What happens when your employer brand becomes so powerful that you receive 20,000–40,000 job applications a month? In this episode of RecTalk, host Sean Kennedy is joined by Laura Buckle, Global VP of Talent at SKIMS, and Eli Duane, Co-Founder of NOVA by Dweet, for a candid conversation about what happens when recruitment reaches serious scale — and why more applications don't necessarily mean better hiring. Laura shares the reality of recruiting at one of the world's fastest-growing fashion and lifestyle brands, including SKIMS' expansion from a digital-first business into wholesale and retail, its growing global footprint, and the huge impact that employer brand can have on candidate volume. The conversation explores how Laura and her team handle tens of thousands of applications, the challenge of separating genuine talent from application "noise", and why candidate experience becomes increasingly important as recruitment volumes rise. A major focus is the role of AI in modern talent acquisition. Laura explains how SKIMS uses NOVA by Dweet to help identify relevant candidates, rediscover people already in its talent pool, and improve the speed and quality of hiring — while keeping human judgement at the centre of the process. Sean, Laura and Eli also discuss: • Why extremely high application volumes can become a recruitment challenge • How AI can help recruiters manage the top of the funnel without replacing human decision-making • Candidate rediscovery and why recruiters need to understand a candidate's journey, not just their CV • The importance of multi-channel sourcing across LinkedIn, universities, events, social platforms, GitHub, YouTube and more • Why recruiters still need to "get into the weeds" when hiring senior talent • How employer brand and candidate experience are closely connected • Whether AI-generated CVs create an unfair advantage for candidates • How recruiters can investigate candidates beyond their CV or LinkedIn profile • Why portfolios, GitHub, online contributions and other digital signals can matter • The changing relationship between recruiters and AI • Why recruiters should use AI to remove repetitive work, collaborate on complex tasks, while keeping human judgement where it matters • How companies can make their recruitment processes more effective as they scale • Why investing in a good ATS and the right AI tools can transform recruitment operations • Whether experience or education matters more when hiring • Why recruiters need to be creative when searching for emerging and hard-to-find talent WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR This episode is for talent acquisition leaders, recruiters, founders, HR and people leaders, recruitment technology professionals, and anyone interested in how AI is changing modern hiring. It's particularly relevant for companies experiencing rapid growth, rising application volumes, or struggling to balance inbound recruitment with proactive sourcing. GUESTS Laura Buckle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabuckle/ SKIMS: https://skims.com/ Eli Duane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-duane/ NOVA by Dweet: https://nova.dweet.com/ HOST — Sean Kennedy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/ Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/ Listen to RecTalk on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/ #RecTalk #Recruitment #TalentAcquisition #RecruitmentTech #AIRecruitment #HRTech #Sourcing #CandidateExperience #EmployerBrand #RecruitmentAI #TalentTech #SKIMS #NOVAbyDweet