Looks Good on Paper
Looks Good on Paper flips hiring on its head. Hosted by Andrew Wood and Anita Chauhan, we dive into why CVs and "perfect fits" are overrated. Through fun, insightful conversations with industry experts, we explore how skills, potential, and real experience should be the focus of hiring... not what looks good on paper.
Quick, candid, and packed with actionable insights, we’re here to rewrite the rules of hiring, one episode at a time.
Looks Good on Paper
Plan Earlier, Hire Smarter - Emergency Hires Can Really Sabotage Great Decisions (S2E11)
Hiring rarely fails because teams don't care-it fails because decisions get rushed. In this episode, Tia Fomenoff (VP of People at PurposeMed) breaks down why reactive hiring, charisma bias, and burnout quietly undermine great teams-and how people leaders can plan ahead instead.
In this episode we’ll talk about
- Why waiting too long to hire turns roles into "emergencies"
- How reactive hiring leads to burnout and poor decision-making
- The hidden bias toward charismatic candidates-and how it shows up in interviews
- Why introverted candidates often outperform louder ones
- How PurposeMed is thinking about AI, automation, and human-first hiring for 2026
👤 Guest Bio
Tia Fomenoff is the VP of People at PurposeMed, where she's helping build an accessible, compassionate healthcare system for underserved communities through brands like Freddy, Freida, and Fourier. With a non-traditional path spanning nonprofit work, digital marketing, and scaling teams at Unbounce, Buffer, and Thinkific each from 20 employees over 500, Tia brings a people-first, practical approach to hiring, culture, and growth.
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiafomenoff/
🎧 About the Show
Looks Good on Paper is a Willo-powered podcast where talent leaders and founders share real hiring insights to help teams build fairer, more thoughtful hiring processes.
📺 Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/-pQoGAfacxI
💬 Follow us on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/willovideo/
⏱ Episode Chapters
00:00 - Welcome & intro to Tia Fomenoff
00:47 - From nonprofit work to tech & people leadership
02:48 - Why Tia joined PurposeMed
03:41 - The biggest hiring mistake: waiting too long
05:25 - Reactive hiring, burnout, and exhausted leaders
06:09 - Planning proactively with hiring managers
07:47 - Hidden bias: charisma vs substance
09:56 - How introverted candidates get overlooked
10:50 - Can you remove CVs from hiring?
11:25 - Application questions, cover letters, and effort
13:10 - Offering candidates choice in interviews
14:45 - Hiring trends for 2026: AI with intention
16:40 - Long-term sourcing and building pipelines early
17:10 - Wrap-up and what's next
📌 We’ve got plenty more hot takes, so if you enjoyed this episode, follow/subscribe and leave a quick rating or review. Are you a talent leader and want to be on the show? Let us know!
Show Resources
- Willo: willo.video - The most cost-effective way to screen candidates at scale. Interview candidates anywhere & at any time
- CV Free Toolkit: cvfree.me/join - Break up with the CV and get everything you need to modernize your hiring approach with skills-based assessments
- Anita Chauhan: linkedin.com/in/anitachauhan - Connect with the host
