Like girl, you pick, you cherry pick us your scenario

Tejal (14:30)

⁓

⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (14:33)

and advice.

Tejal (14:34)

Why not both? I love that little girl that goes, why not both?

Desiree Goldey (14:36)

Okay, there we go!

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (14:36)

Yeah! Por que no

Tejal (14:38)

Exactly, exactly. I

would say if you want to turn into recruiting, you kind of have to have a level of dedication to show up every day. It's a burnout job. It's a thankless job and people will yell at you. I've been told to go f myself multiple times by candidates, right? Like that got mad because I was rejecting them. So it's a lot of times, a lot of times it's a thankless job. You get blamed for everything and you get credit for nothing.

Desiree Goldey (15:00)

Yes.

Tejal (15:09)

So you have to show up day in and day out and you have to have like some level of that dedication to just continue to work through the grind. And there are great days, the highs are real highs and the lows are real lows. So I would say that if you are, try it, but make sure that you have the dedication because you won't succeed if you don't have the dedication. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (15:10)

Hehehe

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tejal (15:34)

And for content

Desiree Goldey (15:34)

Cool.

Tejal (15:35)

creation, tell because at Amazon, I have people reaching out to me constantly. They're like, can I pick your brain on content creation? And I'm like, absolutely. And I tell them, I'm like, show up authentically, whoever you are. Unless you're an asshole, I'm just kidding. I'm like. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (15:53)

I love it. Yeah, don't show up like that. Don't show up as a dick.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (15:56)

But I mean, or maybe do and warn us all so we don't

follow you like still.

Tejal (16:02)

my God, right?

So I always tell people in content creation, people will figure out whether you are being real, whether you're being authentic or not, and you need to have that authenticity about yourself. You need to show your true self to a certain extent. Without showing who you are, you're just putting up a facade, and that's not a brand.

Desiree Goldey (16:28)

Yeah.

Tejal (16:28)

that that's

fake, that is not gonna last. If you want to go in it for the long haul, you need to have parts of your authentic self in there.

Desiree Goldey (16:38)

Absolutely.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (16:39)

And I think so these two things kind of tie hand in hand because like with recruiting there is a form of like this emotional resilience that you have to have to like keep coming back and like keep taking it and keep you know being everybody's problem but at the same time you're the only solution and the whole house is burning if you can't get it right. ⁓ But there is also this very very large

Tejal (17:00)

Exactly.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (17:06)

vulnerability that you have to have to be authentic on social media, because I am one of those people who doesn't. I don't have a personal TikTok. I don't have a per- like really much of anything. No Facebook, no none of that. And for me, LinkedIn gives me anxiety. So bad, like worse than every Sunday combined. Anytime I click comment or post or anything, because I'm just like-

And it's honestly like if I met these people in the streets, I'd be like, fully on you. I don't care anything that you think about me. Like I stand on what I say and I still do. But there is something about it living in the ether forever about getting new facts every day about just like 50,000 different things that impact me to make me like, ⁓ this is rough. And so I do think there's something to be said about content creators really having built the muscle for emotional resilience.

Tejal (17:42)

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (18:01)

and being totally okay with like certain posts being crap, other ones being great. There is someone that I follow, but I don't follow them because I like their posts. I follow them because I can't believe that they still keep posting after how much crap people put in their comments to be like, you're the dumbest person I've ever read anything from. And what's wrong is the people commenting aren't wrong, but I'm also following this person because I'm like, what are you still doing? Like writing it. And so there is...

Desiree Goldey (18:23)

Hahaha

Tejal (18:30)

yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (18:30)

like almost

to a fault and emotional resilience that I wish I dream I could get one day. But you definitely nailed it. This grit to be able to stick with it is different.

Tejal (18:37)

Yeah.

Yeah,

and you have to, I did this early on in my content creation journey when I said.

things that were maybe controversial and I'm back down, right? And now I'm like, I look at things and I think about what I'm going to post when I do post and I stand 10 toes down by whatever I posted. And if somebody comes in and is trying to pick a fight with me or do like any of those things, I'm like, listen, I don't have the energy for this. I will push back because you are

Desiree Goldey (19:13)

Right.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (19:14)

Yeah.

Tejal (19:17)

I say this all the time, George Bush needs to be sued because there have been plenty of children left behind when it comes to comprehension. ⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (19:24)

you

⁓ no, not little shrub, not little bush. no.

Desiree Goldey (19:33)

my god, that's hilarious.

Tejal (19:33)

you

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (19:35)

Ugh.

Tejal (19:36)

So

I just like one of the things that I've started doing on TikTok, I have just been like, George Bush needs to be sued. You are a child that's left behind because people don't people don't understand comprehension. Right. And I had this happen with somebody the other day when they like came on my post and were like trying to argue with me. I'm like, listen, I said what I said. I'm not doing this, but I find it interesting that you came on my post rather than going on the other person's post. If you like their post next time, just go on their post. Don't comment on my post.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (19:44)

Amen.

Desiree Goldey (19:47)

Yeah.

Great.

Tejal (20:05)

disagree with me right and they're like ⁓ this is getting disrespectful like you started it I pushed back and I said I'm like yeah I'm like respectfully you started it so I hope you and it's always people people

Desiree Goldey (20:12)

Tish-all's ready for a fight, okay?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (20:10)

You said...

active receipt holder.

Tejal (20:22)

I always want to message them and be like, recruiters are going to see your comments and you're impacting your job search because it's people that have open to work banners. like recruiters are going to see this hiring managers are going to see this and I don't judge you, but there are plenty of people who do. So yeah, it's always a it's always a thing because I'm like internet is forever.

Desiree Goldey (20:27)

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (20:46)

FOREVER

Desiree Goldey (20:47)

right.

even though you're you're, you know, a keyboard master over there, it's blind. It's still seen by trillions of people all the time. Like, I think it's funny. And it's so funny with the algorithm now, like repeating in LinkedIn, like three week old posts, your comment truly lives. It's just gonna keep coming.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (21:03)

⁓

Tejal (21:04)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (21:08)

and keep coming back like so you better delete it or figure out a better way to represent yourself if you're job seeking. I'm sorry.

Tejal (21:12)

⁓

Yeah, I in.

If

you're okay with people coming across like you, you coming across like that and people perceiving you as X, great. I know how I come across and I'm okay with that. If a future employer is looking at my profile and saying, hey, she's not for us, great, I'm not for you. But I have the option to say that. I am not open to work right now. I don't have to find a new job to pay my bills. So it's a different strategy. I'm also, I tell this when people are doing content creation while they have a

Desiree Goldey (21:22)

Yeah. Right.

Great.

Tejal (21:46)

corporate job. like when you look at me and when you look at yourself just remember I am NOT the breadwinner in my family. If I get fired for saying something for defending a political stance I don't have to worry about this. Do with that information what you will and show up how you want to show up.

Desiree Goldey (21:55)

Right.

Tejal (22:06)

especially in corporate roles, right? People have to understand that like, yeah, you want to be a content creator, that's great, but you also need to ensure that you have a roof on your head. Unfortunately. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (22:08)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's tough, it's tough. mean, and there

is still a lot of old school corporations taking the line, like whatever you put out there represents us, even though you put the, my opinion is my own type of thing. So I think you just have to be super careful. And don't think people think some of the things through. get, they're on their couch scrolling through LinkedIn on their phone and they're like, oh my God, and they just start writing back. And like, that will burn you in the end if you have that green banner up. Like when you don't have it up,

Tejal (22:30)

Yeah.

Yep.

Desiree Goldey (22:49)

go for it, right? Like, or if you don't want to get fired, be careful. But you know what I mean, do what you have to do. But you got that green banner up. Like, you better watch it. ⁓

Tejal (22:50)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, and I

especially say that for women, people in marginalized communities, because we are held to a different standard. We are absolutely held to a different standard.

Desiree Goldey (23:05)

Yes.

Absolutely.

Tejal (23:12)

And we have to look at it. Yeah, it's unfair. It's absolutely unfair. However, we live in an unfair society. So we have to work in that society. Unless we are like going to the woods and the forest and like building our own compound until that happens. Like we need to live in the society and we need to function in the society and we need to continue making money. Whatever that means. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (23:18)

way.

Yikes. Unfortunately.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:31)

Yeah. Last

time we tried the compound, they named it Salem and then tried to kill all of us. So they were like, this is wizardry. These women making monies, talking with numbers, wearing shoes.

Desiree Goldey (23:37)

hahahahah

Tejal (23:43)

⁓ You know, I will, I have

so much information about that whole thing that we need to talk about it later because like the people that they did that to were widows or were women that did not have a male heir.

Desiree Goldey (23:50)

Yeah

Right. I know, it's totally crazy, the whole story.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:01)

See, I always

Tejal (24:02)

It was property

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:02)

heard

Tejal (24:02)

grab.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:03)

it was like these women also were workers because they didn't have men and so they worked in like the poppy fields and stuff and it made them hallucinate and so when people thought they were literal witches because they were like, look at the man in the field and they're like, what man in the field? And meanwhile, she's like heroin high because it's poppy seed. And so like, then people are like, we must kill her. And she's like, wait, I'm just coming out of it. What's up? Like it was just, it's a sad era. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (24:09)

Yeah.

Tejal (24:10)

Yep.

Desiree Goldey (24:21)

Hahaha

It's

Tejal (24:29)

What happened? Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (24:31)

just a very sad time, right? It's just a sad, sad time. I am, I am. Let's move on to the last question. Where do you think this journey, both career, recruiter, product manager, whatever, will take you in the next five years? Excuse me.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:31)

Exactly. Yeah. So let Desiree move us forward to a better time.

Tejal (24:33)

Yeah.

I would say that I don't look at five-year plans. I have created many five-year plans that have not come to fruition and I look at a one-year plan and think about what my goals are this year and I tend to evolve them every year. So I don't have a five-year plan unfortunately or fortunately. ⁓ Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (24:56)

Good for you.

I don't think there's either way. I don't think one's right

or wrong. There you go. ⁓

Tejal (25:17)

Yeah, so I would say my one year plan is

to ensure my baby's still alive.

Desiree Goldey (25:23)

Good plan!

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (25:24)

That's a

10 out of 10 on the plan here.

Tejal (25:27)

I want to continue. I want to restart posting content on LinkedIn for job seekers and creating more content for job seekers. That is my one year plan. I had promised my husband that I will not take up any new projects this year that I don't already have committed to. So this is just me commit like it's already committed to.

Desiree Goldey (25:49)

Right.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (25:50)

Silently rejecting all those

other ones. ⁓

Tejal (25:52)

Exactly.

So that is like my one year plan is to get restart writing for job seekers and just be in this moment because yeah, I'm not no longer a five year plan kind of person.

Desiree Goldey (25:55)

Yeah.

That's great. And you're new mom, right? And that alone is its own massive project. So I think you have enough going on to take up a year or 18 of them. So at least at the least. So I think that ⁓ you're I think a one year plan is definitely sufficient for you at this time. And always, I don't believe in necessarily five years plans I had to

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (26:09)

makes sense.

Tejal (26:11)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (26:36)

I kind of argued with Ashley about this question because it is the question.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (26:39)

First of all, yeah, that's not even the question.

It's where can we catch you in five years? It should always have been. ⁓ We got to redo all the episodes now. What are we going to do? Since we've asked that question all the

Desiree Goldey (26:45)

It's not. It's never been that. Thank you very much. No, no. We've never asked that question ever to Jala.

think that though I love to hear whether people are taking the journey towards more content creation or focusing on their careers because I do think that also guides our listeners like where is the world kind of going and what are people's plans to see these big names out there that are already doing the work. So I love the answer and I actually don't hate the question but you know I do think that it's not the worst recruiting question ever right.

interview, where do we see you in the next 10 years? Please leave me alone, okay? I'm trying to put my pants on every morning. I don't know what five years looks like. Just trying to get through the day, Yes.

Tejal (27:29)

few of us have five years.

Right? I'm just trying to get through day by day. I don't have a five-year

plan. And it is just, it is, yeah, I think in the content creation space, create a month plan, not a year plan. In the recruiting space, create a three-month plan, not a year plan. And in the parenthood, just create a day plan.

Desiree Goldey (27:49)

Yeah.

You're right. Right. Yep.

Hour by hour.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (28:00)

Hour. Hour by

hour. Some days minute by minute, baby.

Tejal (28:07)

So I think it depends, like the plans depend on what role we are fulfilling in that moment. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (28:07)

HUEH!

I love it.

want

you to tell all the people where they can find you, how they can connect, if you want them to connect with you or follow you. Please give us all the deets.

Tejal (28:15)

Yes.

Yeah,

LinkedIn is my best avenue for job seeker advice. If you would like to know my thoughts on other things, I am available on Instagram as well as TikTok, but only follow me on TikTok if you're ready to get the spicy opinions. That's where I let it out. I'll get down. Yeah, it's Chasiel Reeves. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (28:41)

Are you just your name on TikTok? Okay. Okay.

Perfect. Perfect. You're very very much. Why are you doing the accent?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (28:49)

Well, you, thank you so much for having us. This is why I don't do the accent. Because

Tejal (28:52)

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (28:59)

I even looked you in the face to say it. was like, thank you so much. No, I know. Let Desiree do it and do it right because I don't know what I'm doing.

Desiree Goldey (29:02)

Yeah, the worst, anyway.

Thank you everybody so much for joining us on this episode of Clock Out with Talentless. Please visit our website at talentlesspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on all the things, YouTube, Instagram, Blue Sky. ⁓ I don't even know, we're so many places, but just do it. Thank you so much. Have a great night. Bye bye, y'all.

Tejal (29:09)

Thank