In this episode, host Angela sits down with Isabel Strijland—recently stepped into her first...
For seven years, Talking Talent has been a place where Talent Acquisition practitioners helped each other hire better.
No vendor pitches. No influencer noise. Just practitioners sharing referrals, solving hiring challenges, swapping resources, and learning from people doing the work every day.
What started as a small Slack community grew into more than 1,200 members.
Today, that community enters its next chapter.
Talking Talent is joining Talent Crunch Berlin.
Together with Talent Crunch Berlin, The Principal Recruiter, and Satellite Talent, we're bringing Germany's two largest independent Talent Acquisition practitioner communities together under one roof.
One Slack. More than 2,000 members. One place for Talent professionals to learn, connect, and grow.
Why we're doing this
Communities don't become valuable because they're large.
They become valuable because the right people keep showing up.
Over the past year, it became obvious that Talking Talent and Talent Crunch were attracting the same practitioners, organising similar conversations, and solving the same problems.
The same Heads of Talent.
The same Talent Partners.
The same founders building hiring functions.
Running two communities no longer made sense.
Instead of splitting conversations across two Slacks, we're bringing everyone together into one active, professionally managed community.
A partnership that kept growing
This isn't a merger that happened overnight.
Satellite Talent, Talent Crunch Berlin, and The Principal Recruiter have spent the past year building together.
It started with an ambitious collaboration in late 2025. Since then we've launched events in Berlin and Barcelona, delivered practitioner workshops, supported companies with structured interview training, ATS migrations, and data storytelling, and invested hundreds of hours into growing one of Europe's strongest talent communities.
Along the way, something became clear.
We weren't building separate things anymore.
We were building the same thing.
Joining the communities became the natural next step.
What changes
If you're a Talking Talent member, you'll find everything you already value—referrals, hiring discussions, introductions, open roles—in a bigger, more active space with dedicated community managers, regular events, workshops, and new opportunities every week.
If you're already part of Talent Crunch, you're gaining more than 1,200 experienced practitioners, expanding the referral network and bringing even more perspectives into every conversation.
Everyone benefits from a stronger community.
Who's behind it
Andreea Lungulescu will continue leading Talent Crunch's strategy, partnerships, and events.
Isabel Strijland, founder of Talking Talent and co-founder of Satellite Talent, remains involved as community co-founder and moderator.
Behind the scenes, dedicated community managers will keep the conversations active, organise events, welcome new members, and make sure this stays a community people actually want to participate in.
What's next
The new community launches in July 2026.
If you've been part of Talking Talent over the years, thank you. Every referral shared, every question answered, every introduction made helped build something people genuinely valued.
Now we're building the next version.
