The Oldest Story

Sent out dozens of applications and heard nothing back? This one is about the two complaints candidates have about recruiters: five seconds for your resume, and not a minute for a reply. Who reads your resume before any human does, why the arithmetic of hiring leaves no time for your story, and why silence after an interview has no excuse.

Thinking about a big career move, but your family isn't ready to go? This one is about the radius of an hour from home: why the most interesting executive roles keep opening up far away, why remote work hasn't solved it, and why the number that makes a move worth it has to be agreed at the kitchen table long before any offer arrives.

Left home and quietly wondering if you made a mistake? You're not broken, and you're not alone. This one is about the oldest human story there is: leaving. From the Huguenots to Sikorsky and Nabokov, and why the people who made it work usually just gave themselves a little more time.

A corporate interview is a process you can prepare for. A meeting with the owner is something else entirely — and the things that got you hired before are exactly what will lose you the job now. The Other Side, Episode 3 of Different Rules: what owners actually evaluate, and the five mistakes that sink strong candidates.

Eighty-five percent of more than a thousand respondents chose to pay a consultant ten thousand dollars for a result over five hundred dollars upfront with no guarantees. It looks like financial literacy — until you run the arithmetic. In this episode, Mike Torchinsky unpacks what the poll actually measured: not preferences about payment, but anxiety, mistrust, and an unspoken request candidates rarely put into words.

You updated your LinkedIn, sent your CV to the recruiters you know, answered a few postings. And nothing's happening. The problem isn't you, and it isn't the market — it's that you're searching for a job, when what you actually need to find is an owner. This episode is about where executive roles in private business really live, and why most of them stay invisible until you're already inside the right circle.

Half of my conversations with corporate executives end the same way: "I've been thinking about going private." Most of them aren't ready. This is The Other Side — an 8-episode series covering every stage of the transition from corporate to private business. Episode 1 is about the very beginning: figuring out if the idea is real, what's actually driving it, and what you're putting on the line before you take a single step.

Europe has the best working conditions in the world — and the least engaged workforce on earth. Gallup puts it at thirteen percent. Eighty-seven percent of European workers feel nothing about their jobs. They're not miserable. They're not lazy. They just don't care. This episode looks at why the system that was built to protect workers might be the very thing that killed their motivation.

Entry-level jobs are disappearing. Degrees are losing their value. And the safest career move in 2026 might be the one no parent wants to hear. A former programmer quit tech to become an electrician — and now earns more than he ever did in IT. This episode is about what's actually working, and what parents need to rethink before it's too late.

Candidates aren't petitioners—they’re guests. In this episode, Mike Torchinsky challenges the outdated power dynamic of the "employer’s market." If you treat a job offer like a gift you’re "granting" to a candidate, you’ve already lost. Learn how to reframe your final-stage negotiations to treat high-level talent with the respect they deserve and close the deals that matter.