From imposter syndrome to building muscle

‍Chris opened with something most TA leaders think but rarely say: “I’ve had an imposter syndrome for a lot of my career.” Each jump in his path triggered it again, from early agency days in the US to Meta and then scale ups. What stuck was his framing that discomfort is not a red flag, it is the job.
“Being able to deal with that is part of the process. It’s part of the journey.”
For TA, that matters because the work keeps changing shape and the only stable skill is learning in public.

Why big company reps help in startups

He was clear on why he left Meta for a startup environment. “I wanted to give myself a chance at exploring startups,” and more specifically, “the opportunity to build.”
The contrast was real: from a system heavy org to “a small little startup where, you know, you’re 100 laptop and that’s about it.” The point was not nostalgia for either world. It was that big orgs teach fundamentals fast, then startups force you to decide what actually matters. That is where TA shifts from execution to ownership.

Staying useful when hiring slows down

In gaming, Chris walked into a function with no modern TA foundation. “The lack of anything having been implemented” meant the first job was education, not process. He described the pivot from reactive to proactive hiring in a down market. “We would split the interview process in half” and build pipelines early. When roles finally opened

“We hired people within seven days because of we done a lot of the work beforehand.”

That is TA as readiness, not just requisition support.

The takeaway

Chris kept coming back to the same balance. AI will take admin, and teams will shrink, but TA cannot outsource trust. “We still need a human touch for sure,” because hiring is culture and culture is outcomes. The Head of TA job is to prove impact, keep pipelines warm, and protect the candidate and hiring manager experience even when budgets tighten.